Africa Journal

DAY #15

2004-10-01T01:00:00.000-05:00

This morning we woke up to find the lion's paw prints. According to our guides a hyena had come within two feet of Zed and Tommy's tent. ALSO a hippo walked through the middle of our tents really early in the morning. Claude said she saw the hippo and was flipping out but was a good girl and stayed silent. We packed Sally up and started off to the last round of safariing. Sally decided that she was going to get stuck in the sand about 5 times today. At first it was funny but after the third time we were all beat pushing her while the guide floored it.

Pushing Sally after I took a digger in the sand

The thrill of today was seeing an amazing group of elephants. It started by seeing one elephant playing in the water so we stopped to watch. Then through the trees on the other side of us came another elephant, then another, then another. Duraid was counting and stopped at 37 but there were still more coming out of the trees. We just hung out, sitting on the roof of the truck (on the steamy metal) and just watched the elephants. We did get a bit scared when a group of three elephants (one was a baby) started to angle their path towards us. The guides told us to be quiet and still and to be prepared in case he needed to try to floor it away from the approaching elephants. We weren't too certain about that plan because of Sally's tendency to get stuck in the sand and stall out. But all went well and we got a great heart pounding and closeup view.

After a bunch of hours driving/bumping along in the reserve seeing a bunch of our animal friends we headed back to the Audi Camp headquarters. We checked in for the night, our lodging being another tent...but this one was way fancier! Our tent was named "Velvet Raisin". We had a little porch area, a big door, room to stand in the tent and cots!!

I love the Audi Camp. People just traveling around stop and rent a tent. There are really cool outdoor showers made of bamboo. I laughed hysterically when I walked in for the first time and heard Claude and Duraid talking and laughing because they were showering in stalls next to each other and were being silly throwing a bar of soap back and forth over the bamboo wall. We would also hear screams from people who had very little hot water. I think Duraid and Claude were hogging it...lol! It was so amazing showering and looking up at the stars and moon...it was like paradise.

After showering we all went for drinks at the bar. Z decided to be all cool and slide up to the bar and hop on a stool to order a bottle of wine. But instead he somehow slid into the stool at a weird angle, bounced off and landed on his ass. SO funny!!! Once again our group bonded with a night of drinking and laughing. I love my team!!!!

NOTE: I'm not finished with this entry yet...and I have a whole bunch more to write about. So stay tuned for my trip to Victoria Falls in Zambia and Zimbabwe!

DAY #14

2004-09-30T01:00:00.000-05:00

We left the community campsite at 7am and traveled to our next campsite destination within the Moremi Game Reserve.

We saw impala, giraffes, a hippo and various colorful birds. It was a long four hour drive and I was exhausted from not getting much sleep because my roommate Martha snores up a storm!!
We arrived at the campsite, ate lunch and everyone left to drive around the game site. I stayed behind to catch up on my sleep. Just lying in my tent with the screens open and listening to the chirping of the birds and the scurrying of the little squirrel-like animals was heaven!

I was woken up by Tommy and Duraid at about 9pm - they wanted me to eat so I grabbed desert (baked apples) and walked back to my tent where everyone was standing and looking into the forest. The people at the next campsite over was shining their flashlight. Our guides identified the animals as a lioness and her cubs. About two minutes later we hear the most unbelievable roar I've ever heard. A flashlight shines into the dark focusing on the tall grass at the opposite side of the campsite. The grass started to move and suddenly a huge lion walked through and into our campsite. We all just gasped and stared open mouthed at this lion as it walked closer roaring as he came over. It was just the most unbelievable experience and it was (and still is) so hard to justify that this was actually happening. Knowing that this lion was not in a cage, that there was nothing to stop him from making contact with us. Then our guides started screaming, "Get in the truck, get in the truck!!" and we all knew that for the guides to be firghtened, the situation was serious. We all sprinted to the trucks but unfortunately there is only one ladder. I remember placing my desert carefully on the table by the truck, turned to Sally's (our truck) ladder and saw Carolyn frantically trying to climb it. Knowing the lion was getting closer I started to yell, "Hurry up Carolyn!! Hurry up Carolyn!!" and poor Carolyn panicked more and fumbled climbing the ladder. So instead I somehow climbed up the side of Sally and up to safety. Sally was closer to the lion than the other truck so we had a front seat. We all sat in awe trying to be quiet even though we couldn't catch our breath and just instinctively whispering "Oh my god, oh my god!" The lion continued walking past our site and a baby empala hiding in a bush and over to where the lioness and cubs were and then out of sight. The roaring continued for about 20 minutes as he tried to meet up with the rest of the pride. They call back and forth to each other and we could hear our lion getting farther and farther away.

