Reality TV
It cooled off overnight but it was not as cold as it has been. I couldn’t find my fleece hat in the middle of the night so I ended up wrapping my scarf around my head and tying it under my chin. At 6:30 we got the wakee wakee wakee call. We wanted to get up and go on our walk while it was still cool but we had to have breakfast, break camp and clean up first. We’re getting fairly efficient at this packing and loading thing and can get it all done in an hour now.
Robert is our guide/translator for the San (Bushmen). The San speak in clicks and pops and it is strange to listen to. It is even harder to attempt to speak! We go on our walk with an older couple, three younger women and two young men. One of the women was carrying a baby on her back tied in a sling around her shoulders.
At our first stop, they gave us each a seed that looked remarkably like a pumpkin seed. They told us to put it under our tongues and started talking in the San language. A few moments after placing it under my tongue there was a startling snap accompanied by a few shouts of surprise from the group. The seeds turned out to be pods that broke open to release their seeds when enough moisture was present. They had quite the laugh at the crazy mzungus jumping about with seeds popping open in their mouths!
There was devils claw which is a good plant to treat arthritis as well as placing around your hut to deter wild animals and warn you of their approach (you know… because of the big nasty thorns that might stick in their paws). There were roots of plants for headaches, diarrhoea, stomach issues, teeth cleaning and even birth control. In the old days each couple could only have three children to limit the tribe size and the mouths to feed. They used this plant that acted as birth control for women who had already had her three children as well as for young women in the tribe who was really too young to be bearing children and would have had a difficult pregnancy. I’m assuming from this that they were sexually active perhaps before they should really have been bearing children. They even had a root that was used to abort a baby if there were problems.
One of the trees had a bulb that was dug up and was the size of a small melon. They used the side of a split branch to grate it and show how full of moisture it was by squeezing the pulp. They used the liquid to drink and even wash their hands. The older couple that was with us were born in the bush but these days the young ones are born in hospitals. The old woman has never been to a doctor and uses no western medicine. When she is ill, she has her husband make small cuts down her shoulder and rub in ground roots and crushed carbon from the fire. In the west we would call this cutting and self mutilation, here it is for healing. I guess if you don’t have syringes, you don’t have a lot of options.
The men started a fire by rubbing sticks together… very cliché. I do have to say though that it was the fastest I’ve ever seen a fire started without matches! The two hour walk was gone in a flash and we were back on the truck and hitting the road to Maun.
Botswana has had many issues and is quite paranoid about foot and mouth disease. There are check points at various places along highways to try and stop the movement of animal products across the country. This is an interesting tactic since the goats, cows, and wild animals do not have to pass through these check points as they wander rather randomly across the countryside. Being of the two legged variety of creatures, we do have to pass through the check points and are not supposed to have any meat or dairy with us. As we approach each stop, Steph signals us in back and we hide all the contraband in a locker until we get through the stop. Suddenly I’m having flashbacks to the chicken mafia in the Himalayas when they stole our chickens. The difference is that it’s hotter here.
Oh ya… it’s now finally hot! Yes, Africa hot!
At the second checkpoint, we all had to get out of the truck and squish our feet (with shoes on) into this wooden tray with a dirty looking wet towel in it. I guess it had disinfectant in it to try and stop the whole foot and mouth thing. We were also supposed to bring any “visible” footwear that was sitting out in the truck. If the shoes were in your locker, you could leave them. Now explain to me why this makes sense. They sprayed the tires of the truck, we climbed back on and were off with our contraband safely restored to the truck freezer.
We stopped in Maun around 1:15 pm to change money. The currency here is the Pula. We did some shopping and some internetting but it was too short a stop to get any blogging in. The notebook is filling up but I am sooo behind on blogging.
We arrived at Sittatunga and set up camp. It is so hot now that the chicken pie I ate from the shop is not having a great love affair with my stomach. We set up camp and … you guessed it… headed to the bar for shade and a cider. Maybe there’s a great conspiracy that the shade is mainly located in the bar area? We had to go back to the campsite to have our briefing regarding our bush camp in the delta. We are going to be taken into the delta by dugout canoe by dugout canoe and will be camping in the delta… somewhere on some dry patch of land.
After the briefing I decided I’d had enough and jumped in the pool. Whoa! That water was pretty darn cold! I was so hot and uncomfortable that I really didn’t care and like they always say “it’s fine once you get used to it”. It felt great to get the dust of the road off and just hang out for a bit.
