final post, coming home

this is my last and final post from this place..
I don't know what else to say.. Not much to say at the present time. My mom has taken a turn for the worse and I am headed home. Frances and I will be leaving tomorrow morning and making the long way back. Michelle and the rest of the family will come home next weekend. Not much is known about her condition and I won't go into details, but it is time for us to come home. Please keep her in your thoughts...

monday morning in Gabs

The rain has moved away... it stayed around long enough to dampen our game viewing experiences over the end of last week...Now it's hot again.. Makes things feel normal. The twins are reading books on the ground and the kids just left with michelle for school. This is the last full week of school for the kids.. next week is fun days with galas, celebrations, etc..

Maura and the twins have been prancing around the house for the past 3 weeks singing christmas/religious songs thanking Jesus for everything under the sun..

We had a few friends over last night who have little ones as well and who have just arrived from the U.S. They are really great and our kids and their kids seem to get along extremely well.. It's too bad that we are catching them in the last part of our stay here.. I knew our time here was over when Michelle started dispensing out all of our malaria medicine to them.

On a much more serious note.. I received a note from my brother regarding the status of my mom.. Apparently, the nurses are surprised that my mom even made it through the first night she was in the hospital. She has come a long way and seems to continue to get better... Again, they are baby steps, but they are steps in the right direction... She was taken off the ventilator and is now breathing fully on her own..she is off the BP medicine and things seem to have stabilized.. There is some serious concern about her hands, and that is something that will be addressed. We continue to play computer tag with family... Thank God for the internet. Please continue to keep her in your thoughts and she continues her road to recovery.

I leave you today with a video slideshow made by Kate... Yesterday, she kept busy by opening a hair salon, making cribs for her baby dolls, doing a leopard project(on Word), helping Maura compose a "colorful" Zebra project, and creating a video slideshow of our trip to Madikwe. It is well done, I did nothing except help her download the music and tell her how to make the opening and closing credit pages...
I love the music choice... Enjoy! the music is so fitting for the images..

update, trip to Madikwe

It's now Sunday morning and things are stable with my mom. I think she had a bit of a setback yesterday morning, but according to family, this past evening things had gotten back to normal... She is still on a ventilator, but they have plans to get her off of that very soon...Out thoughts our always with her as we hope that she continues to get stronger and stronger each day.. We will be leaving in 2 weeks.

As for us, we returned from our trip to Madkiwe yesterday.. And even though our thoughts were at home, we promised the kids a trip to see some more of the African wild.. In order to stay close to home(in order to stay in contact with family), we chose to drive about 30 minutes outside the city to a beautiful game reserve in South Africa called Madikwe.. We stayed in a beautiful lodge called Tuningi and were treated like kings... The game viewing was scarce.. due to the rain that occurred all week long. But the highlight of the trip, for everyone, was seeing a leopard up close... That is Jacob and Kate wanted to see, so they got it. We really lucked out and had the rare experience of seeing it within 15 feet of our truck.. Jude and Franny were in the truck screaming while Michelle and I tried to stuff crackers in their face in order to keep them quiet.. but we were able to get a few good photos before it his away in the bush.. It was truly amazing.. Another highlight was getting even closer to a group of about 20 elephants.. they encircled our truck.. the guide said... "If I say scream, I mean it.. scream as loud as you possibly can." that was scary.. expecially when the people at the lodge were telling stories of some workers/guides getting crushed by elephants in the past years.. This ain't no zoo...It was awesome, and I think my favorite game viewing experiences here , have to be all the elephants we've encountered... I will have some video up in the next few days of both encounters..
I think that is all for today... we continue to sort through things and prepack bags.. And as beautiful and amazing as going to the African bush is, our thought are at home and getting there....

