Gosh, twenty-one days

Seems so weird to think I've already been out here for twenty-one days, The days have flown by!

My knee has started playing up again for some reason:-( maybe I have been pumping the acceleration pedal too fast! I am getting more and more comfortable driving out here all the time, especially at night, which can be quite an experience! In the places where there is a stream crossing the road, they don't install a culvert, they just make a deep dip in the road, and it is pretty deep! so you have to crawl into it and up out again, crazy! One thing I like about Botswana is you don't know where to go by the road names, you know the way by turning at the 'tree with the hut under it' or the 'second construction site' or the 'gap in the fence where that lady just went'! It is all about looking out for landmarks and associating them with where you need to go.

It is a national two day holiday here on Tuesday and Wednesday, so we are going to an all day conference about two hours away on Tuesday, then we are going to a wildlife park about an hour and a half away on Wednesday, unfortunately they won't let me drive either the long distance or round the park! Hopefully I can get some good pictures on Wednesday, but the thing with these places is so many people have been there is never usually any unphotographed opportunities!

We went on a nice walk around a dam on Saturday morning, we got out of the car with the dogs at a certain point, then decided to get back in and drive further on because a donkey cart came round the corner, it is lucky we did because a herd of cows came cantering round the corner just after we got in! I got some pretty nice pictures of the dam, we saw some nice birds and looooads of cows and goats!

I found out the minimum wage out here is about 3pula 50tebe, which is about 27p... an hour, But the price of a normal carton of milk has gone up to about 12pula. 27p an hour... We moan at £7 an hour. That is like us paying £25 for a carton of milk, it is so sad. I asked Tefo if he would say people round here are happy in general, and he said no he thought they weren't, because it was such a struggle getting good money. Pretty abysmal isn't it?

One of the Believers in the meeting is staying here at the moment, maybe I have written about him before, his name is maloudi. He is studying to do his final school exams, and they don't have electricity, so he has to use candles all the time. His eyesight has gone downhill because of this, please pray for him, he needs to do well in his exams to go any further.

There are two guys who take a lot of the meetings, more so now that Uncle Colin isn't here, one is younger than me and the other one is just a bit older. I've never taken a meeting yet! Just shows you the difference over here doesn't it.

One of the things that makes me laugh is the fact that some of the girls changed 3 times today! shows you girls don't change anywhere:-P

Sorry this isn't a Micheal Palin style diary, full of amazing experiences.. I haven't had many of that type yet! But it has been really good out here, if a bit of a struggle with different things.

Love to you all, Josh