10 things you probably won't see in America

10 pictures you probably won't see in America

When is the last time you saw ostriches when you were driving down the road? To be fair, this is in a small government game reserve, but it really is in town about 2 miles away from our church! 

                     

 

Our termite mounds are a wonder of nature! They are larger than some trees! Ant hills always look so small when I see them in the States! 

                    

 

The drought is so bad that monkeys are stealing water from taps!!! Look closely at the stomach of the monkey on the right. (You can click on the picture to see more clearly) There is a tiny baby hanging on!

      

              

One of my children's favorite snacks is Mophane worms. They are spiky caterpillars which people catch, squish out the insides and then dry out. Some people soak them to plump them back up before eating them but my kids eat them crunchy like popcorn! In case you are wondering, NO I do not like them! They just taste like a old dried out leaf that pokes your mouth! 

I never know what I will see walking down the street. A VERY common sight is a lady carrying large items on her head. Typically, in addition to toting heavy bowls/buckets on her head, she will have a baby strapped to her back with a towel. 

The other picture is a pack of horses just meandering down my street! The drought is so bad that owners let their livestock roam the streets in search of food to keep them alive.

Of course you have all seen big buildings, but the interesting thing about Gaborone is that less than a mile from our modern downtown area are people who still live in huts with no electricity or running water.

Without indoor plumbing or electricity, a common sight is an outdoor kitchen. In this makeshift area, all cooking, washing dishes. and boiling water for bathing is done.

STRIKES: There is almost ALWAYS a strike going on somewhere in Southern Africa, usually in our volatile southern neighbor, South Africa. Currently, all universities in South Africa are striking to protest rising tuition fees.

There is also some strike going on the road that leads to Botswana where friends of mine have posted pictures of boulders that have been placed all over the road so cars can't drive. There have also been stories of locals throwing rocks at anyone who tries to drive on the road.

I don't fully understand what is going on with the strike with one of our main grocery stores, but somehow their shelves have been empty for the past two weeks as a consequence of some other strike going on in South Africa. Being a semi-arid desert, we grow very little food ourselves and depend almost exclusively on importining it from South Africa. So their strike becomes MY problem when I can't find food on the shelves.

A friend took this photo at the grocery store. Almost nothing on the shelves!!!!

I took this photo at another grocery store. Here is what was on the shelves, spread out as to appear as more food. 2 bags of croutons, 1 bag of celery, 1 bag of fennel, a few ready made meals, and a bag of vegetables = the sum total of shelves that are normally overflowing with fresh food.

This is an extra one thrown in for fun! We are experiencing a terrible drought with extreme temperatures over 100 degrees every day. This was taken in a local grocery store of the STORE MANAGER!!! Bet you won't see that in America! :) 

Road Trip to Palapye

Road Trip to Palapye

One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how GREEN everything is in America! After a two day exhausting plane trip from Africa, all I want to do is crash and sleep, but when my mom's car joins I-75 headed from Atlanta to Tifton, I can't help but stay awake to stare at the large green pine trees that tower over the interstate.

Growing up, I would have never thought twice about the lush scenery. After 9 years living in a semi-arid desert surrounded by brown dust, I drink it in and allow it to refresh my soul!

Speaking of road trips, I thought you might like to see what a drive in Botswana looks like. These pictures were taken along the roadside during our 3 hour journey from the capital city, Gaborone, to visit Percy's parents in the village of Palapye. (Palapye pronounced Pah -la-pee)

A lot of barren landscape then a random hut or house seemingly in the middle of no where. 

Another random house along the road just to show you our view on the journey

We made our trip at the end of September. In Botswana, that is called "month end". During this time, most people get paid, so huge crowds gather around ATMs all over the country, even in small villages.

EVERY SINGLE village seems to have a bar. Drinking is a huge problem to most Batswana, especially in rural villages where there isn't much else to do for entertainment. 

There is ALWAYS livestock on all roads in Botswana. This road, the A-1, is the largest highway in Botswana running through most of the country's major cities. Yet, frequently when flying 120km/hour down the road we have to slam on the brakes for a goat, donkey, cow, dog, and up north even an elephant. With no street lights, this makes night driving extremely dangerous here.

