Wedding Week

Noise

During any given day, the village is eerily quiet.  Very little in the way of any noise and you can count on one hand the number of cars that pass by.

Come darkness this situation reverses itself dramatically.  You hear voices talking, music playing, singing and the odd loud speaker mounted on a vehicle promoting one political party or another. (There is a national election in October.)

Then come the early hours of the day, before day break you have guard dogs all over the village barking their lungs out at someone or something passing by their compound in the night.  One dog starts and then they all start. From all directions the loud barking of dogs.  Great for sleeping!

Finally when the dogs start to simmer down the local rooster or two decides it is time to announce the new day!  However, this is also before day break and when the sky is still dark and some damn rooster is doing its thing.  Why can’t they wait to sunrise?

Stray Dogs

Two nights ago, in the pitch darkness, I awoke to an almighty row outside the walls of the house.  At first I thought someone was coming to steal the 2 goats and lamb that were tied up to provide the wedding meal.

Needless to say I was not going to venture forth and get involved.  It was not my issue.

Come daybreak the story was updated.  It was a group of stray dogs who came to attack the animals.  They were chased off but not before one of the goats broke loose and ran off.  The other goat and lamb had been put in the storage house for safe keeping for the rest of the night.

It turned out that later in the morning, a cousin of Binnie’s who had obtained the goats, came by to say he thought he had seen a goat by the police station that looked like one of the goats he had brought to the house.  (How someone can tell one goat from another is beyond me!)  Anyway it was confirmed that a goat was missing and he went and returned it.   Thus, all animals accounted for and everything back to normal.

Septic System

Earlier on Wednesday morning one of the boys helping to get ready for the wedding, noticed a damp area near the septic tank.  Upon further investigation it was determined that the septic tank was full. Why they don’t make use of the sandy soil and drain off the grey water is bit of a mystery to me.  It would really cut down on what the tank has to hold.

Thus a couple of days to go until countless people will be at the house and the tank needed to be pumped out.

As a result Binnie and I drove over to the Water Commission who also look after septic systems.  The person behind the counter was less than helpful and got an earful from Binnie.  She had to pay 120 pula ($15) and was added to the list.  The estimate that was provided was that they would be here in 3 months.  Customer service!!

This left Binnie and her sisters looking for a private contractor to come and do the job.

At least there is a pit latrine that can be used.

Book Store

It is unfortunate to say that as far as I can determine there is only 1 bookstore in all of Botswana.  There is several other stationary stores that carry a couple of dozen books and that seems it.

The bookstore in question is Exclusive Books which is a South African chain comparable to Chapters or Barnes and Nobles.   It has a fairly good African section both fiction and non-fiction and I found 3 of the books I was looking for.  Strange that there is not one or two more book stores.

Wedding Preparations

Well we are in the run-up to the wedding celebration on Friday and Mma Binnie’s compound is awash in people.  I would say in excess of 100 people.  In the back right corner there are 4 large cooking pots and a group of people cooking meat (goat or lamb) and porridge. 

Beside the cooking house there are 4 women cutting onions and potatoes.   Throughout the yard are countless women all dressed alike in blue skirts, white blouses and blue and white checkered blankets over their shoulders.  On the front porch a group of about a dozen or so elderly gentlemen sit in a circle on chairs talking.

In the kraal (cattle pen) in front of the house are now 8 cattle, provided to Mma Binnie’s family from the groom’s family.

Countless younger kids are running around in and out of the groups of people and another group of women seem to be in charge of providing endless cups of tea to everyone and cleaning up the dishes afterward.

According to Binnie she bought four 12.5 kg bags of sugar for the wedding and it has already gone.  That is 50 kgs of sugar or over 110 pounds!!  As of 2 p.m. Thursday she has been dispatched to buy 2 more 12.5 kg bags.

From what I can gather in my limited understanding, male representatives from the groom’s village and family came very early this morning to ask questions about the bride and essentially seal the deal to have the bride join their family/village. 

Thus after these discussions everyone needed tea and bread.

Subsequently, the women folk will have their “procession” this afternoon.  Apparently Binnie has been drafted to drive a car load of the women to the groom’s village and repeat a similar sort of ceremony.  (Binnie cannot take part in the procession because she has not been married in a traditional ceremony.  It has been suggested to her several times that she should but she has steadfastly refused.)