I was really reluctant to get down from Sally and jokingly vowed to sleep there for the night. We then spent the rest of the evening huddled together by the fire and spoke about the experience. We found out that Mike and Darla couldn't figure out how they got into their truck as they had not let go of both their desert or water so both of their hands were full. So we all had a good laugh at that as well as at Martha who was spotted shoveling her desert in her mouth as the lion went by...nervous reactions are so funny!

The lion's view of our campsite

The lion's paw print in the sand

After putting off going to bed for as long as we could we all pulled our tents a bit closer together and attempted to sleep. Our guides insisted that animals wouldn't attack us because they see the tents as large animals...we hoped it was true.

DAY #13

2004-09-29T00:59:00.000-05:00

We left Mahalapye at 8am.

Martha, Mike, Chris, Darla, Martina, Bento, Patricia, Carolyn, Me and Diego

My filthy work pants

Sechele drove us to Palapye in the kombi. Our ride was a bit peculiar as we ended up on a very uneven dirt road. Sechele insisted that the airport was down the road although you could see in his eyes he wasn't really 100% sure. We even backed up and got the trailer hitch stuck for a little bit when we encountered a herd of cattle crossing the road. After getting some directions and to our surprise, Sechele was correct, at the end of that dirt road in the middle of nowhere was a huge field and a trailer-size tent - this was our airport.

We laughed hysterically at our "airport" and then started prancing around like the kids we are, taking pictures of us "in the airport". We still weren't convinced that we were not going to be left in the middle of that field until the plane actually landed.

Botswana from above

The plane was a small 13 seater plane and we loaded our luggage in the luggage compartment all ourselves. For the first half hour of our flight we all had our eyes peeled looking for herds of wild animals. Duraid promised 10 pula to the first person to find a wild animal. We had to stop quickly in Francistown to fill up and then arrived at our final destination - Maun.

We were met by Richard and Emma, two of our three guides. We went to one shop in the town of Maun because Carolyn needed to replace the hat she lost the day before. The items in the shop were beautiful! Duraid called me over to try on a necklace so that he could see if he liked it so he could buy it for Martina. He ended up buying two - one for Martina and one for me! YIPPEE! Duraid is so nice!

After the shopping we headed to Audi Camp where we had lunch (sandwiches and fruit!!!!), packed up the large landrovers and drove to the Community campsite.

Audi Camp - where we ate lunch

We set up our tents in Elephant Grove Camp and went to the "tiki bar" and had a drink. Yep, a drink in the middle of the wilderness. I would think that would be the last place they would want drunk people!! :)

Elephant Grove Camp on the edge of the Moremi

Outdoor bamboo spiral toilet area

We also went out for about an hour to see if we could find some animals. We stopped our drive at sunset so that we could take in the beauty. Martha, who has been raving about seeing elephants since the first minute we all met her suddenly turns around and sees the most beautiful elephant cross the road behind us. She just started to gasp and yell, "Elephant, elephant..." so of course we all turned around. Low and behold...there was the elephant. It hardly made a sound! Such a large animal and SO quiet! We were all SO thrilled to see our first real African animal...and the largest one to boot!

I was kind of glad we were sleeping outside in the tents because then everyone could witness firsthand my snoring dilemma. And boy did they hear it! :)

DAY #12

2004-09-28T13:22:00.000-05:00

Today was the big day, our celebration and house dedication. Martha brought a balloon animal making kit along with her so we (Martha, Chris and I) decided we would attempt making balloon animals for the celebration. After many popped balloons and minor heart attacks from the noise we successfully mastered making giraffes and even transformed them into hats! The rest of the team had no idea what was going on in our room while we were doing all of this. They just heard squeaking, loud popping and lots of laughter. We just couldn't believe we were in Africa making balloon animals! :)

