July 24-25
Two days in Gabarone, Botswana – it was about a 6 hour drive from Jo’burg here, and we arrived in the early evening after literally walking across the border from SA to Botswana. The border crossing was pretty uneventful, except for going into the wrong side of the Botswana immigration building. The lady was quite put out about this. She did however give me 27 of the immigration forms so that I could stand outside and get the group ready as they came up – joys of being first J.
When we arrived at the Hotel Gabarone, I could see we weren’t any longer on our luxury field trip. The hotel is definitely not of the same caliber as Didima, Tsitikamma, Schuschuluwe-Imfolozi, or even the Check Inn. Outside is a terminal with lots of buses, music, and activity. Inside is a casino, a single room with about 20 slot machines. In our bedroom, there are condoms in the safe, provided by the Botswana health department, one of their steps in combating the AIDS epidemic. However, I like the metaphor of having them in the safe, safe sex, get it? There are also condoms in the desk, just in case.
Driving around Botswana is interesting to say the least. Poor Richard turned out of the hotel down a street that suddenly become one way, the wrong way, just past a driveway for a mechanic. In addition, neither Rich, Richard, or Xolani have ever been here before, so when we were looking for the weaving and pottery places today, we had to retrace our steps- sometimes backing down dirt roads. Botswana conveniently also hides their road signs behind huge trees, just in case you want to get really lost, and sometimes their red lights (or robots) are yellow.
When we returned to our palatial temporary abode, we met with Peggy McClure, a friend of Kim’s who runs the Botswana Peace Corps. She filled us in on the work the Peace Corps is doing here and some Botswana politics. I’d love to take 2 years and go volunteer somewhere, but I don’t think Lance would be that into it, maybe after I retire.
The most memorable part of my visit to Botswana, happened outside the Pellagano Village, where I bought my pottery. Several of the guys in our group have consistently been getting a ball out and kicking it around in a semblance of soccer, really mostly just passing it around. They already killed one ball after replacing the initial Miley Cyrus ball Kim purchased at some grocery store. Anyway, on our way to Botswana, at a BP station where we stopped to get snacks and use the toilets, you got a free soccer ball with a R 40 purchase. I got one and told the guys, who pooled money and items to get several free balls, a couple of which they got aired up at the BP. Ok, so I’m getting to my actual point about the Pellagano Village.
While people were still shopping, the guys got out one of the BP balls and were kicking it around in the street. Two young African guys and a dog came and started playing with them. Initially, Matt just passed the ball to this one guy, young with shoes that barely stayed on his feet because he had no laces, but if you could have seen how happy he was…it was just like wow. Then one of his friends joined, then Jake, Kim, Xolani, but the funniest thing had to be the first guys dog. That dog wanted to play ball so badly it was hilarious. He would run from one guy to the other, staying on their passes, and several times was able to stop the ball and take it away from one of the guys. At one point, the guy who could barely keep his shoes on, went and got some laces and tied his shoes to his feet. Not laced up, more like just tied on. They played like that for 30 minutes or so, all of us snapping pictures and I took a little video. The universal language in Africa is not math…it’s soccer. At the end, Jake gave them the ball and as we drove away, I could see them behind the Pellango wall kicking the ball back and forth. Isn’t it funny that a small ball could make people so happy? A free ball that we got by spending R40 on chips, chocolate, and sodas, a ball that they probably couldn’t afford.
June 26
The stay in Mefeking was short and uneventful, except for Amy V’s birthday. We got there around 3:30, and I went for a walk with Dixie, Debra, Jason, Amy, and Kathy. We went down to the grocery store and picked up a little gourmet picnic, cheese, bread, salami, chips, etc. We were lucky enough to find a Woolsworth that would sell us wine on Sunday, even though they weren’t suppose to, earlier in the day, and we had all we needed to celebrate Amy’s birthday with a little picnic.
On our walk around Mekeking, we found the hall for the original creator of the Boyscouts as well as several back roads. We walked mostly in to down town before it began getting a little dark and we thought we should head back to the hotel. We did stop outside of the “serious crimes” police station to do a Charlie Angel’s pose, and got a number of odd looks from the locals.
When we returned to the hotel, about 10 of us sat in the veranda area and gorged ourselves and drank wine. Amy seemed to be very happy with her small gifts of chocolate, napkins, food, etc. Amy F. and I decorated her door, like Amy F did for me with wrapping paper and balloons. It was a fun couple of hours and I got to talk to Lance on the phone while he was driving to see the baby tigers. It was the best phone call we have had since I’ve been gone, and after it I really felt like I was ready to head home. It’s been a great trip, but I’m glad we only have a little over a week left.
