Daycare Festivities! (Long overdue post)

Although I never seem to have sufficient hours in my days, once a year I always take time to attend the Graduation and year end function at the Kazungula Children's Ark Daycare Centre.  It was formerly known as the Kamadine Centre, and you can read some older posts about them over here on my other page!

I do enjoy visiting these kids, and was actually quite shocked to discover just how little time and energy I've spent on visiting the centre during this past year. That is just the type of year it has been, however...

Apologies to those bloggers who have taken these kids to heart over the last couple of years, and have had absolutely no updates from me in 2010! On that note, I am glad to hear from Mandy (FireByrd blog) that the school she's involved with in the UK, is actually still in contact with the Children's Ark, as part of a cultural exchange initiative she set up!

On arrival, it was heartwarming as ever to be mugged by pint size hugs attached to glittery smiling faces!

The children who attend the centre come from very needy backgrounds, and many of them are orphans. Some are outgoing and attention-seeking, whilst others are withdrawn and quiet... The small miracle of this little daytime sanctuary is that here, kids receive not only three hearty meals a day, but also equally essential doses of individual love and attention, clothing gifts, and a good grounding in pre-school education skills!

At the required age, they graduate from these pre school classes and move up to the local primary school, where they begin their school career in Standard One!

This year, alumni of the Centre, now attending Primary School, were invited to participate in the year end concert, with the school's permission, of course. However, thanks to an over enthusiastic interpretation of attendance eligibility amongst the school children, chairperson Sharon ended up at the Primary School after the first rehearsal - apologising to the bemused head teacher for having unwittingly and unexpectedly emptied out half the school during lesson time!

Here are the very grown up kids from the big school, doing their thing!

After Graduation and Christmas gifts were all over... it was time for a closing prayer, before the food and drinks! I had to leave just as things were getting riotous, though!

The following week all the kids were invited to a Christmas party with a difference! Fifteen Santas were visiting one of the local hotels! I went along to join the fun, and find out what this was all about... apart from the excitement of the Santas, a veritable feast had been laid on for them by Chobe Safari Lodge, and there were plenty of gifts to go around, as well as singing and dancing!

Here's an array of Santas and bouncy children forming a circle, in the midst of which some of the sporting Santas danced around with the little ones - all great fun!

I was rather surprised to discover that all the Santas were women (not sure why I was surprised, but I guess I have ancient preconceptions of Santa as a predominantly male figure!) This event is apparently organised by Santa Goodwill Worldwide, and the multiple Santas visit a couple of towns around the globe each year - bringing gifts, and a bit of Christmas cheer! I believe that Kasane was a slight extra detour from the original route,but the children from the various daycares and orphanages in town certainly had a blast!

Since then, the Festive Season seems to have really kicked in here, and I really think that I have never experienced such a speedy 12 months in my whole life. I will end off here, and hope to check in again before disappearing into the bush for our adventurous Christmas break!

Festive weekend greetings to all reading this!

Summertime Abundance - a couple of milestones

Our camera is back from repairs, and not a moment too soon! On a quick transit trip through Chobe National Park yesterday, I was ever so happy to have it along.

Here are some gorgeous Baobab blossoms. Baobabs around here tend to leaf and flower at individual and unrelated times, and these are the first ones I've seen this season. The flowers are pretty large, but I am not sure if this gives an idea of the scale!

Some warthog piglets have finally been captured on camera...These are not the town warthogs, but the Park dwellers.  Unfortunately during a very complicated and agile retrieval of the camera from its bag behind me on the car seat, I  inadvertently changed some dial settings, resulting in some rather different colour effects!

Here you see one of the babies emulating  its mother, kneeling down in the sand to eat...

Perfect little miniature warthogs...

These two were slightly interested in the strange object leaning out of a car window near to them!

I promise this is the last one. This gives a good idea of the size of the piglets compared to their mother!

This stunning Kudu ran across the road in front of us, and disappeared into the trees. The beautiful greenery is such a relief after the dullness of the dry season...

Here follows an empty photo slot, where I would have put a photo of the amazing scarlet pincushion lilies that flower in the wild at this time of year. Unfortunately, the milestone photo was taken on my phone during camera deprivation time, and needless to say the phone has managed to vaporise all the photos again, before I got round to downloading them! 

I am now off to attend the graduation ceremony of my favourite Daycare Centre in town, and will do an update on the kids later, for those who have been following their progress over the years!

Life is a blur... but an interesting one!