The dedication was fun! The family and neighborhood along with village officials attended. There were speeches (translated into English for us), singing and dancing and overall fun. We bought soda and cookies and those were gone within minutes of being put out on the table. The balloon animals were a big hit too! The adults were having as much fun as the kids were with them. I even saw Mary stick one in her bag to bring home. :)

DAY #11

2004-09-27T13:14:00.000-05:00

The children were dancing around today. Boy, can they get their groove on! They made ankle bangles out of plastic bags and small stones. They danced around with the bangles tied around their ankles so they made noises as they stomped. They all sang and harmonized together, it was amazing! The kids are so creative, they have to be with the way they're living. Through the days I've seen kids running around with boxes tied to a string which they would then drag behind them. They drew in the sand, made balls out of tightly wrapped plastic bags, would beg for our little water bottles so that they could use them as dolls, they had a swing made out of a tire. So creative! Zed taught the kids how to play baseball and they had a blast!

I have been sketching a bit while there was lull in construction and the children loved to watch me. Today I let them draw. I only gave them one of my conte crayons and one eraser to use. Tana and another neighborhood girl started fighting over it and then decided to work together. One took the conte crayon and drew and when she needed something erased the other would erase it. Then they switched, it was so cute. Below are some of their drawings and one of mine.

The kid's drawings

One of my drawings

DAY #10

2004-09-26T00:59:00.000-05:00

Our day off! I opted not to go into town to the hkota and the service going on (the event that the Chief invited us to). I just needed some peace and quiet. No riding in combis all crammed in, no wind blown sand, no people asking for money to buy them sodas and no one staring. Instead I read and took a nap. As I am writing the entire team is outside our rooms at the Oasis Lodge in our usual meeting place all reading, writing or drawing. I'm excited that Martina is also drawing during this trip! Its fun to see someone else's sketches! I have completed four sketches and hope to complete many more.

I HAD to take this photo

Hanging out at night at the Lodge...our usual ritual

DAY #9

2004-09-25T00:59:00.000-05:00

The day of frustration. We woke up at 6:45am, ate breakfast and went to the first worksite. It was the most windy day yet - sand was being blown every which way. It was almost impossible to keep your eyes open. It was horrible and put us all on edge. There was nowhere to go to avoid being sandblasted for 8 hours straight. Even scrubbing every inch of our bodies didn't get all of the sand off our skin.

I got to do a few things today at the house. I helped spray the yellow oxide plaster on the outside of the house. Duraid and I stood on opposites sides of a tall makeshift scaffold to do so. At one point I was straddling the scaffolding so I could pass the little spatter contraption down to get it refilled with the plaster. One of the local workers was inside the house and looked out the window to see me hovering on the scaffold. The absolute look of surprise on his face was priceless to say the least. Yes, I am a girl and I am on a scaffold high above the ground doing work. HA! Duraid and I had fun spattering each other with the plaster.

"Plastering" the house with yellow oxide

Because of the crappy weather other things we have observed so far this trip kind of got to me and most of our group. Our Mahalapye affiliate leader Fatima is so lazy ad useless. Today she sat in the shade all day and then ended up just napping on a bench while everyone worked. The homeowners haven't put many "sweat equity" hours in, the women do cook lunch but they also have two of our teammates helping them. Most of the time the women just sit and talk to each other all day. The husband of the family works as a truck driver so he's never around.

Socializing

The kids are cute but are becoming overwhelming - you can't do anything without them jumping on you and asking to wear your sunglasses, gloves or hat.

Kids loving our sunglasses, hats and gloves

The older kids (teens) have been asking other teammates for their jewelery, hats, shoes and money. The men workers are also asking our male teammates for the same. I know that they are of a completely different culture but it just seems like they want so much from us, we're already giving them a house!

We did get a treat of ice cream from Duraid! There were extra so I had two! I realized later that the ice cream was made with ingredients that give a similar effect as the WOW! potato chips...but I felt fine the rest of the night thank goodness.

DAY #8

2004-09-24T00:59:00.000-05:00

We got to sleep in today - visited the Chief of Mahalapye hkota. The women danced and sang for us. It was great to watch and hear something so different from our version of music. It was so beautiful and you could really tell they took pride and loved performing for us. They taught us how to make the sound they make when they are happy...its kind of like a yodeling sound.

