Gallivanting in Gaborone

Back home!

2008-02-26T02:41:00.000-08:00

Well for those of you who haven't realised I'm back home in the UK now - been back a week and already crazy busy with catching up with people, wedding plans, finding a flat and a job! The list of things to do is endless!!! I had a great last couple of weeks in Botswana with my parents. I finished working for Kings on 23rd January and then went down to meet Mum and Dad in South Africa where we travelled down the Garden Route from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town for a week. It was so nice to see them and to spend time together after a whole year apart!

After some holiday time in SA we returned to Botswana where we spent a week in Gaborone. Some very close friends, Farai and Princess, got married which was an awesome time, and i was also able to show my parents round various places and project I'd been working with over the year and introduce them to friends. We then spent the last 10 days or so travelling around Botswana, doing the safari thing. We spent a really relaxing 4 days on the far east border of Botswana by the Limpopo river in the Tuli Block - we were camping in a very luxury bush camp and spent the days sleeping, eating, reading and going out on game drives. I think we all really needed the rest after our manic week in Gabs! We then travelled up north, stopping for one night at the Nata Bird Sanctuary on our way up to Kasane and the Chobe River. After about 2 hours of solid pot holes and 2 hours of ok road we finally made it to Chobe Safari Lodge, where we stayed for our last 4 nights. Again we had a fantastic time - game drives, a boat cruise, a scenic flight in a small plane, a trip to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. We saw so many animals over our time there but the best had to be on our car journey up to Kasane, coming across a leopard walking along the main road!

After a 13 hour journey back down to Gabs we had a couple of days packing and saying final goodbyes, before we flew out last Tuesday. So far i haven't been missing Botswana too much as i haven't really had time to sit down or think but please pray for me to settle back into UK smoothly, and also for wedding plans to get organised as we're getting married on 31st May and have so so much to do! We haven't even finalised the guest list yet!! Other prayer points would be that we'd find a flat that we can afford and that i would be able to find the right job in Maidenhead, where we'll be living after the wedding. Thank you all so much for you prayer and support over this year, it's much appreciated. Please keep in touch and hopefully i'll see some of you soon now that i'm back home! My mobile no is 07519 119047 and I'm living at home so land line is still 01372 810954

Thanks again,

Ruth xxx

January Training Tour

2008-01-23T00:09:00.000-08:00

Thought I would just write a quick update to let you know how well the tour went. 8 of us, Farai, Darius and myself and 5 volunteers all jammed into the Condor with luggage, equipment and camping gear in the trailer at the back and went in a big circle around Botswana. We first visited a friend called Glow in Mabutsane and ran a sports program with her there. She is a Kings volunteers who used to live in Gabs and moved as she got a job in Mabutsane, a small village about 3 hours from Gabs. She’s now planning to start a regular Saturday morning sports outreach program at one of the local primary schools and already has 5 volunteers lined up ready to help her.
After one night in Mabutsane, which is about the hottest place I’ve ever been, we moved onto Ghanzi, the second hottest place I’ve ever been! We were 5 nights in Ghanzi as we ran a 3 day sports ministry training time for local churches and NGOs. Because of the heat we had to run the training from 8 – 11am then take a break over lunch and the sports camp ran from 4 – 7pm and even that was hot and hard work coaching! Ghanzi was good fun, we had 17 delegates mostly from True Love Waits, an abstinence programme and Windows of Hope, who work with orphans and street children. We built up good relationships with the delegates and the training time went well, in spite of a few difficulties with the venue.
By the 9th Jan we were moving on to Maun, up in the north west of Botswana, a renown tourist spot as it’s right on the Okavanga Delta, the worlds largest inland delta. Unfortunately there wasn’t time for a visit to the delta, although we did get to walk with some giraffes, be chased by an angry warthog and the local guys on team got to see an elephant for the first time ever in the wild, which was cool.
Maun was excellent. Great food, great accommodation, really welcoming hosts, a fantastic training time and we build some really key relationships with both Love Botswana and One Way Sports, the only other sports ministry organization in Botswana. I was so so pleased with how well the training and sports camps went. The team really learnt from small mistakes made in Ghanzi and improved so much, and the training we delivered in Maun was as professional and well run as we could have possibly done. It was great for me to be behind the scenes and see Darius and Farai and the volunteers do such a great job of facilitating and running a training time. My work here is done!
We were all shattered by the time we left Maun. We moved onto a small village called Gweta for 2 nights to rest and relax a little. We were hoping to do a sports camp there but the sports field was flooded along with the rest of the surrounding area, including the lodge we were staying at. We had to walk around everywhere in huge Wellington boots with tiny tadpoles swimming all around us! Then from Gweta we passed briefly through Dukwi refugee camp to connect with contacts there, on our way to drop half of the team in Francistown and then get home to Gabs.
It was a great tour, really beneficial for our work here in Botswana. We made lots of friends and built good relationships with various other Christian organizations working around the country. The team got on brilliantly and was so full of energy and fire that they inspired pretty much everyone they came into contact with and it was great to be a part of passionate and vigorous praise and worship times in various different African languages! I had an awesome time. It was a great finish to my time here in Botswana and a great start of the year for Kings 2008. Thank you for your prayers,

Loads of love to everyone, Ruth

Prayer Points

For Farai and Princess who are getting married on the 3rd February. For God’s blessings on them as a couple, for finances to come into place for their wedding and for a wonderful day and great honeymoon! I’m going to really miss these guys when I come home!

