mokoros at Marutsa

The sun is shining but winter is coming and evening temperatures are dropping into the teens (Celsius so that’s in the 50s Fahrenheit). Last week I suffered a bit from some stomach ick. Not sure if it was food poisoning or a bug but it didn’t last long and I was back to eating by the time our “tent” guests (as opposed to “house” guests) arrived on Thursday last week. I say “tent” guests because we don’t really have room in our house to accommodate guests so we set up a tent and pit latrine outside for visitors. It’s not luxurious but it works and Rick and Roberta, Paul’s friends visiting from Florida, seem to be managing OK (despite the cool nights).

Yesterday we spent the day out at Marutsa, a village of about 150 people or so where Paul helped establish a polers group for mokoro trips back in the 1990s. We were escorted by a man named “Worm” (not kidding, this is a literal translation from his Setswana name – not sure why you’d name your child “worm”). Paul hasn’t visited in almost a decade and many of the villagers were very happy to see him (including the woman whose Setswana name translated to “fearless”-- I like that one).

We visited to scout out the location as a potential place to come with the Furman group next year. We like to support community tourism if we can but our trip to Seronga (across the delta) was logistically difficult to orchestrate last year so we’re looking for other options. With only one engine on the people transport ferry, what should have been a one hour ride took us three (and it arrived about 2 hours late). Our return trip was no better when the ferry that transports vehicles was “broken” and we waited for three hours in a long line of traffic to cross the delta once it was functioning again.

In any case, we walked around the village, visited with the locals and saw the mokoro boats (which are made of actual wood as opposed to fiberglass – I’m not sure if that is better or worse if approached by a hippo?). The village seems quite removed from the development of “modern” Maun. There is no electricity and water is obtained from the river the runs near it. To walk from the village to the tarmac (paved) road would take a good hour and a half and from there the drive into town is another 40 minutes (assuming you can hitch a ride).

Like most places in the Northwest region of Botswana this season, there is water water everywhere. We made on treacherous “bridge” crossing. I say “bridge” (in quotes) because it was merely pieces of rock, cement, wood logs, that perhaps at some point in its life served as a bridge but currently is all submerged serving mainly as traction in the water crossing process. If the water comes much higher it will be completely impassible by vehicle. They have already moved the road to the village once adding another half hour onto the drive. They may have to move it again.

On the drive back we had a few additional passengers who needed a ride into Maun. What was reported as “two ladies” by Worm when he asked if we could give them a lift, turned into two women, three kids, and several large bundles of stuff (one of which contained a trash bag full of tswi, the bulbs of the water lily which they eat for food, which broke and spilled all over the back of the vehicle by the time we got to Maun). While waiting for her friend to gather up the tswi, the older of the two stood in the middle of the dirt road where we dropped them in Maun and belched three times very loudly while making direct eye contact with me. No apology. No embarrassment. I guess the ride shook her up a bit…

just another soggy Sunday

Soggy? You might ask, “but isn’t it the dry season?” Well yes it is and the water was not coming from above but rather below as it seeped in through the door of the vehicle as we listed to the left, stuck in the mud of rain water which had formed a river on the way to see a possible plot of land for sale.  Upon return to Maun last week we were informed by our landlords on the ostrich farm that they were planning to increase the rent (again) and that they weren’t too pleased about the safari vehicles parked on the property or the container we had erected (three years ago!) to store things safely (it is an 18 wheeler truck trailer – many people here use them to secure their belongings).

So with this news in mind, we decided it might be time to start looking for another place to live. Renting or buying is the next question so we decided to take a drive around on Sunday morning to look at possibilities. Little did we know that this would turn into a soggy, muddy, and quite expensive adventure.

On our way we saw our friend Mr. Mike walking toward our house and picked him up to go out and see a plot of land we heard rumors might be for sale. Since Mike knew where it was and we didn’t, he became our guide. You should know that the rain waters from the rainy season this year were remarkable and there is standing water in places that are normally dry. If you couple this with the fact that the flood from Angola (typically a good thing) has not even come down yet (usually comes in June), then you have a lot of talk and concern about water these days.

The first water crossing we made caused a little concern as we literally floated for a few moments losing traction in the process. But we “came right” (as they would say here) and successfully made it out the other side. When we came to the next major crossing, Mike proceeded to walk the route to ensure it was OK for passing as he had done on the previous crossing and indicated back to us that it was. Sadly it was not and we got about half way before we got stuck in the mud and the vehicle started to fill with water. I’ve never actually sat in a car and had my feet get submerged…it’s an odd sensation.

Mr. Mike went to get help and a neighbor arrived with a tow rope and proceeded to pull us out of the water while we pushed from behind (that’s right... waste deep in water, ankle deep in mud and... PUSH!). Unfortunately, even with 24 hours of drying out in the sun things still aren’t quite right and the vehicle stalls regularly. We will give her one more day in the sun and see if that helps. If not, she goes into the mechanic.

Besides that, things here are pretty typical here in Maun. We arrived Wednesday and Thursday was “Ascension Day” – a holiday here so no one was at work (I was under the impression that Jesus ascended on Easter but a quick Google search indicates there is some debate about this). This gave us a day to try to get our bearings before going into the chaos of work on Friday.

On Saturday, we took a quick drive up to Moremi game reserve (to remind us why we love Botswana). High waters prevented us from making it all the way into the park but we did manage to see elephants, giraffe, kudu, impala, warthogs, hippo and a variety of birds just on the drive up. Nice!

Just as it takes Paul a few days to adjust to the organization and timeliness of the States, it takes me a few to adjust to the chaos of Botswana.  We're trying to make sure we take time to appreciate which ever world we are in. On the drive in to the office today we stopped to see an odd (orange-ish) colored chameleon cross the road. Very cool!