Many of the books we have read about mission work and tentmaking recommend learning the local language and living in the community for a period of time (sometimes years) before starting ministry. Unfortunately we did not have the luxury of time to do that, so we have been struggling to become conversational in Setswana and take every opportunity we can to experience life as a local does.
Mafikeng is the Provincial capital as well as home the University of the Northwest so a large part of the town population is made up of government workers, teachers and students. The town is surrounded, however, by rural areas called villages inhabited primarily by the unemployed, unskilled and uneducated. The contrast between the standard of living enjoyed by those in town and endured by those in the villages is striking. People in town live in nice houses, eat good food and drive nice cars. People in the villages, on the other hand, construct their homes out of whatever they can find, usually do not have access to electricity or running water, are lucky to manage one meal a day of bread or ‘pap’ (corn meal cooked as a pooridge or drier and thicker so you can pick it up and eat it with your fingers), and have no means of transportation so they walk everywhere. Wheelbarrows replace the status symbol of an automobile… it is a sign of prosperity to have a wheelbarrow and a family that is especially blessed may have two. Short of a wheelbarrow the head is the most common method of carrying things.
To experience more of the village way of life I have begun walking some places rather than driving. It is a short walk from the office to the center in Top Village which we operate out of so that was an easy transition to make. On one occasion I met several women equipped with plastic shopping bags who were picking a very specific weed that was growing in the shade of a tree. I asked them (in English) what they were doing and after the initial shock of the question wore off they showed me what was in their bags and were able to communicate through hand motions and the word ‘ja’ (eat) that they were picking weeds to eat.
Increasing in distance, my next venture on foot was the two plus 
mile walk from the house in which we stay to the grocery store for some groceries including a bag of ‘charka’ (charcoal) for a braai (barbeque). Once again trying to experience the local lifestyle as completely as possible, I attempted to carry the bag of charka on my head back from the grocery. It was difficult at first (I have been told I have a pointy head), but after I placed my baseball hat on my head and used the bill of the hat to help balance the bag I managed pretty well. Needless to say, I turned the heads of a few drivers who were driving down the road which I was walking beside.
Really getting into the spirit of things, a couple of Saturdays ago I set out from the house for the office, which is 5 miles one way. I took me an hour and twenty minutes and provided a great opportunity to practice the limited amount of Setswana I have learned (Dumela, Rra! Le kai? Ke teng, O kai?’ (Hello, sir! How are you? I am fine, and you?). I managed quite will with that little bit, only confusing the ‘Le Kai’ and ‘Ke teng’ once or twice. The problem with this is it leads the person you are talking to to believe that that you can converse in the language, so the greeting was usually followed by a barrage of Setswana or Afrikaans which went in one ear and out the other (no resistance in between). That would provide an opportunity for me to explain that I came from America, was just learning Setswana and only spoke English.
On the walk back I met a gentleman named Abner who worked in the platinum mines in Rustenburg, about a two hour drive from Mafikeng. (The Northwest Province is known as ‘The Platinum Province”). Abner was home for a long weekend. He told me he lived near the mine while working and would come home once or twice a month to see his family. We have been curious about how platinum is mined since we arrived and in the next twenty minutes of walking and talking Abner clued me in on the whole operation. He was very pleased with his job at the mine and was trying to recruit me to work there. I enjoyed the conversation thoroughly which made the 10 mile round trip walk worth the blisters and sore muscles that followed. I don’t know that I will do it every day but certainly when time and weather permits.
Pressing on beyond the opportunities that walking through town and the villages present to meet and do life with the locals, we recently travelled with a local pastor to his hometown of Zeerust to experience life in his village. The pastor arranged for us to experience parts of a traditional funeral and wedding. It was quite an experience. I’m working on that blog entry now… keep checking back for the first part of that.