On the road to Palapye.

Saturday August 6^th 2011

It is shortly after 0800 am and the sun is shining but it’s another bone chilling temperature this morning. It was very difficult to get up and get moving.  We are on our way to Ivy’s house warming party. We have changed our plans not to leave before day break so that we can feed the kids breakfast, besides Ivy already has told us that she has enough people to do the cooking and the setting up. We did not need to be there at 0800 after all.  I am sitting in the back/middle seat with Laone and the Tupperware buckets full of scones. Abel is driving and Tonic is beside him on the passenger seat, Molly and Gordon on the mattress in the back of he Venture and already sleeping.  We went through Mochudi village to join the A1 road by Malotwane in the north west of Mochudi.

I will have to continue sometime later today.

We had an uneventful trip to Palapye, we made one stop at Mahalapye to fuel up and switch drivers and to give the kids some drinks and snacks. Tonic drove for the rest of the trip.

We arrived at Ivy’s house shortly after 1100 a.m. and luckily the service did not start at 1100 a.m. as was the original plan.  Everything was postponed to the afternoon instead. The tent was set, music playing, the minister came to dedicate the house, he cut the ribbon and anointed the house with olive oil and the builder unlocked the house so people can get in to tour the house.  All the rooms were still empty except the kitchen which had just the new electric stove.

After touring the house we were all invited back in the tent for a big dinner; food was prepared galore, the ushers were enough to serve and everybody had enough to eat even the gate crashers. After dinner Ivy was asked to change her outfit into a traditional attire to join in the procession of ladies back into the house to have a short meeting of just the girls.  The meeting was short we said our goodbyes and left Palapye shortly after 1700. On our way back all the kids crowded in the back and curled up on the mattress, and I had the middle seat all to myself. Abel drove us back all the way to Mochudi!

Friday in Mochudi.

August 5^th 2011

After spending a couple of nights in the village with mom we decided to make one trip to Gaborone and to keep going up north.

Wednesday, August 3^rd, we had a quiet day in Thamaga and apart from cleaning and cooking I was busy making tea for half a dozen ladies that came to a meeting called by mom.  It was about a trip to Palapye. The ladies were needed to go and walk in the procession with Ivy after the dedication of her new house.  Out of 6 only 2 were interested in going, under one condition that they are transported to and from Palapye!

Today we are in Mochudi.  The sun is warm though it was a very chilly morning when we got up. Gordon did not want to get up although the plan was for Gordon to go school with Molly again for another adventure.

I planned to sleep in and to have a leisurely morning while they were gone to school, only to find out that I need to do a lot of things.  I did the laundry for the kids to have clean clothes for school on Monday. Then I wrapped up all the presents to take with us to Palapye for Ivy’s party, and went shopping for the ingredients to do some baking (sorry Hon we will bake scones!) and also needed to get some supplies to make supper so that we can eat early and go to bed early.

We need to be in Palapye by 0800 am in the morning, and its 2½ hours away. Abel spent the morning cleaning and fixing the Venture (van) since there are many of us going now. I interrupted him to drive me to the supermarket and then sent him back to Spar as the girl tried to rip us off 15.00 pula.  She weighed the ground beef and placed 2 stickers with 2 different prices 34.00 pula and 19.00 pula while the correct price was 19.00 pula as it was only a pound!

Initially Abel and kids were going to stay behind, because Molly was supposed to go to school on Saturday and Sunday and Abel and Laone were to stay and watch her.  She normally asks for permission to miss Sunday lessons so that she can attend church but this time she will ask to skip both days.  However, they do need to get caught up due to the recent school strike!

Now, the kids will soon arrive from school and I have to go make them something to eat.  Oops they have arrived already and they want a little lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches.  I have to pause and make it.

I am back. They are enjoying the grilled cheese sandwiches with cut up apples. I must say I have to go now and I will have to continue sometime later tonight or tomorrow.

Public Transport

Tuesday August 2nd

This morning Gordon and I left Mochudi for the first time using public transport after a month.  We took a taxi around the village and then to the bus rank (station).  We waited for 10 minutes and the bus came.

Gordon occupied a seat therefore he had to pay a full fare.  Luckily the bus went via downtown Gaborone and dropped us off at the Mall which made life easy to run some errands before we connected to the next bus to the village (Thamaga).