For a great time with my parents when they’re out here – for safe journeys and quality times together. I’m leaving to meet them in South Africa tomorrow.

For me and Mark cos we’re really missing each other at the moment and actually finding it harder to be apart now the end is in sight!

November / December news

2007-12-27T02:40:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hope you all had a lovely time over Christmas with friends and family. Christmas was very different for me this year as you can imagine! My first Christmas away from home and family and all the usual traditions. Christmas here is a bit different – they still put up decorations and play Christmas tunes but it’s slightly strange to see Santa and snow in a place where most people have never seen the real thing and Christmas is in the middle of summer! In Botswana most people travel back to their home village over Christmas and New Year and so Gabs is very quiet at the moment. Christmas here seems to be more about family getting together and remembering the birth of Christ, as well as lots of food (rice and fried chicken and some sort of traditional ginger punch) and new clothes. I went to church and then was invited to spend the rest of the day with my cell group leaders family and some friends. We prepared food together, ate too much, played with the kids and watched cheesy movies. Then in the evening a friend who I haven’t seen in ages came to stay the night. It was fun, but didn’t really feel like Christmas and I did really miss family and home!

I’m really counting down the days now – I can’t believe I’ve got less than a month left working for Kings and less than two months in Botswana! I’m on holiday at the moment til the 1st and really enjoying the time off, then we’ll be going on tour around Botswana for 2 weeks with a team of volunteers. We’ll be visiting 4 different places around the country, running outreach programmes and sports ministry training times. I’m really looking forward to seeing some places around the country that I’ve never been before and to a really fun team time as we have some quality guys coming with us to help with the tour. Farai and Darius and the volunteers will actually be running most of the training times with me there to help everything run smoothly. I’m really excited to see them heading up the training and camps on their own. They’ve learnt so much over this year and are totally ready to do all this without me around which is a cool place to be leaving things. Farai (my replacement) has been taking on more and more responsibility for programmes over the last couple of months and I’m confident that he’ll do a great job once I leave.

The last two months have been busy as usual. Regular programmes in November with things beginning to pack up for Christmas towards the end of the month. The last day at I Am Special was awesome! I asked the kids what they’d learnt from looking at Psalm 139 over the past term and Maatla, a really lovely gentle boy, put up his hand and said that he’d woken up in the night and had been lying awake thinking about God and the verses we’d learnt from the psalm. It reminded me of that verse in the psalms about lying awake through the watches of the night and meditating on God and was so cool to see how God’s word has been impacting these special young people.

At the beginning of December we ran a cricket camp with the Botswana Cricket Association for World Aids Day. The camp went well but the most exciting thing was the impact that our volunteers energy and enthusiasm and the way Kings does things has on anyone we come into contact with. The BTA coaches and director were really impressed and are now excited to be partnering with us in the coming year. One of our volunteers, Taurai, runs a cricket camp every Saturday at the National Youth Centre and about 20 more kids signed up to come along and the BCA have promised him help in developing his knowledge of cricket and coaching skills so that’s great, just the sort of thing we want to be helping happen around Gabs.

Then we had a couple of guys come over from UK to manage our KCI camps in Gabs and Francistown. I was up in Francistown for about 10 days helping run a 2 day sports leadership training time and then the camp the following week. It was such a busy time! I was mainly doing admin for the camp and staying with a camp manager made me realize how much preparation work there is to do each night before camp the next day – crazy! It was such hard work but great fun. Can’t believe that was my last KCI camp in Botswana. I keep realizing all the things that are my lasts and feeling sad! It’s a funny feeling because on one hand I really miss home and can’t wait to see everyone and get on with organizing the wedding (which has now definitely been set for 31st May!) but on the other hand I know there are so many things I’ll miss about working for Kings and living out in Botswana.

One thing I’m really looking forward to before I go home is my parents visit. They are coming out for my last few weeks here and it will be such a treat to show them around and introduce them to everyone and show them what I’ve been up to before I come home. Also just the idea of my parents in Africa is awesome – they’re going to love it! Anyways goodbye from me, I’ll write again for the final time once I’m home on 20th Feb! Crazy!!

