| We reached the Botswana border on
Friday, shortly after noon, at Pioneer Gate by Lobatse, about 70 or so
km south of the capital, Gaborone.
From August, 1969 to December,
1973, Ginger and I taught at Moeding College, located about a third of
the way from Lobatse to Gaborone, so I was eager to stop. |
We got to Moeding in the
early afternoon, while the students were still on lunch break.
After talking with the principal, Mr. Ntsiane (below), I went to the classroom
area and had some rousing interchanges with students.
They were pretty amazed that I had been around so very long ago.
They told me of what they wanted to study, how much Moeding had grown,
and the good things about Moeding.
That was fun. |
Mr. Ntsiane,
the principal of Moeding College.
Moeding is now 4-times larger than in the early 70s. It is still,
however, a quality institution with strong sports teams. (Although
softball, which we introduced, has weakened.)
The country is prosperous, giving students great opportunities. |
Would you believe that I planted the trees in the background?
Every one of these and over a hundred more around the campus, planted from seed.
The tall trees in the photo are Eucalypts; you can make out a couple of
tree aloes as well which I wrestled in there (my brother Ron helped with
one), and they took.
The green house barely visible on the left was our home for 3-1/2
years. The bougainvillea that I put in front of the house was
still going strong.
I also planted trees around the softball field and
they lined the road into the school. They form a closed canopy
over the road now.
|
We reached Gaborone on Friday evening and were warmly welcomed by
Art and Ruth Thiessen, Mennonite Central Committee workers who work with
BOCAIP -- Botswana Christian AIDS Intervention Project. The work
very hard, under a lot of stress, but were wonderful hosts.
On Saturday, we spent the afternoon at the Mokoledi Game Reserve, south
of Gaborone. There we enjoyed kudu, hippo, ostrich, fish eagle,
warthog, kingfisher and more.
In the photo, Art thinks he just saw a rhino way in the distance.
We finally determined it was a big rock. |
Red Hartebeest in Mokolodi. We also saw hippo, fish
eagles, kudu, impala, ostrich. |
There has been a resurgence in traditional dancers. I understand that
there are troupes all over the country. (When we lived there,
young people were hesitant to show us what we might consider primitive.)
This group is from Naledi township in Gaborone. Naledi was once a
shantytown but is a prosperous community now. |
David Livingstone's only permanent home in Africa was
west of today's city of Gaborone by the Kolobeng River.
We stopped at the site to view the grave of his baby daughter,
Elizabeth, (shown at left) and the foundations of his house and church. |
Jerry plays the part of David Livingstone, the dentist
for the baKwena people. Tradition has it that his dental patients
sat on this large stone outside his house, the foundations of which are
visible in the background. |
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