Wednesday

It's wednesday, very nice morning.. overcast and quiet. At home my mom continues to slowly get better or more stabilized. Not out of the woods yet and still in the ICU, butI can sense from my family that things seem to be moving in the right direction.. It's simply a waiting game now.That's a good thing to hear, but the waiting is difficult fromsuch a far distance. The time change makes it difficult to follow the hour to hour progress. Please keep her in your thoughts.

We were scheduled to leave for Chobe this morning, but have decided against it for obvious reasons.... It's just too far out in the middle of nowhere and we would probably be out of touch from anyone.. Plus, Michelle and I weren't sure if we could handle another 12 hour drive with all the kids.. under the circumstances.. We have opted to head to Madikwe with the kids and take in some wildlife and a bit of fun for the last time.. We will leave tomorrow and be gone for 2 days.. Ths in only about40 minutes fron town and technologically savvy.. We wouldn't normally go, but the kids have been promised another trip, and michelle has taken the time off.... One more bush experience...

I have yet to comment about Jacob's softball experience. It was a great trip for him and his peers. We played in a tournament against the Northern Schools from Botswana. We won 2 games to 1 and took home the trophy.. It had been so long since we have participated in anything super competitive, it was a little overwhelming at first..but alot of fun.. Pictured is or championship team and it's 2 outstanding coaches... Also is a photo slideshow of some of the action... A few of our boys played in bedroom slippers.. Not like Knothole at all .. But we had great umps who were as professional as can be.. Calling balls and strikes as if we were in the big legues..



a few other photos are of a storm that rolled through Palapye during our first evening there.. I had just finished being bribed by a police officer and pulled over to take a few of these photos... It was really cool and I don't know if the photos do it justice.. It was the first time I was out of town to witness a true African rain storm.. It was much different at home.. and I can't really put my finger on it.. Gotta go, kids are tired and ready for a nap... A couple other notes about softball to mention before i go... the difference between an African softball field and an American softball field that was so obvious to me.... the African field is totally alive... millipede 12 iches in length, lizards, probably snakes, biting ants, etc just litter the playing field. Other photos include a typical road picture... notice not only the feet in the back, but the goats on the side of the road.

Please keep my mom in your thoughts.. thanks

update on my mom

As it stands now, things seem to be slowing moving in the right direction..Slowly.
I am receiving word from my brothers and sister about her status and it seems as if they have located the source of the problem and are letting the meds do their things... She is still very , very ill. My brother Kevin arrived yesterday and I think they are taking shifts in the ICU waiting room.

As wonderful as this experience of living in Botswana has been, this has been the most difficult aspect... Being helpless, unable to do anything and just waiting for someone to text you with an update.. When my dad died, it was surreal. Hearing him over the computer for the last time, realizing that I couldn't do anything for him.. and now this.. I am considering coming home, but it is a very tricky time.. We are slated to leave in 3 weeks.. and to leave here with Michelle having to finalize everything on this end would be difficult. THe doctors have stated that I should just wait.

Nothing else to report. Please keep her in your thoughts...

my mom

On Saturday we got a call from my sister saying that my mom had been admitted to the ICU... She has been there for the past 2 days and without going into much detail, we are just waiting it out to see what is going on. She had a surgery last night to remove a kidney stone, but other than that, we are all in waiting mode.

Please keep her in your thoughts.. I will update the blog later, once I find out more information.. It's about 2:30 am Cincinnati time, so I'll know something later in the day...

I will let you know that Jacob and my Southern Schools Softball team are the Country champions... We took 2 games out of 3 from the Northern schools team.. I'll have photos up later.. today doesn't seem like a good time. Jacob was the team captain.. chosen by his peers.. They did a very good job..

All for now.

softball update, black mamba in a pool

First things first... Good friends of ours found a black mamba in their pool. Not much else to say.. We go out to their house at least once every 2 weeks to swim in that same pool.. I hate snakes, and I really hate the dealiest snake in the world..