Loads of love to everyone, Ruth

Prayer Points

January tour
- I’m responsible for all the planning and logistics as well as making sure everything generally runs smoothly on the trip etc. Kind of a big job and I don’t want to forget anything important!
- For Eddie, one of the volunteers coming on tour – he’s quite a young Christian and I feel like this trip will be significant in grounding him in God and moving him on in his journey.
- For Darius, Farai and Victor who will be doing significant amounts of teaching at the training times, more than they’ve done before. For Victor this is his first time teaching theory sessions at a training event.
- That we’d be a blessing and a challenge to all those we meet and work with during our time on tour.
For Farai and Princess who are getting married on the 3rd February. For God’s blessings on them as a couple, for finances to come into place for their wedding and for a wonderful day and great honeymoon! I’m going to really miss these guys when I come home!
That I’d be able to spend time with the people I need to over the last couple of months before coming home.
For a great time with my parents when they’re out here – for safe journeys and quality times together.
For me and Mark cos we’re really missing each other at the moment and actually finding it harder to be apart now the end is in sight!

Engaged : D

2007-09-26T08:48:00.000-07:00

For anyone who doesn't know yet, or who would like to know more details Mark and I got engaged on Thursday last week. We were staying up north at Kasane, visiting the Chobe National Park and drove over the boarder to Zimbabwe for the day, to see Vic Falls. I had my suspicions that Mark may pop the question while he was out in Botswana and that this would make a good place to propose so was at least a little prepared when he got down on one knee.

We were up at the view by the Livingstone statue and had just been looking at the Falls and taking photos of a lovely rainbow but Mark was taking ages fiddling with his camera, getting the photo just right. I didn't realise until afterwards that he was just waiting for the other tourists to move on and for us to be alone together! It was very romantic (or cheesy however you want to look at it ; p), with the whole overwhelming down on one knee thing and all. Even though I knew it might happen I was still a bit in shock when it was actually happening, but fortunately remembered that I wanted to say yes!! We spent the rest of our time walking round the Falls National Park, holding hands and grinning like idiots, kissing at all the viewpoints....you can imagine I'm sure!

So all in all it was a great trip : ) We had such a great time together the whole 2 weeks. It was so nice for him to meet all my friends out here and come to various projects I work on and to church with me and just generally see what my life is like out here in Bots. We finished the trip by ring shopping and he bought me the most amazing white gold ring with a genuine Botswana diamond. All in all I'm one very happy girl!!

My new dog

2007-09-26T08:35:00.000-07:00

I just realised even though I've had my new dog Taps for a while now I hadn't put a photo of him up on my site yet! Sorry Taps! He's a really lovely dog, quite young and full of energy which was a bit hard to cope with at first but he's learning really fast and is much better behaved now. Mark and I had to put a fence up while he was here to keep Taps in the back half of our plot as he was frightening my neighbours by being too jumpy and energetic. It seems to be holding up and doing the job well inspite of being a bit of a thrown together job! Mark certainly never expected to be building a fence and a gate while he was out here but we did a good job : )

August news!

2007-09-05T06:47:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

Well August has just flown by in a whirlwind of busyness! Hmmm there seems to be a running theme in my life no matter what I try to do to calm down I’m always rushing around doing this and that!! But it’s been a great month, really good fun and lots of time spent with great people as well as lots of early mornings and hard work.

After a few changes due to problems with school holiday dates etc the National Youth Center camp ended up just being one day, Saturday 11th August. We spent the week beforehand training and preparing our leaders, as lots of them are volunteers that are new to Kings. We also went round and took assemblies in local primary schools to advertise the camp so it was pretty well attended in the end with about 280 children. It was the largest camp I have run so far and was great to see all the new leaders in action and the kids having fun. We converted the story of the Good Samaritan into a modern version set in Botswana and did a drama for the children as part of the sit down program after all the sport. The leaders were great in that and everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves watching it! All the new leaders were really buzzing about the camp afterwards and I think we’ve definitely got a new bunch of keen volunteers to work with Kings in Gabs now!

The 3 day camp at the SOS Children’s Village was fine but hard work as the children there are pretty wild so quite a tough bunch to work with. I really felt God was with us and was helping me with strength and decisions I had to make throughout the camp. We looked at the story of the Prodigal Son over the 3 days during our hall sessions. On the last day I had to do the talk at the last minute so just had to go for it, totally unprepared but it was amazing – all the children and young people really listened for once, instead of messing around and I really felt God gave me the right words to say for them. Please pray for the children at SOS as it is a hard place for them to grow up and pray for wisdom for me as I continue to work there.