Lastly, I have to note that as much as I want to fade into the woodwork and be out of sight it is impossible.  Binnie is off with her siblings and being the oldest is expected to be making all the decisions.  Gordon is surrounded by numerous cousins, several his own age, and having been in the sun for the last 2½ weeks he is getting deeply tanned.  Thus he carries on with the cousins who speak English well and they are hanging out together.  That just leaves myself who has no one to really hang out with.  I can chat to some of Binnie’s brothers or sisters but they are all busy doing things.

Needless to say when I walk around to see what is happening or try to take a few pictures, it is rather hard to be invisible.

Friday August 15th

Half Day

Today is the end of the 2^nd term at school and as I understand it, there is now a 2 or 3 week break until the 3^rd term begins in early September.

I must admit I prefer the school year in Botswana.  Three roughly equal terms beginning in early January.  Term 1 ends in March and is about 12 weeks long.  Terms 2, as mentioned, ends to today and then Term 3 will take the school year up to early December just before Christmas.  Then a relatively long 6 week Christmas or summer break.

No over-extended summer break like in Ontario which I consider is too long for the kids.  Plus here they get two other 3 week breaks throughout the year to allow time away from the school.

Anyway, Grace headed off to school for 7:50 a.m. and was back by 10.  Just like home, an early dismissal on the last day of the school term.

Binnie was saying there was an argument between Grace and Mma Binnie about clothes.  Grace wanted to wear casual clothes and no shoes and Mma Binnie indicated that her proper school uniform was required.  We all know how that turned out!

Casual Fridays

According to Binnie on Fridays the students can wear casual clothing if they pay 1 pula (dollar) equivalent to 12¢.  Interestingly enough similar to the concept back home.

Disaster

After coming home from school Grace got out Gordon’s soccer ball and was playing with it behind the house.  After a few minutes she got bored and wandered away leaving the ball on the ground.

A few minutes later Binnie was backing up the car to load it up and in the midst of doing so, I heard a loud pop.  Needless to say she had run over the soccer ball and somehow rather than rolling away it got squished.  There is now a nice 2” gash in one of the seams and the ball is now history.

Needless to say Gordon was less than pleased with his mother!!  However, there was blame to share between Grace, Binnie and Gordon.  Something about looking after your things.

The Mill

 Binnie’s task today was to take two 50kg bags of corn kernels to the next village (Moshupa?) to the local mill to have the kernels ground into a white coloured corn powder.  I assume this powder then becomes part of a meal by adding water (milk?) and boiling it up in a pot.  I believe to be included in the wedding celebration.  She did not know exactly where the mill was located and how long the process was going to take.  Being the helpful husband I volunteered to stay home and hear about the road trip afterwards!

Stress

 Being in a place that is downright peaceful and quiet it is hard to get too worked up about much.  For example, apart from voices floating in from nearby houses, you may hear a total of 4 or 5 cars a day.

However, for about a day now Binnie has been on edge and although I was aware something was not quite right, the source was lost to me.

Then as husbands do, the light bulb finally went on.  A week today is Bagolo’s wedding and although there is a lot to do to get ready, there seems to be very little going on. 

I tried to explain to Binnie that we are not in charge of the wedding and we are only here to take part and help out.  (Apparently we have all been given tasks.  I am to be a cook (!!!) and Gordon is in the wedding party).

Nevertheless Binnie is concerned that things are not coming together and is stressing out about it.

In one sense I can understand that as I am lead to believe there is going to be in excess of 200 or 300 people here for the wedding and celebration and they are all to be fed and entertained.  At this hour there is very little in the way of supplies or bodies to work on this task.

I will admit my own concern is that with 9 siblings, spouses, significant others and kids, very shortly Mma Binnie’s compound is going to be swamped with family.  How the logistics are going to work out is beyond me, although I can envision 30 or 40 of us all within the property.

How would that function in our house in Trenton?  Probably not that easily.  Time will tell.

 

Honey To Do Lists

 Funny you can come 1,000’s of miles from home only to be given a list of “projects”.  I thought this was a holiday??  It is bad enough getting me to get things done around our house in Trenton and here I am at my mother-in-laws with things to do.

Actually I don’t really mind but it is a bit challenging when you don’t have a ready tool box full of tools to do what has to be done.  In addition, where have all Binnie’s sisters and brothers been?   Why have I come from Canada to see a series of maintenance items and they have not already been tackled?