Time is playing its usual tricks on me, but it does tend to really accelerate when travelling is involved!

Being in the far north eastern corner of Botswana, when needing to go on a business trip over to the north western corner of  the country, it's quicker to transit there via neighbouring Namibia then cross back into Botswana again!

Here is the Ngoma border post on our side, which is beautiful and friendly, featuring baobabs, elevated views and the Chobe floodplain. Namibia is on the other side of the river.

I am still really missing The Camera, which will be back next week! My phone has a great camera, but has recently developed an unfortunate habit of randomly vaporising items off its memory card, much to my annoyance! In the interim, we have also remembered that we own film cameras, which are great, despite lacking that instant digital gratification.

The Trans Caprivi Highway must be one of the emptiest, longest, straightest roads in our world. Despite signs warning of elephants, we have never actually seen one here! Elephant dung all over the road attests to their presence, however.

The stunning Silver Leaf Terminalia (Terminalia Sericea) trees are a compelling feature of this particular road at this time of year, annd I enjoyed the stunning natural forests whizzing past the window, as I always do.

 Here we crossed the magnificent Kavango river, which will utimately end up in the waters of the Okavango Delta in Botswana.

After about 500 kilometres, four sets of border exit/entry forms and the usual giant inch-wasting stamps in our passports, we arrived at our destination:  the small town of Shakawe, back in Botswana.

After attending to the work part, we went out with our friend on her boat for sundowners on the river, now re-named the Okavango.

Next day we reversed all the border formalities and returned to Namibia, staying over night at Ngepi Camp alongside the river (Kavango once again!).  Our Tree House, being built on a barrier-less deck, within a tree, right over the river, was just beautiful. I live for spaces which are as free and open as this. Due to the 42 degree celsius (107F) and more temperatures that afternoon, this riverine spot was a cool haven...

Next day, same road, more forms filled in, and back in Botswana. Ready for a Tuesday back at work, and a short week. Here is a repeat photo of my favourite 4 country signpost as one arrives from this border post, mainly for those who may have started reading this blog later than others! For me, it captures the border town spirit...

Rainy Season Update: up till Wednesday, not much had changed since my previous post - sweltering heat, and a few threatening clouds, followed by some scattered showers to drive the humidity level right up.


On Wednesday afternoon I took this photo behind our office, of a stormy African sky ready to explode, and pretty soon afterwards, (hope the little school girl got home in time) we had a storm the likes of which I have never experienced in my years in this area.

Horrendous winds and driving rain for over an hour, left most of us in a soggy stage, with several less sturdy roofs being blown off. So, I feel that I can finally report that the rainy season has started!


The morning after the storm, about half the town's computers and fax machines landed in our workshop... the first lightning victims of the season. Being a small town, we could tell exactly where the worst devastation had been, by observing whose equipment arrived. Nature has given us a good reminder again. As for us, the living area of our house has a coating of mud over the floor - hardly surprising, since it is just a glorified verandah!

In the midst of this chaos,we had to leave town again - urgently needed to redo storm damaged netwok cabling at a remote site office a couple of hundred km south, and while in the area we overnighted at Elephant Sands to realign their satellite dish and reinstate their internet - pushed out of line by elephants, what else?! A gorgeous sunset and herds of elephants searching for pretty much non existent water went unphotographed due to camera issues. The waterholes desperately need refilling by rain...

Warthog Update: On Thursday I spotted the first litter of utterly adorable, miniature warthog piglets trotting around with their mother! Unfortunately, on both occasions I was driving in traffic, on my own and was totally unable to take a photo. Watch this space. They are seriously tiny, and cute!

That's it - I think this is a snapshot of a fairly typical 2 weeks in our full and crazy life. The distances, extremes and closeness of nature and so on do make for interesting times - just about all the time. Weekend greetings to all reading this! I'll be back when I can..

More Parsley Than Cash

I was wandering around the garden recently, when the More Parsley Than Cash thought  breezed through my mind .. We may be temporarily broke, but we do have an amazing abundance of parsley growing in our garden, as well numerous other countable blessings!

In fact, this month of enforced moderation has been great for rediscovering just how little one really needs, in the material sense. I'm enjoying cooking with all our fresh herbs, giving away the parsley, and generally appreciating all the simple things at the moment...

These roses are growing in our experimental worm-garden out the back. I love the texture of the Mopane bark behind the flowers.

