Blog Week 1.
Nantwich - Heathrow - Nairobi - Gaborone - Kang.
After what seemed like the longest plane journey in the world which consisted of playing ‘I’ve never’ so loudly we got told off by the air hostess, watching ‘Happy Feet 2’ on mute and commentating on the penguins ..... we basically spent 16 hours pissing off every other person on the plane with our Africa joy, we finally arrived in Gabs the capital of Botswana!
The first week was spent in Gaborone, just being major tourists and then having some lessons which basically taught us to avoid being eaten by any wild animals! However, we did have some epic trips out.
Saturday was spent exploring Gabs and shopping for some souvenirs. It was also the first trip in a Combi! The combis are Botswana’s version of a combination of a bus/taxi. As many people as possible squeeze into a mini van and just shout when they want to get off simple as. So we took the first combi to a recycling centre just outside of the city centre where they use waste to make the most amazing jewellery and random objects. It was fairly distressing at first as none of us knew the appropriate combi decorum and looked like such nubes. We were just lucky to have our amazing tour guide/ Setswana teacher Yvonne to help us out! After that we attempted to try local food which was ruined when we realised that what we thought was chicken salad stuff turned out to be tuna and cold baked beans then a bee jumped in my drink and a man made me throw it away. It is surprising how westernised some of Botswana is then in other parts you feel like you’re in Africa. In the malls its just like being in the Bullring then you waddle down the road and there’s women selling individual sweets for 1 pula! I also saw my first lion!!!! It was just the skinned fur for sale in the market but I touched it so it definitely counts.
Sunday was lil David’s birthday the big 2 - 0! Today was “a day’s cultural visit”. We went to a small village about an hour outside Gabs called Thamaga. We went to the Khotla (basically the meeting place where the community comes together to discuss issues etc) and were given the most amazing and overwhelming welcome! All the local young people put on a show of traditional song and dance in traditional dress (I will attempt to put up the videos!). It was so amazing and the atmosphere was intense. We were all flattered by how welcoming they were and how much effort they had put in just to entertain us. In return we did David’s classic making melodies....... doubtless they weren’t that impressed! The local kids were just as excited to see us as we were to see them and followed us around making videos on their phones! After that we went to a local woman’s house who brews local beer, we learnt how to make it and had a small taste, it wasn’t that good but is far better than frosty jacks! Our lovely guide for the day Tonic then took us back to her house for a picnic in her front garden where Kesh fell in love with her dog Bobby. We then made fat cakes; a Botswanan staple which we are going to attempt to learn to cook. When we got home we attempted to make home made Nandos as it was so expensive for actual Nandos..... it was an epic fail! Then we went out for drinks for David’s birthday, accidentally got a little worse for wear then came back and threw cake in his face and had a mini food fight.
Monday and Tuesday was just more Setswana lessons and placement information. Wednesday we left for Kang. It was horrible saying goodbye to everyone that we had grown so close to in such a short time. The journey was exciting to say they least..... we saw a donkey get hit by a car, almost hit a donkey ourselves and all of 2 seconds later killed a bird with the car. I also saw my first monkey munching on the side of the road. There are so many animals just roaming around on the motor way. Cows, donkeys and goats just saunter across the road as if there aren’t cars speeding by at 150 km! The journey was made all that better by the fact that Wairimu is just absolute jokes! After telling us about her life (which is just inspirational and her son who is going to university after only 5 years schooling [he was a street child and missed primary school]) she then turned to Faye Tray and said “Faye tell me about yourself” and continued to question us all about everything. So after hours of discussing really random things we finally arrived in Kang. Kang is on the Tans-Kalahari Highway which runs from South Africa to Namibia and is literally like the Lion King (scenery wise... I’ve not yet met any talking lions or singing warthogs!). Its a small town with a few shops and schools but is by far not as I imagined it.
We spent the rest of the week meeting almost every single member of the community individually, going to the schools and collage. People were either delighted to see us or didn’t care at all! On Friday we were invited to an event at Kang Primary School for the reception of some computers donated in memory of the ex-Head Teacher. it proved to me how far behind in terms of technological knowledge and resources this area is, and also highlighted how much these kind of gifts mean to them in terms of future opportunities. At the post ceremony lunch we met the Education Secretary for Botswana then he introduced us to the PSP (Personal Secretary to the President) who is basically 3rd in command of the country. They seemed really interested in what we were going to do with our time here and in Skillshare as an organisation so we will hopefully be bombarding them with demands in the future! In the afternoon we went to visit the TXY Pre-Primary School which is our core placement. Its such a small little school with about 20 - something students, it was good to see how much work the previous volunteers had already done however they are still in desperate need of a more secure fence as people are breaking in at night to use the playground as a space to drink in. There was beer bottles and broken glass all over the floor, and the playground which people worked so hard to create has been damaged. So the school is really in need of something more secure to keep people out and make sure the kids are safe during school hours. We met the little kids who ranged from 6 months to about 6 and they were at first really scared of us but within 5 minuets we were all racing around with hopping races, and playing the hokey kokey. But by far the BEST bit of the day was Faye Tray face-planting the floor when she fell over the snake toy and a tiny little girl with the best pink sparkly sunglasses literally wetting herself with laughter at her! The weekend isn't going to be that exciting, just a well deserved lie in after a week and a half of 6 am starts and catching up with people from home. Start placements on monday so will be able to let you know about all the things we have planned!