We lost our match yesterday and the second game was rained out.. A few mental errors, baserunning mistakes and some nice defense by the other team did us in..
My dad would laugh at this brand of softball.. the main problem I'm having is the kids don't understand that they need to stop at the bases and not run through them.. In cricket, which is what most of them play, you run through the base when you beat the throw. there have been at least a half dozen times when they'll steal third... but run 15 steps past it.. the other problem is that the gloves are actually a hindrance... They are used to catching with their bare hands.. yesterday, Jacob made a play and threw to the first baseman.. He stretched took his glove off and caught it with his bare hand.. It was a web gem without a doubt... but they can't catch a pop up to save their life.. And when they do.. it's like we just won the World Series..

Jacob and I leave tomorrow morning for Palapye and the Southern Schools/Northern Schools showdown.. I love the drive from here to anywhere outside the city. .You really leave a place that feels a little like home and head out to the middle of nothing.. We'll be back Saturday night. I'll update the blog on Sunday...
Everything is going well here, we just miss Michelle. She heads back on Friday. Jude came home from school because he is running a temperature.. He doesn''t look well, but now he is beating up Franny, so he isn't completely gone..

I've posted a few more photos from yesterday. As I post them, I wonder if people are tired of seeing them.. i really love taking them and have loved the opportunity to get out and meet people and get a glimpse of what life is like here.. I know a few photos of the kids would be a nice change of pace, so in the next few posts I'll put some up.. The photos.... A man drinking Chibuku( the sourghum beer here).. It's in a carton served warm and has the consistency of wheat paste... "barkeep! anouther round Pleassseee!!!!" It's an acquired taste and the locals have done a very good job of acquiring a taste for it..they've worked really hard at making sure they like the stuff.. 50 cents will buy you a carton.. I usually end up buying a round of chibuku when I head out to these places.. Another note of interest is the girls in the religious outfits.. I don't know what religion this is, but it is very popular.
The girls put them on after they told me they wanted their photos taken.

Here's a video of some of my drive out to Odi and Mmankgodi.. As stated before .. I love the drives to these places.. Always waves, thumbs up and smiles... oh yeah, and stares..



Be back on Sunday...

baking clothes

With the rains come an inability to dry anything.. The kids clothes continue to hang on the line but remain wet. i need the Botswana sun!!! I have taken for granted the power of the sun here in Botswana. you can put out a load of sopping wet clothes to dry and it might take an hour to dry all of them.. And then it rains for the first time in 9 months and you have laundry hanging all over the house.. this morning Jacob was prepared to go to school in a soaking wet uniform, so we put it in the oven to dry... I never realized how well that worked. And althought Jacob went to school looking as if someone had put out a pack of cigarettes on his shirt, he went dry...

The children of Mmangkdodi were unable to put on a christmas pageant for me yesterday due to the rain.. So the plan is to do it next week...
Jacob has a double header in softball this evening, so we are very excited about having to actually play a few games.. My team is ready! Unfortunately, the games are only 2 innings long, so as soon as the kids feel comfortable, it's over.
Michelle continues were teaching in Ghanzi, she said she was talking with all of the workers of the lodge about american politics and Barack Obama... Everyone here calls him "Uncle".

The sun is creeping through the clouds as Frannyand maura play with puzzles.. I am about to take Maura to school. Jude is still sound asleep upstairs.. He had a difficult time last night due to the lightning and thunder.

I guess that's it for today.. Tomorrow, I 'll post a video of some of my drive to mmankgodi. Last night I packed some bags for our trip back home.. I realized we have lived here for a year and a half with nothing...it's been nice.

back out to Mmankgodi

today is tuesday and for the past 8 tuesdays I have been going out to Mmankgodi to spend time with the kids at the orphanage.. i have a ton of photos to drop off to them.. and they are aweseom pictures.. I will try and get a slideshow up of them for you to view.
today is a special day because they are going to performa Xmas pageant for me..to thank me and Thato for coming out and working with them on their photos. It should be great.
Michelle is still in the middle of nowhere, Ghanzi, a true Botswana village. She told me last night it was the typ of place you could hear the wind heading your way from 10 miles distance.. She said she had her door open in her room and a chicken walked by, then a group of guinea fowls, then an ostrich.. Not your holiday inn. She is staying in the Khawa lodge.. I equate these places to an old Clint Eastwood spaghetti western.. Without all the killin' and pillagin'. Just an African version with Kudu, lions, leopards and the like.. The lodge actually has a website..
www.khawalodge.co.bw/