Time for some seasonal updates:
Migratory birds: In my last post, I anticipated the arrival of our pair of Paradise Flycatchers, who like to appear in our garden on the 9th of October every year. On the morning of the 9th, right on schedule, I was overjoyed to spot the flash of a long, cinnamon coloured tail in the trees, and to hear their chattery calls, absent for so long! I've become extremely attached to these birds, and their annual re-appearance means a lot to me.

Research tells me that the same birds come to the same place, every year! I can't post an image as any of my photos are just tiny specks - very hard to capture!

The Weather: I'm not going to dwell (too much) on the usual southern african complaint regarding October. In a nutshell: It's ferociously hot, and we are waiting for the rainy season to start after several months without a drop of rain. Traditionally, this is a time of year to be patiently endured: temperatures and tempers flare, bush fires rage, and all this against a backdrop of parched soil, and glaring blue skies. It does really make you  appreciate the miraculous springtime greenery on all the trees, defying the baked-dryness below.

Here are some buffaloes on the road to work - returning from an early morning visit to the river

Being a riverine town, we are luckier than others in the country right now, of course. Our river is beautiful and cooling, plus the bush fires and haze of October do produce spectacular sunsets. Thank goodness for our boat, which is our ticket to freedom on the water, and our saving grace at this time...

Murphy's Law: Several of our appliances, with their usual impeccable timing have recently chosen to terminate their services. Worst of all has been the appearance of an inscrutable electronic ERR message on our camera, which has now been sent off to South Africa for emergency repairs. While we wait for it to come back, we are having a slightly aperture-free time, only now having phone-cameras, and our small point and press digitals.

Interestingly some experiences can be better without the camera. On the river last weekend, we came across a group of otters sitting on the rocks, munching their freshly caught fish - and simply enjoyed watching them through the binoculars - instead of  through a camera viewfinder, wishing madly for a zoomier lens!


The level of the river: If any readers would like to note how the level of the river has dropped, here is a photo of my favourite ex-semi-submerged palm tree, which is now a fully visible long-stemmed palm tree, growing out of a river bank! Older photo from earlier this year, on the right.

The bunch of bananas: (having done nothing since monitoring began in June - See previous blogpost here) has suddenly put on a growth spurt. No need for a photo as it still looks identical, only with fatter bright green bananas. The tree, however has fallen over. We suspect it was already weak, and has been jumped on  just one too many times by baboons... Despite propping it up, it seems to be suffering from some type of waterlogging and looks very ill. We are considering harvesting the bunch, in case the tree does not make it. Hopefully the fruit will then ripen in a baboon free enviromnent, controlled by us!

The Dogs and Cats: A couple of weeks back, our local Vet dropped by my office, uttering something like this:  Bye...off to the States... back just before Christmas.. Hope your animals will be fine! Naturally, later that same evening, it came to pass that we discovered Smokey- the-dog had been bitten by 'something' hideous, and he was in a bad way. After a worrying time, administering some bush remedies, and praying for him to make it through the night, our tough dog made a full recovery thanks to telephonic advice and over the counter medicines from our pharmacy. A half chewed up cobra was found in the garden, revealing the identity of the inflicter of the bite.

We wondered if Smokey might finally have learned his lesson regarding tangling with cobras?

Unfortunately, this question was answered far too soon...last night he was spat in one of his eyes by another spitting cobra, but that is an old, familiar trouble and very easy to fix. I am so pleased that we have been confined to base this month, in order to deal with all the dog/snake dramas round here!

In case I have not stressed this enough, it is H O T. It has been up in the forties celsius regularly. The intelligent cats are dealing with it by sleeping their days away, sprawled out under the fans.

 I could also now write a book about how to introduce a new cat to a territory filled with other cats, and how this has broken every rule set down in the online guidelines I consulted back in April! However, I can finally report that the grey newcomer and his territorial brother have broken new grounds in their reconciliation program!

Connie-the-dog has had her first haircut using her special Australian sheep shears, specially posted to her by Peter and Bernie in Australia! I think she looks rather fetching (and a lot cooler!) This photo is taken in the orchard, during our afternoon walk.

The Warthogs: They are also trying to hide from the October weather. This one is risking having his snout driven over when the absent vehicle returns, but does not seem too worried. I think this is one of last year's ex-piglets. I haven't seen any new piglets yet, for this season, but watch this space!

Even being a boring stay at home, I don't seem to have had time enough to post more often on the blog, although I seem to have a lot to say this time!

If you made it all the way to the end, thanks for sticking it out, and do accept some slightly parched, midweek greetings from October-land, where heavy overcast skies are starting to build up...

God's Window (and many other places!)

