Friday, October 23, 2009

Survival Overnight



I have always been interested in survival and getting along in the wilderness with only my skills. These hopes and aspirations lead me into the bush for an overnight with a friend of mine John, from the near by village. This is the same friend that hiked 28K with me through the Kalahari Desert bush country from my village to his. It was a long walk, and hot!

We left his place and were in the bush country by 10am. First things first, build a shelter. We started a simple frame lean to lodge with some sticks and started putting brush up against is. I brought a few cheater tools to make the work a little faster. The purpose of this trip was to test and build my skills as well as bond with John. With the hatchet I bought, we hacked up some shrub brush and had the shelter ready in less than 2 hours. It was closed at the foot and open at the head with room enough for 2 average people. John a good sized guy…his Setswana name in ‘Tau’, it mean lion. (He named himself but he fits the part), and I who is the average height and weight 5’10, 165lb. We fit in our little house like it was make for us.

Next, while John was collecting fire wood, I built a solar still. This, in essence, is a hole in the ground with a can at the bottom to catch water. The hole is covered with a piece of plastic and a rock is placed in its middle to weigh it down. Water collects on the underside of the plastic, like in a green house, runs to the middle where the rock is and drips into the can. This was just a practice. Five hours later, not one drop but there was a little moisture on the plastic=).

We gathered plenty of fire wood with the handy hatchet and I also build a fire reflector to send the heat back into our little hut. The night here get cold so it came in very handy. From there we went out to set some traps. I had some snare wire and we set some practice trip snares in front of a few small mammal dens. About 50 yards from our camp we found what we thought was a lions den. Which lions don’t dig holes like this one, but it was huge and scary. Latter we were told it must have been a wild bore den.

We set up our camp about ½ mile down the sand road between our villages and 1 mile in to the bush from the road. We thought we were deep in the bush when all of a sudden some cows walk by with bells followed by a guy who ‘Dumela’ greeted us. When we looked a little harder we saw in the distance a tin shack set up at a cattle post. Well, if lions show up, it nice to have a place to run!

We had a beautiful sun set followed by a full moon night that made the experience that much more amazing. Dinner was canned spicy corn beef, jalapeno beans, and chakalaka (spicy canned vegetable mix)…and we were almost out of water!!! Crap. We lit a fire with out matches and cooked our cans right on the coals. Shortly after, we realized we had no eating utensils so we made quick work of some bark and made some shovels which did the job just perfect.

Before we called it a night we dug a shallow trench around the helter to keep out any spiders and pissed in it to keep out the lions…well we hoped it would. Then we surrounded the front of the shelter with brush to make one more obstacle for any visitors. Sand isn’t as soft as you think it would be to sleep on. Just add water and you have concrete right.


I’m still here to write this story so we made it out alive. When John told his Head Master at the school what he did, she said “don’t ever do that again. The lions will kill you.”

Thank Yous Updated

Sheila Angha
What a surprise to get a pachage from Thailand! You are too sweet. I loved the tourist hand book. I can't believe that is where you lived. Thanks so much for the tea (bush tea gets old after a while), seaweed wraps (not likely to find those here), and the beauty products. You are so good to me!

Katie Cygan
Thank you so much for the candy, tamponds (can't get enough) and the OTC note pad. That was such a pleasant surprise to hear from you. Thank you for your support; we really appreciate it!

Chris and Cameron
Thanks again for your generosity! You guys have nailed it again. The 3M hooks come in handy now that we have moved to a new house. And for whatever reason, we can't give AA batteries away but we go through AAA like crazy. Thank you so much for sending rechargables. The Halloween candy was such a bonus. And Lucas thanks you from the bottom of his heart for the contact solution. You guys are great

Grandad Ross

We got your package! I could tell you put so much thought into putting it together. And there was a theme: manicotti noodles, tomato sauce, spaghetti mix. The grape jelly is great. I haven’t found any here yet. We used the crushed tomatoes to make tortilla soup; it was great. And the coffee cakes were so good. We were so moved =)








The Scharmer Family

They nailed it!! Butter flavored hungry jack syrup, contact solution, freezer bags, chewy Werthers (Katie’s favorite!), some toys for the kids, Deodorant, citronella candle, and Twizzlers. Katie loves the tampons and the eye liner. None of those things we could get here and how happy we were to get the goodies. Thanks…I miss you guys