The list: fix the handle and the flushing mechanism inside the toilet; replace 2 broken panes of glass in Mma Binnie’s bedroom window; glue plastic ABS drain pipe from kitchen sink that has come apart at the joint; install wooden door on outdoor cooking house.

As far as I’m concerned all easily enough to do, given the tools and scheduling the work so that I am working in the shade.

Thursday August 14th

Gordon’s Sister

 Because my mother-in-law was lonely with no one else around the house she went and “adopted” a little girl.  Her name is Grace or No-no as we all call her and she celebrates her 7^th birthday next week.

 

I am not quite sure how this all works but mom has company and the little girl is looked after and is attending school in Standard (Grade) 1.   The biological mother lives about a 20 minute walk from here and apparently was 17 when Grace was born.  She was not bothered about the little one getting an education and is pregnant with her 4^th child.

Grace and Gordon have become best friends and are usually not more than 5 or 6 feet apart.   Of course it helps that Gordon has an IPod with games and videos on it that must be totally fascinating to the little one.

Surprisingly Gordon is happy to hang out with Grace and in the evening he will help her go through her school work book and practice her English.

In a classic case of irony, several times I have heard Gordon say “pay attention” or “focus!!”, something that I have said to him myself too many times to count.   Now he should have a feel for what his parents go through back in Trenton.

Primary School

 School starts at 7:50 a.m. and I decided to walk with Grace to school to see where she has to go and what her school looks like.

In her little backpack she had her metal bowl and a spoon.  For the meal that they get at the school.  Mid-morning if I am correct.  She carried in her hand 2 slices of plain brown bread, with nothing on it.  Apparently her breakfast although she had not touched it by the time we reached the school gates.

It was a 20 minute walk along dust laneways and across a tarred road before we got to the school.  As we got closer and closer, more and more kids were emerging from different directions heading for the main gate.

Being winter they all had on their outer grey school uniform which seemed to consist of grey sweat pants and grey hoodie with the school name on the shoulders.  Many had small backpacks and some had toques while others had on gloves.

As I turned to walk home, I passed what I assumed to be a teacher.  A young lady carrying an IPad.  We exchanged greetings and I headed off to have breakfast.

Dust – the good

Walking back from the school to Mma Binnie’s was easy in theory but significantly difficult in practice.  We had followed various laneways and paths to get to school and without my little guide to follow I was trying to retrace my steps but backwards.  Several times there were points of decision.  Which way to go, left or right.  Then I got the bright idea that if I looked down in the ground, in the dust, I should be able to see my earlier footprints.

Sure enough, my New Balance running shoe has 3 distinctive bars on the rubber sole at right angles to the foot.  A close examination of the ground indicated from which direction I had come.  A little trick I will have to remember for future walks.

A lesson for Mavis

At just before noon today we met the “architect” for our new house.  When Binnie was getting directions to her office it was indicated she would be waiting for us outside.  After a couple of wrong turns we found ourselves outside Abdulo and Associates.  Waiting in the car park was Baye. 

We were introduced to Baye by Binnie’s sister Tonic.  Baye is the wife of the Minister at Tonic’s church.

Anyway it turns out Abdulo and Associates is an engineering/design firm employing about 25 employees.  Baye is one of the 4 computer draftsmen in the firm.

Thus she was moonlighting and not running our project through the business but doing it on the side.  Thus the reason to meet in the parking lot during her lunch hour.

She indicated that she uses AutoCAD and has a range of templates.  She had studied and learned her skills at the University of Botswana.

With a copy of our deed including the surveyor’s plan and some notes and rough sketches made by Binnie and myself she indicated she would draw up a first set of plans for us to consider and then email them to us as PDF’s.

So I am surmising that she is going to use the resources at the office to prepare the plans.  The question is whether this is going to be on her time, or the company’s time?

I have to admit that this is not a new phenomenon in Botswana.  It seems everyone considers themselves to be a business man and has work on the side of their “day” job. 

Binnie’s youngest sister works for the water authority in a water treatment plant.  Not quite sure what her position is.  In addition, she and her husband are building and selling houses around the capital. 

If that was not enough, earlier this year she and a friend went to Hong Kong to buy goods to ship back to Botswana to re-sell.  Apparently the two of them filled up a shipping container that will take several months to get to Botswana by sea. I will have to check and find out what line of products they are investing in.