Botswana is a very interesting place. The country is an interesting mix of urban and rural communities working and living together. We live in the capital city of Gaborone. It’s a beautiful city with all of the modern conveniences that one might enjoy such as gyms, restaurants, parks and green space. Our kids attend a wonderful school and enjoy being able to interact with people from all over the world.
In contrast to the cities, we have beautiful, peaceful villages that would be considered rural areas. This is the Africa that most people think of when they dream of Africa. People in such areas tend to manage livestock, farms, and enjoy a very peaceful lifestyle with little influence from the modern world.
However, when it comes to the Covid-19 pandemic that gripped the world, both communities were affected in very different ways. Here are some of the stories of how people were affected in both the rural and urban settings.
Urban
In the urban areas, the people that were most affected were the domestic workers or those who did “peace jobs” (a temporary employment) on a job to job or day to day basis. They work as maids, yard workers/garderners, etc. When the lockdown started, they were not able to go to work and therefore had no income to go buy food. Those who live in city have traded the ability to have a garden or livestock for life in the city where these are not possible. In the city most of the poorest will live in compound type living. It’s a group of single rooms with a shared bathroom between all of the tenants most with just a drop toilet. Imagine living, working, cooking, and sleeping all in one room. They are small and crowded spaces and social distancing is next to impossible. Since they were not able to work or travel, they simply ran out of food.
We met one widow who said that they were on their last meal. She was taking care of many children as well as her aging parents. The night before they had to cut their daily food portions in half and that night they were going to be out of food. This is a family that was not able to work and had simply run out of food. When the food hamper arrived to her family you could see the relief come to her eyes because she knew that they would now survive.
We met many folks who did not qualify for assistance from the government during Covid19. We came to one family who was taking care of a little girl in a wheelchair. They explained they did not receive any help from the government because the father was working. However, the sad part is that the father has nothing to do with this family…he lives in a different town and drinks most everything that he makes. This family now had food to eat that evening because of the food hamper.
Village
In the village areas we ran into a very different type of story. While it is now harvest time, many of the people were not able to travel to take care of their fields and ran into all type of troubles providing for their families.
We talked to one family in the village and she said that her entire crop was destroyed. We asked what had happened and she said that the elephants had come in and ate all that she had…yes, elephants! No one able to keep guard against the elephants, they came in at night and ate many peoples crops. They now had no way of providing food for their families until the food hampers arrived.
We came to one family and saw a large pile of melons which can be cooked in many different ways. We could see however that most of the melons were not ripe with many of them being harvested way too early. Asking about her crop she said that they had to take what they could because they could not keep the baboons away from the field.
Talking to one of our blind pastors who lives and works in the village, he said that his crop of maize (corn) was all stolen during the lockdown by thieves. His field is very close to the village in order to allow him to walk and work with his blindness. This pastor was robbed of his crop because he was not allowed to leave his plot to check his fields.
In Botswana, the villages hold a slower pace of life with everyone knowing their neighbor and helping out when needed. We went around with the community nurse and visited many disabled people living in the village. Many were completely depending on their families or neighbors and with this virus their care has been greatly interrupted. When we took them food hampers, tears would form because they could now provide for themselves, giving them dignity and self-worth.
Covid19 has affected people throughout the world in one way or another. It might be the loss of a job, finical security, or simply just normal daily life. It also affected those living and working here in Botswana, both in the Urban and Rural areas.
We are told over and over again in the Bible to Love God and to Love People. To be the hands and feet of Christ. Isaiah 58:10 reads “Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noonday”. We have been blessed to be able to be called for such a time as this to the wonderful country of Botswana. We are blessed beyond measure to be able to call the people of this country our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are so thankful for the ability to serve those with the biggest needs both in the urban areas and also the rural areas. We praise the Lord for your giving and gifts that were able to meet a physical need through the food hampers but also to share the love and hope that we have in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