Sunday

Lucas and I have started frequenting the Word of Africa on Sundays. The pastor and congregation are very welcoming. When we attend, they make sure there is someone to interpret. The pastor goes back and forth speaking Setswana (or Sekgalagadi, I’m not sure which) and English.
One Sunday the pastor opened the floor for anyone who had been touched by God. A friend of ours Mma Mogale, went to the front of the church and told a story of how we invited her to come and collect some spinach we had grown in our garden. In the story she explained she was shocked when she arrived and all we had was 2 ½ leaves of spinach for her (our garden is very new). She said she learned a great lesson that you don’t give away because you have a lot. You give away because you have the love of God working through you. Lucas and I were kinda dumbfounded. We didn’t realize what message we had sent by giving her such little spinach. But she was so appreciative of us and our friendship. It became the theme of the day’s sermon. We neglected to mention the reason we were giving away the spinach is because it was mustard spinach, which is extremely bitter. We were trying to get rid of it…
When we got home there was a man waiting for us. He offered to clean up our yard of weeds and leaves. I’m always reluctant to pay anyone to do work we could do ourselves and save some pula. But Lucas has such a big heart; he gave the man a job. The going rate for yard cleanup in Salajwe is about P100. This man offered to do it for P30. All he had was dress shoes so he took them off and began cleaning the yard bare foot. There was no where to put the waste so he dug a hole in the corner of our yard and started burying everything. It was ridiculously hot out so we offered him a banana and water. When we ate lunch, we offered him a bowl of rice. He was such a hard worker.
As the sun was going down we offered to let him come back the next day and finish the yard. As best we could interpret from his Setswana and broken English, we figured out he really needed the money that day. He said he would keep working until the yard was finished. We had to turn on the porch lights so that he could see what he was doing. After about 5 hours, he had finished. The yard looked unbelievable. I packaged up some bogobe and noodles to take to his family and some candy for his children. He was so grateful for the work. We ended up giving him P50 which is all of about $7. The experience helped us to remember why we’re here and that we do make a difference in people’s lives even if by accident.

More pictures of our Hourse


Katie and Molly in our front gate. We think Molly passed away but I think one of her puppies has been around a few times.

Easy fix!!

The bath tub room, The door is straight left.

The bed room w/bug net and closet.

Cooking smores over the camp fire in our lovely back yard. Thanks Chris!

The short tie is a trend hear. Check out the closet we made!!

The kitchen and my beautiful wife. (pizza)

The sitting room and fridge

The sitting room and table.

Learning Setswana on the can!! (katie's so smart)

Basket Weaving and Making Friends


This is the baby that peed on Lucas

Learning the trade

Traditional Botswana home 'Roundival'

The garden

In a previous blog, Lucas posted a picture of some vegetables in a red, woven basket. My friend and co-worker Mma Boshini gave that to me. I asked her where she got it from and she told me about Mma Sarako.
My other friend and co-worker Mma Segopotso took me to go meet the basket weaving lady. Mma Sarako speaks no English; so with Mma Segoposto interpreting, we agreed she would come and see me at the clinic the next day to begin showing me how to weave baskets.
The next day she arrived with a basket in the beginning stages. Again with Mma Segopotso interpreting, Mma Sarako taught me how to weave baskets. I asked if her daughters or sisters know how to weave baskets. Turns out very few women in Salajwe know how. Her mother-in-law was the one who taught her. I asked Mma Segopotso why no one knew how to weave baskets and she told me “Batswana women, we are lazy.” Mma Sarako seemed very pleased that I was so interested to learn. We convinced Mma Segopotso to try it. She was hilarious. She almost stabbed herself in the finger with the needle several times. Mma Segopotso says Americans learn very quickly. Mma Sarako agreed; she said I was a fast learner.
The needle is made from wire that is shaped to make a sort of handle for the weaver to hold. And the needle is made sharp by rubbing it against cement. There are very few grasses to make traditional baskets. So she takes apart big produce bags (that grocery stores receive cabbage in) and twists up the threads real tight to make a string that she weaves baskets with. I kinda like the plastic baskets better because they are more colorful.
The next week I took Lucas to go visit Mma Sarako and gave her some onion bread as a thank you for teaching me. She showed Lucas and I her garden and gave us some tips for our own garden. It is customary for the host to offer gifts of food when they have visitors. Mma Serako gave us a bag full of (huge) carrots and spinach leaves from her garden. We sat down in the front yard on a sheet of plastic and she taught me how to make the thread. The strips of plastic from the cabbage bag are twisted very tightly against her leg until it becomes like a coarse thread. She had been doing this so long her legs don’t have any hair on them. They are shiny like a mirror. She says it is very painful. I tried making them to relieve her but I am terrible at it.
A young woman was with us to help translate. She had a 5 month old baby with her. Diapers are too expensive so babies typically go around without pants on. Unfortunately Lucas learned a lesson the hard way that babies will pee on you if you are holding them.
I asked the woman if Mma Sarako sells her chickens (there were quite a few strutting around). She said typically she does not but asked if I wanted one. I explained that I could go and buy one at a poultry farm and not to worry. Something was lost in translation because right after, Mma Sarako and her son were cornering chickens in the coup and trying to catch one for us. I protested that we didn’t need one yet but thank you anyway. One day we will slaughter our own chicken but we don’t really have a place to put it until we’re ready. I thought it was a sweet gesture though…
I am hoping to continue to do lessons with Mma Sarako on how to weave baskets. Baskets are extremely time-consuming so I wouldn’t anticipate receiving one any time soon. Unfortunately there is not enough of a market to sell the baskets in Salajwe. I offered to take some baskets with me to In-Service Training in Gaborone to sell to other PCVs. The baskets are amazing, I wish there was a way to make her skill income-generating. For now I am working on building a relationship with community members and maybe give something back to this woman who has been so kind to me.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Bees and Boxing

