Finally A hello from Botswana

Hello Dear Friends, its been awhile since we have had internet access that would allow us to actually post a blog.

Life in Botswana is wonderful right now. I have just written and passed my air law exam. I will be doing my flight training this week, and provided that my work visa comes through, will be on the flight schedule by the 15th of Sept.

We are living in the home of a family on furlough right now, and are waiting to hear from a landlord here who has been renting to another Flying Mission Family. If the rent doesn't go up too much, we will be renting the house of the Director of FM who is moving back to the US.

Cheryl and the kids have launched into another year of home schooling and things so far are going well. The kids have adjusted well, although we have not met many families with kids yet. That's a point of prayer for us.

Grocery stores are plentiful, and there are stores / shops that carry pretty well anthing you need. There seems to be things that you might only find at one or two stores (kids bikes for instance) but we are still very blessed here. We also were able to pick up some housewares at a church thrift shop, which runs on Monday mornings.

We are getting around Gaborone nicely in Flying Mission's car right now, and are in the process of finding a different car to purchase.

Life here does not seem that much different from Saskatoon in many ways. Although, it always gets dark before 7 and you tend to just stay home after that. All of the expats (foreigners) and many of the Botswana tend to live behind walls, with electric wire, and often a dog in the yard. The locals call this "stop nonsense".

Most of all, we are missing our friends and family back home. We have not been able to get on SKYPE yet due to the internet situation, but have had several phone calls back and forth. There are very few land lines here, and everyone has cell phones. The cost to call back to Saskatoon is 6 pula ($1) a minute, but texting here is next to free. I'm not sure if anyone in Canada has recieved the text messages I sent...haven't heard yet.

It's the end of winter here, and temperatures are much like what we had in Saskatoon when we left. I have seen 2 monkeys up by the airport, and there is a small game park right by Gaborone that we are going to check out. They apparently don't have lions, but who wants to get eaten for lunch anyway. I've been told that when you go to the big game parks, animals are in charge, so drive carefully.

I'll sign off with a few pictures. God Bless