ecw-dev
Episcopal Church Women in NC
Category: The Botswana Diaries
-
The Mother’s Union, active throughout the worldwide Anglican Communion, is one of two primary women’s ministries in the Diocese of Botswana. The Episcopal Church Women of the Diocese of North Carolina has unique relationships with both these groups as they focus on different things at different times.
-
Botswana is bordered by South Africa to the south and southeast. One afternoon, while on a leisurely ride through the countryside with a few friends, the driver suddenly veers off the road and makes his way through mounds of reddish brown sand, halting abruptly at the edge of a clearing.
-
Though English is the official language of Botswana, Setswana (also spelled Tswana) is the dialect spoken most widely across the country. Four million people across southern Africa use it, and it is written in the Latin alphabet.
-
‘I want you to have your own business,’ he said to her on his death bed. ‘You’ll get a good price for the cattle now. Sell them and buy a business. A butchery maybe. A bottle store. Whatever you like.’ (From The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency)
-
In Botswana, whether in city, suburb or village, there is the strong sense that all of us — the two-legged, four-legged, and winged ones — are in this together.
-
Of the many benefits of traveling, especially to places that don’t look or sound much like the place you’re from, is the reminder of the infinite variety of God’s creation. It’s a good thing to not get too complacent – or smug – about where you and yours are in the scheme of things.
-
Whether it’s refugees from countries torn by strike, immigrants seeking better opportunities or a church-sanctioned visitor, Botswana welcomes. It’s a country where an emerging middle class is bookended by great wealth and grinding poverty.
-
I begin the story with my first day and my last day in-country.
-
In Botswana, Juli Hauser found a place big enough to accommodate her dream. It was in 2007 that Juli, a retired teacher and member of Church of the Holy Comforter in Burlington, heard about Duduza (“comfort”) dolls. It seems women in the Diocese of Vermont had organized a project where knitters were invited to use…
-
Of the many worship services I’ve attended in Botswana during my visits in 2008 and 2010, one in particular stands out. On a cool August morning (August is a winter month in the Southern Hemisphere) in 2010, 500 or so Anglicans sat shoulder to shoulder and bundled against the wind blowing through the broken windows…