I think we've been back from our trip to South Africa for about 2 weeks already - this blogspot is definitely overdue for its customary mix of drive-by shots and random notes..

Firstly, a typical ridiculous blogger's shot, taken in the pre-dawn blur!On departure from here - our GPS depicting the essence of a road trip in our part of  northern botswana. I do enjoy this symbolic representation of the open road round here... On setting forth, she instructs us to "Drive 489 kilometres South" and promptly goes to sleep until then - when we reach the traffic circle for our first change of direction! 

Doctor Livingstone, I presume? Having travelled a thousand km  from our spot bordering Livingstone's actual epic journeys, I was intrigued to re-encounter him in the concrete jungle, operating his lawnmower atop this roof. I hope you can see there is even some grass up there for him to mow!

Actually, this is where we met up with Blogger Janet, at the store's coffee bar in freezing cold Jo'burg. It was a bit difficult to place her in the city with a spotless vehicle, (last seen travelling dustily around Botswana and Namibia).

*I have now learned that there is actually a reason for the strange mixture of Dr L and a lawnmower, but this will have to wait for another blogpost!

Here is one of the reasons we struggle to adapt to cities. Hemmed in by metal boxes, crawling along the highway, and envying the motorcyclist on the left who is about to make his big break ...

After catching up with our city-dwelling family members, we could not wait to escape, and head for the hills... 3 nights in a beautiful stone cottage in the mountains. 

 

Luckily our vacation needs are supremely compatible. The art of fly-fishing combines well with my often neglected reading habit, and we both love any natural, serene location. Preferably a different place each time, of course!

Follwing a stream along the mountainside, we found this lovely waterfall dropping the water down to our level. Pity the wonderful natural swimming pool was way too cold...  More photos of this waterfall over here!

Once again, we hit the road... Just for a complete contrast, note the GPS now showing us contours and forests! A novelty for us table-land dwellers to drive on the curves and gradients.

Doing our essential car servicing is always a good opportunity(excuse) to visit  people and places, and with our travelling miles in the car, it comes round fairly often. In this case we convinced my sister and family to meet up with us in the lovely wildlife area inhabited by our uncle. Always a joy to catch up with family, especially our fast growing twin nephews! 

 

We even breezed into vist Val and KJ, of Monkeys on the Roof fame. Nice to finally see the Roof in real life (it's a magical place).

One of my holiday highlights was seeing God's Window in Mpumalanga. I think this is our fourth attempted viewing/visit in the past 15 years or so, the first attempt being during our honeymoon! Then, and on each successive arrival, my enthusiastic husband has raved about the amazing view, and I have been confronted with nothing but a solid blanket of impenetrable mist. 

Over the years, I have therefore become very keen on seeing it with the misty curtains drawn back. This time we were lucky - and I think it was 100% worth it!! I do hope this photo does it a bit of justice.

It is always good to be home, and at the risk of making this blogpost impossibly long, I just have to insert a homeward bound roadscape again. Here the road ahead is almost obscured by bushfire smoke, while brand new green leaves liven up the wintry tones of the dry season.

The dry season is now heading for its worst phase - October is a month to be endured as the temperatures soar, waiting for the Rains to come. At the same time, so many of the trees are miraculously bursting forth with greenery, yet since about March,  not a drop of rain has fallen!


Equinox has come and gone, and I have seen the first advertisements for Christmas products and events............ But for now, the next expected milestone is the arrival of the migratory Paradise Flycatchers in our garden. We won't be going anywhere for a while, so perhaps my blog will become more frequent than its current monthly status?!


Mid week greetings to all reading this, from the hot, dry dustiness, tinged with green!

Hot, Dusty, Dry Season, Driving around the place...

Spring apparently lasted about two whole days, and we are suddenly into Summer! Last blogpost a couple of weeks back, we had been travelling 300km further south where the climate is more extreme, and gets influenced by cold fronts from South Africa - which will explain the un-Botswana sounding minimum temperatures I shared, while passing through that desert-like region in a strangely chilly mood around sunrise... Those were indeed the true temperatures though, for those who were very surprised! As soon as the sun rises, it heats up rapidly, of course, though!

Lately, however, driving to work in the morning is around 18 C ( 64 F) and in the afternoons it is already building up to the late thirties (over 95F). It will get hotter and hotter now until the blessed relief of the long awaited rainy season around November.

Apart from weather, there's not a lot to report right now, so once more making something out of nothing much, here's a virtual drive around some of our daily routes.