Claude dancing with the local women

On our way to the Chief's office we parked RIGHT in front of a cow being slaughtered. All the guys went to get a good look, all excited while the girls all covered their eyes and ran for the building. I was totally horrified and it might make me a strict vegetarian, at least while I'm here. We were told the cow had died of natural causes and they were cutting it up for food but I don't know.

The Chief didn't really seem to know why we were there although Duraid had set up the meeting beforehand with Fatima. Most likely Fatima forgot to inform the Chief of our plans. He brought us into his office and told us a little bit about his hkota and how he came to be Chief. It was weird because he was dressed in nice business clothes with a tie and everything. Meanwhile the majority of his people are wearing old tattered clothes that people donate and even don't fit them. But I guess that is true of everywhere...just maybe not the same percentage. We took photos with the Chief, he invited us to attend a town gathering that weekend, we thanked him and we went back to the Lodge for lunch.

The Chief of Mahalapye

Today was PIZZA! Fisal owns a pizza place in town so that was our lunch request. YUMMY!
We attempted to work afterwards. No one was at Mary's place and the men were still not letting the women work so we kinda hung out and watched. Today was the day of the roof raising for house #1. We all were very nervous watching the local men, Duraid, Richard and Tommy placed the roof on. Somehow it held.

Local worker, Zed and Richard

Local worker, Tommy, Claude, Patricia, local worker

DAY #7

2004-09-23T00:59:00.000-05:00

Another build day. The first house is getting done really quickly but we are all concerned about the quality of the cement blocks. The local men are not as patient as Mary with them and are not doing the dry/wet down/dry method to dry them and they are very brittle. Just picking them up to move them breaks them...they can't hold their own weight! We didn't have any problem at Mary's. The women are still being shunned by the local men and our basic working task is to pick up the broken pieces of cement blocks that are scattered around the site. Oh and we're also allowed to sweep (we use a tree branch to do that...works pretty well!)

Carolyn and Martha are still pretty much on lunch duty. Its a big thing because they have no way to preserve the food. So a run to the market everyday is needed. Our lunches have been made up of rice, a little chicken, lentils, some greens and maize (they call it papa). The first time I saw the papa I thought that it was mashed potatoes...oh, I was so wrong! Its a favorite dish for the locals but it basically tastes like raw and unflavored cream of wheat...but a little worse.

Thabiso eating papa (maize)

None of us could handle it the day that was all we had to eat. We begged Carolyn and Martha to try to convince the women to cook rice for us...it worked. The greens (we're not sure what kind) were picked from their little garden, washed (love that dirty water...oh Boston you're my home) and cut.

The family's kitchen was outside. It was made up of a bush of sorts that went around the area, leaving an opening to walk in and out. The cooking was done on a fire with two large pots and a tea kettle. The first day we were there this was our biggest shock. It was hard to wrap you mind around it coming from our world of indoor kitchens. I mean, sure we go camping and stuff but this is their real kitchen, and boy do they work wonders in that kitchen!

Tana, neighborhood boy, Thabiso and Eva

Thabiso, who we nicknamed Bruno, because he would beat up the other kids and if they retaliated in any way he would just burst out crying. He was always eating (picture of him eating maize)...he was one of our favorites.

Oh, and I have to mention Bones!!! Bones is a homeless dog (there are tons of them!) that was at Mary's house the first day. It was cold that first morning and she was curled up at the doorway to Mary's original house and she was shaking like mad! When one of the workers went over to get some tools that were located by where she was laying he made a motion to kick her and she growled with her teeth bared. The locals hate these dogs and just kick them, throw rocks at them, anything to get them to go away. The man didn't kick Bones though thank goodness but we now knew why she was growling so much at him. I nicknamed Bones Bones because thats what she was, bones with fur. Claude and I took a vow right then and there to smuggle some breakfast foods, bread from our tea times and some lunch over and feed it secretly to Bones. If we were caught the locals would hate us because they hardly had any food so their thoughts would be, why would we be feeding a useless dog instead of giving the food to them. We weren't able to get close to Bones the first day for obvious reasons but little by little she is warming up to us and we can see the brightness in her eyes when she sees us approaching.

