Tsolamosese – (so-la-mo-see-see)

I visited a village of about 1,500 people who live on the city limits of Gaborone.  Its name is Tsoloamosese.  The reason for my visit was to see first hand what an article in the local paper had described as residents facing hardships because they had no running water provided by the city to their homes.  When I got there I saw the villagers toting water 2-4 kilometers round trip.  In this culture, men do not carry water, only women and children do. The ladies I met along the road said they do this twice a day to have water in their homes for cooking, cleaning and drinking.  The water is carried in 5 gallons buckets or containers on wheelbarrows, on heads or in hand.  What makes this task difficult is not the 40 plus pounds of water in each container but the paths they walk are not straight or even.  They look like old goat paths moving from side to side in every direction.  The land is typical Botswana terrain going from sand to rutted clay to small rocks back to sand within 100 meters.  Handling wheelbarrows in this terrain is hard work for any person.

I was blessed to have met Rhumoyame and her family.  She was quick to tell me her name means, “richness”.  She has a 1 year old daughter whose name is “Lily” like the flower.  Lily is barely over a year old and after looking at her I knew something was not normal with Lily.  Rhumoyame said she had a difficult birth and Lily was born still.  She has what we would diagnose as cerebral palsy.  She is motionless and non-responsive to anything going on around her other than eating.  Rhumoyame will not take her to a doctor because she does not trust them.  They take babies away and experiment on them is what she told me.  She does not want to happen to her Lily plus she does not have money to travel to a doctor or pay for it.  We prayed over Lily and asked God’s healing hands to be on her so she could be reacting to her mother like babies should with smiles and laughter. 

This was a hard prayer for me because the moment made think back to the time when Chandler, my third child, was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy and we were faced with the unknown.  A new believer relying on God to show us what He was doing and trusting others to help us through it.  We received a miracle healing with Chandler that I honestly never expected one to happen.  As I was praying on this day, I thought God you can heal her right now. But first, we need to know what are doing and she needs a church to surround her.  I also remembered something else, Chandler’s illness and healing 13 years ago was my first step in walking with the Lord that has led me to Botswana as a missionary in 2010.  I remember someone teaching God uses people and circumstances to get us involved in what He is doing.  Thank you God for the people you have put in my life to guide me through my circumstances.

After riding around the area on all the winding roads, I discovered why they did not have running water in their homes.  All of the people there are squatters.  They settled there over 30 years ago and built rude housing which later eventually became more stable and solid buildings.  The problem is because they did not purchase a plot from the government so they legally do not exist there.  If they do not legally exist they do not need water since no one is supposed to be living there.  Rhumoyame worked to get a deed and plot organized for her house and was successful this past June in doing so.  The government now wants 10,000 BWP for the taxes and rights to the land.  She has no income and her husband runs a Tuck Shop that is like a Quick Shop the size of large dining room table that sells various items to people.  They make about 1500 BWP a year ($250 USD).  She is heartbroken to know that after all the work she went through to get the paper work done because she does not have the money someone can purchase the deed from under her if she does not pay it by the end of the year.  Her family could loose everything and have nothing after 37 years.  We prayed for God to secure her land and give her peace about where she was going to live.

Here is the amazing part of her story.  We discussed the reason for my visit, not having running water, and her answer surprised me.  She said her family has been toting water for 37 years from the borehole.  The village, in English, means “take off your dress”.  It was so named because for over the past 50 years it was the only borehole for many kilometers.  When the women arrived to get their water, they were tired and a bit intolerant to bad behaviors like cutting in line or taking more than could be carried.  A fight would usually break out among the women.  In order to keep from damaging or soiling their dresses, they would take off their dresses and fight.  Struggling and fighting through hardships and for water was nothing new to her or this village. I was also that take off your dress did not mean something else!

Then she took me over to a fenced in area not far from the borehole that is used for a Shebeen, an illegal bar.  There were nearly 30 men of all ages drinking beer and homemade brew (for my Southern friends, Moon Shine) in the middle of the afternoon.  They were sitting around drinking and playing cards in the shade doing nothing.  Rhumoyame started to get irate and explained this was the biggest problem in her village.  When she was a little girl, men worked to provide for the family.  They did not do odd jobs to get pocket money so they can have drinking money and gamble.  She said they need a church that teaches Jesus.  It is the only hope for them.  The only church there is Zionist Christ Church which is characterized by an emphasis on divine and faith healing, purification rites, dancing, night communion, river baptism, the holy spirit, prophesying, and so on.  A lot of mixed up stuff based on deeds and going back to tribal roots to get to heaven.  Churches have come to Tsolamosese but only for a few weeks for what we call revival then tell the people to ride the bus into town and attend their church in Gaborone.  A bus ride is $0.50 per person one way.  In US terms, it would be like the Shipes family spending $80 round trip a week to go to church.  They do not have the money so they go unchurched every week. 

Dr. Clay Smith, my pastor in Sumter, SC always asks “what did you learn?” and “how do you feel?”  I learned there is always a story if you take time to hush and hear it.  I found a place that is not looking for what the public thinks but a desire to hear the gospel where they live.  I went because someone wrote a story about people without running water.  I learned about a people without living water.  I feel encouraged to know God is control and inspired me to share this long story to express how grateful I am to be part of His work.

Please pray for Tsolamosese and the unchurched people there.