After the SOS camp it was straight into preparation for the National Sports Leadership Conference we were running the week after, 20 – 23rd August. We had so much still to do and get ready in the few days beforehand but somehow managed it all. A great team of volunteers came over from the UK to help us for a couple of weeks, which was great. We definitely wouldn’t have been able to run such a good conference without them! We had about 100 leaders attend from all over Botswana as well as delegates from South Africa, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Zambia. It was great! We all stayed at a local boarding school for 3 nights and enjoyed a jam-packed schedule of sport, coaching clinics and seminars. I got to coach volleyball again for the first time in ages and really enjoyed it!! The atmosphere at the conference was great – all the guys were so pumped up and excited to be there and be part of things. You should have heard the team chants and songs - it was awesome! We had a praise and worship concert on the last night and I’ve never seen such dancing or heard such raucous singing in my life!! We finished with a morning of sport and a final awards ceremony at the National Stadium and were even the main sports story in the news on BTV that evening – although I was relieved not to be interviewed myself!

After a morning off I headed up north with the UK guys, with Darius and a team from Francistown to a place called Nata Lodge where we camped for 4 nights. We had been invited by the UNHCR and the Red Cross to go into the refugee camp at Dukwi to run a sports leadership training program and a sports camp for 3 days. It was really hard work as it was very hot, about 36o most days and we weren’t sleeping that well as we were camping, but it was such a great time. The team was awesome – me and Darius, 5 from the UK, Jackson from Kenya and 5 volunteers from Francistown. Everyone worked really hard and really well together, and got on really well as friends too which is important when you’re spending 24/7 together as a team!
We had about 40 volunteers for the leadership training each morning and then between 380 – 400 kids come along to the camp. They were all from different countries, different religions, with different stories and reasons for being there but it was great to see them all enjoying playing sport together and enjoying themselves. There were some teething problems with how to go about sharing our faith in the sit down program when there were such a number of Muslim children but after discussion with the leaders and organizers in the end we were able to keep our program really Christian and not compromise what we had to say just by being sensitive in the way we ran things and how we addressed the kids. It was great to see Muslim children joining in with everything and even competing to learn the Bible verses!! It was an exciting time and definitely somewhere we’ll be going back in the future as there is so much potential for using sport to bring hope and unity and Jesus to the guys there.

So finally I’ve been able to stop for breath the last couple of days and think about the month ahead. I’m helping mentor our coaches at Kings Camps International this next week and I’m getting really excited as my boyfriend Mark is coming to see me for a couple of weeks and he arrives on Thursday! We haven’t seen each other for 7 months so I can’t wait!! I’ll have a real chance to relax and take some time off while he’s here, to get really rested and refreshed ready for the coming term. We’re planning to spend some time here in Gabs so he can meet my friends and see what I get up to out here and then head up north to the Chobe River and across the boarder to Victoria Falls for a day. It will be nice to stop working and be a tourist for a bit!

Well I think that’s all my news for now! Sorry if you’ve been trying to contact me this month and I haven’t replied, I’ve only just had a chance to check emails etc the last couple of days so should get back to you soon! Lots of love to you all, Ruth x

PRAYER POINTS

Praise and thank God for a productive and busy month, and that I didn’t get at all ill even though I was so busy and worn out!
Thank God for all he’s been teaching me about relying on Him and doing things in his strength, not my own. That I would continue to learn this!!
Thank God for the success of the outreach camps at NYC and SOS. Pray for the children, that they would have been impacted by what they experienced and heard, especially for those at SOS.
Thank God for a fantastic time at the conference. Pray that the leaders would go back and put into practice what they learned and have an impact on the children and young people they work with. Pray for those who are not yet Christians, that they would have seen something of the life of Christ that they would like for themselves.
Thank God for the success and favour we found at the refugee camp at Dukwi. Pray for wisdom and sensitivity as we continue to work there and that all we do there would bring glory to Jesus and display his love and the hope that there is to be found in Him.
Thank God for the UK team who came out – Sam and Mel, Emma, Rachel, Cheryl and Julian. That God would bless them and help them to settle back home and into jobs as a new term starts. Especially for Mel and Cheryl who are both starting new teaching jobs. For Rach as she settles back in at home and at school after 5 months in South Africa.
For my time with Mark while he’s out. That we’d just be able to relax and enjoy each other and not be too nervous or pressured by only having a few weeks together. That we’d be able to have a really blessed time together and keep Christ at the center in all we do and in our relationship.For real rest and that I’d be ready for a new term with all the challenges and hard work that it brings!

