This weekend I’ll be chilling’ in Gabs so I figured a blog entry about all the excitement of last weekend is long overdue. Last weekend the crew travelled to Khama Rhino Sanctuary in Serowe. We woke up early Saturday morning, packed lunches, breakfast for Sunday, and basically all other food laying around that could be consumed during the long bus rides to and from Serowe. I hate to say that my stomach was giving me some problems from the Ethiopian food the night before, so I took every digestive relief pill Kaitlin had in stock (thank god she is a nurse and essentially a walking pharmacist). It seems that the only thing I can eat without getting an upset stomach is top ramen, veggie burgers, fruit, and eggs. I do not have a digestive stomach made of steel, which seems to be necessary when abroad. But because I love food so much, I just put up with the discomfort to enjoy the international flavors.
We got to the bus stop and surprisingly found the bus to Serowe with ease. The bus station is pure chaos, and because we stick out like sore thumbs, we get bombarded by people who yell at us to board buses and taxis left and right. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if we did board a bus that took us to some random village 8 hours away from Gaborone and then we told the driver it was because he screamed in our faces to get on the bus. It’s gotten to the point where we just say NO and walk around to try to find places on our own. I guess I can’t fault them too much, though, because they are competing with other drivers to get our business, and if they don’t yell while others do, they’re basically shark bait. The bus ride was 4 hours of roller coaster sized bumps. I prefer window seats so that I can sleep, but trying to sleep against the window on this particular bus was like asking for a concussion. Instead I listened to my IPod for 4 hours and looked at the shrubbery fly by. Once we arrived in Serowe, we wandered around the town to pass the time. It kind of felt like we were in the middle of the desert. We picked up water from the grocery store because we didn’t know if the tap water was drinkable, and got some snacks for the rest of the afternoon. When we found the bus that would take us from Serowe to the sanctuary, we were not thrilled to find out that it was super crowded and there were no seats for us to sit together. Because none of actually knew where we were supposed to get dropped off, it was a stressful ride filled with us trying to make eye contact with each other to figure out where we were and when we should yell for the bus to stop. Thankfully he bus stopped right in front of the sanctuary, which was really fortunate for us because if he had dropped us off just 100 yards down the street, we would have been completely lost. The Rhino Sanctuary was literally in the middle of nowhere (there was nothing but road and dust in eye sight). We entered the sanctuary and went to the main office to check in. After the lady at the front desk gave us sass for not having a car (apparently we were supposed to have a car to enter the sanctuary, oops), we checked into our chalet and somewhat figured out transportation. We would basically have to be specially driven to and from our chalet whenever we wanted to go anywhere since we didn’t have a car of our own. I’m surprised she didn’t charge us significantly extra for that, since I imagine having to tend to a bunch of girls calling at random times needing to be driven around was inconvenient. We tried to be good and called only once to be driven to the restaurant for dinner. The chalet was very nice and well furnished. There were two rooms, each containing two full beds, and a bathroom and small living room. There were tea bags and coffee packs for everyone and a kettle to boil water in. The chalet itself was made of wood and had a straw roof. Apparently the insulation is great during summer, but it is wintertime now and it got very cold very fast. If it hadn’t been for the tea, we would have probably frozen.
After dinner at the park restaurant, we were invited to say hello to some Botswana women who worked for the UN. Our driver (the one who had driven us to our chalet and picked us up for dinner) told us that he has spent some years in the US working at Disney World in the African Adventures area. He was very friendly with us and apparently told other people that we were staying at the park. The women working for the UN mentioned that they would love to talk to us, so at dinner he found our table and invited us to a bonfire. Not wanting to be rude (also fire equaled warmth), we agreed to say hello and stay for a few minutes. The women were having dinner around the fire. We talked about out internships here in Botswana and what sorts of things we’ve been doing around the country. The women were friendly, but they wanted us to stay for longer so that we could talk more. Unfortunately, we had scheduled a game drive for 6:30 am the next morning and wanted to get a full nights rest. When we tried to tell the women that we had to get to bed, they began to get huffy with us. They said that we were not living it up like Batswana, and that we were letting our “American stress” prevent us from having a truly good time. We felt bad, but we needed to leave. Eventually Julia took charge and got the driver ready to go. I felt bad, but at the same time I don’t think I have ever dealt with pushier women. They were being welcoming and wanted us to have a good time with them, but they didn’t understand that we were appreciative but had to leave. I think they were the exception to the otherwise very friendly Batswana we have encountered.
When we got back to the chalet, we were all freezing. I was wearing leggings, sweatpants, a t-shirt, a long sleeved shirt, a scarf, and my large bear sweater. After having a cup of tea, we called it a night and headed to bed. Much to our delight, our beds had thick and heavy comforters. Just to be sure no part of me got chilly during the night, I slept with my winter hat on.