Two days in Gabarone, Botswana – it was about a 6 hour drive from Jo’burg here, and we arrived in the early evening after literally walking across the border from SA to Botswana. The border crossing was pretty uneventful, except for going into the wrong side of the Botswana immigration building. The lady was quite put out about this. She did however give me 27 of the immigration forms so that I could stand outside and get the group ready as they came up – joys of being first J.
When we arrived at the Hotel Gabarone, I could see we weren’t any longer on our luxury field trip. The hotel is definitely not of the same caliber as Didima, Tsitikamma, Schuschuluwe-Imfolozi, or even the Check Inn. Outside is a terminal with lots of buses, music, and activity. Inside is a casino, a single room with about 20 slot machines. In our bedroom, there are condoms in the safe, provided by the Botswana health department, one of their steps in combating the AIDS epidemic. However, I like the metaphor of having them in the safe, safe sex, get it? There are also condoms in the desk, just in case.
Driving around Botswana is interesting to say the least. Poor Richard turned out of the hotel down a street that suddenly become one way, the wrong way, just past a driveway for a mechanic. In addition, neither Rich, Richard, or Xolani have ever been here before, so when we were looking for the weaving and pottery places today, we had to retrace our steps- sometimes backing down dirt roads. Botswana conveniently also hides their road signs behind huge trees, just in case you want to get really lost, and sometimes their red lights (or robots) are yellow.
When we returned to our palatial temporary abode, we met with Peggy McClure, a friend of Kim’s who runs the Botswana Peace Corps. She filled us in on the work the Peace Corps is doing here and some Botswana politics. I’d love to take 2 years and go volunteer somewhere, but I don’t think Lance would be that into it, maybe after I retire.
The most memorable part of my visit to Botswana, happened outside the Pellagano Village, where I bought my pottery. Several of the guys in our group have consistently been getting a ball out and kicking it around in a semblance of soccer, really mostly just passing it around. They already killed one ball after replacing the initial Miley Cyrus ball Kim purchased at some grocery store. Anyway, on our way to Botswana, at a BP station where we stopped to get snacks and use the toilets, you got a free soccer ball with a R 40 purchase. I got one and told the guys, who pooled money and items to get several free balls, a couple of which they got aired up at the BP. Ok, so I’m getting to my actual point about the Pellagano Village.
While people were still shopping, the guys got out one of the BP balls and were kicking it around in the street. Two young African guys and a dog came and started playing with them. Initially, Matt just passed the ball to this one guy, young with shoes that barely stayed on his feet because he had no laces, but if you could have seen how happy he was…it was just like wow. Then one of his friends joined, then Jake, Kim, Xolani, but the funniest thing had to be the first guys dog. That dog wanted to play ball so badly it was hilarious. He would run from one guy to the other, staying on their passes, and several times was able to stop the ball and take it away from one of the guys. At one point, the guy who could barely keep his shoes on, went and got some laces and tied his shoes to his feet. Not laced up, more like just tied on. They played like that for 30 minutes or so, all of us snapping pictures and I took a little video. The universal language in Africa is not math…it’s soccer. At the end, Jake gave them the ball and as we drove away, I could see them behind the Pellango wall kicking the ball back and forth. Isn’t it funny that a small ball could make people so happy? A free ball that we got by spending R40 on chips, chocolate, and sodas, a ball that they probably couldn’t afford.
June 26
The stay in Mefeking was short and uneventful, except for Amy V’s birthday. We got there around 3:30, and I went for a walk with Dixie, Debra, Jason, Amy, and Kathy. We went down to the grocery store and picked up a little gourmet picnic, cheese, bread, salami, chips, etc. We were lucky enough to find a Woolsworth that would sell us wine on Sunday, even though they weren’t suppose to, earlier in the day, and we had all we needed to celebrate Amy’s birthday with a little picnic.
On our walk around Mekeking, we found the hall for the original creator of the Boyscouts as well as several back roads. We walked mostly in to down town before it began getting a little dark and we thought we should head back to the hotel. We did stop outside of the “serious crimes” police station to do a Charlie Angel’s pose, and got a number of odd looks from the locals.
When we returned to the hotel, about 10 of us sat in the veranda area and gorged ourselves and drank wine. Amy seemed to be very happy with her small gifts of chocolate, napkins, food, etc. Amy F. and I decorated her door, like Amy F did for me with wrapping paper and balloons. It was a fun couple of hours and I got to talk to Lance on the phone while he was driving to see the baby tigers. It was the best phone call we have had since I’ve been gone, and after it I really felt like I was ready to head home. It’s been a great trip, but I’m glad we only have a little over a week left.
I think we should talk about it, but i'm not against volunteering, even overseas for some amount of time. Is 2 years required?
ReplyDeleteI think it would be great if the both of you could volunteer...what an experience that would be!
ReplyDelete