Flat Stanley and Mopane Worms

Dry Mopane worms, YUMMY

Mopane (pronounced: Mow-pa-nee) worms aren't really worms, but are actually caterpillars. They live in Mopane trees. These caterpillars hatch from eggs laid by moths in the Mopane trees.  The caterpillars provide protein for African people and are considered a delicacy. Caterpillars are picked off of the leaves of the Mopane tree by women and children. Using their fingers, the women then squeeze the guts from the caterpillars and set them out to dry. After the caterpillars are dried, they are sold, often by the side of the road by Francistown. Sometimes you can purchase Mopane worms that have been commercially canned. (Then instead of being nice and dry, they are good and slimy)

These Mopane worms were given to Elder Gubler for his birthday by President and Sister Wilson. All of our missionaries have tried Mopane worms. Some like them dried, some like them cooked and squishy and most like the deep fried in oil and crispy.Some people eat the worms with the heads on and some people take the heads off. Sure glad that Flat Stanley could be here to share this treat with us!

Here are a few recipes for cooking with Mopane worms.
Fried Mopane Worms
Ingredients:
   Mopane Worms
   Vegetable oil, heated in a pan
Drop Mopane worms into the hot oil. Take the worms out then they are crispy.

Mopane Stew
Ingredients:
For 4 people

1.  5 Tablespoons Peanut butter
130 Grams Mopane worms
4 Ripe, medium tomatoes, chopped
3 cups water
1 medium Onion
1 teaspoon Deli hot chili sauce
1 pinch salt and pepper

Directions:
1. In a mixing bowl place Mopane worms and water. Soak for at least 4 hours or over night
2. When the worms are re-hydrated they are ready, drain and reserve 1 cup liquid
3. Heat the oil in the pot, add the onions & cook for 3 minutes until soft.
4. Add the worms, tomatoes,peanut butter and chili sauce together with 1/2 of the reserved liquid. Bring to a boil and cook for 5 minutes. Turn down heat to simmer for a further 10 minutes, stirring from time to time. Add more liquid.
5. Season with salt and pepper. Add more chili sauce if  required.
6. Serve with rice.

Allergy Season

This looks like every street in Gaborone right now

In case any of you are wondering about allergies right now in Gaborone during the rainy season, here it is!
Luckily we have allergy pills.

You're having another birthday!

Elder Gubler was able to celebrate his birthday here in Botswana. It was a pretty exciting  birthday for sure. This week we received our Christmas as well as Elder Gubler's Birthday package. We are extremely pleased that everything got here so fast! In the mission office, we live vicariously. When someone gets a package they get to open it in front of those of us in the office. We ooh and awww and are so happy for them. Its like we just received a package ourselves. Elder Klingler always says "Sweet!"

Our Christmas packages held CDs and pictures of our children and grandchildren. Oh, I just want to pick them up and squeeze them!(Not the CDs and pictures but the real grandchildren!) We also received lots of dried fruit, yeast, summer sausage (yummy) and a video of "42", a baseball movie about Jackie Robinson. We have eaten some of the sausage on home made rolls, eaten the yummy fruit, looked and laughed at the photos and just thought of all our special family. Oh how we love you!

Then came the birthday package. Ta-da! Heidi sent the package to us by DHL. But, I gave her our postal address at Postnet Kgale, our mail box. Oops! We didn't think we would ever see the package BUT DHL found us at our physical address! And, on Friday, the day before the big 70. We receive quite a bit of mail from DHL, for the mission office and we think they remembered our name, or it was a just plain miracle! Other than that, we have no idea how it got here but we are so pleased. We both thoroughly enjoyed the book our family put together for Elder Gubler. Oh those letters and the pictures of us all when we were young and had color in our hair! Very thoughtful remembrances from our children and grandchildren.

Flat Stanley came for a visit. I think he wanted to see what was in our Christmas package.

Best companion ever! Birthday boy with his Birthday book and Flat Stanley to help celebrate with us.

In the Birthday package was Flat Stanley. George sent him to visit with us. We will take him into Gaborone with us tomorrow. Hopefully we can get some fun pictures.

Namibia

For an after Christmas treat, Elder Gubler and I went with our Mission President and his wife to Namibia Dec 26. Our senior couple in Windhoek is leaving in a few weeks and we need to figure out how to manage the funds there as well as to find out where everything is. Naturally, we had a wonderful road trip.  We drove the Trans-Kalahari Corridor from Gabarone, Botswana to Windhoek, Namibia. The countryside was beautiful and green because of all the rain we've received here. The road is one of the best we've traveled on and because it was the holidays, we had very light traffic.

Here are some of the things we saw in Namibia: (Remember, it's the holiday season and so everyone is gone and most things are closed.) If we'd had more time, we could have gone to the coast or up north, but we were in Namibia to work on issues in Windhoek so maybe another time.

One of the most fun things we did there was go to dinner on Saturday night. The restaurant had some very interesting foods and we at some of the most unusual.

Elder Gubler eyeing his Kudu Stroganoff.

