What's it like to be a missionary in southern Africa?

Jeff and Michele Royce have been stationed in the nation of Botswana since September 1998.

Jeff Royce is chief engineer for Flying Mission, a Christian charity serving the mission communities and people of Botswana, Zambia and the southern Africa region. He also helps with the maintenance school, does maintenance on Flying Mission and commercial airplanes and flies occasionally.

Michele Royce, a member of a former Decatur family, has worked with HIV orphans and in education and housing. "I do whatever is necessary," she said.

She gave birth to a daughter, Megan Elizabeth, on May 11.

They live in Gaborone, the capital, located in southeast Botswana. The Kalahari Desert covers much of the country, which is about the size of Arizona and New Mexico combined.

Botswana was a British protectorate known as Bechuanaland until 1966. Diamonds were discovered there in 1967, and it is largely due to the revenue from diamonds that Botswana, once one of the poorest countries in the world, is now one of the most stable in southern Africa.

"There are still many poor people in Botswana - 70 percent of the people still live in rural areas - but you can also find people driving BMWs and owning many houses," Michele Royce said.

"Living in a big city of about 200,000, we deal with people from all sorts of nationalities," she said. "Jeff's Flying Mission mainly does medical emergency flights for the government's Ministry of Heath, so that is mostly local people. I have also worked a lot with orphaned and vulnerable children and those living with AIDS, mostly Botswana people. There are 68,000 orphans right now in Botswana."

That's 4 percent of the total population of about 1.8 million.

The Royces have learned to adapt.

"Botswana people are quite suspicious and closed as a rule," Michele Royce said. "You can be friends for years and still not know the most basic things.

"We have a saying that helps us laugh when things get tough: BWA! Botswana Wins Again. That's when you go to four places trying to find a part to repair your vehicle, but nobody seems to have it. Things are not the highest quality here, and yet they are expensive. You are kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place, buy it or do without.

"Also working with the government and other businesses, you end up chasing things with seven phone calls, a visit, another phone call and so on."

Although the Royces live in a nice house with running water, electricity and Internet service, security is a major issue.

"There are many robberies and break-ins, and they are much more violent than before," Michele Royce said. "Most people have cement walls, electric fences or barbed wire, burglar bars on the windows, an alarm system and a scary dog. We have burglar bars and an alarm system, and our dog looks scary."

Food? There are many grocery stores nowadays in Gaborone, she said, "but I still make things from scratch because it tastes better."

Chicken and beef are plentiful. But one of the popular native foods is dried Mopane worms, eaten as a yummy snack or sauteed in a pan with tomatoes and onions.

The Botswana television station gives the news in the native language, Setswana, at 7 p.m. and then in English at 9 p.m. Satellite TV is also available.

The Royces met while Michele was a student at East Tennessee State University. Jeff graduated from Moody Aviation in Elizabethton, Tenn., where mission pilots and mechanics are trained for overseas outposts. He had been introduced to being a missionary pilot by his father, Ron Royce, who worked for Moody Aviation.

Michele graduated in 1998. They were married and headed for Botswana after hearing that Flying Mission needed pilots and mechanics.

"We had to look up Botswana on the map," Michele said. "Previously, Jeff had the opportunity of a few short-term mission trips in Venezuela. I had never been overseas. I loved the Lord and wanted to do and go wherever he said. I believe you should bloom where you're planted."

The Royces plan to be in the United States in August, mainly visiting family members in Tennessee. Michele, born in Jacksonville in 1975, is the daughter of Melvin "Chip" and Karen Moyer of Knoxville, Tenn. The Moyer family lived on Imboden Drive in Decatur when he worked at Sears.

"Michele and Jeff had the same idea - to help others," said Chip Moyer, who works for Fellowship Church. "She's a ball of fire, Little Miss Energy, she's the type of person who can fit in anywhere."

Karen Moyer and Michele's sister, Heidi Breeden, went to Botswana to help out after the baby was born. Chip Moyer has visited Botswana three times.

"I grew up on a farm near Cisco - the prairie." he said. "Now, Michele is in another prairie."

Bob Fallstrom can be reached at bfallstrom@herald-review.com or 421-7981.