Pula! Pula!

 

 

When visiting my family in Botswana for the summer holidays, I had to remeber it was actually winter in the Southern hemisphere. But the country was exciting and challenging because it was an english speaking country. That meant everyone in the house could speak english, more or less with various accent, so i had to keep up. I was teased a lot when I mispronounced a word or stare blankly at whoever was speaking. It was fun though and I really enjoyed that part of the continent. For most of the family, it is a dreamplace where one want to retire.

The first house was in westwood, next to Kgale hill. which is a rock and bush hill where kids and have excursions, rock climbing, etc..but apparently there were cheetahs in there too, so grrr..beware of the kitties! The kids would go to Westwood school, except my sister who transferred to Marua Pula school, a little farther away. The british system was used and everyone wore cute uniforms. Well, at least they learned to do ties everyday.

A little note about the climate: it is a quite desertic one, a bit chlly during winter and very windy. Dust and more dust is in the air, and no matter how often you dust the house, you always have a noticeable film on the furniture. There is rain, sometimes, and to hint about the value of water, fact is their money unit is the pula, which means rain.

What to do in botswana? Well it is quite known for safari destination. The north of the country benefit from a delta that freshens up the kalahari desert. Wildlife is quite rich up there and you can find all the big games you find in Tanzania. In Francistown, our lodging were perched in those huge trees, and it was real fun climbing in. In Nata, we paddled on little boats in the Kasane river, during the sunset, to visit the elephant cemetery: marshes and islands were solitary, old elephants stay to retire and die away from their herd. it was so beautiful, majestuous(?) and so sad at the same time. The guide also played tricks with an eagle, while vultures we looking eagerly from a distance. Apparently, there were also a salt mine nearby but I cannot remember it clearly.

Other memories are the shopping in the huge supermarket at Game, next to the ny fish joint I kne there ("something fishy"). There were woolworth for buying lettuce, and Mikes Kitchen in Kgale Hill mall, that served great burgers with monkey glands sauce..hehehhe.

What is a seswaa? More to come later