Me and the kids are chillin' here in Gabs.. Jacob has a swimming gala this afternoon, while kate heads over to a friends house.
Here's some photos from last Tuesday's trip to Mmangkodi... Hope you like..getting bags out to see how much crap I can fit into them.. and also finalizing paperwork to have my baby (the truck) sold and shipping all of our booty back home. Really exotic stuff. I plan on treating myself out to a night of playing pool with locals tomorrow night.

our home becomes a day care..

Kate has Maura napping on our living room floor because that is what the schedule calls for.. this morning she has taught maura(the excellent student in teacher Kate's words) symmetry and how to spell butterfly.. Maura is relaxing on the floor reading quiet books while classical music plays in the background... This is Kate at her best... She does this stuff at least once a day.. And when it occupies the little ones for the majority of the morning.. it's a bonus..

I am listening to my favorite radio station(WMKV 89.3 Cincinnati).. the old folks station.Right now they are playing "Love on a Greyhound Bus" by Guy Lombardo..
Everytime I listen to this station I want to pull my pleated wool pants up over my belly button and smoke a pack of Pall Malls, while mustering up some refreshing JELLO for the kids... What a great station. At least it's great here during the day.. I know late, late, late night at home is when they play the best music.

I just took Michelle up to the clinic, she is now on the road to Ghanzi to teach a class for the week... I already miss her.

The kids and will perhaps take a little game drive this afternoon to pass the time.
Busy week here in gabs as there are several softball games as well as getting things tied up before we head back.. I'm sorry that our adventures have been extremely lacking lately.. We'll have one more big hurrah in a week and a half.. Chobe once more.

Mom... right now they are playing... "Rendesvous with a Rose" by none other than the Eddie Duchen (sp?)!!!!!. You gotta love Eddie..

Ok... all for now all you dames and fellows... I gotta get me a cup of joe before nap time is over here at "eckerle day care".

Congrats to Jacob!!!

Jacob had his final tryout today for the Southern Schools Softball team.. sort of like an All Star team for the southern part of the country... We will head up to Palapye next friday for 3 matches against the Northern Schools All Stars..
I am the asst. coach.. I think he will be playing shortstop and will be hitting 6th in the lineup.. Anyone know any famous left handed shortstops? It should be a fun few days for him, considering sports and competition seem to be last on everyone's list here.. Jacob will be headed up with a team of 13 boys, 2 others from his school.

I was in charge of drills and infield practice today, and was simply blown(and continue to be blown away) by the manners of the young men Jacob's age... Each boy says..."Yes sir, no sir, thank you sir..." on every occassion.. When practice is over, each of them sought me out to shake my hand and say "Thank you for practice". The thing about it is, the parents aren't telling them to do it, they simply know to do it.. It's very nice and hopefully it has rubbed off on Jacob.

We had cornhole last night, but it was moved indoors due to the intense lightning and thunder and .. rain. The lightning and thunder was what you would expect from Africa.. Seriously dangerous.. I've never heard or seen anything so intense.It was crazy.. But we did actually play in our house.. we have a long open space that is perfect for any cornhole venue.
Headed to some friends' house today for a cookout, but it's raining steady.. It's wonderful..feels like home and has cooled off everything.

Michelle heads out tomorrow to teach a class in Ghanzi... About 7 hours out in the middle of nowhere.. Anyone available to babysit?

