Early start at 5.45 for a morning walk through the island. Coops, Brooke, Belinda and Dave were in a group with Lisa and I among with a new poler that arrived last night. His name is Judge, and he is probably one of the funniest men I have met over here yet.
He took us walking through the bush explaining things on the way, although it was very similar to our walk with oracle the night before. Judge is a deep thinker sometimes he just zones out thinking or listening to the sounds around him. He spent a lot of the walk talking about how animals assist each other through symbiotic relationships,as if he had some sort of science degree! Later, we learnt that he learns a lot simply from reading. He seems to soak up everything around him. During the walk. Coops was fascinated by the termites, we saw a herd of zebras, some springboks, a couple of wilder beasts a small wild dog, a honey badger, and a large variety of African bird life. No lions or leopards. It was such a hot day, and being such an early start, we started dragging out feet a little towards he end. Judge was adamant to walk back through the long grass, even after we saw a black mamba snake skin! This is the African snake that can kill up to 40 grown men with one bite! I was very nervous about walking through the grass, but judge told not to worry- “snakes are everywhere-There is no way to avoid them! ”
He took us walking through the bush explaining things on the way, although it was very similar to our walk with oracle the night before. Judge is a deep thinker sometimes he just zones out thinking or listening to the sounds around him. He spent a lot of the walk talking about how animals assist each other through symbiotic relationships,as if he had some sort of science degree! Later, we learnt that he learns a lot simply from reading. He seems to soak up everything around him. During the walk. Coops was fascinated by the termites, we saw a herd of zebras, some springboks, a couple of wilder beasts a small wild dog, a honey badger, and a large variety of African bird life. No lions or leopards. It was such a hot day, and being such an early start, we started dragging out feet a little towards he end. Judge was adamant to walk back through the long grass, even after we saw a black mamba snake skin! This is the African snake that can kill up to 40 grown men with one bite! I was very nervous about walking through the grass, but judge told not to worry- “snakes are everywhere-There is no way to avoid them! ”
When we got back to camp it was time for Christmas brunch. We had eggs on bread with venison and kuda (some type of antelope). One of the boys came up with an idea to have egg in a hole- cutting out the middle of the bread and cooking the egg in the middle of like an egg ring. We had some orange juice, tea and coffee.
Then, time for KK presents! I can't believe how organised people were! Out came some Christmas hats, flashing badges, more tinsel- it was awesome! Belinda tookt he role of Santa handing out each of the presents one by one. I wish we had known that the polers were camping with us so we could have organised presents for them also. They were sweet, sitting down watching us open the presents and laughing and smiling when we opened each gift. Some even helped us open the paper. I wish I had taken my pencils or bought some gifts for them.
We were given a 50pula budget to buy our presents, so there were lots of water guns, bags of lollies or chocolates, there were some stuffed toys, and dart guns, there was even a bottle of wine and toilet paper! I got a bright orange scarf, a face washer and a packet of Marie biscuits. It was so much fun to get everyone's toys out and try them out. We went swimming, we read books, we played an epic game of Uno, we had water gun fights- it was such a great day with amazing company, just relaxing in the sun and the shade. We are in Africa! So strange!
We finished the night with a 1 hour Mokoro ride to watch the sunset. The polers were making people bracelets and necklaces out of water reeds and hats made of lily pads. It was a peaceful ride, but At one stage, we all retreated quickly into the river reeds, while the polers were all speaking quietly in the Botswana language. I was nervous, but kept being reminded to out my trust in the locals. Oracle later translated to us that they were hiding as they thought there were some hippos up ahead. We didn't see the sunset that night- it was quite cloudy and we didn't see the beautiful colours in the sky as we have in previous nights.
That night we ate rice, chicken and pep with some sweet potato and pumpkin. Our polers put on a singing and dance show for us, showing us some of their local songs and dances. They were incredible- I loved every minute of their stamping, and chanting. Judge came completely out of his shell singing in the deepest voice and jumping around as if he was a frog wishing for rain. We tried to give a performance back to them by singing some Christmas songs, but we were no where near as talented.
Such a fantastic Christmas. It was sad not being with my family for the day, but i was able to get a message out and felt calm being around such beautiful people. I really do love them!
0°, 0°
No comments:
Post a Comment