I'm getting ready to try my game platter, starting on the left with Oryx, Impala, Zebra, Crocodile and Ostrich. 

We had an "experience". Kudu is pretty tasty. The Ostrich tasted like beef (who would have thought?) And, I thought the Crocodile was nasty. The Crocodile had a lot of fat and tasted like old fish (not fresh fish). Others said their crocodile was tasty but they must have had a difference animal than I had.

We drove around the city of Windhoek and saw some beautiful areas. Windhoek is more European than Gabs. There are manicured lawns, with real sprinklers. The streets all have signs. The architecture is definitely European instead of Chinese.

Dutch Reform Church

Beautiful sunset in Windhoek

We had Sunday dinner with our two young Elders who are serving in Windhoek as well as the 3 much more mature couples. We love all of our missionaries so very much and these two young men are absolutely wonderful!

Sister and Elder Richins, President and Sister Wilson, our two young elders, Mkhize and Gittins and Elder Gubler.

We left Monday morning, Dec 30, to come home. Look at what we saw at the Botswana/Namibia border!

Sister Wilson standing by the biggest truck I've ever seen. Instead of saying "big load" the front of the truck says "Abnormal"

Sister Wilson standing at the bottom of the truck

We loved being able to visit Namibia. We are the envy of all the young missionaries who can't wait for a chance to go over there (which may or may not happen) But, we LOVED getting back home to our very familiar Botswana. We love it here!

Christmas Season

Yes, I finally have decided to blog again. My, it has been a long time. It feels so interesting to remember last year and the thoughts we had starting our mission together. Now, 14 months later, we're old pros living in Botswana. The people are great. For the holidays, everyone who can, goes home to his/her home village, leaving the city pretty empty.

We were able to have a fun party Dec 18 with the whole mission. Oh my! We had a talent show that was like something I had never seen before. It's obvious that our Elders and Sisters have attended Scout and YW camps. I'm pretty sure that some of you would have recognized the skits. For dinner, we had "Rio Leo" (faux Cafe Rio food). Because of a shortage of Mexican food in Botswana, we had to look up recipes online as well as make some up because of no tomatillos being available in country. We had pulled sweet pork burritos and everyone loved them. I've even learned how to make flour tortillas that are so wonderful!

Christmas Day, the missionaries went by Zones to the senior couple in their zone area for lunch and some time together. For lunch I made "yummy" potatoes, ham, rolls, tossed salad, red jello/pretzel salad and we finished it off with apple pie and ice cream. I don't think anyone left hungry. After our meal, it was playing games while missionaries took turns calling home.

We had a wonderful Holiday! We were able to talk with all of our children and their families. Oh how we miss them! Next year, we'll be home. With our Children. And, missing our wonderful friends and missionaries here.

Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Today it was 100* so it didn't feel very Thanksgivingish. This afternoon, Elder Gubler and I went to visit a village and pay rent on the 3 missionary flats we have there. The missionaries we visited with are so happy. They had their flats sprayed for bugs, we brought them rice krispie treats and more importantly, they are teaching so many wonderful people. On our way back into town, we saw lots of lightening strikes off in the distance, close to our home. As we came into town we realized there had been a real down pour of rain. While the storm hadn't lasted long, there were lots of flooded streets and people who were pretty wet. When we got to our flat we were delighted to see that our little garden had been amply watered (yea!) and a little beat up. Then we noticed the pretty white stuff in front of our flat. No, it wasn't snow but it looked so nice, white and icy. We had grape sized hail. It almost looked and felt like winter in So Utah, except for the heat :-)

Now the sun is out, the water is soaking into the ground and the hail has melted. But, for a little minute, it felt like a bit of heaven to feel like home here so far away. We'll eat our chicken stuffing casserole and enjoy the evening trying to watch Shenandoaha. Heavenly Father gives such kind tender mercies to his missionaries who get a bit homesick during the holiday season. Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Another trip to Kasane and it was all work, work work! :-)

This week in Kasane, Botswana, we were able to participate in the Measles, Vitamin A and Deworming Campaign. This campaign was planned for 4 years and finally came together the past two weeks. After storing 7,000 t-shirts in our office (yes, about 77 huge boxes of t-shirts) we were able to hand out the shirts to various organizations and wards.* We had more difficulty finding the brochures that needed to be passed out to the population to let parents know about the shots, vitamin drops, deworming etc. Finally, last weekend, with or without said pamphlets, Elder Gubler and I headed up to Kasane in the Presidents Trail Blazer with 2 Sister Missionaries with us. We stopped in Francistown to pick up 2 more sisters, offload bright orange hats and the few brochures we could find. About 2:00pm we headed up to Kasane with a fully packed car and sisters eager to see the wonders and sights of northern Botswana. We left at 7:00am and arrived at 7:00pm. About 100k from Kasane with started seeing animals. We saw 1 giraffe and 30 elephants, in two different groups.Oh the excitement and cameras clicking! The elephants actually crossed the road in front of us.

This gives you an idea of how large these elephants were!