 

We were home in time to help mom get her room ready to move back into after the others had left. Meanwhile Gordon injured his leg outside and sustained a minor abrasion; poor him he could not play soccer with his friends. He let them have the soccer ball. But he was so bored that he fell asleep on the sofa...We planned to have a quiet day on Wednesday.

Gordon wants to go to School

August 1st

Monday morning Gordon went to school with his cousin Molly, but unlike his cousins Bella and Iain, he was not nervous at all; he was eager to go to school.  He probably didn’t know if he would stand out!

I tried walking with them to school thinking he will be nervous but he was determined to go, and he kept walking with head up ahead of all the kids from Molly’s neighbourhood. Just before we got to the school, at the corner of the school property I had to turn around and walk back home.  I gave him a quick hug and kiss but he brushed off the kiss and kept going!

Later at mid morning, Dave, Iain and I went to the school to meet with the head teacher/principal to introduce ourselves. Bella stayed home to do some final packing.  We were not surprised to learn that Gordon reported to the principal that he would like to go back one more day since he enjoyed the school.

However, even though he did enjoy himself, he could not go back the next day as I had other plans with him. 

We went to the airport shortly after 15:30 to say goodbye to Dave, Bella and Iain.

And now its Binnie's Turn to Take up the Tale

[Dave, Iain and Bella are now in Amsterdam on their 6-day stop in Europe on the way home to Canada.  Binnie and Gordon are in Botswana until the 11th]

Sunday July 31st

We wrapped up our stay in Thamaga on Sunday morning for Dave, Bella and Iain. We all attended Trinity Church on Sunday morning in Gabs.  The service was wonderful, more traditional and less contemporary, exactly what we have been looking for. Iain was lucky again as he got a hug from the Minister nobody else did...he sure is a lucky boy!

We all had pies for lunch after church. We stopped at Immigration to pick up my new Botswana passport; for some reason they are open Sat and Sun!

We went to Mochudi for the night so that the kids could see Molly and Laone one more time.  We arrived at the same time as Tonic and the kids from their church.  The kids had a great time, they played cards and then played hide and go seek.

The Kids Go Out

Saturday July 30^th 2011

Kids go out

         

The thirtieth was Friday...Saturday, in the wise words of Iain. Iain, the mighty supervisor, actually did work. Astonishing I know, we were all surprised but it was about time he actually did something. He did everyone’s laundry. Then Gordon, Iain, Tshenolo and I visited Thabang and Carter.

 

When we reached Thabang’s she was doing, of all things, laundry. So we all took over a role and got it done within an hour. Thabang and Tshenolo washed, Iain and I rinsed and Gordon hung clothes up. Thabang had to hang them up again because hanging clothes up on a fence is different from hanging clothes up on a line. Apparently. Anyways, after that Thabang wanted to have a bath, so we walked to where her mom was cooking a slaughtered cow, (down the street). All that was left was a dozen ladies and a cow’s head. It was cool as you could see the teeth and tongue and how they attach to the rest of the cow. We briefly said hello to Thabang’s grandma and then we all went for a walk.

 

We walked to the riverbed, where Gordon tried to climb a tree, but when everyone was posing for a picture, he fell off. He was alright. We ventured through the riverbed, throwing stones in the remaining puddles of water and jumping off of rocks. My graceful jump had a sweet picture, but not a sweet landing. I got covered in dirt. Then we ran into to some donkeys. They were attached to a cart that was taking sand from the riverbed to another place in the village to build a wall. Gordon tried to help load the sand onto the cart, but quickly gave up. 

 

On the way back to eat lunch, Carter was very tired and didn’t want to walk anymore, so Iain carried her on his shoulders. It was adorable and he didn’t drop her. We made rice, chicken and soup for lunch. We would have also had a carrot salad but Thabang dropped the whole bowl on the floor. It was really good and really filling. After we ate, we waited for Thabang’s mom to come home to give Thabang permission to sleep over and to take Carter to a party. Thabang was allowed to come over. We walked to the taxi pick up station (stand). On the way, we stopped at Thabang’s and Tshenolo’s church to briefly see Holly. The church is a big, blue and white striped tent, like a circus tent. 

 

We caught a taxi, but because taxis only have seating for four and we numbered five, Gordon sat on Iain’s lap. This way, Gordon didn’t have to pay his fare, because he counts as a child if he is on a lap.

