IFYE Program Newsletter

It can easily be said that this past month has been my most interesting one in Botswana. The village of Sekondomburro, the one where I was living in the grass hut, has been my most interesting (rustic) living conditions so far. I had mentioned in my last newsletter that we collected our water from the village source. That source was actually the Okavango River. I asked a nurse at the next village's clinic and she said the water was not safe to drink. Luckily, I was able to get a bucket of safer water to use from another village.

My stay at Sekondomburro was split by the International Trade Fair in Gaborone. We had terrible car troubles on our way to the fair, and a 10-hour ride turned into 24 hours in the car. After we finally got to Gaborone, things were fine. I really took advantage of the hot showers, electricity, and good food that was bought for us in the hotel. The Ministry of Agriculture treated us very well.

The International Trade Fair was interesting. The president of Mali opened the ceremonies. There were many small shops selling everything from clothing and crafts to furniture and food. The merchants were from all over southern Africa, so I enjoyed walking around and seeing everything. They also had traditional dancing and exhibits from all the different ministries. The Ministry of Agriculture exhibited 48 crops, animals (mainly cattle), and showcased machinery and innovations used in agriculture.

While in Gaborone, I had a chance to go to the Mokolodi Game Reserve. It was an educational reserve, which handles a lot of students and teachers. While in the reserve, I saw cheetahs, rhinos, kudu, springbok, zebras, baby elephants and many birds. It was a short visit, but my first real exposure to Botswana's wildlife.

After the Trade Fair, I went back to Sekondomburro. One of the relatives of my host family had passed away while I was in Gaborone, and I came back to the funeral. Funerals in Botswana are a village affair. Practically the whole village comes for it, and the ceremony can last several days. Everyone brings food to be cooked and eats at the grieving family's house. It has been my experience that their funerals are not as sad as ours.

The family was still busy with the funeral when I left Sekondomburro and went to Xakao. I stayed with a teacher, so I stayed in the teacher's housing. I was very happy to have "safe enough" running water in the house again. The village of Xakao was slightly bigger than Sekondomburro. Xakao was also located on the Okavango River. I spent many days at the river because it was so beautiful and peaceful. I also spent a considerable amount of time with the other teachers who taught at Xakao's primary school. They were quite a little community.

By far the best thing about this month was my 10 days of free time. Luckily, my mom and sister were able to come over for it, and the other IFYE (she is from New Mexico) joined us as well. My mom and sister flew from Pittsburgh to New York to Johannesburg, South Africa to Maun, Botswana. We rented a 4x4 single cab Toyota truck. It is a game-viewing vehicle that has two long seats and a canopy in the back instead of an open truck bed. The day they flew in we drove to Gweta, which is a little more than 120 miles from Maun. We stayed at a rest camp there for two nights. While in Gweta, we explored the Makgadikgadi Pass and several Mowana, or baobab, trees. The size of the baobab trees can be overwhelming. Then we drove back to Maun and stayed in a hotel for two nights. On our way back we saw several giraffes along the side of the road. In Maun, we went to a large crocodile farm and the small Maun Game Reserve. We spent the second day in Maun driving through the Morembi Game Reserve, located in the Okavango Delta. We saw baboons and vervet monkeys all over the place. We also saw giraffes, elephants, hippos, zebras, warthogs, hartebeest, wildebeast, kudu, impala and a lot of birds. Some of the wildlife was overwhelming in number.

The next day we drove from Maun into the Chobe National Park. The four-wheel drive was absolutely necessary since the track that we had to drive was incredibly sandy. We drove through the Savuti Marsh and up to Linyanti. The wildlife was incredible. We would be driving along and there would be more than 50 elephants on one side of the car. We would turn the corner and there would be zebras. Within another mile or two we would see giraffes and impala. We all took many pictures so we hope some of them will turn out. Linyanti is located in the northwest corner of the Chebe National Park.

We spent the night in our truck. Though it was not the smartest or safest thing to do, it certainly was an experience! We had to hide all of our food from the monkeys and woke up a couple of times to the sound of elephants eating within feet of our truck. In the morning we heard the grunting of hippos. I don't think I have ever been so close to the sounds of the wild. The following day (day seven of free time), we drove through the Chobe National Park and stayed at the Chobe Safari Lodge in Kasane. Kasane is a fairly large village in the northeast corner of Botswana. It is very close to both Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The Chobe Safari Lodge was a fantastic place to stay offering very nice and relaxing accommodations. We had to keep an eye out for the monkeys because they would come into our rooms in search of food. The Chobe Safari Lodge organizes a lot of safari activities and white-water rafting in the Zambezi River. The only thing we did was take an evening boat ride to view the game.

In case you may be wondering, here is a list of game that I have seen in roughly descending order of frequency (excluding birds because I have seen more than 50 different species): impala, elephant, African buffalo, vervet monkey, ostrich, wildebeest, giraffe, hippopotamus, yellow baboon, zebra, warthog, kudu, crocodile, lechwe, tsessebe, waterbuck, hartebeest, eland, springbok, gemsbok, sable, lion, rhinoceros, cheetah, and jackal. I have seen many more different kinds of animals, but I can't put a name to them.

We also visited Victoria Falls, which is located in Zimbabwe. The original name is "Mosi-oa-Tunya," which means, "smoke that thunders." It is a much more appropriate name since you can hear the falls more than a mile away, and once you are there the abundance of water vapor has turned the immediate surroundings into a rain forest. Victoria Falls is one of the seven natural wonders of the world and was definitely worth the visit. My free time was fabulous.

In the next village, Kalakamti, which is my seventh of twelve, we will be celebrating Botswana's independence. I look forward to seeing the differences and similarities of our Independence Days.

Sala sentle (Stay well)

Beth Kleckner