Finally, we made our destination and arrived at Cornelia's home. (Cornelia is a wonderful woman and one of the first members of the Church in Kasane. She is from Zimbabwe and is an amazing woman and hostess. She allowed all 6 of us to stay in her home and graciously took us to see Kasane when we weren't working in the clinics. We absolutely LOVE Cornelia!! The LDS Group in Kasane is amazing.) Cornelia met us there with some nice warm Mac and Cheese with bacon and we devoured all of it. We found our various sleeping areas in her home and were dead to the world by 10:00 pm. That night we had our first elephant visit. About 1:00 am, there was a huge uproar of dogs barking and Cornelia got the girls to come and look at the elephant. Oh My! (The old people slept through this visit.)

Sunday morning, we attended church, taught classes and helped out in various ways. Kasane has a group and meets in a house. Right now there are only a couple of children who are members who attend church, but they bring their friends so there are normally 30 children. It's very amazing how quiet and respectful all of these children are at church especially without adult supervision in Sacrament meeting. After church we divided into groups and visited some of the ward members and less actives. It was quite a fun experience.

Monday morning, we were up with the crack of whatever and at the clinics by 8:00 am. There were 5 clinics in Kasane and we supplied volunteers to three of them. Elder Gubler and I served in the Habitat clinic. (Named after Jimmy Carters pet project, Habitat for Humanity.) 2 sisters were at the Kasane Clinic and 2 were at the Plateau Clinic. Cornelia was at the Kghota clinic (where the chief of the villages stays). No one was at the Habitat ready for shots so the Gublers went walking to find some small children.  Oh what a walk we had! It was about 100 degrees and 85% humidity and we walked for about 3 hours. One of the clinic workers came with us because she wanted to practice her English. It was really wonderful for us that she came! All of the people we spoke with told us they would be bringing their children. We were so proud of the work we were doing because we had gotten commitments out of so many parents. Later the helper told us that she had told the people, in Tswanan, that clinic workers would be checking on Tuesday to see if they had really taken the children for their immunizations. Such a deflation on our part! Here are a few people we saw along the way:

Just finding out that he gets to go to the clinic for vaccinations. Lucky!

Elder Gubler finally found someone in Botswana that is older than he is! This gentleman is 78 and came to Kasane when there were only 3 houses. He's a retired customs officer

Mom washing her clothes. Her child saw us and ran screaming back to his mom. I don't think he'd seen white people before, at least not dressed in orange shirts and hats!

This grandma was taking her grandchildren to the clinic in the best chariot she had, her wheel barrow

Monday night the Sisters presented a fireside/home evening. The sisters had us sing songs and then discussed what they loved about the song. The members loved the family home evening. The treats were cake and rice krispie treats, what more could they ask?

The Kasane Group with our missionaries

Day Two, Tuesday, we took an early morning game drive. Cornelia did a wonderful job showing us everything she could find in the Chobe park. The Chobe has no fences so you see what you see. We saw elephants (got surrounded by elephants) and some of these other animals:

Impala

Dwarf Mongoose

Cape buffalo

Elephants showing their best sides

Warthog babies

After our fun excursion, we went back to the clinics. I started taking pictures of the children and their parents. We had the pictures developed and gave the pictures back to the families when they came back. Here are a few of those pictures:

 

Aren't they beautiful? We have absolutely fallen in love with the people here.

Tuesday night, we used our pass to get back into Chobe and had a wonderful time seeing more animals:

Kudu

Sable

We then went to the "platform", a man-made watering hole, where we can very quietly watch the animals come in to water. Its a beautiful and tranquil place. I wish we could have stayed there until late but we had to have our young sisters back by curfew. We saw lots of elephants, jackal, frogs and stuff.

Wednesday we worked at the clinic, Elder Gubler giving Vitamin A drops while Sister Gubler took pictures and painted left pinkie fingers with a permanent purple marker to designate vaccines had been given. Then it was off to get more pictures developed and home to cook dinner and make goodies for the party on Thursday to celebrate all that had been done at the clinic.

Thursday we woke bright and early to start our last day in Kasane. More clinic vaccinations, vitamin A drops, and deworming pills given to children ages 6 months to 5 years. We picked up the sisters and went to get our new pictures developed. And, we ran into Cornelia! She said she had a little time so she took us the border area in Botswana, actually the area where the four countries, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe meet. All in all we had a great trip!

*Note: All of us Kasane missionaries who worked on the campaign at one time or another had someone really, really want our orange shirts.. Yeah. Of course, we were wearing them so we kept them. However, with 1,000 shirts for the missionaries and church members volunteering and only about 400 being needed, we were left with a bunch of shirts in Gaborone. (We didn't take extras with us to Kasane).  While we were in Kasane, some entrepreneurs decided to break into the G-West chapel. These braniacs cut "sky-lights" in several different area, including the chapel, the library (only church books), the vault (only church books) but EUREKA!! They hit pay dirt, found and stole the orange shirts we had left in G-West and didn't know how to use. Took care of the G-West problem.

Out in the middle of the river is the point where the 4 country, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Botswana
corners meet.