Along the road, ladies set up tables to sell various food and basic items: oranges/apples, nuts, chewing gum, cigarettes, pieces of candy, etc. 

Look carefully at the sign alerting us this area has many donkey carts.

Moments after seeing the sign, we saw a donkey cart veer off the road into a roadside field.

Here is another donkey cart loaded with grass, which I assume they will use to make traditional brooms. Gathered dry grass is bound and sold along the road as a broom which easily sweeps the dirt in our dusty Botswana yards. 

When it rains in a desert....

When it rains in a desert...

There are two things that make the Thaba family scramble and run like mad! When someone shouts "RAIN" or "TRASH".

Despite paying annual taxes that should cover weekly "rubbish collection" as the Africans say, sights of a garbage truck are RARE! Our trash can pile for weeks. In this heat, that translate to a stinking pile of cockroach and rodent bait!

We never know when they will come but we do know that when they come, they ring the bell once. If you come out immediately, you MAY find the truck still there. Otherwise, waste a few minutes gathering the trash and you will run outside to find the truck has already continued on down the block!

That is why when someone hears the rubbish truck coming and shouts "TRASH GUYS ARE COMING", we all scurry like mice around the house to quickly gather all trash cans and sprint as fast as our feet can carry us to get them to the curb before the truck passes and we miss our opportunity!

A sight way more rare and precious than the garbage men is RAIN. So, when someone shouts "RAIN", we run even faster to put any sort of container out to collect and save each valuable drop.

I won't be able to convey in still images the mad race to salvage every drop but I thought a few pictures may help you envision the Thaba house when rain graces us with its presence!

These pictures are taken from today's 20 minute blessing (rain). It didn't last very long, but we did our best to salvage and appreciate God's rare gift as much as possible!

First order of business when rain is spotted is to quickly gather all water catching containers and line them up where the roof water runs off.

Here is another spot where the roof water runs off. It filled twice during the 20 minute rain showers so I yelled to Percy to come dump it so that we could get twice as much water instead of it just overflowing onto the bricks.

There is a very little ditch like area in our driveway where the water collects when we have rain. This is me trying to transport some of that water to my thirsty plants.

The kids love collecting water from around the yard after a rain.

Our pool is useless except for when it rains. It has a leak and the pool pump is broken. Because it is such a small pool, it hardly seems worth the money it will take to fix it so I put a cover on it to avoid any accidents with the kids. We haven't used it in years. HOWEVER, when it rains, I harvest all the water gathered, which is usually a lot! :) 

After Anna Catherine and I scoop water from the pool cover, I get a nice bicep work out carrying buckets of water to my grateful garden.

The sun is back out.... We thank God for this quick 20 minute blessing and PRAY for a longer rain next time. 

Botswana is HOT and DRY

Ten pictures that illustrate Botswana is HOT and DRY

For the past three years, we, the nation of Botswana, have been getting less and less rain fall. This year RIGHT NOW the hair is breaking the camel's back so to speak... everything is falling apart!

In the past years of drought, we still had some reserves in our dams even with no rain, OR we got some from South African dams, OR we piped it in from the North. Somehow we didn't feel it so badly. We watched the news and saw the weather report telling us we were experiencing a drought but water still flowed from the tap... MOST of the time. Of course we didn't have water 2 or 3 days a week from 8:00 a.m.-4:00 pm. but we coped and besides many people were away at work and never felt the weekly water cuts.

BUT NOW... NOW we are all FEELING it! 

a) Water cuts are now are 4 days a week... 8:00 a.m -4:00 pm. NO WATER. For me, that means no water on Mondays, Tuesday, Thursdays and Saturdays. Honestly, this is not even a problem any more. I have adapted after weekly water cuts for the past two years and I am a stay at home mom with messy little kids who need many hand washings and messes cleaned up throughout the day.

b) South Africa has cut us off from using their dam!

c) The reserves in the dams ... they are GONE GONE GONE!

d) The pipeline to our capital city that brings 145 million liters of water from as far as 10 hours away EVERY day ... it is starting to fail. So, NOW, in addition to the normal water cuts we get DAYS without water. A few weeks ago, the city went without water for 3.5 days as they fixed a section of that pipe. This coming week, we are advised that it will probably take SIX days to fix the newest problem with that pipe.