We love Bones!

Random note: My nose has been bleeding lately with the dry air. I'm not use to it being so dry...my hair is pretty darn straight too which is very surprising because it's always curly.

Today Richard, Carolyn, Patricia and Chris went to an orphanage. We all couldn't go so we made a card and put money in the card and it was presented to the head of the orphanage. Because I was the "team artist" I drew my little Eli Elephant on the front of the card. Richard and Carolyn told me that the children LOVED the elephant drawing and was so happy to see it. I wish I could have gone to visit the orphanage but it just wasn't possible. Its probably for the best though because I would have tried to take some kids home with me. :)

DAY #6

2004-09-22T00:58:00.000-05:00

Feeling much better after my major sleep. Today we worked at Mary's house again mostly carrying cement blocks to different places so that they're all in the sun so they can dry. A lot of heavy lifting. Today it was sunny all day unlike the last two days. So we went through our water quickly and Duraid had to go out and pick up some more. You should have seen us when he returned - water is GOLD!

Carolyn, Richard, Martina, Me, Claude and Chris

A bunch of kids came by and Martha was quizzing them with math problems. Then we tried singing songs. They knew the ABC song and when we tried "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" they taught us their version in Setswana (sp?). It sounded like this "Nunca, moheta, umpelo, meloma..." Their version is a bit different it goes head, mouth, ears, chest, hips, knees. They were so thrilled when we were trying to sing it with them. The kids are so great, they have absolutely nothing but they are all so cheerful and always smiling at us.

Being my careless self I caught my hand in the tree at Mary's place while hanging up my bag. All bushes and trees here seem to be covered in thorns and one just happened to get stuck in my finger right on my knuckle. The thing was so sharp!

The evil tree - that thing has fangs!

I pulled out what I could and the rest kinda just buried itself in my finger. Everytime I touched the area at all the piece of thorn that was in my finger just poked deeper and deeper in. It felt like a needle being shoved into my knuckle. Tommy, a doctor, decided that it would be best to try to get it out since we weren't sure if it would get infected. So he took whatever surgical tools he had, a swiss army knife, sat me down on a pile of gravel and dug into my knuckle. After 15 minutes of digging, me screaming, people crowded around me watching and getting grossed out, he got most of the thorn out. I know that Diego got a picture of my surgery and I'm sure that I have a delightful look on my face too! :) The local men thought it was great fun...I'm glad I entertained them a little bit. hehe!

Beautiful!!!!

"I'll have some more!" -Claude

More wine! Woo-hoo!

DAY #5

2004-09-21T00:58:00.000-05:00

Sadly today did me in. I'm not use to manual labor so I only worked until 3ish and then went back to the Oasis Lodge. I went with the group going into town to do emailing and the bank. At town I went to the kombi station and found the right kombi (they all go different routes). Of course they need to wait until the kombi is COMPLETELY full/overfilled before leaving so we sat for about 10 minutes in the hot and crowded kombi. I got a lot of double-takes from the passengers getting in but they were nice. I slept from when I got to the Lodge until Wednesday morning. I missed the Community Dinner so I'm sad about that. I worked mostly at Mary's house. Mary is the spunkiest woman I've met. She still inspects every little thing we do, most of the time taking our tool away and doing the chore herself. We're not sure how old she is exactly but we did find out she has two sons in their thirties. We also found out she sells vegetables to earn her living. Anyway, Mary has to be in her 60s but can do anything and everything - shovel gravel, mixing cement, hauling full wheelbarrels of sand around. She is now one of my heros.

Working on Mary's house

Thabiso

Thabiso and Eva

Chicken just running around looking for food

Buying firewood

My roomate Martha is the Snore Queen (Martha, you totally are!!) and I'm trying different techniques to lessen the noise but so far it's not working so well. I have ear plugs and I put the air conditioner on but I still am unable to sleep. *YAWN*

DAY #4

2004-09-20T00:58:00.000-05:00

Today is the first day we start building. We're all up bright and early after our first night sleeping under a mosquito net. Those suckers may look thin and flimsy but they keep the heat in. There was a major difference in temperature underneath the nets and outside of them...all that hot air, I guess. :)

We had a great breakfast provided to us by our one and only Fiesal (sp?). Yummy eggs, toast, cereal and interesting and SPICY concoctions. The surprise of the morning was the unexpected warm milk in the cereal. That was the last time I had cereal...I couldn't get past it. LOL!
After breakfast we all grabbed our gear and put on a sweatshirt and jacket...it was chilly...and crammed outselves into the kombi. Sechele, our kombi driver, was a really great guy! Very sweet and loved to tell us stories about his life and about Botswana. Duraid loved to tease him...like he did with all of us.

