Dumelang! Leina lame ke Tumelo. Ke nna kwa Botswana mo Gaborone.
Hi everyone! This past weekend I went to the Okavango Delta, which is the largest inland delta in the world. The delta is supplied by the Okavango river flowing through Angola. Because it is in the rural northern area of the country, I am currently on anti-malarial pills as a preventative measure. However there were almost no bugs because it is still winter time, which was nice. There was six of us, and we took the bus up. We saw a lot of salt pans and the parts of the Kalahari desert. It was a 10 hour ride and we left 5:30 am on Friday from the bus station. We stayed at Old Bridge Backpackers, which was a very nice little lodge next to a river in Maun, where we rented tents.
On Saturday we went on an all day boat cruise of the delta. It was just us and a guide in the boat, and it was unlike any boating experience I've ever been on.
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| cruising along a path in the Delta |
To me the delta was basically like a river in the shape of a swamp. The water is very clean and we could see the clean, sandy bottom (usually less than 6 feet deep) the whole time. It is a massive expanse of reeds and grass, with little pathways going through it. There are many trees around, including palm trees, and we saw many birds.
For animals, we saw quite a few elephants and giraffes. It was very exciting to know that we were truly in the middle of the wilderness and seeing these wild animals at such close proximity.
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| Really close to a wild elephant. This is a young male. |
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| Along the delta. Can you see the giraffes? |
We stopped on an island in the Moremi national park for lunch and also went for a hike. Our guide showed us a lot of things about the plants and animals there. The Okavango was a truly incredible place to see.
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| A Strangler fig tree. It starts growing on another tree and eventually strangles its host tree with its roots which descend down to the soil. |
The next day, we went to a basket weaving workshop. We spent about 3 hours weaving reeds, and I ended up with a little 2 inch circle...it is definitely a lot of work. I think I will use it as a beverage coaster. Our weaving teacher also gave us Setswana names. Mine is ‘Tomela’, as you can see in the sentence at the top of this post.
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| basket weaving |
Then it was back on the bus for a 10 hour ride back to Gaborone. I was impressed with the quality of the roads, most of it was smoother than my hometown, and with a speed limit of 120 km/h on the non-divided highways. The bus driver frequently had to slow down and honk for animals on the road, including cows, donkeys and goats. This trip was a short weekend, but was certainly a worthwhile trip.
As you can see at the top of this post, I have been progressing in my Setswana class some. The introduction at the beginning means “Hello! My name is Aaron. I live in Gaborone, Botswana.”
This week I also went to a Young Adults group. The worship style was definitely an excellent cultural experience. It was vocal only, with everyone standing in a semi circle. The musical style was distinctly African with someone singing out and the rest responding, along with a lot of syncopated clapping. People would take turns going to the front and leading dancing as well. Not exactly easy to follow along with, but I really enjoyed it.
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| the Delta |