WE are told many more of these "maintenance cuts" will occur as that pipeline continues to take the strain of carrying millions of liters of water for such long distances on a daily basis.

For my American friends who say "oh, I understand! We also need rain! It hasn't rained all month!" I am not talking about a drought like that! It did rain a few weeks ago. Besides that ONE rain in September, the last rain was in Feburary. I think THIS YEAR, rain has fallen from the sky about 10 times. That might be OVER estimating actually!

I thought I would dedicate this post to trying to show visuals that help those not living here to understand just how bad things are here.

Here is a huge billboard downtown where our government is encouraging us not to flush out toilets too often to save our valuable water resource.  If you can't see it clearly, it says "IF ITS YELLOW, LET IT MELLOW. IF ITS BROWN, FLUSH IT DOWN."

This is our capital city DAM! Percy and I both remember walking on top of the rocks and looking down into the dam (what you see in the picture) and that was FULL of water!!! Now, there is a million dollar infrastructure and a bunch of dirt! It is DRY and useless now!

On a recent hike to a hill that overlooks the dam, I took this photo. All the yellowish brown area USED TO BE UNDER WATER!!! We used to have a HUGE beautiful dam. Now, apart from a diminishing little puddle in the middle, it is all dirt! SO SAD!

This is a picture I took last weekend a couple of hours north of Gaborone, the capital city. A few years ago, this was a river, flowing with water. As you can see, now, it is totally dry... more dried up dirt.

When our water is either pumped from sources 5-10 hours away OR taken from mud pits which used to be dams, this is what it comes out of the tap looking like! The government advises us to filter and boil it for our safety now.


A PUBLIC NOTICE from our government water company:

When we get notices like the above that say they can cut our water at any given time, we keep some water bottles filled at all times. Most homes in Botswana have some form of this stock piled "emergency water". It is a necessity in our drought. This is my stash.

YEP!! That is a COW behind them munching my neighbor's grass! Our drought is so bad that almost every day we find cows or horses let loose by their owners to roam the capital streets in search of any food or water to keep them alive!! (NOT cool for traffic jams and car accidents when they unexpectedly step into the road)


NOW, to compound the problem of lack of water comes the life sucking high temperatures that make you just want to drink water all day or live in a cold shower..
.... if only we had the water to do so....

This picture was taken INSIDE MY BEDROOM a couple of days ago!!!! That is my bed in the background! Can you even begin to imagine sleeping in that heat?!?!?! TORTURE!! OH, and I forgot to mention twice last week we had NO POWER/ELECTRICITY all night so I couldn't even turn on a fan in those ALMOST 100 DEGREE TEMPERATURES!!!

In case you are asking yourself, I wonder what it is like to live in 90 degree PLUS temperatures for 6 months of the year. Let me show you exhibit A! These were lifetime guarantee L.L. Bean hiking boots. THEY MELTED IN MY CLOSET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

EXHIBIT B

                  

After asking the dean at the College of Agriculture what was going on with my plants, he quickly replied, "That is sun scorch. The sun is so hot here that it literally fries the leaves!"

PLEASE PRAY FOR RAIN FOR BOTSWANA

I firmly believe that God created the world, which means as Creator, He can intervene with the clouds and do the impossible. He can open the floodgates of heaven and let it rain!!

Severe droughts are not a new phenomenon. The Bible tells us a solution in 2 Chronicles 7:14. The Lord tells us that if we pray, humble ourselves and turn from our wicked ways, HE WILL HEAR FROM HEAVEN AND HEAL OUR LAND.

Upon telling a friend this promise, she quickly said, "Why is it conditional? Why can't He just always provide us with our needs? Why must we suffer like we are?"

I gave her an example of a loving parent who wants the best for their child, but they end up on the streets as a drug addict. The child calls home begging for more money to fund her "needs". The parent says "come back home (humble yourself), stop doing drugs (turn from your wickedness) and I will provide for your needs as your loving parent. The parent does this because the parent can see that what the child THINKS is best is actually destroying her and the child needs guidance and protection.