Brad taught a yoga class before dinner to the gang. It’s so sandy that it had to be an all standing class. We had dinner and got our bags ready for our super 5:30 am wakeup call?!? We have to be ready to be picked up by 7 am by the truck taking us into the delta to the poling station. Brad will be celebrating his 50th in the delta!!
Robert is our guide/translator for the San (Bushmen). The San speak in clicks and pops and it is strange to listen to. It is even harder to attempt to speak! We go on our walk with an older couple, three younger women and two young men. One of the women was carrying a baby on her back tied in a sling around her shoulders.
At our first stop, they gave us each a seed that looked remarkably like a pumpkin seed. They told us to put it under our tongues and started talking in the San language. A few moments after placing it under my tongue there was a startling snap accompanied by a few shouts of surprise from the group. The seeds turned out to be pods that broke open to release their seeds when enough moisture was present. They had quite the laugh at the crazy mzungus jumping about with seeds popping open in their mouths!
There was devils claw which is a good plant to treat arthritis as well as placing around your hut to deter wild animals and warn you of their approach (you know… because of the big nasty thorns that might stick in their paws). There were roots of plants for headaches, diarrhoea, stomach issues, teeth cleaning and even birth control. In the old days each couple could only have three children to limit the tribe size and the mouths to feed. They used this plant that acted as birth control for women who had already had her three children as well as for young women in the tribe who was really too young to be bearing children and would have had a difficult pregnancy. I’m assuming from this that they were sexually active perhaps before they should really have been bearing children. They even had a root that was used to abort a baby if there were problems.
One of the trees had a bulb that was dug up and was the size of a small melon. They used the side of a split branch to grate it and show how full of moisture it was by squeezing the pulp. They used the liquid to drink and even wash their hands. The older couple that was with us were born in the bush but these days the young ones are born in hospitals. The old woman has never been to a doctor and uses no western medicine. When she is ill, she has her husband make small cuts down her shoulder and rub in ground roots and crushed carbon from the fire. In the west we would call this cutting and self mutilation, here it is for healing. I guess if you don’t have syringes, you don’t have a lot of options.
The men started a fire by rubbing sticks together… very cliché. I do have to say though that it was the fastest I’ve ever seen a fire started without matches! The two hour walk was gone in a flash and we were back on the truck and hitting the road to Maun.
Botswana has had many issues and is quite paranoid about foot and mouth disease. There are check points at various places along highways to try and stop the movement of animal products across the country. This is an interesting tactic since the goats, cows, and wild animals do not have to pass through these check points as they wander rather randomly across the countryside. Being of the two legged variety of creatures, we do have to pass through the check points and are not supposed to have any meat or dairy with us. As we approach each stop, Steph signals us in back and we hide all the contraband in a locker until we get through the stop. Suddenly I’m having flashbacks to the chicken mafia in the Himalayas when they stole our chickens. The difference is that it’s hotter here.
Oh ya… it’s now finally hot! Yes, Africa hot!
At the second checkpoint, we all had to get out of the truck and squish our feet (with shoes on) into this wooden tray with a dirty looking wet towel in it. I guess it had disinfectant in it to try and stop the whole foot and mouth thing. We were also supposed to bring any “visible” footwear that was sitting out in the truck. If the shoes were in your locker, you could leave them. Now explain to me why this makes sense. They sprayed the tires of the truck, we climbed back on and were off with our contraband safely restored to the truck freezer.
We stopped in Maun around 1:15 pm to change money. The currency here is the Pula. We did some shopping and some internetting but it was too short a stop to get any blogging in. The notebook is filling up but I am sooo behind on blogging.
We arrived at Sittatunga and set up camp. It is so hot now that the chicken pie I ate from the shop is not having a great love affair with my stomach. We set up camp and … you guessed it… headed to the bar for shade and a cider. Maybe there’s a great conspiracy that the shade is mainly located in the bar area? We had to go back to the campsite to have our briefing regarding our bush camp in the delta. We are going to be taken into the delta by dugout canoe by dugout canoe and will be camping in the delta… somewhere on some dry patch of land.
After the briefing I decided I’d had enough and jumped in the pool. Whoa! That water was pretty darn cold! I was so hot and uncomfortable that I really didn’t care and like they always say “it’s fine once you get used to it”. It felt great to get the dust of the road off and just hang out for a bit.
Brad taught a yoga class before dinner to the gang. It’s so sandy that it had to be an all standing class. We had dinner and got our bags ready for our super 5:30 am wakeup call?!? We have to be ready to be picked up by 7 am by the truck taking us into the delta to the poling station. Brad will be celebrating his 50th in the delta!!
posted by The Wild and Wonderful Adventures of Horse and Dog @ 10:16 AM
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