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.

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 of a secondary school assembly hall.

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.

Whether it’s refugees from countries torn by strike, immigrants seeking better opportunities or a church-sanctioned visitor, Botswana welcomes.

I begin the story with my first day and my last day in-country.