A Good Day – December 4th, 2011

Today we spent the day satisfying a couple of invitations that had been extended to us earlier in the week. First was lunch at the home of Indian immigrants that Hayley passes by on her way home from work. She often stops and talks with the lady of the house (Sumaya) when she sees her in the front yard watching her two children (Azan and Ayan). After becoming acquainted, the family asked us to join them for lunch and we gladly accepted (the family is very kind and friendly, and we love Indian food!). At the luncheon we learned that they have lived together in our village for over five years, and that the husband (Nasim) has been here nearly eleven. He owns and operates a food deli that sells meat pies and other quick meal options to the people that work in the downtown—downvillage—area. Needless to say, the food was fantastic and Hayley is looking forward to helping Sumaya cook some dishes in the future.

After eating we sat and talked with the family for another hour before heading back home to wait for our ride to pick us up and take us to a recreation lodge on the outskirts of the village (earlier in the week an Afrikaner woman named Cornel had picked up Hayley as she was home and gave her a ride. After getting to our house they sat in the car and talked for a bit and Cornel invited us to go with her to a lodge outside of town on Sunday). The lodge is setup in the countryside with some cabins and camping areas and offers visitors the chance to see some of the animals that live in the area (this includes: an Alpha lion and two young male lions that are vying for the chance to take over as the current Alpha becomes older, many different birds, blue wildebeest, aardvark, ostrich, various antelope, and many other typical African animals excluding elephants and Rhinos which avoid the desert locale and instead live up in the wetter regions of Northern Botswana).

The lodge is operated by a pillar of the community (Jill) that has an amazing history of work and study throughout the region of Southern Africa. She has worked as a nurse, biologist, and community leader for much of her life and even spent time living with a KhoiSan settlement as part of a team put together by a group in London to catalogue social, environmental, and linguistic information on some of the most at-risk indigenous societies of the world (Native Americans, Indigenous tribes in South America, Inuit, aborigine, and the San bushmen).

Our ride to the bush lodge was provided by Cornel, her two children, and a friend of hers. They often go out to the lodge for a few hours on the weekend to relax, enjoy the scenery, and chat with Jill and others that might be staying at the lodge. We ate a Jell-O cake while enjoying good company in the cool air of the late Botswana afternoon. Normally, the weather is not so cool but the past week’s heat was broken up by rainstorms which were brought in by merciful cold fronts that brought the temperature down to bearable levels!

We got to see some pretty birds and pet some friendly dogs that live at the lodge. After being in Botswana for around three months we have been deprived of quality time with friendly well behaved dogs, because the standard care for dogs in Botswana in severely lacking and most of the dogs are hyper and/or terrified of humans because of the mistreatment they are subjected to. However the dogs we met today, owned by Afrikaners, were like so many of the dogs we loved to pet back home. They included some small, fluffy terriers, a laidback hunting dog mix named Blue, and a Boerbol (named Lola) that must have weight at least 140lbs!.

The warmth and openness that these people, and others, in the community have showed us over our first few weeks here have given us a lot of hope for our future in the village and made the transition much more enjoyable as we try to figure out how best we can be of service here. These experiences are not unique to us as volunteers in Botswana. Many of our fellow volunteers have said the same thing about their communities and experiences. This shows that, for the most part, the people of Botswana are very friendly and eager to bring visiting strangers into their homes and show them a level of hospitality that is rarely seen today.