Born to be wild!

Posted on December 1st, 2006 by Christelle.
Categories: Africa, Botswana.

Hello Again!

I told you the time flies out here; it’s been almost 1 month since my last entry! Bad bad Christelle!

I got my visa extension without any problem and I even got an extra 10 days. I can now stay in Botswana until the 10th of January which is cool because I can celebrate Christmas and New Year in Maun with my new friends.

Let me tell you about my latest visit to the school; always very entertaining those visits…. I start the generator on, switch on the computer and after 15 minutes everything stops… No, no, no!!!!!! No petrol in the generator anymore. And we’re in the middle of nowhere here, it’s not like I can go to the petrol station to get more (the next one is in Maun, 120km away!). So here I am with Pearl, the head of the school, going through the village trying to find someone who has petrol for us. Surely enough, Pearl knew someone who had petrol but there was nobody at home… so since I was “désespérée”, we just help ourselves. Oh, no I’m a criminal now!!!! After our misbehaviour, we’re back at school and I’m back in business… I thought…. Well, hell no! I tried to print a few things and the printer starts to paper jam and paper jam and paper jam: no way to print. I called one of the teachers and she said that the printer doesn’t print since it fell on the floor… “What fell on the floor?” “How?” “When?” “Somebody shoot me now!!!” I spent 1 hour inspecting the printer taking everything out and back in again but couldn’t fix it. Since the school urgently needed a few reports we had created to be printed, I switched to plan B: put all the docs on a USB key and print them in David’s office in Maun (hey, another trip to Maun!!!). I also brought the printer into David’s office; I’ll try to have another look at it there.
It’s almost the summer holidays; school stops on the 24th. Everyone is very excited about the upcoming holidays but not very enthusiastic about that awful machine called a computer… I feel like Don Quixote fighting against the mills! At least I was able to train Thato, one of the teachers, very well. So now I’m sure that when I leave at least one person will know how to switch on the computer, print whatever documents is needed and create new Word documents if necessary; my little contribution to the Moreomaoto Primary School. In December, when the school is closed, I’m probably going to create all kind of forms and documents for the general administration of the village (chief, police, clinic, etc).

Life at camp has been very busy. The camp was full for the first 2 weeks of November and it was hard work. There were groups going all directions: Makgadikgadi pans, Nxai pan, Central Kalahari Reserve, etc. I was lucky; I got to go to the Makgadikgadi pans again, 5 days this time. I helped out with setting the camp (putting up tents, setting tables, making everything look pretty, etc) and the catering. It was hard work sometimes but I didn’t mind; it was great to be living outdoors. It was a bit rough though: obviously no electricity but also no shower! But at some point, I got to shower in the cattle water post with a bucket! It was very “Out of Africa”.

It was all very basic but this little camp very quickly felt like home. On the last day, I went with the clients on the quad-bikes. Brmmm brmmm brmmm… Christelle’s speeding on the salt pans!!! It was great, riding with the wind on those huge empty Moon-like salt pans. You have a feeling of being alone in the world but it’s not lonely though; the emptiness and the wilderness of the landscape fill your heart… Just remembering it gives me shivers! Waow, Waow, Waow!!!! On that trip, we also went to observe some Meerkats; they were so cute. They look very human in their behavior and they are so funny. I could have spent hours watching those incredible little creatures!

Last week, I went to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve for 3 days (to give a hand again). Another very nice place to visit and it’s Cheetah country, those dear cats of mine. I love them! Unfortunately we didn’t see any cheetah… very disappointing but I’m going again next week so hopefully…

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you…I finally got to see my first lions! And I was the one who spotted them… very proud. They were 2 young males, part of the group who keep roaring at night. They are very impressive but so cute! One evening, we heard them just after dinner so we all jump into a car and went on a night drive to track those lions. And we found them: 2 females! They were lying very relaxed in front of the car and we also got a glimpse of the male but he was a bit shy. At a certain point, they started roaring… oh my God! What a power! You actually feel the vibration in your stomach and that was only the females. Apparently if the male starts roaring next to you, it feels like you’re standing next to the bass during a Rolling Stone concert!

It’s quieter at camp now, down to 4-6 clients a day instead of 20. We can all start relaxing and getting some sleep again. December should be quiet so hopefully I can get a few days off to go and visit the Delta. But you never know, David gets a lot of last minute bookings and local people (South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana) will start going on holidays so it may get hectic again at some point… My motto here is “Be prepared for the unexpected” … so I’ll be prepared!

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