Days 8 and 9

(Dan’s comments are italicized)

Most people come to Africa for the wildlife, but of equal importance to us is to immerse ourselves in the culture. And that’s just as well as the wildlife is being rather elusive at the moment (due, probably, to the worst drought they’ve experienced in 40 years)!

Undeterred, we went to the Nata bird sanctuary yesterday which, supposedly, is teeming with beautiful birds such as…

We saw none 😂

But that doesn’t mean we didn’t have fun. Actually, I was in stitches before going because Dan wanted to get there at opening time (7a.m.) to make sure we got a good spot 😵‍💫 and he chose not to have anything to eat before going, insisting you’d be able to buy something there 🤭. I tried to gently guide him to make a better choice but he was insistent so… sometimes you just have to let someone experience the consequences 😭.

For reference, a viewing platform in an African game park is…well, a viewing platform!! Like this…

It’s just as well we got there early as we had the best parking spot. We also had the whole place to ourselves. All. Day. 🤭😂😭 Alright, I let her finish so I did not interrupt her humorous story. But to be fair, I am an American who is reliant on the convenience of a good tourist trap. Unfortunately, this is not the season (or location) for that. So ha-ha, the jokes on me… this time.

But, in all seriousness, it was beautiful! We overlooked some salt flats and saw lots of wildebeest.

Because we’re traveling in style (in the cheapest rental car we could find) rather than hitchhiking, as I’ve done previously, we’ve bought a little cooler that we’d filled up ‘just in case’, so we had plenty to eat! We also are very easy to entertain; Dan entertained himself watching some termites and a beetle, and I (and, I suspect, some wildebeests),, entertained ourselves watching Dan!

When Dan lets go of the last vestiges of Western expectations, I think he’ll do just fine! Those little mounds were fascinating. Tourists flock to see “The Big 5” here, but there is just as much wonder in watching insects just starting the construction of a mound that could reach higher than 10 feet tall...like this…

The great news is that we saw some birds when we stopped off to eat!

I’m sure we’ll see more animals as our trip progresses, but in the meantime experiencing the culture is keeping us busy. For example, we’d half-thought about going swimming on our return from the Bird(less) Sanctuary, but found that some people were using the pool for baptisms…so we joined in with that instead! The congregation was singing a hymn in the African way, while the little children took care of the littler children while watching the celebration.

It has occurred to me that we’ve not explained what we mean by cities and towns here. Botswana has 2 cities, Gaborone and Francistown. These are about the size of Casa Grand (for our US friends) or Aberdare (for our UK friends). In addition, there are some towns and a load of villages. These aren’t big!

In some of the bigger towns, stores are well-stocked…

But not so much in the smaller places…

Following in from Dan’s last post I, too, am intrigued with the signs.

A quick aside. While stopped at the Lay-Bye, Rhia performed her community service ‘penance’ for running a stop sign two days earlier 😜

But, once more, the best cultural experience has been the people. I truly love the Batswana. Take today, for example; by now, we’re in Kasane in the NW corner of Botswana, and were unsure as to what to do after eating lunch. But we needn’t have worried because we started chatting with some people and ended up chatting for 2 hours! Ashok (sp?), the owner of the eatery, bought a bottle of wine for us all to share (he seemed a little shocked that I did not pour myself a glass, and instead, clinked my coffee cup with him in salude. But all was good when I explained that I no longer drink.); Sandra, tour manager, is giving us local price to go to Vic Falls; Tato, a local radio presenter and ex- DJ wants Jake to contact him to help him become known in Botswana; and Lebo, a journalist who is hoping to come to US to study ministries, will hopefully become one of our PEO students!

On our walk back ‘home’ we saw a warthog walking through town with a chicken. My initial thought of ‘What the heck?’ was quickly followed by ‘Life’s good!’

Tomorrow we self-drive into Chobe game Park in our little 2×4 Toyota. My fingers are crossed 🤞