Happy New Year

We were advised that Gaborone would empty out as people went home to their villages for the holiday.  Construction sites shut down, as well as the offices in our building.  It was very quiet.  Stores were still open but not very busy.  Driving was fabulous.

The country is not rich, so the tradition on New Year's Eve is to bang metal objects at midnight.  The Mission Home and Mission Office, as well as our flat, are on the airport side of Gaborone, which is considered the more wealthy section of town.  At 11:45, we started hearing firecrackers.  Then banging.  Then at midnight, the fireworks started.  And they were really loud!  Folks continued celebrating for another half hour before we could get to sleep.

People did not return until the first full week in January.  We were blessed to spend Christmas with 3 zones of missionaries at the Mission home for 5 hours.  Mark made cookies.  There are no chocolate chips to be found, so we take delicious chocolate bars and chop them into little chocolate-chips!  They work great.

We had cheeseburgers to eat.  That seemed out of place, for the Americans at least.  It reminded Lynn of having a Thanksgiving turkey meal on paper plates, wearing a swim suit at a water park in Hawaii when she was chaperoning a trip for the Bethlehem Township PA Freedom High School Marching Band.

Now it’s a new year and we are still learning new things.  This week we dealt with an emergency release for a missionary who attempted suicide.  The missionary had been troubled on and off throughout their mission with mental health issues.

We are also involved in getting two more flats to put missionaries at the end of the month.  We have more arrivals than we have missionaries going home.  With the age change to 18 for sisters, we are getting many more sisters.

We also will go to Namibia next week to look for another missionary flat and arrange the closing of another.  It is our first trip to Namibia and we are looking forward to it.  There are a couple of missionaries serving there that we have not met yet.  We will meet them at zone conference.

Yesterday we learned that one Elder had to be transferred out of Namibia.  The visas are only good for 6 months, and his visa did not get renewed.  Mark had to get him a flight to Botswana.  His mission ends 3 weeks from now.  There are so many things to keep track of.

On the bright side, Lynn is getting really good at making Grilled Cheese sandwiches.  We have access to some really good cheese (Gouda, from the Netherlands) here in Botswana, and while the bread is just OK, together they make a great lite dinner when we come home from all those spiritual activities.