 

We reached Mma Binnie’s in one piece. Thabang, Iain and Tshenolo went for a walk to the graveyard to try and find the grave of Rra Binnie. They couldn’t find it. 

 

Then they went to a party in the village. The party was the same as kids’ parties back home. Iain is a very lucky boy; he was kissed on the hand by an old man.

 

Once back at Mma Binnie’s Dad and I made supper. Aunt Binnie was attending a party for a colleague’s daughter who was leaving to study medicine in Granada. We weren’t sure how many people would be eating, we just knew there would be a numerous amount. So we added pasta to the bean and pepper salad, to make pasta salad and more vegetables and things to the soup. In the end, everyone ate to their content and we had leftovers. Iain actually helped Thabang with the dishes while I put them away. After everything had been put away, we played cards and listened to Iain’s iPod. We even had popcorn. Thabang, Iain and Tshenolo stayed up a little too late and talked.  It was a very nice evening in Botswana.

Hanging in Thamaga vs Travelling to Mochudi

Friday July 29^th 2011

Today was a little different in the sense that we split up into two groups. Dad, Aunt Binnie and I went to Mochudi and Gaborone, while Gordon and Iain stayed home. So we will alternate what each of us did, I’ll write for the trip to Mochudi and Gaborone, while Gordon will write for himself and Iain and their adventures together.

It started out like every other day, freezing cold in the morning, so cold you just don’t want to get out of bed, but bed is cold too, so you get up and have toast with our brand new toaster!! Mma Binnie and her friend had a conference in Mochudi and Dad was driving them in to Tonic’s house while Aunt Binnie navigated and I tagged along in the back. Gordon and Iain opted to stay home and help Tshenolo look after Thabang’s younger sister Carter.

 Gordon and Iain's day: While they drove, we ate toast and cheese. We tried Iain’s IPod in the TV so we could watch a movie or listen to music, but it didn’t work. We found a movie called  “The Condemned” the sound didn’t work and it had scratches  on the disk ,so we went on a trip to find a movie after visiting a couple stored and no luck we went to the groceries store to get drinks and chips. We took a taxi back to Mma Binnie’s. For the rest of the day Iain and Tshenolo babysat and watched TV. Gordon was outside playing soccer...and almost dropped Carter on her head. He was trying to give her a piggyback ride and tried to put her down while holding ankles. Thank goodness Iain and Tshenolo have reflexes and were able to catch her before her head hit the ground and bounced.

Meanwhile, in Mochudi we got stuck behind a tractor with a trailer attached trying to get into the gate at Tonic’s house. It took awhile but with the stunning skills of 6 men, including my dad, about an hour later it made it through, when 1 guy did it in 2 tries. We dropped off the ladies and went to the museum. It was neat with a lot of the history in the area. There were many artifacts and photographs, but you couldn’t take your own pictures. After a tour through the museum, we continued on to Game City where we had lunch and shopped for groceries and, the best thing of all...an electric kettle! On the way back to Thamaga we stopped at another village to look at pottery, but the store was closed with a sign saying “Call Martin”. No signs saying: we’re closed or operating hours or anything, just a phone number and a name.

The funniest part of the day was after supper. Since Aunt Binnie and I made supper, the boys, as in Gordon and Iain had to clean up and put all the dishes away in the proper spots. If they didn’t, they weren’t going to have any breakfast or lunch. Iain, knowing that the threat was an empty one, purposely put all the dishes back in the wrong spots, just to spite Gordon. Gordon’s wails of “that doesn’t go there” or “we’re not going to eat” were always accompanied by Iain’s laughter. After some direction from me as to where certain dishes go, Gordon moved them to the right spots. Iain supervised, and washed...then supervised.

Bella & Iain go to School

July 28^th 2011

Bella and Iain Go To School

           

This morning was freezing. Granted it was before 6am, but we had to use the heater in the car. Not that it worked very well. Iain and I were going to school for a day with Thabang. In Botswana school starts at 7:30am and goes until 4:30pm. We had to leave extra early to go over a letter that Thabang had written to the headmaster asking permission and explaining why we wanted to come to school with her. I think that both Iain and I were nervous...at least a little. We knew we would stand out. But most doubts were cast aside later in the day.

