Pretoria

March 16 Bram will drive to South Africa to teach his first workshop at Pretoria University. He'll be using his RSA mobile number till March 28. Maud will stay in Morwa to organize leaving, and thus keeps her Botswana mobile number. She probably will turn 100% village and stay away from the internet...

B Friends

Don't be surprised if we end up in Rome or Sardinia coming European summer... Last Sunday we met Sergio, a teacher of Bram's university-friend Pino. Sergio is giving some graphic design-workshops in Botswana as an UN-volunteer. We spend a great afternoon loitering on our deck, and that inspires the two type-lovers to plan a get-together with Pino somewhere sometime in the near future.


Bram is saving all his birthday-credits for 'A Special B-Day' like 55 or 60. Forgetting all about his happy day till then is not an option. Although he tries to keep it a secret, text messages and phone calls start coming in before 6 am. So we planned a quiet nice village day, with a special candle-lit breakfast, a present or two (Fawlty Towers & Hitchcock dvd pack), and a lot of progress on some projects we have to finish before leaving Botswana for some months.


For a real surprise Klaas phones to say he will pass by Morwa on his way up to Maun, so can he stop by for a cup of tea in the afternoon? Like Bram Klaas enjoys Maud's cooking (and he knows as a chef). As quality time also takes time, we end up having a cup of Dutch coffee in the morning together, to keep mister Boll going for his long drive back to the delta.

Founding Fathers

A major event on Bram's B-Day is the real start of the foundation of our own Morwa house. Notwithstanding the rain, almost always welcome here but definitely not today, Bashi and Foraman start digging and moving stones in our future bedroom.


Meanwhile the first load of building materials arrives: 100 bags of cement, brick force, diamond mesh, and etcetera. It will look really impressive when the 15,000 stock bricks arrive later this week! Armed with concrete recipes from Maud's dad and several sets of drawings from Paul and himself, Bram tries to combine labour and materials into the house he envisions.

Winter is near

Judging by the cool evenings, nights and morning, and the shortening of the days, it's almost autumn. We dig out our duvets, struggle to be up and about around 6, and start preparing for take off. The most important thing is of course providing for Nadia, Moira, Lisa and Louis Junior. As usual Bashi will take care of them, and seeing how happy they are whenever he enters the yard tells you it will be good caretaking. Lets just hope their winter-stock of dog-pallets is adequate...

Niks Water

Whenever there is a chance to use her few Setswana words Maud is happy to try. 'No water' - that's an easy one! After the usual greetings just start the morning conversation with neighbour Mme Binkie with 'Ga gona metsi'. 'Niks water', she replies, confirming it is a breakdown of the whole supply system, and not only our yard. We wonder how much she understands of our less civilized Dutch conversations...

The Netherlands

End of February we went to the Netherlands for a week to visit Maud's dad. Our first impression when getting under the lowest layer of clouds above Schiphol is 'shades of grey'. The sky, the earth, the roads, the buildings - everything looks greyish. When we walk from the airport to the railway station we notice people adapt by choosing grey for cars and clothing. This may sound weird to Dutch people, but friends who are ex-pats in the Netherlands or also live abroad share this black-and-white movie feeling.


We stay at a prime location: downtown Amsterdam with Maud's friend since almost 33 years Kristien. Looking out of the window it's hard to imagine we still were in downtown Morwa yesterday. Buildings instead of bush, cars and bicycles instead of goats and cows, tar instead of red sand, and triple layers of clothing instead of shorts and a top - our world is upside down.


In Botswana we use reed instead of twigs, but the brooms look familiar.


Food-wise this week is like a prolonged Christmas, eating all the Dutch goodies we missed the last months and drinking litres of good coffee.


This trip gives us a chance to have a look at our Dutch house, and, more important, to check out our little boat. The rain is raining plenty in the Lowlands for sure!


Here's another thing we recognize: Heineken Bier.


Walking to and fro the station everyday we enjoy the 'Big City' feeling - and realize it's great for a visit during the summer, but not for us to live in year round.

Clearing

Upon coming back in Morwa we decide it's time to speed up our building project. Since we want to build the main house into the bushy, rocky hill we have to clear the building site first.


We live up to the local reputation of Dutch people: they can work. Soon there is a hole in the bushy hill about the size of the house - and two people walking around like they skated the Elfstedentocht without proper training.


Now that we can see the rocks the plans for the house can be finalized. Meaning an immovable rock or two, three ask for some adaptations. Meanwhile Bram's office annex guesthouse is almost finished; it only lacks outside painting and some fittings like a desk and counters for the washbasins.


The mother to our dogs is a lifesaver, always helping with the weeding, and sniffing out every creepy crawler and slider imaginable. Maud expected to cope with at least one more scorpion sting, but nothing exiting happened so far.