Almost oversees

Surprise, surprise: we are back home for three nights to check the building project, experience the Dutch Koniginnedag party, and cuddle the dogs. May 1we really leave, and May 2 we will be back in the Netherlands.

Poetsen & Pakken

Easter Sunday we leave for South Africa. We'll use our South African cell numbers till May 1:
Maud: +27765604009
Bram: +27768358656
Bram will be teaching another workshop at Pretoria University, while Maud visits friends. Before flying to the Netherlands on May 1 we'll have a short holyday together.


Right now our lives are dedicated to cleaning, packing, delivering last-minute orders, organizing in general, and a series of 'good bye'-events. The dogs do their best to pitch in by cleaning out fruits & vegetables. By now they are quite experienced pickers, especially Nadia...


Goodbyes means a lot of brunches, sundowners, braais. We had a nice goodbye-dinner at LJ & Dineo's. Actually that was LJ's goodbye because he left already last Saturday to visit his kids in the States. Last Sunday we had a brunch, meaning we loitered in Andre & Tears' yard the whole day while munching goodies from World Foods. We even had herring, Amsterdammer, Emmentaler, appelmoes and zure bommen!


Now that even the yard is weeded and the culled vegetation is burned, we are kind of ready to leave, although Maud never will be really ready to leave the view, the dogs, and etcetera behind.

Dig & Fill

After a lot of sweating and swearing, almost all the roots and stones that are in the way of our foundation have been removed, and the trenches for the lower levels are dug.


Before the thrilling moment of he first pouring of the first slab for the first footing Maud had our old American friend & fellow Morwa-inhabitant LJ over for inspection and advice because he has loads of experience with construction. Thanks to LJ the footing is now well reinforced, so as to carry our Fort Knox.


Here the guys are building the wall for the lowest level of foundation. This one won't be filled because we decided to make a cellar-like double super secure storeroom with concrete ceilings.


It's amazing how our son Bashi always manages to get things level. This three stock bricks wide wall will have to support the concrete slabs that will be the ceilings to the storerooms and at the same time the floor to the first halves of the living room and kitchen. We'll try to make some pictures that give an overview of the layout of the house into the hill later this week.

Fixed

Sorry, yet another dogblog... Since we have to leave our security crew for about four months, we have to organize a thing or two. Like Bashi taking care of them, and ample doggie pallets. Another thing to organize is 'Four is Enough'. We certainly don't need another litter, however sweet they are, so Lisa is now 'fixed', meaning she walks around with sewn up belly. We also don't need a litter dropped on us because Louis has been procreating, so the poor guy lost his balls. Bram brought him a nice replacement from Pretoria, but he liked his new bright yellow balls so much he chewed both of them to shreds within a week.

Footing, Founding, Fortifying

Finally an attempt to give you all an overview of the house-to-be, although it is hard to make pictures that show what you see when you are there 'live'.
Once put into place this almost finished sliding gate will give entrance to the plot.


Looking from the office annex guesthouse to the house-to-be you see the stock brick walls that make the foundation. To fit in- and onto the hill, the house must be quite high above the lowest soil level. Therefore it is possible to convert the first part of the foundation into two storerooms. You are looking at the front wall of the storerooms. The first half of the floor of the living room and kitchen will be on top of that.


Looking from the bedroom-to-be you see the contours of the space that will become living room, kitchen and bathroom. Bram and Witvoet are sitting next to where the fireplace and chimney will be.


Check, check, double check - but since Bashi's tolerance is about 5 mm over 10 meters, this check is once again satisfying. Bram is standing in the storeroom, underneath the kitchen to be.


Now Bram is standing in the bathroom. Barely visible to his right is the trench for the footing of the bedroom foundation.

Finally Married

We had a very special event: Bram's African mother our neighbour Mma Binkie finally got officially married to her husband, who died about 19 years ago. As one lady Maud's age told us: "I had to come, because we have to see how the elders do this." All in one: this is not something that happens often, but it happens, and there are traditions for it.
An old, respected couple from Bokaa, a neighbour-village, represented both Mma Binkie's and the husband's parents. The day before the wedding Mma Binkie moved into the yard representing her parents' yard. Before sunup her husbands' family came to fetch her and bring her to the yard representing her in-laws' yard. By then the lebola (bride's price) was paid, and Mma Binkie got her two new dresses and doeke (a blanked used as a shawl or wrapper). And of course The Ring!


Now that she is married, Mme Binkie can move into the yard of the newly wed, being the yard next to us where she lives. Once she comes home, it is Party Time. Most of the elder men go sit one side of the yard, underneath a shady tree, to get their special wedding lunch. The middle-aged men prefer a bit more secluded shady place, where the little boys closely observe them.


Most of the women sit close to the house, waiting for their hands to be washed and their food to be served by the youngsters.


It takes some effort to keep the young youngsters in line and have them execute their task of fetching empty plates and cups...


Ok, you can take one more picture.


By and by more and more people arrive to help out and enjoy the wedding food.


This is how it should be: a traditional germin dress, a matching scarf around the head, and a doek & speld around the shoulders. But after the official part the doek may be taken off, as long as you can show you have it with you.

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.

Just some daily life pictures

And again I am so occupied by a zillion thingies I don't find the time to update our blog. The dogs do their best to help out - they work so hard on project 'Rock Cleaning' that they are completely knackered after each round of weeding and pruning the abundant growth on the small rocky hill in our yard. As a result it will be hard for the snakes to find good hiding places.


We don't have that much time left so we decided to start finishing the one room & bathroom that will be Bram's office & guesthouse. Even though Bashi (and when needed others) do the labour, getting quality building materials and thinking ahead to make the right decisions about plumbing, electricity, etcetera is time-consuming.


This one is for our Dutch readers.


Damn, it's wet!
Yes David Louis, this January brought us very, very good rains. It's even a bit much because it's beginning to hamper ploughing and weeding the fields.


We had an unexpected houseguest: Rainer. He left Botswana just before Bram arrived. It is his first time back in 30 years...


This one is for Maud's mom: Lady Elisabeth Johannah.


Poor boy, surviving amidst three sissies is an exhausting job.


After dinner all of us rush into the bed to watch a Fongkong - 'made in China' dvd's containing about 10 films each. At some point we'll have to swap our Queen-size for a King-size...


And yet another thrilling sunset.