I started going to the boxing club here at Lempu junior secondary school. My 3rd practice was moved because of cleaning day at the school so I started talking to Mma Kelapile. (Ms. I’m tired…literal translation) who said she had bees in her sealing. She’d been stung 4 times from them falling down onto her bed. An agriculture class was getting the bees out right then so she invited me to check it out. When we got to here place there were people in full bee suits with smoke pouring out of the roof. People were through the attic hole collecting the hive. Soon the collectors came out with a huge Tupperware full of honey comb and bees. I didn’t know what they were saying but they started flicking off the bees and eating the honey. I heard talk talk talk Kabo talk talk talk and I was soon holding some comb. It had some dark yellow chunks in it but I just ate it any way. It was so sweet and yummy. I heard my name again and got a better piece but after a few bites I flicked out a developing larva, well 3 actually and finished eating it. Fresh honey is so good, but better with out larva.
From there I found the boxing practice and watched from the side as pairs boxed or spared each other. Some sparing some hitting the bag and others just watching. I gave some pointers, but I think they know more than me. The guy who I think is the caption asked if I wanted to hit the bag, finely did something. He must have liked what he saw because he asked again if I wanted to box another kid. All I could understand was ‘box’ and ‘soft’. The kid was little and I just wanted to do something so we spared and it was great. We drew a crowd because I was the "white guy" boxing, but I still had a blast. The coach finally showed up and watched us as we cooled down. I think I’ve got a lot to learn about boxing, Botswana and the heat that’s coming!
If you get the chance, read ‘The Power of One’. It’s one of my favorite books. It’s a great heart warming and inspiring book about southern Africa youth boxing. Check it out!

Lasagna Night

So Lucas and I have tried several times to invite people to dinner. Most times it doesn’t happen. The people here seem so curious about us I figured they would jump at the opportunity to come see our home and eat an American meal. One of the problems is that very few people in Salajwe have vehicles. So they would have to walk back home in the dark. Other than those people who frequent bars, Batswana in Salajwe keep inside after the sun goes down. Another reason is most all women I have met in Salajwe are mothers. So most times women are rushing home after work to start cooking for their own families. So we tried a different approach.
Miranda and Amy sent us lasagna noodles. We have been searching everywhere for a recipe on how to make cottage cheese (I can’t find it anywhere here). I had heard it was easy to make (the name comes from the ability to make it in your own cottage). So the night we invited two ladies over for dinner we take a stab at making lasagna. The cheese is made from scalding whole milk and cream and adding lemon juice to make it curdle. After the third try we still didn’t have cottage cheese. But after mixing in the shredded mozzarella cheese, we thought it would be ok. Turns out the ladies forgot we had invited them to dinner and never showed.
We tried again the next day and invited the cleaning ladies from the Primary School for lunch. We were so excited to share this American meal with the Batswana. That was until we saw their faces when they started eating. They were choking it down. I have never seen Batswana women eat so slowly. I felt so sorry for them. I’ve been there (chicken intestines, sour porridge). I kept telling them they didn’t have to eat it. But you could tell they were trying to be nice. Finally one of the ladies Boikgano said, "The lasagna will not let my stomach eat it any more." Thankfully some students came by to return a pen they had borrowed from Lucas. The ladies eagerly gave away their plates and said, "eat and finish." It was embarrassing and hilarious at the same time