The trip began a little late because the three of us girls usually run late and one of us accidentally over slept. (ok, I admit it was me...oops!) So, much to the dismay of Gary, we left Maun at 5:30 rather than 4:00 am, which I personally think was an incredibly ambitious goal anyway.
Stop 1: Serowe
We stopped briefly in Serowe to see Gary's family's plot and the building progress of the home they are building on it. We then visited some of his extended family. Here are pictures from the plot and from his grandparent's garden. The adorable little boy is Gary's cousin, Katlego, and I was smitten with him!
Stop 2: Selebe Phikwe
We next stopped in Gary's home village to stay for a couple of days. There we saw the copper and nickel mine, visited with Gary's grandmother, visited his home church, and I had a little Tshepiso photo shoot. How can I resist with a baby as beautiful as her??
Stop 3: Mahalapye
We briefly stopped to see a friend of ours, Juby
(Sidenote: Juby was Miss Botswana 2004, which I think is amazing!)
After leaving Mahalapye, we stopped at the exact point where the Tropic of Capricorn passes through Botswana. This was our last stop before we reached Gabs.
Final stop: Gaborone!!
I was so excited to finally reach Gabs, the capital city of Botswana. I loved every bit of being there. I was actually only there for one full day because of needing to get back to Maun, but I had a very, very full day! Some of my Gabs highlights were seeing traffic, which reminded me of home :), eating at Mugg and Bean and getting coffee and cheescake, going shopping at a mall, and eating wonderful food!
Before we had our great meal at Spur, we had tons of fun with the little hand-washing bowls they brought us. I think they are cute!
A few more highlights were running into Botho, my first friend in Botswana whom I met in June of 2006. He was one of the translators for the mission trip I was on and he taught me lots of Setswana. It was a such a joy to run into him! After that, Angela and I had fun visiting with Santa...and then getting in trouble for taking pictures in the mall. Who knew it wasn't allowed??
I ended my Gabs experience by going to see High School Musical 3 at the theater. You can only find cinemas in Gaborone, so we were sure to take advantage of it! Since we'd already gotten in trouble for taking pictures in the mall, we had to get special permission to get this shot from the cinema manager. Fortunately he was very sweet and even took the picture for us!
I flew back to Maun on Wednesday and the rest of the group arrived back in town on Saturday. We are all very thankful for the time we had away and the the great fellowship time we had. Thanks so much for your prayers for the trip!
2 comments:
I'm glad you had so much fun! Love the pics! It was good to see Juby's face again :)
Fun pictures! Who knew about not taking photos in Game City! I might have to sneak one of Andrew with the Santa though when we go in December....that's the only Santa I have ever seen in Botswana!!!
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