Almost time to flee the scene

Good Monday morning. It is hard to believe that this is my last full day in Botswana.  As any holiday where has the time gone?

Tomorrow I start the long trek home. I fly from Gaborone just after supper and if all goes to plan I arrive in Toronto at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday evening and then back to work Thursday morning.  With the 6 hour time change it probably means I will be getting up at 2 a.m. Thursday since my body will say it is 8:00 a.m.

Brother Dave, Iain and Isabella fly out a week today so they have a bit more time to relax and see things in southern Botswana.  Binnie and Gordon stay until August 11^th.

I have enjoyed the trip and done a few things I have never done before in Botswana.  I got to visit the “lands”, fly over the Okavango Delta, take a boat cruise on river near the Delta and take a cruise on the Chobe River through Chobe National Park.  Each one of these events captured with vivid memories.

The starkness of the lands and how difficult it is for Mma Binnie to farm; the beauty of the Delta from the air; the sheer abundance of wildlife in Chobe Park and to be literally feet away from crocodiles on the river bank, hippos feeding on the grass at the water’s edge and a line of elephants big and small walking/swimming from the shore to an island.  To see a baby elephant completely submerged except for the tip of a trunk sticking out of the water.

On the other side of the coin, as I said to Binnie I doubt if I will head to northern Botswana again.  It is a long haul, and not to be high minded, once you have seen the Delta and Chobe and Victoria Falls, what is the rush to see them again?  How many times do you visit Niagara Falls?

At the same time, if there was someone who was going and wanted company I would not hesitate to join in, in a flash.  In the end, I don’t think I will initiate a tour of the north but will tag along if someone else does.

The other reason for my thoughts about the north is that Makaleng no longer holds the interest it once did.  It now holds a better place in the mind than in reality.  In 1985 I went to Makaleng to help start Pelaelo Community Junior Secondary School with 3 Americans and Dudley Senabye, the local headmaster.  We became part of the community for the next 2 years.

In 2011 the school is still there, albeit looking quite tired after a quarter century and most of the local people who I knew are no longer around.  The Chief has passed on, as his wife and his son Comic who had become chief.  Another son is now chief.

The head of the school board Rev Moyo has died, as well as the owner of the local bar who we all got to know very well!  Even the staff at the clinic where Binnie worked have all gone except one person. 

Naturally enough the people in Makaleng have moved on and thus the village no longer holds the same interest for me.  It is always the people that make a place what it is, whether it is here in Botswana or in Canada.  As a result I don’t think there will be the inclination to visit Makaleng again.