Sad news : (

2007-07-11T12:23:00.000-07:00

Well I'm back from holiday and had a lovely time off but came home to some sad news, my dog Steve was run over by a car and died while I was away. Of course I was really upset at first and still feel really sad but I'm grateful that it was a very quick death as he died within a couple of minutes of being hit by the car. There was no obvious damage to his body either so it was probably the result of the blow to his brain or internal organs, but at least he wasn't in loads of pain for a long time. Various other tough things have been going on in the last couple of days regarding volunteers and organisations we work with so I'm pretty tired at the moment and definately feeling a bit emotional.
Feel like I'm learning loads though and that God is really using circumstances to help me to get to know him more and rely on him more, and to base my reactions and feelings to things happening on what I know is the important thing in life...I guess to have a Kingdom perspective and remember what really matters. So much of the time what actually happens doesn't really matter, it's how you deal with it that is important. Whether you take the things that are happening as stones that will drag you down or steping stones on your way to knowing more of God and experiencing and enjoying him more moment by moment. So please pray for me for strength and courage to learn the lessons that God wants to teach me, and that I would grow to be more like Christ, with real wisdom and yet real compassion in my dealings with other people.

Happy days...

2007-06-29T05:38:00.000-07:00

Hey people, just wanted to let you all know I´m having a great time away on holiday. It´s so nice to have some time off and not to be rushing around like a mad lady in Gabs, and how nice not to have to know what the time is!!

It´s been great fun so far - very girlie road trip with Rachel aka Ray, Rachel aka Hash and Beth aka Betchie. Lots of driving but we´ve been to some beautiful places - the mountains and the Golden Gate near Clarens in SA, we saw crocs and hippo at St Lucia, lots of animals on our drive through a game park on our way to Swaziland. After one night in Swaziland we´re now staying at a backpackers in Maputo, Mozambique. Tomoro we move on to Tofo Beach, apparently one of the best surfing spots in Moz so I´m hoping to maybe get a couple of lessons.

Well I'm at the end of my internet time now so going to make a move. Ciao!

Holiday : )

2007-06-22T13:44:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd better type a quick update as I'm going away on holiday for two weeks starting tomoro, so unless I write something now you won't be hearing from me for ages! I'm so looking forward to going away....it's been a hectic couple of weeks as I've had a couple of extra people staying at the house as well as the normal work going on. It's been fun but hard work! I'm feeling like I really need a break so getting away for a while will be nice. I'm driving down to South Africa tomoro to meet up with some friends I know through Kings, Rach, Rach and Beth and then we're going on a road trip around South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique. We'll be doing a bit of camping and a bit of hostelling, some game parks and some beaches so it should be great fun. I'm looking forward to catching up with all the girls again too : )

There have been some fun things over the last couple of months as well as work - there was a 1000km desert race with rally drivers from all over Southern Africa competing on both cars and bikes. It was a really big event here and Gabs was quite deserted as people drove all over the countryside out of town to catch a glimpse of the racers. There were designated places you could go and watch the cars pass and although it was fun I must admit to only staying long enough to see about 10 cars go past, after which I figured they would all be pretty much the same!! It was exciting though as they were just on a dirt track and there were of course no barriers between observers and cars. With so many drunk people around I'm suprised there weren't any accidents but amazingly not!

June update!

2007-06-11T00:32:00.000-07:00

Hello people! I'm afraid I'm turning out to be a rubbish blogger - too busy living my life to have time to write about it online!! Sorry, I will try to update it more frequently and check people's comments too. Thank you if you're still bothering to read it! For up to date info on what I'm involved in for work check out http://kingscommunity.wordpress.com/ - you should be able to see lots of photos from the camps we ran over April and May. It takes too long for me to upload them onto this blogsite especially when Matt's already putting them all on our Kings website! There is also the latest newsletter just posted on the site which lets you know exactly what we're up to at the moment.

I'm doing well at the moment - really enjoying the job and also love living here in Botswana. My weekly projects are going well. The kids from I Am Special are going to compete in football and athletics in a big Special Olympics type competition at the end of the month so I've arranged training time for them at the University of Botswana sports stadium. We started last week and it was great fun! They really enjoyed running round the track and having more space to train as their school has only a small playground for sports. It was the first school trip they'd had in a while and so they were really excited about the whole thing : ) We even managed to get the national athletics coach to come and train them!!

I've started another sports leadership training with a new group of young people at the SOS children's village. I have 6 new young people training now, Joyce, T, Lil K, NT, Jay-Jay and Khumiso. A couple of the leaders from the last course are helping out each week and I'm trying to involve them in training this new bunch of leaders. Our program runs each Sunday afternoon. We do sport and a sit down program with about 60 children from SOS between 3 - 5pm and then I do half an hour theory session with the leaders and we plan the next week together. It took a few weeks to really get running but yesterday went really well so I was pleased. It's easy to get down as things are so changable here - it's hard to get volunteers to commit to programmes on a weekly basis so some weeks will work really well with lots of helpers and other times I'll turn up and it will just be me there with the kids. I'm definately learning patience! And also having to leave the results of my work up to God and to really be doing things for His glory and not to make me feel good about myself.

