Living the Life

Outside of our volunteering we have had plenty of time to relax and explore Maun trying to find things to do. We have been swimming a couple of times at a beautiful lodge with Ruth and her son Charlie. Although only guests are supposed to swim, Ruth has her ways of sneaking us in.

Audi Camp swimming pool

View of the delta

The milkshake and burger at Wimpy was also definitely what the doctor ordered, but we got a slight shock when we walked out to a deserted town. Apparently Maun closes at 4pm on a Saturday!

Nigel makes another appearance

Luckily this didn't include our favourite haunt Bon Arrive, which is a lovely wee cafe/restaurant opposite the airport. There is nothing quite like sitting in the heat reading your kindle and laughing at all the tourists coming out the airport in safari outfits! 

Since Mma Shana has been introducing us to Botswana food we thought we should introduce her to some British food. So what wonderful delicacy did we cook...? Macaroni chesse! Which to be honest we loved after all the beans. 

YUMMM! 

 Last Wednesday night we were expecting our first tip to the hospital- Ruth invited us to play roller hockey in the rink in their garden! The game was short and sweet because poor Ruth was stuck with us in her team and we haven't skated in years. Ruth's house is fantastic, their plot of land is right on the river and their bathroom and kitchen are in separate buildings to the rest of the house. Little bit different to home! 

Skating pro! 

Hockey was never my strong suit

Through Ruth's friends we found out about the local entertainment, Cirque de Burlesque! We managed to get tickets just before it sold out which was lucky because it was amazing. There was dancing and singing and a magician. The circus master told some pretty crude jokes (some of which went over our heads) but the best part was two girls who put on a fire show.

And last but not least, we took a flight over the delta in a TINY plane. The first half an hour was incredible- we saw elephants, giraffe, hippo, antelope and zebra. However, in the last half an hour Katie chundered 3 times and the only thing that stopped Sarah joining her was the fact that there wasn't another bag. But it was totally worth it!!

The delta from above

Elephants!

The chunder vehicle

How are you today? FINE!

For this week and last week we have been staying with a host family. It is nice to sleep in a bed again even if we have to sleep under mozzie nets and be woken up be a particularly loud cockerel. We are staying with a lady called Mma Shana, her daughter Cecie and son Ned. We get along really well with Cecie, who is 15 going on 20. They're introducing us to lots of different foods- beans make a common appearance! It is hit or miss whether the water is working and even if it is, sometimes our shower consists of a bucket of water. We have become a dab hand at local transport, everyone gets taxis everywhere but they act like buses- people share them. It's an odd experience cramming into the back of a taxi with random people! We have made friends with one driver called Juta, who is fab at picking us up whenever we call whilst blasting hip-hop music.

Mma Shana's house

Mma Shana also runs one of the pre-schools we worked at called Little Wings. There are only 5 kids ranging from 18months to 6 years, and the school is run pretty well. The eldest helps to translate what the younger ones are saying. They learn the alphabet, numbers, colours and shapes all in english but they have plenty of play-time too. We eat things like pap and stew with our fingers before the kids take an afternoon nap in the floor.

Rutendo and Bethwell

Abbey

Class time

Play time

Katlo

Hard at work

We also worked at Motse pre-school where there are roughly 40 kids, occasionally split into 2 classes. This was a whole different experience! There was no english spoken by kids or teachers and we were left in charge of chaos when the teachers disappeared. The majority of the kids are adorable but they do fight violently. Even as teachers we fell victim to punches and bites, but this didn't stop us having a great time and trying to teach them Granny's footsteps and duck, duck, goose. The singing and dancing may have been our favourite part- they are all so enthusiastic!

Morning dancing with Chantell, Angelar, Ame, Omaatla and  Masego

Phatsimo breaking it down

Reatile, Shaqcon, Oletang and Nako are very enthusiastic!

Bosele and Sharon

New clothes for the whole class

Chantell is not concentrating

Lions and Giraffe and monkeys....OH MY!