I believe God loves us. I believe God wants the best for us. I do not believe He makes us suffer. However, I believe sometimes He allows it so that we HAVE to turn to Him, so that we don't take for granted His good gifts and ultimately know where the provisions come from. By knowing who actually provides for us, we depend on Him instead of ourselves. By turning to him with life's problems, we also turn to Him for guidance on daily decisions. In turn, He leads us to better life choices and a more abundant life. That is what a good loving Father does.

Army Base animal park

Army Base animal park

This year, I made an interesting discovery about our local army base. When random wild animals wander out of the nationally designated game parks, they become nuisances. The public is encouraged to call a soldier to come and "deal" with the animal. Some of these animals are released back into the game parks, but some of them are put into a little park just down the road in the capital city. :) For $2.50, the public is welcome to come and view the animals! Exciting discovery!!! :)

Unfortunately, because the kids interact so closely to the wild animals, I didn't get a lot of pictures for fear of taking my eyes off them for a second. But, they have leopards, cheetahs, wild dogs, lions, snakes, hyenas, and monkeys (I turned my eyes for a second and found abi sticking her hand through the fence feeding the monkey leaves!!!).

I thought you might be interested to see a few pictures of a recent Saturday morning family fun trip.

I doubt this would fly in America for safety reasons, but we are just steps away from 3 live crocodiles. There is no fence or gate separating us. The soldier has a stick in his hand. When someone asked if the crocs could climb, he said "yes, but I will hti it on the nose if it does. Don't worry!"

Again, I DOUBT this would be allowed in the States due to some safety regulations, but to show us the snakes, he just puts them on the dirt in front of us! I am talking 2-3 feet in front of us with no barrier between!!! CRAZY
 He puts it on the ground saying, "This is a puff adder. One bite and you could be dead within 15 minutes. This is a cobra. One bite and you will be dead within the hour. This is a mamba. One bite and ....."
VERY SCARY... especially when there is Abi who keeps wanting to go close to the "cute little snake"!! But, again, the man has his stick and seems quite confident that stick is the key to our salvation!

Can you see the pink in the corner? That is a child!! Can you see how CLOSE they are to the kids!!! AND these are ALL HIGHLY poisonous snakes!

  
As Botswana is a huge home for countless lions, the soldiers get called to collect a lot of roaming lions, especially in the recent drought where they are more prone to leave the game parks in search of food and water. So, the animal park had LOADS of lions!

At one point, Abi was standing by the fence looking at a lion and put her fingers through. The lion was on the other side of the yard and it LUNGED at lightening speeds towards the fence to grab. I was chatting to the other two kids and saw it. Oh my goodness did I go into super woman speeds. I grabbed her just as he came and actually knocked her over. The whole group gasped but in the end, everyone went home with all 10 fingers! SUCCESS!

And here is a nice picture where everyone is safe with the lions behind us. Although, if you look closely at this lioness, she is sizing up those little bite size treats (my children!)

Look carefully in the corner. Those are little baby lion cubs. The kids got to walk in the room and play with them! Pretty cool!

All the kids wanted a turn holding the Python! Anna Catherine was by far the most squeamish. I think if we would have let Caleb, he would have wanted to hold it by himself. Abi couldn't be bothered either way. I don't think she understood the strength of this animal and the possible danger it could pose to her life! The other two are old enough that they understood the "danger" of a huge snake!

Not sure how, but some how my camera switched to a black and white setting when I took this picture! Odd!

The soldier expertly held the mouth but allowed 4 grown men to try and pick the snake up. It is MUCH HEAVIER than it looks!! They struggled!! This python is solid!

When the soldier first brought out the soldier, my two were first to go and "pet" it! Of course, you don't see anna catherine because she was hiding behind me. It took her a LONG time to warm up to the idea of voluntarily touching a snake!

Last but not least... the Hyena... If you have never seen one, you will be shocked at how BIG their faces are! They are MUCH larger than they appear in the movie The Lion King! haha!