Poor Martina had no luggage because the airline lost it so she has been wearing the same clothes since day one. She is being a great sport about it though and we're waiting for her bags to show up any day now.

Our kombi

Bento, Darla, Martina, Martha, Diego, Claude and Mike

When we arrived at the first family's home we noticed that the house had already been started and the local workers had already started their morning work. As we all unloaded out of the kombi like circus clowns the little children sprinted over to their mom and hit underneath her skirt. The workers looked at us briefly but kept building and the women came over to shyly greet us. After a bunch of hugs hello we then made our way over to see what kind of house we were building. We hung out bags in the only large tree that was in the family's yard and set out to start working.

To our surprise it was extremely difficult to be able to do any work. The local men really didn't want anything to do with us, especially the women. The men from our group had a hard time as well. As soon as one of them would pick up a tool a local man would figure out a way to take it back. And since there was a lack of tools and the mode of communication was gestures I guess the men figured they knew exactly what they were doing and we were only going to get in the way. So for most of the day the women didn't actually build. Carolyn and Martha volunteered or were volunteered to help the local women prepare lunch which turned out to be an all morning task. The rest of the girls quickly became entertainment to the children who were slowly coming out of their shells with much coaxing from us.

One little girl named Tana was the star of the kids. She is a little actress and is very outgoing and dramatic. She is so cute...they all are! They were so in awe of my long soft hair. When I would sit down they would run right up and take my ponytail and rub it on their face over and over. After a while one of the neighborhood girls decided she wanted to braid my hair. She started doing really little braids by the top of my head that just stuck straight out. Then she decided that thicker looser braids would be just fine. To her joy I left my new African hairdo in the rest of the day. I had to take a picture of the outcome after we got back to our hotel.

Tana, the girl who braided my hair, Thabiso, Eva and two other neighborhood kids

Tana, Eva, Thabiso and boy from the neighborhood

My authentic braids...haha!

I was the first brave soul to try the bathroom/outhouse. Everyone was waiting for someone to try it to give a review of the experience so I decided to be that person. It actually was pretty clean, didn't smell and they even got a bit of toilet paper for us to use. Normally the family uses old trash (the paper from the cement bags was the toilet paper of choice when the regular toilet paper was gone) from the trash pit and not toilet paper, there's just not enough money for toilet paper. One of the kid's chores is to clean the bathroom. They walk in and out of there with bare feet.

The bathroom and the trash pit

A bunch of us decided to trek over to the second house site. We had to be lead there by one of the local men because there were no streets, street signs, addresses or anything like we normally have. We walked through a maze of little pathways in between the barbed wire of people's property. Since the land is so flat and really indistinguishable we felt like we were just walking and walking to nowhere. Finally we came around a corner and arrived at the site.

A woman named Mary is the owner of this house. She is a widower who takes in kids from time to time. He home hadn't been started yet. Three local men were in the process of making cement bricks and placing them in the sun to dry. Unlike the men at the first house, Mary did not have one bit of a problem putting the girls to work right away. Our first job was to move the drying bricks into the sunlight. We then started to do some cement mixing. After a few trial and errors we finally figured out after much explaination (via gesturing) from Mary that the wheelbarrel had to be "just right" in order to pass the "Mary test". Mary's wheelbarrel had to be full and flush to the top edges of the barrel and then slightly rounded in the middle. Pretty soon Mary was very happy with our work and gave us the thumbs up when we were doing well.