Well it's my day off today so I'm going to go and enjoy it! xx

Gaborone Dam

2007-05-24T10:39:00.001-07:00

I've found a lovely new place to go for picnics
and take Steve on a walk - Gabs Dam. None of the locals really come here but it's so nice. Really beautiful and peaceful!!! Went for a picnic there with Princess the other day : )

Bush camping

2007-05-17T06:12:00.000-07:00

After a hectic 5 weeks of sports camp I finally got some time off. I went away last weekend for 2 nights camping in the bush at a game park in South Africa. It's a small park called Botsalano, only 15 minutes over the boarder but it was lovely. Really cheap with a great campsite near the only full water hole in the whole park. I went with a girl called Carmel who has been here a couple of years now - we had a great laugh together. Two city girls camping in the bush with no men in sight! Things were going fine until I tried to change our flat tire and we left the lights on by accident and ran the car battery down! The park people helped us out though : )

It was just so peaceful out in the bush - amazing stars at night too and I was pleased as I also saw a shooting star, my first I've seen since being out here. We saw lots of buck, 7 ostrich, warthogs, zerbra, wilderbeast and even 3 rhinos. A mother and baby from a distance when we were up in the hide but the male rhino we saw really close up. We hadn't been able to see much up in the hide so we crept down and hid in the trees on one side of the water hole. While we were watching two warthogs drinking this huge rhino came up and started to drink. We must of been about 15 ft away from it, just on the other side of the water! It was awesome, but pretty scary too as we were on foot and weren't sure how deep the water hole was so kept as still as we could.

For those of you who've never been to Africa and been out in the bush you have to go! It's an unforgettable experience! Til next time, ciao!

Thank you!

2007-04-27T10:10:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to say a big thank you to all who have been in contact with me and praying for me this week while I've been ill. I had a really nasty throat infection along with a bit of a fever for a few days. I've been resting as much as is really possible for me and I'm a lot better now - still a slightly sore throat but a few more early nights and I'm sure I'll be fine. So thanks for the various phone calls people, it really meant a lot to me at a time I could have easily got down.

I can't believe I've had Steve for 2 weeks now - I love him so much! He's the best dog ever. He's not really allowed in the house so his favorite spot is either at the gate waiting for me to come in or curled up in my doorway like a doorstop! He's been a handfull too though, full of energy which becomes a problem when he's alone in the plot at night - he digs lots of holes, knocks his water bucket over, turns the rubbish bins over and strews rubbish everywhere and one night even managed to knock the number plate off the front of my car!!! But he's definately worth all the hassle : )

I'm off to Francistown tomoro to help out with a KCI camp there for a week so will try to blog again when I get back. Ciao!

My dog Steve

2007-04-15T11:11:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been ages since I wrote anything - sorry people! I've been having a hectic time as usual. Will went back to the UK on 28th March and I've been sorting out his place ready to move in. I've been cleaning and decorating for ages it seems! But I've moved in now and it's almost all done. The place is looking really nice with a fresh coat of paint and I'm going shopping for curtains and cushions etc this week which is exciting. I've never had my own place before and I'm really enjoying making it my own.

I also got a dog from the rescue centre for some extra security on our plot. He's called Steve which really made me laugh - sorry Steve! He was already named so I can't change it now!!! He's so cute - fairly big, black and brown and has really fluffy ears so is nice to stroke. I'm really excited about having him. I'll get a photo of him up as soon as I can so you can all see why!!

Apart from that I'm busy with Easter camps. We went away to help run a camp at the SOS village in Francistown or Ghetto as the locals call it. We took with us 7 young people from SOS Gabs that I've been training in sports leadership so it was great fun. Then last week I ran a 3 day outreach camp in Kumakwane village, about 30 mins outside Gabs then this coming week we're in SOS Tlokweng running another outreach camp. So as you can imagine I'm doing a lot of running around to get everything sorted and running smoothly! But I'm really enjoying myself at the same time. Please pray for the upcoming SOS camp that God would speak to the children through us, and for me that I would rest enough and spend more quality time with God as well as just working hard for Him each day.

Very sorry people!

2007-03-25T10:57:00.000-07:00

Sorry guys I haven't posted anything for ages! Don't worry I'm still alive and kicking and enjoying life in Botswana : ) Great weather, a fun job, good friends already and I've finally found a volleyball club to train with. I went training last week for the first time and it nearly killed me! I haven't really done any sport since I got here and so 2 hours solid drills practices in this weather was pretty tough as you can imagine! I don't think the coach wanted me to join them at first and was perhaps trying to put me off, thinking I was just wanting to place some social volleyball but he was much more friendly after the session so I must have done something right. I'm planning to train twice a week, Tuesday and Thursday 5.30 - 7.30pm. It will be nice to get fit again!

My embarrassing moments...