Less than 4 weeks and our adventure is over.. everyone is asking us for our stuff

Obama brings rain to Botswana, High School Musicl 3

It has finally rained substantially here.. the official first rain of the year is here and it may stay for another day or 2.. According to a woman I see everyday on the street, The rain has been brought here by Barack Obama.. She stated, "the day he was elected president, it began to rain." And she is right.. It hasn't rained for 9 months and for some strange reason, it rained the evening we went out with a bunch of other fellow Americans. I think we can all agree that if Obama can bring health and prosperity to another country without raising our taxes.. that that is a good thing.. I wonder who she thinks bring the heat and drought that this country experiences for the other 360 days out of the year.

School is going well for the kids and they seem to be wrapping things up a bit. They are starting to have school assemblies, award ceremonies and invites to end of the year school parties.. Jacob will officially graduate from Northside School and Kate from standard 2. Maura will have gained an increasingly annoying accent(very South African).. she even says things like... "Come on boy, you musn't do that" when reprimanding Jude. No one says musn't at home. She will really miss her school and her friends.. Her school teachers adore her and I will miss the price for preschool...

Driving around town this morning, I am always impressed with the fact that everyone says hello to each other.. A simple wave, a smile , etc.. makes the drive a hell of a lot more enjoyable.

"High School Musical 3" is tonight and the kids are very excited.. I am having a cornhole tourney tonight and hope to convert a few more cornholers... Michelle leaves on Sunday for a week to go out to the middle of nowhere and teach a class in Ghanzi...

Other than that,not much else to report.. All is well herein Bots.
I'm holding out to see if obama will help me out and pay for all of our plane tickets home.. I have a good feeling about it.
I'll be happy if he could simply fix the problem of all the milk going bad here before its expiration day.. You buy a 1/2 gallon of milk with a good 5 days to go, go home and open it up only to find it's cottage cheese.

"it's OK"

Something that gets lost in translation that drives me nuts here is the phrases.. "it's ok" or "It's just ok". It is used often, but I can never tell whether or not it is really ok, or if it's bad.. At home when someone states, "yea , it's ok" when you make an arrangement or business negotiation, "it's ok" usuallycan be translated into... "it's not really that great". the words great, awesome, fantastic... those sort of words to describe how something is.. are non-existent. therefore, I am always left wondering if the other person is really happy or not.. It drives Celeste nuts and she has adopted the word "Awesome" , although it doesn't come out as nice from her beautiful African accent.. it'smore strained than anything else...
One other tib-bit.. Celeste and Kabo state that Americans here stick out like sore thumbs.. they always have a bottle of water and are carrying a huge backpack... they are exactly right..

More photos posted from my recent trip to Odi.. Notice the photo of the girl holding the bird.. She caught it in her yard just before we took the photo. The makeshift chicken coupe(sp?)and a young girl carrying her little cousin...Women at the chibuku stand and a few others i think..
Election day here.. Unfortunately we won't know what's up until late , late, late night/morning.. That's just ok.

The People's Race

Got in from Soweto last night at around 7:30. It's 7:30 a.m and I can't move.. Michelle and I are feeling pretty sore and wondering why we put ourselves through this yet again..

We drove down to Soweto on Saturday morning and arrived about noon.. And similar with most things in life, "you can't judge a book by its cover." When we told many people we were going to Soweto, an acronym for South West Township, they wondered why and feared for our lives... Soweto was the home of many uprisings and violence during the Anti-Apartheid movement.. it is probably the poorest community in Johannesburg, but one that seems extremely proud of its political past.. We were a bit concerned with our drive into Soweto... But, as we drove around, I couldn't help but think how cool of a place this was .. it felt like a lower class/middle class neighborhood, where everybody knew each other and had a common bond... The likes of Nelson Mandela, Bishop Tutu resided here and you can feel how proud people are of their community and their fight for freedom.. They are poor... Poor as I've seen, but not shocking.. Corrugated metal homes, with no water, no electricity, packed like sardines..... you wonder if anyone will ever make it out of some of these places..Attached is a photo of a typical Soweto shantytown...

