Maize planting in rural Botswana
Trip Start
Aug 31, 2005
1
39
77
Trip End
Aug 25, 2006
Mokubilo,
Botswana
Monday, January 16, 2006
At the border we got out and walked across and were all prepared to walk to the nearest town on the other side, until the border guards warned us that we would have to walk through the national park and that they had been chased by an elephant on more than one occassion! Liking adventure but not wanting to do anything stoopid, we agreed to wait half an hour to see if we could get a free ride to the nearest town. Lo and behold, we managed to wrangle a free ride out of a tour guide who had to detour back to pick us up and take us into town. Everyone in Africa is sooo lovely!
We arrived in town, changed money and marvelled at the modern and well stocked supermarket - Botswana is as close to a developed country as we have found so far and we were positively dripping saliva as we found everything available that we had be cravving for so long. We bought fruit, pies, buns, juices, everything we could get our greedy hands on. Having heard rumours how expensive Botswana is and knowing that the cheapest place to stay in Kasani was going to be US$100 each, we decided to high-tail it out of there pretty quickly. We hopped on a minibus, destination: Francistown. And what luxury it was after the cramped buses of East Africa - not even full, and very few stops!
We arrived in Francistown as dusk was setting in, and set about finding affordable accomodation. Easier said than done. We walked stopped strangers on the streets asking them for the cheapest places around, and then walked from hotel to hotel trying our best to bargain them down. No luck. Our last stop, right on the edge of town was, finally, fruitfull. They were full, but she knew of a place where we could stay for our maximum budget (US$25 for the both of us). 10 minutes later a car pulled up to a screech outside and our host and host-brother helped us into the car. We had by this stage also picked up another "traditionally sized" character straight out of Number One First Ladies Detective Agency. She had protested when being told that the hotel was full "my dear sister, how can that be true?" - she was such a character that we felt straight at home with her and were delighted to have her join us in our newly found accomodation.
The said accomodation turned out to be a private person's house right on the outskirts of town. We had our own room with 2 comfortable single beds and freshly laundered sheets - we loved the luxury!
The next morning, packs on back, we headed to the local bus station and found a bus for destination: Mokubilo. We had met Hannah, a peace corp volunteer, in Victoria Falls. The poor wee thing had extended an invitation to us to come and stay, not knowing that OF COURSE we would take her up on it! A couple of hours later we rocked up at the tiny wee village of Mokubilo. The eyes on the locals lit-up as we alighted the bus - the gossip talking point of the day no doubt! It didn't take us long to sus out what was up with Hannah. We asked at the restaurant. No-one knew who 'Hannah' was, but everyone knew the 'blonde American' - Hannah had been given the local name "Lesoho" on the first day in town.
Lesoho is not around today, she's gone out to plant maize in Mme Masole's field, we were told. Perfect, we'll go help! We were excited at the prospect, and inspite of protestations from the locals that it was too far to walk, started to head down the road in the general direction of Mme Masole's field (down the road about 2km, then turn down the dirt track for half a km....). Half an hour later, we found the field and Mme Masole and all her workers - once again just out of No 1 Ladies. Mme Masole was a strong woman trying to build a big farm, with enough crops to feed the entire village. Her and her husband, Rra Masole, were the local entrepreneurs, owning 2 local butcheries, the supermarket, and employing many of the local people. Both Mma Masole and Rra were larger than life, in both personality and body.
We spend the afternoon (without Lesoho, who had injured herself) planting peanuts and maize in the afternoon sun with the other workers. As night approached, we jumped on the back of Mma's truck and headed back into town.
We were most surprised to find out that Mma and Rra were actually the hostparents of Lesoho, and that we would be staying with them for the night. Feeling slightly uncomfortable for just turning up, we offered to cook (!!) and were taken up on the offer. We raided the supermarket, deciding on stir-fry. It was .... OK, edible, just. And the thought definitely counted!
After dinner Lesoho took us on a tour of her village. The village has only 1000 people, of which 95% are unemployed. The only employed in the area were the clinic staff, the local social worker, and those luckily enough to be employed by the Masole's. Alcoholism was a big problem in the village - what else do people have to do all day if not working? As was HIV/Aids. 50%-60% of those being tested were positive. The biggest problem was (as in most parts of Africa) that people don't want to know. So they don't test, and continue sleeping around. In Botswana, as Lesoho explained, marriage is not so common. Guys sleep with girls, girls have babies and look after them themselves. Most guys have several girlfriends making village life a perfect breeding ground for Aids.
Despite the obvious problems, it was a lovely village and we enjoyed walking around with Lesoho meeting and greeting all her friends, and even trying the local delicacy - Mopane WORMS! They look enough when they are alive - that is until they kill them - pull the tail off and squeeze the green gunk out of them before frying them up. They were surprisingly tasty!
Not wanting to over-intrude, the next morning we set off with Gaberone in our sights. Hannah-Lesoho had very kindly given us the telephone number of another peace corp in Gaberone, Kevin, who was delighted to have us visit. We arrived at his house to find dinner prepared! Kevin was a most hospitable host and we enjoyed his company for the next 2 days before setting off in search of NAMIBIA!!
We took a bus along the trans-Kalahari highway through desolate bushman country. Not a soul insite. After 6 hours the bus dropped us at the intersection that heads into Namibia. We sat with others from our bus, including one woman with the biggest behind EVER seen on this earth, waiting for a car, any car to come and give us a lift. We had the perfect setting - a road in the middle of nowhere, lovely weather and music blarring from our speakers. Within an hour after a few failed attempts, the perfect ride came our way - a lovely Afrikaaner Namibian going all the way through Windhoek! We jumped in and headed to Namibia!