2007-03-08T12:13:00.000-08:00

I'm getting forgetful in my old age! We were at SOS Children's Village on Sunday and I managed to lock my car keys in the car. Very clever! Just as we were wondering what to do KK, who works there came over with a wire and a crowbar and broke into the car for us. And it only took about 5 minutes....it was awesome. One minute the situation looked hopeless and I was thinking - he'll never be able to open this, the next minute up the lock popped and the car was open. It was seriously like magic I'm telling you! Although slightly scary to realise how easy it is to break into my car.
Then, you'll never believe it, but we were at SOS again on Wednesday and we'd gone to the local supermarket to get some drinks before our leadership training program began. And what did I do but lock the keys in the car again - for the second time in 4 days!!!! There they were dangling from the ignition. I couldn't believe it! You can imagine how I felt having to ring KK and ask him to come and rescue us again!!! How embarrassing - well I'm certainly learning humility while I'm here!

Day off : )

2007-03-02T11:29:00.000-08:00

Just took the whole day off today - it was so nice just to be able to totally chill out and do nothing. well I tidied my room as it was in rather a horrendous state (I'm sure those of you who have seen my bedroom at home can imagine!) It's never good when your landlady comments on how messy your room is!!! Just had a nice evening with Shawna, Matt's girlfriend, who came over for a meal. So far my resolution to learn how to cook is going well - one of the problems here though is almost all the meat comes on the bone, even chicken breast and I'm so squeamish I hate it! Maybe I'll become a vegetarian for the year...

Well it's 9.30pm and I'm off to bed as we have a busy day tomorrow, up at 6am.....nice. xx

Even busier!

2007-02-28T10:52:00.000-08:00

Well I can't believe it but this week's been even busier! Did an ll and a half hour day of work today. And I missed my day off this week : ( We're just busier than usual this week as Matt is here in Gabs so we have various extra meetings with people. we've also just had our venue confirmed for a youth event we're running on the 10th of March. Finally! It's taken the school ages to give us permission to use their grounds and so now we only have 10 days to get posters printed and up everywhere in Gabs and train volunteers etc. I'm so glad it's happening though - it should be good fun, a whole morning of sport, lunch together and then a worship concert in the afternoon. I'll probably be running the volleyball tournament : )

Had a cool time on Saturday. We went to watch the national Under 23 team play against Angola at the national stadium. It was so funny! Some crazy illegal tackles going on and so interesting to see the crowds reaction to things that went on on the pitch! A lot of diving going on too - I think players were stretchered off the pitch about 8 times or more. And the best thing was it only cost us 2 pounds each!

Anyways I'm off to bed - thanks so much for all the emails I've been getting, it's so nice to hear from people back home! Love you all : ) x

Busy, busy, busy...

2007-02-20T11:39:00.000-08:00

Sorry it's been so long since I last posted a blog - things have been so busy since I got back to Gabs! We've been right back into the swing of things with projects running each week and I'm still getting acquainted with Gaborone (I'm driving Will around everywhere at the moment!) and meeting lots of people I need to know. It's been good fun though and I'm really excited to be here and be involved in sports ministry. There is so much potential, I'm having to think and pray about what to focus on for the year and not spread myself too thinly by getting involved in too many projects at once.
I still haven't managed to find a volleyball club to play with which is annoying - there are a few here but it's just having the time to find out when and where they play. I did get in some tennis the other day though so at least I'm not being totally inactive. Plus I went horse riding in the bush yesterday for the first time and even learnt to trot - I was very excited : ) We are taking a day off every Monday as Saturday and Sunday are so busy and have been out to a local potters to learn pottery the last couple of weeks. Another new thing for me...frustrating and hard work but also fun when you see some improvement in your skills. So lots of new things even in my time off!
I was hoping to get on a Setswana course at the local university, as it's hard to pick up much unless you do a few formal lessons. I can do the basic greetings at the moment but that's about it. But I’m really not sure if I have the time! For more info on all the projects etc that I'm involved with check out my February prayer letter : ) If you don't get my prayer letter and you would like to just email me (ruth_deaville@hotmail.com)

Back in Gabs

2007-02-01T00:41:00.001-08:00

Hi people, I'm now back in Gabs after a lovely couple of days at a camp called Elephant Sands. It was an 8 hour journey to get there but well worth it - it was really relaxing and great to spend some time as a team. We went on a bush walk and a game drive, chilled out together and played silly games, chatted and just generally got to know each other better. Really good fun! Plus we saw loads of elephants so that's always good. I was sitting in the lodge and this huge elephant came right through the camp and had a mud bath in the waterhole about 20 meters away from me. He then had a pee, ate some plants and had a good scratch on a few trees before wandering off again!

We're getting back into work now with various sports outreach projects running throughout the week and more getting started in the next few days. I'm also busy meeting people and getting familiar with Gaborone as well as trying to learn some Setswana. I'm sorry if I haven't been replying to texts - I've only had one get through from the UK so far from Hannah - I know none of Marks have come through so far and he's send a few! Also our internet is down at the moment so I can't contact anyone through Skype either or send any individual emails as I'm having to come into town and pay by the hour for internet time so it's a bit of a mission. I'm hoping it will be sorted soon and I can ring a few people and send some emails!