Just outside our office I found this family of warthogs almost using the zebra crossing!

I have witnessed them a couple of times doing the genuine Abbey Road impersonation, but at such times I am usually either driving, or lacking a camera!

We have't had much elephant traffic lately, but here's one who was just passing by as we drove to work the other day.

The baboons scatter madly in all directions as one drives past. I am hardly ever quick enough to get a decent photo of them, so here is one of my typical shots featuring rapidly disappearing wildlife!

My favourite baobab on the road to work, in the early morning. In its leafless state, a perfect symbol of the dry, dusty season.

After locking up our shop in the evenings, sometimes we feel the need to drag ourselves a few steps over the road to one of the riverside lodges - where we soothe away the day's stresses with a sundowner!

If we decide to skip this option and go straight home, our faithful cats greet us by rolling around enthusiastically in the dust. Due to this habit, their sparkly white areas are transformed at this time of year into a grubby brown!

Going for a walk alongside the orange orchard is an amazing experience at this time of year. Living right next door to a citrus orchard in full blossom is truly magical, with the masses of trees literally exhaling  the gorgeous aroma into the air around us. Perfumed September air - yet another advantage of living in a tiny rented corner of a farm, and enjoying the benefits without any of the hard work!

Many of the migrant birds are back, and our disappointing bright green bunch of bananas looks exactly the same as it did about 3 months ago.. Other than that, the overwhelming impression is of heat and dust!

I must now go and pack, because, yes, we are off on our travels once more! Heading south for a week's break. Early weekend greetings to all!!

Roadscapes in Late Winter

More than a month since I last checked in here! I expected to have lost all my 'followers' due to being an absent blogger, but hello to a few new ones, and thanks to the rest of you for sticking around! It has been the craziest, busiest month, and now without internet at home, I have not had a spare moment at work to even think about blogging... 

We've been spending a bit of time on the road as usual, as well as opening up our new shop, and enjoying a visit from Janet of Baked Beans Jubilee blog fame! I even have a half written blog post all about a special trip we did in mid-July, but I have not even been able to select any photos for it yet, so I thought for now I would post some impressions of our part of the world in late winter, seen mostly from the car window. More or less making something out of nothing much!

The beautiful golden grass at this time of the year...

Last weekend we took off to an old favourite location, Elephant Sands, escaping from our busy 'town' existence. It is a wonderful place to relax when not busy with tourists, and we enjoyed it so much we stayed another night, despite the conspicuous absence of any elephants this time round. We saw many waterholes along the road that are still full of fresher water, and this is first choice for them rather than the brackish  water here at the moment.

View from 'our' dining table, out towards the almost dry waterhole.

The thatching season has now begun, and the temporary thatch harvesting villages have sprung up on the roadside. After several years of driving through Botswana, it's interesting to note the changing society. Nowadays cheap japanese imported Toyotas mingle with the donkey carts at the temporary villages.

Due to our impulsive decision to stay on, we had to leave early on Monday morning,and arise horribly early for the 2.5 hour drive to get back to work, departing just before sunrise. This area has a slightly more extreme climate, and at the tail end of a cold snap emanating from further south, it was absolutely freezing outside. Our car showed minus one celsuis (30.2 F) as we left.

The roadworks with their eerie white mounds, are studded with surprising golden sunflowers, (presumably the seeds that fall off the transporter trucks from the sunflower fields further north). I had to stop and get out to photograph the brave yellow things, despite it being only 2 degrees outside (35.6F)!!

I find this road north incredibly beautiful, no matter how many times we travel on it, and love to try and capture all its moods. Here is a typical view..

Bushfire season has already started - those thatchers need to work fast to harvest all the grass in time! Here is a section that has now been burnt. As soon as the rainy season starts, this stretch of bush will burst forth in a profusion of green!

Below on the left is a statuesque, leafless Mugongo Tree, typical of this area - which we never seem to recognise in summer when they are covered in foliage! I still need to do some research on this interesting tree, and do not seem to get round to it! Bush fire in progress in the background...

A couple of hours, two degrees of Latitude further North, and we are almost home  - only a bit late for work due to a puncture! The car thermometer was already registering almost 20 degrees C (68F)outside at this point - extremes, indeed!

Have a look out of the car window, at the incredibly shaped branches of the Mukwa trees, which signify closeness to home...

Monday was already long ago, and another week has now flown by! I have to end of right away, as we are doing a quick overnight trip across one of our multi borders - this time to Zimbabwe.

Happy weekend greetings to all!