After lunch (I will save lunch explainations for another day) we went back to Mary's but some of our guys wanted to come and help. We tried to warn them about the tight ship that Mary commanded. We even gave them detailed instructions but they just did their own thing. Mary caught them and scolded them every time they tried to slack even one bit. She would even take the full wheelbarrel from them and dump out the sand they just shoveled in and made them do it over. Us girls just laughed. :)

Soon the men were told to spread the cement to make the floor. In order to do this they had to put the wet cement in a wheelbarrel and then roll it up a really thin 2x4 piece of wood. Well, it wasn't as easy as they thought it would be. Duraid ended up slashing his shin open with a piece of metal he was trying to use to create the beginning of the ramp. Then later on both Duraid and Diego almost lost their manhood when at the end of the ramp the 2x4 flipped up like a see-saw right between their legs! SO FUNNY!!! Both of them gasped at how close they had come to almost certain devistation.

A bunch of us ventured into the town to the "internet cafe". It really was a store with two ancient and slow computers in the back room. We had to pay in 15 minute increments so of course the slow computers were profitable for the business owner but frustrating for us. :) We figured out that one computer was a bit faster than the other, so we all kept a mental note of that fact. It was fun sending email back home trying to explain this other world to everyone. Martha wrote a novel to send to her family and when she went to send it the email program timed out and lost her email. She was so upset. From that point on we had to copy our emails before sending them just in case that happens again. Poor Patricia got her credit cards stolen in Johannesburg so she has been trying to email the credit card companies to cancel her card. Talk about stress.

When we got back to the lodge we all immediately jumped in the shower. It was the BEST shower I have taken in my entire life. I can't even explain it. Afterwards we all ate like pigs at dinnertime and relaxed outside by our hotel doors chatting about our day and getting to know each other more. Duraid supplied us with wine and cheese which we cherished. I love my habitat team, everyone is so nice and we all get along so great!

Bento, Chris, Mike, Richard and Martha

African wine - yummy!

DAY #3

2004-09-19T00:37:00.000-05:00

I'm getting a little discouraged but maybe its because we've just been traveling so much and I'm still not use to the time change. Our bus ride from Gaborone to Malahapye was about 1hr 45minutes. The thirteen of us were cramed in an extended mini van (called a kombi) and the road we were on just went straight (perfectly straight!) the entire drive. The scenery was the same throughout the drive with goats, cows and donkey grazing here and there. Some trying to cross the road as our kombi sped quickly by. With a long blaring honking of the horn they quickly decided against crossing the road at the moment and backed off.

We finally got to our hotel after our driver got lost a few times and asked a bunch of people for directions. The hotel is cute - tile floors, clean, mosquito nets over the beds. :)

The Oasis Lodge - very cute!

Mosquito Nets

Our driver left us when he wasn't suppose to and we ended up taking a taxi to the "best restaurant" in the village. That restaurant was called "Southern Fried Chicken - Lip Licking Good".

Afterwards we walked a few blocks down to the nearest supermarket (SPAR) where they had a TV propped up by the ceiling showing WWE wrestling. :) I guess they are big fans, both the workers and the customers were thoroughly engrossed in it. Our group thought this was hilarious! The grocery store was impressive, much like our grocery stores except much, much smaller. The baked bread is to die for!

In the middle of the village the goats and donkeys wander freely eating grass and whatever else they can find.

You have to look closely to find the goat in this picture

After shopping half of us decided to walk back to the hotel instead of taking the taxi. Groups of kids would see us and come running over and waving. One group walked with us part of the way. We took pictures with them - so cute!

Dinner was cooked by our own personal chef in the hotel's "diner" - which was a room thatlooked like a VFW kind-of-place. The food was good - fried chicken, curry chicken, rice, coleslaw and salad, which was basicaly what I had for lunch.

It seems like all the planning Duraid did was ignored. It seems that there will nto be too much excitement during our stay in Malahapye. I hope I'm wrong.

DAY #2

2004-09-18T02:45:00.000-05:00

We arrive in Johannesburg airport and walk right to our gate for our fight to Gaborone (hab-o-roni). All of us are exhausted but realize that we are missing our teammate Tommy (our beloved doctor friend!) at the same time we realize that we are lost in the airport, stuck in a stairwell being able to see where we are suppose to be through a window but not knowing how to get there. The signage in the elevator is misleading and directed us to this random and useless stairwell leading to nothing. We finally make it to our gate and I decided to pass out holding the fuzzy elephant that my parents bought me (especially for this trip) in Newport a few months back. I named this elephant friend Eli and he was a very useful and comfy companion/pillow. :)