Meanwhile I love you guys - thanks so much for the messages and I can't wait to chat soon. xxx

New phone number

2007-01-27T12:34:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to let people know I have a new phone number while I'm out in Bots - from the UK it is +26771306642 in case anyone wants to text me! It might be expensive though so I'll forgive you if you don't! I'm having a few problems getting things onto my blog at the moment - I can only email things on and can't get any pictures up, sorry. I'm hoping that will get sorted out soon.
Also I'm going away camping in the bush for a few days with the other Kings workers for some teambuilding and planning for this year so I won't be able to check my mail or anything until Thursday. Cool - hoping to ring some of you when I get back : )

End of the first day....

2007-01-25T10:55:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it - I just wrote a massive post and then when I went to put
it on my blogsite the internet went down and I lost the whole thing! So this
one may not be quite as long...

I've now been in Botswana a whole 29 hours, wehey! The journey was fine,
just long and boring - the only good part was that I managed to snag 4 seats
for the longest journey from Zurich to Jo'burg so had a whole row to lie
down and sleep on : ) get in! I'm feeling good and enjoying myself so far.
Matt hasn't organised too much for me to do these first few days which is
nice cos it gives me some time to just chill out and get settled in. I'm
living at a Mennonite guest house for the moment which is pretty nice. The
best thing was getting here to discover that they have a WIFI network set up
so I have 24 hr internet access - awesome! I have my own room but I'm
sharing the house with an American girl called Michelle so there is someone
to chat to which is great.
It's pretty hot here. I've had a headache most of the day which I think is a
combination of tiredness as it was hot last night so I didn't sleep too
well, the heat today and probably not drinking enough either. I'm sure I
won't take long to get used to it!
I've been to meet a few people today with Matt and we've been shopping and
doing various bits around town. It's been really nice actually - having been
here twice before I know my way around town a little already and a fair few
people too. We bumped into two people I knew when we were in Gabs today
which is pretty good going! I get on well with my two coworkers Matt and
Will, having met them both before too. They're both great guys (see pictures
below). It's certainly nice turning up already knowing a few people and
having friends here. At least not everything is new!

Well that's enough for me for tonight as I need to get to bed – I have a
meeting at 8 am tomorrow morning – the day starts earlier in Botswana I've
been told! A massive thank you to all who've been in contact with me so far
– cheers for the huge messages Cat and Abi! I love you girls xx It's really
great getting comments up on my blog as it lets me know people are actually
reading it! God bless and lots of love xxxxx

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One week to go

2007-01-16T04:05:00.000-08:00

I can't believe I'm moving to Africa in a week....just 7 days, 6 hours and 15 minutes until my plane takes off and I fly away for a whole year. Crazy! Really looking forward to going but so busy at the moment too. I haven't even begun to think about packing yet! It's been busy trying to catch up with people before I go. I've just spent a weekend up in the Lake District with Abi, Scott and the boys, Rob and Charlie, Cat and Alex and Mark. Great fun - lots of eating, some walking (well, kind of scrambling over wet, cold rocks up a waterfall in the wind and the rain but all good fun!), and lots of table tennis and late night poker. Awesome - we'll definately be doing that again when I come back! Thanks for such a great weekend guys : )

First post - how exciting!

2007-01-10T15:43:00.000-08:00

Well, just under two weeks to go until I move to Botswana and things are getting pretty exciting! I've just been up in Sheffield having my induction with Kings Foundation. It was a great couple of days, really helpful going over everything I need to know, but also really inspiring looking afresh at the work I'm going to be involved in. It's awesome to be finally going out to live in Africa and be involved in sports outreach - something I've wanted to do for such a long time!
Of course it wasn't all fun and games - they've given me a massive folder to read and even more jobs to do before I go! You don't realise how much of a mission it is leaving the country for a year until you do it....I've had so much admin to do recently! But soon it will all be worth it as I'll be on my way : )
I'm definately feeling excited as I think about the year ahead but it is sad to be leaving people behind so it's a bit of an emotional time. I'm a bit highly strung at the moment and prone to random tears at times. I'm sure things will be back to normal once I'm out there and settled in! Would appreciate prayer for strength and courage for the next couple of weeks as I say goodbye to everyone and prepare myself to go.
So I've come to the end of my first post on my very own blogsite - I'll endevour to post regular updates and photos of what I'm getting up to, aswell as any prayer requests I have so keep checking in and feel free to leave me some comments!! Finally it just remains to say a big thanks to Hannah who set this up for me and taught me how to use it - couldn't have done it without you girl!