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!

Around the Pool

On the third day of Christmas we go to town to check our mail and loiter around Jem’s pool. While the owner of the pool is freezing his ass of in the UK, we welcome a chance to cool down during the heat of the day.


Jem not only has a pool, but also an off the road bike, which of course has to be tested by all the boys. Now that Tom has discovered the function of the throttle, Thusi might be forced into some real racing…


Zach looks like he is planning some Fong Kong movie stunts instead of on the road rounds with Jeff…


Our off the road Hilux inspires the two terrible two’s to reliving some of their bush experiences. According to Zach they only saw giraffe, impala and kudu yesterday, but since they have little time left until they must be sweet, responsible, serious three year olds, they just have to be something wild.

Everyone: thanks for all the fabulous Xmas mails we got!

Turning the Age

December 25, 2008 - much like last year we sat most of the day in the shade provided by a tree and enjoyed wonderful food. Around Christmas, eating well is a worldwide tradition in all countries where European missionaries paved the way.


Our neighbours across the road had an additional reason for a feast: mom, grandmother and great grandma turned 80 years old. Next to all the children and (great)grandchildren they invited everyone who lives along ‘our street’; the red sand-road that leads from the tar-road to the top of the first hill.


We hardly see Mme Mathilde Maembolwa in her yard, as she has difficulty walking.
Her son Emanuel (left), who is building the house for his family next to her, is only around about once a month, as he has a management job with the big Orapa Diamond Mine 600 kilometres from here. We like him a lot, as he has welcomed us from the very beginning and is a really hardworking character.


The sister to Mme Mathilda is our next door neighbour Mma Binkie. Adding to the (universal) intrigue is that these two sisters have apparently had a falling out years ago, so we were told in 2006, so they do not talk anymore.


But true to an African tradition we remember from Ghana, it must have been deemed appropriate to patch any differences, as both ladies now held a speech and thanked all for the chance to have this reconciliation.


It was a wonderful opportunity for us to meet all the other neighbours also, from the very young to the very old.


Two of the factual bosses in our neighbourhood.


Bram could make a few great family group-portraits (he always does the same in Wilsum, Vierhouten and Zeeland in the EU-summer), and a few sneak shots for his own personal pleasure.


Since Xmas we have Emanuel’s daughter Maatla Cindy and other kids (including their ‘English’ dog) over all the time to make drawings, watch video’s, play cards and eat sweets - this is Africa.

WWS: Ghanzi

For our Christmas-leave diary we’ll revive our series Where We Sleep, starting with Ghanzi. We camp two nights at Thakadu (Aardvark). This game park is so successful with the normally very shy eland – the biggest antelope in Africa - that they walk around your tent from sundown till sunup. Nothing better to start a holiday then swinging in your hammock while hearing barking geckos and freckled nightjars, and seeing eland and bats move around.
Being in the neighbourhood means a visit to Ghanzi Crafts to admire the always renewed collection – and buy a thing or two, three… Especially the Ostrich-shell jewellery the San make is so beautiful!
It also means seeing Birthe, who runs the crafts-project. She lives on Maud’s dream-plot:10 hectare with a house on it in the game park. How’s that for enough room for dogs, cats, horses, vegetables…

WWS: Tsodillo

Our second stop is Tsodilo Hills, the holy place where everything living is created. Including the scorpion that stings Maud when she is struggling with wettish firewood to keep the cooking fire going in the rain.
When we were here ten years ago it took about five hours to reach the hills via a deep-sand dirt road. Now it’s only thirty minutes to Tsodilo village, and then a few slow k’s through mud or sand to the hills.


The main tourist- and archaeologist-attraction are the over 3500 San rock-paintings from 800 till 1300 AC, scattered over the four hills this world heritage site contains. Our guide takes us around the Male and the Female hill, telling many stories connected to the paintings. He is the same man Bram met eleven years ago. Together with his sister-in-law and her baby-boy (pictured on one of Bram’s postcards) he waited the whole day until Bram’s then tourists Joost & Christa returned from the hills, hoping to sell them some San-crafts.

Dog-Blog

Now that Mma Binkie and Bashi took their puppy, and the mother bitch moved back next door, we’re left with our nuclear family: Moira & Nadia from January 2008, and Louis & Lisa from last September. They weren’t overjoyed when we returned from our Xmas leave, but their grumpiness soon vanished…


Siesta on the deck with Louis & Moira


Siesta inside with Moira & Louis


Siesta with Nadia & Lisa – travelling sure is tiring! It’s a pity we didn’t buy a king-size bed. Watching after-dinner movies all six together is already a tight fit, and judging by their longs legs the little ones plan a lot of growing.

Holidays

Coming Friday, December 12, we leave for our X-mass Holidays. If we stick to the plan - if - we'll hardly leave Botswana this time. We set out for Ghanzi with Hamish, Mpho, and two 4x4's packed with camping & fishing gear. After Ghanzi we all drive up north to Tsodillo Hills, Shakawe and Popa falls, so we'll have a day or two in Namibia. On our way back we'll spend some time with Piet, Klaas and Tuto in Maun. Christmas eve we hope to be back home in Morwa.

Hanging Out

It's amazing how fast the days pass by with work, socializing, dogs, house & yard, and so on! Somehow updating you all about it is hard to fit in...


We spend a whole Saturday hanging around the Arts & Crafts market (a yearly event to get funds for the Botswana Society for the Protection of Animals), and loitering at Sandra & Rory, who live next door to this event.


Another highlight was LJ's 76th birthday, which we celebrated last Saturday with pancakes on our deck. LJ planned to go back to the States this Christmas, but with the present recession it seems better to stay in Botswana for the time being.


Sunday we had a nice afternoon on our deck with Bert & Sophia, who we just met at a Dutch do. Bert and Maud must at least have seen each other way back when they were enjoying Dutch nightlife in downtown Leiden.

Doggies

Our doggie collection is now down to two big puppies (born last January) and three small nippers (from September 19). Mom and the fourth nipper have moved back into the neighbour's yard.


One of the puppies managed to change from boy into girl overnight, so we'll have to keep her because nobody wants bitches. We already decided to keep D (for David or Dammit) Louis. As small as he is the third puppy already secured a job. Bashi will raise him as a chicken protector for his mom's poultry at the lands.

Stones

We finally seem to be able to secure the plot behind the house we rent now. Finalizing all the paperwork will still take time, so we can't really start building our house yet. But there are some things we can or even have to do now. For starters it has to be fenced properly before the surveyor can do his job. So our morning exercises nowadays are collecting stones in the bushy hills nearby - about 160 meters of fencing requires a lot of rock! For mind exercises we draw. After the holidays the garden should be realised on paper, and the last unfinished details of our paper house will be filled in together with Paul. If all goes well we can start the real foundation in February...