Weekend Wanderings

From wool to worship, this weekend proved to be slightly more adventurous than the last, featuring less mall hopping and more village hopping. After another long hot week of classes, Ani and I went Friday to the village Odi about twenty minutes outside of Gaborone with two fellow CIEE-ers (Sam and Nancy). Odi is known for a group of women who weave beautiful wall-hangings, table clothes, etc. many of which depict pictures of Setswana stories or convey messages about their village and Botswana as a whole. Because it was so close to the capital, we took a cab on the way out. Unfortunately, while the cab driver knew where Odi was, neither he nor we knew exactly where we were going and after haphazardly following some signs:

Sign: Odi Weavers

We ended up on a dirt road with these fellows:

Botswana’s main inhabitants

And managed to bottom out our taxi driver’s car, which proceeded to make an ominous clanking noise as we got directions from the inhabitants of Odi. Despite these difficulties we found the location and were able to do a small tour of their place. The women hand-dye all the wool on the site and then turn it into yarn before weaving.

The workplace

Weaving

Our guide, demonstrating yarn-making

Odi itself is a small little town, which was covered with happy yellow flowers and goats.

Featured: Flowers and Goats

We managed to catch a combi back into Gabs (hopefully sparing our poor taxi driver’s car) and once more successfully negotiated public transport back to UB. That evening we attended the birthday party of Isabelle (CIEE student)’s friend Bruno. Bruno’s Motswana so we got to meet many of his friends and the party was a hit. Surprisingly cameras here are ridiculously expensive. Phones are cheap, but cameras can be over $100 – that’s US dollars. As such, Isabelle and I (or rather our cameras) ended up being quite a hit at the party. The whole thing turned into a well-photographed dance party. J

Learning a Setswana line dance

As usual, I was a dancing fiend-and by that I mean hopeless

The next day we went with Bruno to his village, Molepolole, which is about an hour’s bus ride (not combi, but actual bus) out of Gaborone. Once there we visited the kgotla (if you remember, that’s the main public governing place in most villages in Botswana. Everyone gathers while the chief presides and decisions about the village are made somewhat democratically – more on that in the post “Sites and Safari”).

Molepolole’s totem is the crocodile, which is why they are painted on the walls.

We then went to Bruno’s house, met his family and then were shanghaied by a group of guys renting on Bruno’s parents’ property and given a highly enthusiastic tour of the town. In between their proposals and efforts to get us to agree to house them in the US, the guys took us to a place known as Kobokwe’s Cave or Livingstone’s Cave. The cave used to be a place where witches were left, as overnight they would be swallowed by spirits and taken to some form of hell. However, Livingstone (remember him? J) decided to disprove this by staying the night in the cave. When he wasn’t taken by the spirits he gained a number of converts to Christianity.

Fun Fact: this cave is, in fact, rather high up the side of a hill. So, we ended up doing an impromptu hike, which ended up being okay, despite the lack of appropriate footwear.

Climbing up the hill

The cave itself

Then we visited the royal cemetery where former chiefs of Molepolole are buried, including one of the three chiefs who went to England to ensure Botswana was not overtaken by South Africa (“Great Beginnings in Gaborone” – I’m becoming quite self-referential, I’m afraid).

Cemetery

And finally we also saw the site where one of the chiefs stashed his weapons prior to his defeat of the Boers when they attempted to invade.

Not featured: weapons.

Alas, while the guns and cannons may have left, the area proved itself to still be perilous because both Ani and I managed to step on thorny sticks that not only penetrated my wimpy flats, but Ani’s tennis shoes. Puncture wounds were sustained, but we’re likely to survive.

Unrelated to these terribly injuries, our final stop was the Molepolole hospital, the largest in Botswana.

Sunday we stayed in Gaborone, but woke early to attend church at the Church for All Nations. Everyone was incredibly welcoming (we were literally greeted by every church member-something they do for every visitor) and the singing was great. The whole service had an energy to it, with people dancing while they sang and really participating in the hymns. Though I’ve not converted, I had a very good time.

Starting next week, we are all moving to do a week-long home stay in the village of Mochudi. Mochudi is one of the most traditional villages in Botswana, which means we’ll be getting a very different experience than the one we have here in modernity-focused Gaborone. Although Botswana has a lot of expanding and contracting families (meaning that the number of people living in a house at any given time can changed based on whether or not people are at school, at the cattle post, or living with other relatives), at this point my family looks like this:

Mom: Mmathebe Sebolawe-self-employed
Granny in her late 60s
26 year old son, unemployed but lives mostly somewhere else
11 year old boy
8 year old girl

I also have:

Electricity
Outhouse
Bathroom is also outside
In house piped drinking water

I’m very excited to see how it goes! However, that also means that I probably won’t post again until after the week is out, so look for me again sometime after the 21^st! In anticipation of this delay, Happy Valentine’s Day! (we like to end with a little poetry now and then J)