It was safari time...4 nights camping out in the bush with only a torch to protect us from wild animals!
It took 4 hours to drive from Maun to Moremi Game Reserve on sand roads. Along the way there were tiny huts used as houses and livestock was everywhere! Our first proper sighting though was a giraffe which Sarah was pleased about because it meant she won the bet. We were technically camping in a campsite but it was in the middle of nowhere with no fences between us and the animals. Tabi (our guide) instructed us to run into our tent or the truck (whichever was closest) should something dangerous decide to visit us.
Lots of animals visited our camp but one thing we weren't expecting was to be snuck up on by an elephant! They are surprisingly quiet and one night an individual reached within 15m of us whilst we were sitting round our camp fire. The next morning we heard vervet monkey alarm calls and Sarah was right in her element having studied them at uni. We found out later that a leopard had made a kill next to our camp without us even knowing!
One of our favourite moments of the safari was this discovery...

Can you tell what it is? If you can't, don't worry, Katie couldn't see it either!

IT'S A LEOPARD! 

 Our first camp

Camp toilet

Distance between us and the sneaky elephant                                                       

Unfortunately we don't have photographic evidence of the next incident because we were just too busy picking up our underwear from all over camp. Basically, baboons have dicovered a way to unzip tents! We arrived back form a game drive to find our tent collasped and all of our belongings scattered around camp. If it wasn't bad enough that they ate all our toiletries and ripped Katie's bag, they even pooed in our tent! Lets just say we were NOT impressed.

Possible culprits?

Lioness and cub 

 

A house in Khwai village

                               Rickety bridge

Dumela from Botswana

They may drive on the same side of the road as us but that is where the similarities with Britain end. The temperature, wildlife and attitude are SO different. It has been fluctuating between 35 and 40C and we have been munched alive by mozzies, but the laid back and friendly nature of everyone is pretty nice!

So we arrived into a TINY airport in Maun and met Ruth (our project coordinator). For 2 nights we stayed at a gorgeous backpackers right on the river with the first bridge in Maun close to it. We had dinner with some of Ruth's friends, one of which looked slightly like Daniel Craig!

The Old Bridge Backpackers!

First bridge in Maun 

We were shown around Maun and tried some traditional food called Seshwa. We also had to go food shopping for our safari and at this point our D of E skills kicked in....pasta for 4 nights in a row!

Travelling Mishaps

As this is the only night we will spend in a house with internet (for a while at least!), we thought we would take full advantage ie. don't expect such on the ball blogging from now on!
Despite arriving in Joburg safely we had a few mishaps:
- Katie beeped going through security in Edinburgh,
-Sarah's bag was swabbed for substances....
-Tvs and lights on the plane didn't work properly,
- In true style Katie spilt her food all down her front resulting in a burnt finger,
And lastly, whilst going through passport control in Joburg, Sarah's temperature was detected as too high so we were escorted to the airport clinic! Turns out Sarah should take her hoodie off before trying to get into a country.

 Katie and Nigel (our trip mascot) waiting for our delayed flight.

P.S. We have had a fabby day in Joburg, thanks to Naomi and her wonderful family for putting up with us.

Packing!

This first post is going to be very simple as we leave for the airport in about 4 hours and we still aren't completely packed! Please be patient with us uploading posts as we my not always have internet access but we promise we will try to post as much as we can over the next 9 months - even if its just a few pictures every so often!

Trying to pack a bag for 9 months has been a very tricky task! We have been laying out clothes for weeks and the pile had grown to a size where we would have had at least two outfits everyday :p

Yesterday morning we started the enormous task of getting all the essentials plus enough clothes into one bag. As shown in the picture it was not an easy operation!!
As of 9pm we were fully packed and ready to go!

So by Monday we will be in Botswana and starting this amazing adventure of ours! We will keep you posted on our progress but for now, See ya later!!!