We hit the Apartheid Museum, and I must admit, it was great to be in a museum for the first time in a year and a half.. the museum was terrific, and I learned alot... some of it I knew just from being here, but the museum itself was very well done and visually mesmerizing.. Some of the videos and photographs were fantastic... it made me sick to your stomach, but I left strangely feeling envious of the African's ability to perservere and fight for something that we essentially take for granted. the amount of racism, hatred and disrespect they experienced(and continue to experience) on their own continent was horrible.. But what's very interesting about soweto is that there is just this sense of pride and bond because of this struggle. I left wishing I was African.

www.apartheidmuseum.org/ Check it out..

Race day.... The Soweto marathon.... perfectly African, there was no idea where to go to start the race, they were still setting up the course prior to the start and i don't think the organizers told many people in the community that the race was happening(the traffic caused by the race was ridiculous...... It is called "the People's Race" and that's what it felt like.. I have never been so excited by the energy of people getting ready for a race.. They were huddled around dancing, singing and celebrating.... I would say that unlike other marathons I've run, we were the huge minority... 1 out of 50 runners were white...Needless to say, the makeup of the runners wiped out thought that we may win.. All these runners were sleek, and ready to go... Everyone else was from any number of countries, but mostly SOuth Africa.. and it seemed many from the neighborhood... It felt like being in Cincinnati, because many runners would say hello to the spectators or even run over to give them a hug..
It surprisingly started on time and the course itself stayed in Soweto... We ran through dusty old streets lined with shacks and middle class cement block homes... Very little english was spoken during the race.. I could hear Setswana, Zulu, Siswati and I'm sure other languages... But even though we were completely on the outside, people were so kind and inviting(perfectly African). I had a young boy with no shoes on and dressed in rags sense I was struggling, ran next to me saying " come on, you can do it... faster , faster..." He held my hand and we ran for about a Km together... I ran with a group of Africans who were singing and chanting the whole time... " Easy!! easy!!! Take it Easy!! easy!!" the whole time. The spectators would chime in offering us shots of beer and other alcoholic beverages.. It was 7:30 am.

"oh my God!!!" That's what I was saying most of the time to myself during this race.. This was, hands down, the most difficult course I have ever run.. Everyone agreed.. There were at least 20 hills on the course.. some of them the equivalent of the cut in the hill.... It was demoralizing.. I don't think training in Botswana helped, considering it is the flattest place in the world... I was on pace to run a 3hr50minute marathon.. and about mile 20 I cramped up and mentally was defeated... The last 6 miles, I think I walked 3 and ran 3.. Ended up at about at 4hr. 30 min.. It was rough.. But the course, as difficult as it was, was great because it was strictly through Soweto.. Full of character, charm and history... Dead rats on the road, coke was offered at the drink stations.. bags of water as opposed to cups.... and the only marathon where the children on the street begged you for water(which was very sad). Michelle ran next to many barefoot runners and a woman who ran with homemade shoes... tire tread cut in the shape of her feet...strapped with masking tape.. Michelle said the woman with tire shoes ran right past her.. Unfortunately, Michelle had to stop for about 30 minutes to assist a man who had a heart attack during the race... She doesnt think he was in good shape obviously.. I'll spare you the details, but she thinks that he probably passed away. I'm not surprised though, the course was so rough and the heat was difficult to work through as well...

We ended up having about 8 runners from Baylor join us and I think it was a great experience.. Our travels to South Africa are finished.. We had our last border crossing, our last trip to what everyone calls a very dangerous country.. But we have never had anything but a great trip. .. I will miss South Africa for its natural beauty.. and with Soweto, I'll never forget the spirit of togetherness of the people. If you ever feel the urge to go to South Africa, I highly recommend Soweto.

recovering today, and making plans for a celebration night/ or depressing night on Wednesday(depending on the election) . One month left here... driving through south Africa as the sun went down last night... absolutely beautiful.