The next morning we woke up bright and early for the game drive. Because it was so cold outside, we all took our comforters off the beds in the hopes that we could take them with us on game drive. When our driver arrived at 6:30 sharp, we asked if it was ok if we took the comforters with us, and she said that was no problem. As we boarded the truck, we were eager to see rhinos, but I think we were equally nervous that we wouldn’t see any. Several people told us that because it was wintertime, the rhinos sometimes stayed out of sight, and that it was possible that we wouldn’t see any on the drive. Even the driver said that because of the cold the rhinos would be harder to find, but that she would try her hardest to find some for us. For the first 45 minutes we just drove around the sanctuary without seeing any animals. Despite the cold, it was amazing to see the sun rise. It was a sight straight out of the Lion King. I tried to take as many pictures as possible to capture the sun just rising, so hopefully once I edit them all, I’ll have a good one to show everyone. As we continued to drive around, all of us were quietly intent on scanning the sides of the road for rhinos. Suddenly I saw something gray amidst all the dry brown shrubbery. My first thought was “that’s strange, there aren’t any other grey rocks around here” and then I realized that I was probably seeing the side of a very large rhino. I called out for the driver to stop and that I saw something. She backed up and lo and behold there was a rhino about 25 yards away from us. As it began to move, we saw two other rhinos with it. The driver told us that they were female white rhinos and that if we got lucky we would see the bull rhino, the male to whom the females belonged. We got lucky and within a couple of minutes the bull rhino came lumbering out of the bushes. He was HUGE. I never imagined rhinos could grow to be that big. They kept their distance for a few minutes, but eventually began to walk closer to us. The three female rhinos stayed together, and the bull rhino followed behind them. The driver told us that if the females strayed too far, or got too close to something it considered a threat, the bull rhino would herd them back to him, or attack whatever he deemed threatening. It seemed like the rhinos were posing for us; they just stood there and looked at us for at least 10 minutes. Eventually they crossed the street, at which time I got a great picture of the bull. He looked almost as big as the truck we were in (which was big, we needed to climb into it with a small ladder). After that, I didn’t care if we didn’t see any other animals; I was content.
We continued to drive around for about another hour. We saw more impala and kudu, gnu wildebeests, springbucks, and wild dogs in the distance. At the very end of our game drive, we saw two more female rhinos playing in the dust. They seemed smaller and younger. We took a few more photos and then went back to the chalet. We got our things together and drove back to the front office. After checking out and thanking everyone for an amazing time, we began our journey back to Gabs. Thankfully, instead of having to wait on the side of the road for a bus to come by, one of the drivers from the sanctuary was taking a combi in the direction we were heading and offered to take us to a bus stop. When we got there, we befriended some local children who were playing by the bus stop. They played hide and seek with us, and wanted us to take their pictures, which we happily did. They were very cute and giggly. A woman who was also waiting for the bus told us that they were calling out to their other friends “whites are here, whites are here!” Apparently they don’t see white people often, and when they do it is a source of excitement.
Our bus came and took us back to the bus station in Serowe. We picked up some food for lunch and boarded a bus for the 4-hour ride back home. For some reason, the ride back seemed significantly longer than the ride to Serowe from Gabs. I’m sure we were all just really tired and eager to be back in the apartment. Unfortunately, the entire ride back our ears were graced with blasting church music, rap, and strange techno. When we arrived in Gabs, we practically ran off the bus. We made a quick stop at the Fruit and Veg Market to pick up some dried fruit and drinks then we took a taxi back to UB. The dried bananas I bought were tasty and super cheap. I hope to make another trip back to the store to get more fried fruit.
The next day, Julia and I took one of our off days and didn’t go to work. Sleeping in was glorious, especially after our 6:00 am wake up the previous morning for the game drive. After a late breakfast and some lounging, we got dressed and walked to the Main Mall for some souvenir shopping and lunch. The main mall is really cool because of all the little booths with handcrafted items lining the main walkway. Also, there is usually upbeat, cultural music playing loudly at the booths. After lunch, we visited the local Eco-Friendly Recycling center where we toured their organic garden, community-recycling center, and “green” gift shop. Everything sold there was made from recycled materials. There were very cute little trinkets and jewelry. We spent some time looking around, and then headed back to UB to hang out before everyone else came home.
This week I spent a lot of time in the HIV testing caravan, which was interesting for several reasons. I saw some people who tested positive for the first time, which was both saddening and eye opening. I was expecting the people to react hysterically. Even though the ARV drugs make having HIV no longer a death sentence, it still is a huge life changing moment to test positive for the virus. The majority of the people who were positive just sat there and quietly listened to the instructions for the CD4 count and viral load tests. One women even seemed in denial of the fact that her test clearly read positive. The most common and shocking trend I noticed was that the majority of people testing were women who did not know the status of their partners. Although knowing your HIV status is hugely important, equally important is knowing the status of your partner. This is especially true if the partner is not being faithful, an unfortunately prevalent situation here.
I also spent time in Mother Child Care. I have become very close to the nurses, and was made aware of the nurses’ feelings when I returned to work on Tuesday and the nurses told me that they missed me and were bored on Monday when I wasn’t there with them. I only have two more weeks here, and I think saying goodbye is going to be bittersweet. Meeting them and becoming their friends has been wonderful, but knowing that I may never see them again will be hard.
