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Hi! It's me... Andrea!
In this blog you can live vicariously through my journey around Southern Africa!
"I shall never forget beautiful Botswana... Botswana"
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Yesterday was one of the most beautiful days I've had... Not only in terms of scenery but of unity of people.
I had convinced Papillon on our way to the camp site to teach me how to paddle a mokoro but based on my skills doing stand up paddling I was not very sure I really wanted to do it but I gave it a try anyway...
We left early in the morning to go on a mokoro ride into the Okavango Delta and spend one night in the wild... Literally!
The Okavango Delta is one of the biggest deltas in the world and it is where the Okavango river from Angola spreads into rivers and channels in Botswana.
After 40 mins in an open air vehicle we finally reached the shore where the mokoro pullers were waiting for us.
My puller was called Papillon and I had him answering all my questions the whole hour 1/2 trip. I learned about his training as a guide and a mokoro puller, his upbringing, his family, we even had a conversation about polygamy and monogamy and our take on it. The ride was very interesting to say the least.
I got to learn some words in Setswana such as "Artsamaye" meaning lets go, "gale buja" = thank you, "masari jio monde"=beautiful woman, "kitumelejo jobona"= nice to see you, Tao bona" =come and see, and "tsamajo bona"= go and see, among many others.
Here are some pictures of my mokoro experience:
Taking the boys with me in my adventure!!!
When the boys left for Hawaii I gave them a kimochi heart, they kept the bigger part and I kept the smaller heart and told them I would take it me with me wherever I went. I also gave them the book "the invisible string" which tells the story of people's heart being united by an invisible string no matter how far away they are from each other. Here I was in the mokoro traveling through a canal that the hippos made so I thought it would be a cool place to get out the adventurous heart and take a picture!
Once we got into the camp I had to set up my tent... With a little help!!!
The pullers set up a nice little bathroom for us...
The rule was that when somebody had to go to the bathroom he/she had to take the roll of toilet paper so others knew that the bathroom was occupied ;-) ... And always remember to throw some sad down after using it!!!
After setting up the camp site we gathered around, listened to the rules and Janet decided that we should all get Delta names. I ran up to three of the guides and they named me "Letatsi" which means sun.
We had pretty much a free afternoon and we all hung out around the camp site, talking and having a good time. Janet did some henna tattoos and some hair braids.
After practicing with the mokoro I spent some time talking to papillon who shared with me the history behind the mokoro, the kind of trees mokoros are made from and why now most mokoros are made of plexiglass instead of wood (pretty much to conserve nature since a mokoro from a sausage tree lasts up to 7 years and uses natural resources and the plexiglass ones can last more than 40 years.) He also taught me about bird nesting and how to tell direction when in the middle of nowhere based on the sun and position of bird nests.
In the late afternoon we went for a nature walk in the wild. First they explained to us what kind of animals we might see and how we need to react in case an animal is ready to attack... With hippos we should climb trees, with elephants we should run to the bushes, with lions... We are pretty much gone! Jajaja
In the walk we saw a lot of bones and carcasses! And not that many animals.
In the pond we saw hippos and throughout the walk we saw many kinds of birds.
Here's Andre, our guide, next to the bones of a zebra!
Stuart from London, Byron, Robyn, Chase, & Claire from Menlo Park, & I during our walk and enjoying the sunset :-)
After the walk came the best part of the day!!!
We had dinner and after that Papillon showed us the stars... We could see the Milky Way right there and the stars were so close... It was spectacular. Papillon pointed out Scorpio and Taurus and explained to us many things about stars and constellations.
After that they had prepared a show for us!
They first started with trivia questions and then they started singing and dancing... It was FABULOUS!!!!
We all sang out loud with them and danced to their tune.
The highlight of the night was the song on the title of this blog... We would come up with new words such as delta, hippos, springbok, sunset, nature walk, mokoros, pullers, Janet, camp site etc and we would sing like this:
"Beautiful delta... Delta... Beautiful delta... Delta... I shall never forget beautiful delta.. Delta
Beautiful tourists... Tourists... Beautiful tourists... Tourists... I shall never forget beautiful tourists... Tourists"
It was just beautiful how we all came together, the pullers, the helpers, all of us enjoying the here and now... Dancing, drinking, and having fun in unity! I loved every second of it!!!!
Dancing two by two
My favorite part if the day is sunrise and sunset and papillon offered to take some of us on a morning walk to see animals and the sunrise! Of course I jumped at the opportuty and by 6am this morning I had packed all my stuff and was ready to go.
On the walk we managed to see a bunch of zebras and a couple of hippos in the water but the most breathtaking part of the journey was the amazingly beautiful sunrise!!! The sun was orange and just fabulous... I just wanted to sit and watch... And I couldn't help but say to myself "enjoy every second of it, this is amazing!!!!"
After the walk we quickly had breakfast and head back...
Janet Planet :-)
Julian in a foot and mouth disease control point!
Now I'm sitting in Elephant Sands writting this in front of a fire overlooking elephants 10 feet away from me... Pictures to come tomorrow :-)
(Well, here's one I just took with my ipad!)
