SHINNanigans: J & J's Final Post (sniff sniff)

Hard to believe but the month has come and gone. We leave for the airport in about 3 hours. What an amazing trip this has been. We can’t thank our friends enough for letting us become part of their family. We now consider ourselves honorary Shinns (as we consider ourselves honorary Ogles and honorary Patersons and . . . – such a blessing to have so many deep friendships). If you’ve known Jon or me for any length of time, you know we love seeing connections (or ‘convergences’ as one of our friends calls it) – when the same message is being told in many ways from many sources. Like when the sermon is on the same subject that your personal readings have been about, or when you rent 3 random movies and the same minor actor is in each of them. I bring this up because a sci fi movie we watched the other night had a line in it that sums up what we’ve been experiencing this whole month and in fact all our lives. The quote was “A place is only as good as the people you know in it.” We consider Botswana a very good place indeed.

Speaking of quotes, as we already mentioned, we have enjoyed trying different brands of pinotage while here. Since we didn’t know any better, the criterion we used to select the brand was how pretty or creative the label was. Our all-time favorite (in fact favorite sign we’ve ever seen in all our travels) was the warning label on a bottle of Arabella. It reads “Don’t drink and walk on the road, you may be killed.” We laugh anew every time we say it! It has become a catch phrase, like the one our guide used on our day walks in the Okavango Delta when he told us a safe location for "the calling of the nature."

Let’s see, since our trip to KRST (Khama Rhino Sanctuary Trust), we have hosted 20 people for dinner – we grilled veggies and corn on the cob and chicken for the missions group from the Shinns home church. As I was cutting veggies I realized I’d be doing this again with my family in less than a week! We have also done a bit more shopping and sightseeing in Gabs. And packing - what fun to try to package our treasures so the airport baggage crew doesn’t destroy them.

Today is an exciting day for the youngest Shinn. She’s having a slumber party birthday party tonight. We are sorry to miss out on that (though we haven’t been told whether we would have been invited if we were still in town, smile), but we have been able to help prep for it. Jon’s creativity is in full use right now as they create an army themed birthday cake for the confirmed tom boy (a child after my own heart).

Thanks to all for following our tremendous adventure. For those who follow the actual owners of this blog, thanks for sharing, and stay tuned, I’m sure they’ll be back from ‘holiday’ soon. God’s peace and blessings to all, J & J.