Our wait by the gate was a bit torturous because I was so exhausted and although I was in Africa it did not seem like it since I was in a modern airport. Mike and Darla, Patricia, Richard and Carolyn all joined us, they were in Africa before us. Mike and Darla had arrived from Canada the day before; Patricia had traveled around South Africa for week sightseeing. Richard and Carolyn were visiting family in South Africa for about a week as well. I also officially met Martina although I wasn’t very social, I was thinking more about sleeping comfortably laying down than squished in a seat. Because of this fact I don’t remember much detail of the rest of the day besides getting on the little plane to Gaborone, being welcomed by the Gaborone Habitat Affiliates at the airport, arriving at the Gaborone Habitat Affiliate Office and got a larger welcome as well as an orientation.

Gaborone Airport

Local Botswana Affiliate

At this orientation we met our additional teammates Diego and Bento from Mozambique’s Habitat Affiliate. Diego and Bento were joining our team as sort of an internship so that they are able to gain knowledge as to how the Global Village trips work and bring that knowledge back to Mozambique.

After orientation was over and we bought our first Botswana souvenir, a Botswana Habitat t-shirt, we headed to our hotel. It was called the President Hotel and I heard that it was the nicest hotel in Gaborone. The ride to the hotel was our first real glimpse of what will be common surroundings, dry sand dirt, no grass, not much foliage, chickens, goats and donkeys walking around wild and people walking around with no shoes on. Our hotel was nice but not as nice as the best hotel in say NYC or even a smaller town would be. It overlooked a sort of commons/park but it looked more like a place you wouldn’t set foot in after dusk and even avoid during the daylight hours. It is just because it is so poor in those areas that there are more important things to focus on besides landscaping…such as healthcare, food, economy, etc.

We relaxed in our rooms for a bit, showered (YIPPEE!) and then went down for dinner on the balcony that overlooked the sketchy commons.

Me, Tommy, Duraid, Richard, Carolyn, Martha, Claude, Zed, Mike and Patricia

We had a blast at dinner, oddly enough American music was playing in the hotel restaurant area, and I even heard Gloria’s “I Can’t Stay Away From You”. We are a little more awake after taking a rest on a real bed and showering. We chatted and got to know each other and had a lot of laughs. I was so happy to be in Africa with such a great group of strangers that would soon become my friends and teammates.

Oh, did I mention I flooded our bathroom? I somehow did it while I was showering but I still don’t know how. :) I also got to call my parents real quick which ended costing me about $35 (American) for about 5 minutes…but it was worth it to hear my mom screech in the phone with glee asking me over and over where I was. Yes Mom, I’m IN AFRICA now! :)

Leaving the President Hotel the next morning

DAY #1

2004-09-17T12:05:00.000-05:00

I can't believe I'm going to Africa! I'm sitting in Logan now waiting for my flight to JFK. Relief is pretty much my emotion right now after the crazy week or two that I just experienced. Lost passport, work project problems, unemployment issues, getting new neighbors and doing last minute small projects (I NEED MONEY!).

I don't know what I'm going to do about my money issue. I really need to start to get some clients and figure out how the full-time freelance thing works. But I'm going to try to leave that all behind on this piece of paper until my return home.

I just got off the plane and am now at my gate in JFK. Just relaxing. It's 2:20pm now so I have some time to just lounge around. The plane I just got off of was a tiny plane, only 12 rows and two seats in each side of the aisle. AND it was the quickest flight ever! Only 40 minutes!

Sleepy! I can't wait to meet my team members. A bunch wil be here soon. I'm the first member to arrive from the JFK group.

The teammates I met were Z, Chris and Martha. We're excited and dreading the flight over...it's so long!!

On the plane I quickly met Duraid (our team leader), Claude and Tommy. Duraid's wife Martina was also on the plane. I sat with a girl about my age who did not want to have anything to do with me...totally ignored me when I tried to say, "hi" or joke a litle to break the ice cuz goodness, we were going to be spending the next 16 hours together...but no. Thank goodness for the movies. South African airlines is the best! You get your own personal TV that is equipped with a remote control/video game controller. You got to pick what movies/TV/games you wanted to play. Without this the plane ride would have been horrible.