Setshedi Visser

Sunday 11 Bashi phones us with the sad news Hille's son Setshedi suddenly passed away. This is a big shock - a healthy, almost 20 years old boy, dying within a few hours on a sunny Sunday, just like his father died 18 months ago.


We keep feeling this is unreal, even though a very real funeral has to be prepared. Two of Hille's brothers will fly in from the Netherlands, and until they arrive Bram represents the family from the father's side. A funeral means prayers every late afternoon, with tea and bread afterwards, until the funeral on the next Saturday. Chairs, big three-legged pots, plates, etcetera have to be borrowed. There has to be a big tent, food for all the people coming to the house to help, mountains of firewood, goats and a cow, and so on. A coffin and flowers must be chosen, and a funeral program must be made. The list of things to do seems endless - but as always everything gets organized and done.


Friday around noon Hille's oldest and youngest brother arrive. We meet Jelle and Mink at their hotel and join them to the mortuary. Like every Friday afternoon it is extremely busy because people from all over the Gaborone region come to accompany their deceased on their last travel home. After a service in the mortuary's chapel we can take Setshe home, where there will be a wake till the funeral early Saturday morning.


Since the Dutch consul and his wife, and our consulate's organizer-of-everything Miena will come to our house first we have an early breakfast with Jeff and Peter from across the road. Not just any breakfast, but real Dutch coffee and stroopwafels, fresh from the Lowlands thanks to Jelle & Mink. Then we walk the shortcut to Hille's house, where the funeral service is just starting. For us it's like we are not only burying Setshe, but also Hille - we were in the Netherlands when he died.


It's impossible to really depict the memorial service for people who never experienced a traditional Batswana funeral. The many, many people sit in front of the house to attend the hymns, services by the priests, reading of the written condolences, speeches, among which touching words from Setshe's best friend and from Peter, who has been very close to Hille, the bearing of the coffin from the house and the bearing of the coffin to the funeral car.


After the service at the house everyone drives or walks to the graveyard. Family, friends and neighbours have dug the grave the day before. Walking we arrive just in time for the bearing of the coffin to the grave, this time by Setshe's morafe or tribe, represented by the uncles and Peter & Jeff.


After more hymns and prayers the men take turns in closing the grave and everyone goes back to the house for the vote of thanks, the speech from the chief and the funeral meal. The chief had some remarks about people not dressing properly for funerals anymore. Meaning women have to wear a scarf over their head and around their shoulders, and men have to wear a jacket.
To comply with the Dutch after-funeral tradition we finish with again coffee & stroopwafels, and homemade krentenbrood at our house.

WWS: Deception Valley (Central Kalahari)

In between Maun and Morwa there's a lot of great places to go. In the end we decide to skip Nata Bird Sanctuary and venture Deception Valley - it's ten years ago since we have been there together, and got stuck in the deep sand. Maud has been back once, when she was invited by Piet to join a rescue mission and learn all about the uselessness of Landrovers.


Deception Valley is located in the Central Kalahari, a game reserve about the size of the Netherlands. Enough room to have big, far apart campsites that make you feel like you are blissfully alone in the bush! Only after enjoying the marvellous sunset you see other campfires glowing.


Since we have little time we don't expect to see much animals during our one morning game drive. It is already a big surprise to encounter a herd of springbok and right next to them a gemsbok-herd. Bram gets himself and his camera's on the roof for a better view - until we meet a safari vehicle, and the guide tells us there's lion close by. This is our lucky day: three lionesses and a lion, with a still untouched kill, a springbok, right next to the road!

WWS: KRST (Serowe)

For our last night we make a stopover at Khama Rhino Sanctuary. We've seen the rhino often enough, so our game drive is aimed at other remarkable sightings.


Though camping at the sanctuary is like being home we are only really back home after we hand over our Christmas presents to those who faithfully waited for us.

WWS: Okavango River (Shakawe)

After Tsodillo Hills we pitch our tent on the banks of the Okavango River, just south of Shakawe. The campsites are splendid: spacey, with big trees, and a view over the swampy river. A yellow-billed kite is nesting above our heads, and the chicks provide great entertainment. One could say the many monkeys are also entertaining, but we find them mainly annoying cause they're seasoned thieves.


At night the hippos entertain us, splashing through the river and making impressive sounds. Since it's raining again, or still, we use the daytime to read - literature for Bram and westerns for Maud, still in love with Winnetou and Old Shatterhand.

WWS: Popa Falls (Namibia)

Camping with six boys, what more can a woman wish for? We'll try to upload a video-clip of camp-mom with her sixth boy bathing in the Popa Falls. That's where we camp with Hamish and his two sons, both accompanied by a friend. Falls is a big word for the small rapids when you've been to the Suriname jungle and the Victoria Falls, but it is a lovely spot on the banks of the Okavango River in Namibia, just across the Botswana border. Visiting the nearby game park we don't see the sable antelope, desperately wished for by Mpho & Maud, but we do visit the Big Baobab and see enough other worthwhile game.


Back at the campsite Bram & Maud finally learn how to make decent papathas thanks to Mpho's friend. The ones we made without proper lessons better be forgotten... In the end the only setback is a severe lack of grrrls, something the adolescents are by now as interested in as mom's two 50 yrrr old boys. All the poor guys get is a chameleon that insists sleeping in their tent.

WWS: Pietje (Maun)

Whenever we're remotely near to Maun we just have to go there to see Piet & Klaas, who came out to Botswana in the same plane as Bram in 1978. Once again we had a nice time with Piet and his at present six dogs in his house just outside town. He even had homemade appeltaart! And once again we loitered in Klaas' restaurant Bon Arrivee, just across the airport where all the tourists going to the Okavango Delta land. Next to the good food there's always a highbrow debate or two to enjoy, like Piet (l) and Henk (r) pondering whether a donkey bumps only once or not twice into the same rock...

Tracking

Maud started 2009 with a hunting trip. January 1st early in the morning she drove up north with our neighbours-across-the-road Jeff & Pelo to spend some days at Anna's game farm close to Francistown. Imagine 3000 hectares of bush, plus 6000 hectares from the farm next door, to explore while tracking wildebeest, impala and elephant.


Our first project is to shoot a wildebeest for the neighbour. It's spectacular to walk around for hours with our tracker Two Pula, following spoors of several groups of kokong. It's as amazing to see Two Pula talking with his hands and facial expressions (we have to be kind of quiet). We see a lot, but not that many wildebeest, and those we see are too ready to run, so after some trips we move on to the next project: shoot an impala for Anna's staff.


The impala proves to be easier. While we are looking for tracks of the elephants that ransack the farm a lonely male pala appears on the road. He makes for a welcome change on the staff's menu: seswaa, stew, and in the morning a lot of biltong is hung to dry.


Zach is in for the elephant tracking and firewood collecting expeditions by car. Though we relax in between by floating in the river and loitering in the porch, having fun is pretty exhausting - and the perfect way to start a new year!