          

 We picked up Thabang and her friend Holly (the English translation to her name). She was very nice and very talkative. She was so excited to have us come for the day. We reached the school around 6:40am, a little earlier than we had anticipated, but it gave Thabang and Holly a chance to show us around campus. It was a senior school, for Forms Four and Five only. It had several blocks, which held 4 classes of 30-35 students. Eventually enough time had passed for the school administration to begin arriving, so we ventured to the admin building. Since the school has too many students for 1 headmaster to handle, all the students are divided into 5 houses. Thabang is part of Zebra house-the only house with a sign and a motto-we were Zebras too. Each house is run by a house head. It was from the house head that Thabang got permission for us to be there. She was a very nice lady and welcomed us kindly. She showed us to our first class and several after.

          

 A school day is divided up into 9 periods, with a recess and a lunch break. The first class of the day was with Thabang at the computer lab. She showed us her final assignment-still a work in progress. It was to design and explain a database for an organization that handwrites their records. Thabang’s project was for a children’s clinic in Thamaga that handwrites their drug records/stock. The class had two small assignments to finish by the end of the period. Iain ended up doing most of one for Thabang, even though she is three grades higher up. The teacher was nice, he let Iain and I keep last year’s exam, but he was very curious about whether or not the syllabus was similar. Iain, the technologically savvy one, seemed to know most if not all of what the class was doing, so there are differences as he is 3 Forms behind them.

The second class of the day was history. The class was learning about the results of WWI like the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 in English with some Setswana. I guess children are similar everywhere as many students had forgotten their textbooks or to do their homework...just like history classes in Canada. After class, Iain was asked to be married by one young woman. His classic response was “Sure”.

Then we had recess. At this time all the students got out their mugs and went for tea. Since Iain and I didn’t know about this or have teacups, the head of house invited us to her office where we had bread and coffee. It was very good traditional bread and the coffee was good too. She was a very nice lady. After tea she led us to our next class, which was a Motivational Guidance class. In this class students are allowed to speak freely on topics in that they wish to talk about, like bullying, HIV/AIDS, alcoholism etc. The teacher was very open to ideas and really wanted us to give a motivational speech after a question-answer period. Iain’s speech really spoke to the teacher; she felt blessed at his words. His speech went like this: “The harder you work in school right now the easier it will be for the rest of your life.” A good message for everyone to live by.

We stayed with the same class for the next period, which was English. It consisted of a short story about zebra migration and what happens when a foal is separated from its mother. Sadly, in this story, the young foal was eaten by a lion. After everyone had read the story, we had a vocabulary quiz. The person who got 20 out of 20 received 50 pula as a prize; excluding Iain and I, as English is our first language. One classmate and Iain collaborated on this quiz in hopes of being able to split it 25 pula each way. Unfortunately, they lost. At the end of the class not everyone was finished, so the winner would not be announced until tomorrow and I had to write the correct answers on the board at the front of the class. After English was lunch.

Again, Iain and I were not prepared for this, as in we didn’t have any food. The very nice head of house took us to her home and made us steak and vegetables. It was the best steak I have ever had, which is saying something because I usually dislike steak a lot. We chatted back and forth about all manner of things Batswana and Canadian culture. After we ate we headed back for 2 more classes.

The first of these classes was Gym. At first we were supposed to go to Thabang’s English class, but things were switched around, so off we headed to the softball pitch with a lovely girl named Tanita. Neither Iain or I had any change of clothes appropriate for a gym class, and neither of us are particularly gifted in the softball department. At least Iain made it home base, although he got to walk to first base as the pitcher hit him with the ball. After that class, was the highlight of the day: study period.

Although this class is usually conducted in a classroom with a teacher present, all the teachers were at a staff meeting. As a result all of the students enjoyed the fresh air and warmth of the sun, the majority, without actually doing any homework. At this time everyone broke out their cell phones and cameras, for pictures with us. I felt like Mickey Mouse at Disneyland, which is expected, we are rather different. We toured to Thabang’s class, Tanita’s class and Holly’s class taking pictures with students at each. Iain particularly enjoyed this experience as he had girls hanging off of him at every turn, even a couple kisses on the cheek. At the end of this all, when everyone was tired of pictures we hung out in the dining hall and chatted with Thabang. A great end to an amazing day.

 

Meanwhile back at Mma Binnie, Gordon got to play and listen to music on Iain’s iPod. Then around 1:00pm the village kids started coming back from school to play soccer and rugby. And then they all ran around and played until dark.