Everything and Nothing In the Same Moment

It is 6:45 on a Sunday evening on the African Savannah. The sun is quickly setting on the horizon, and the whole landscape is glowing. The sky has a beautiful orange/redish glow, and you can see some stars beginning to emerge higher up in the sky. An elephant is bathing in a watering hole just a couple hundred meters away. Not far off in the distance, a lion and lioness lounge in the golden yellow grass, just having finished eating their afternoon zebra kill as other zebras watch from afar. In the fields behind the watering hole, hundreds and hundreds of springbok graze in the tall grasses of the african savannah. ---This is an example of the beautiful landscape I have been witnessing over the past week. This scene was actually what we saw on our first game drive, in Nxai Pan National Park.

I ended my village stay last Saturday morning. The previous evening, all of the families in the little village of Sexaxa gathered together for a small party...we ate and danced and had a lovely time together. My homestay family was so nice to me throughout the whole experience. My mother, Kerileng, was constantly telling me that she was sad that I had to go, that she was going to be bored when I left the family. I am extremely glad that I was able to experience a third homestay in Botswana...even if there were tons of awkward moments when I couldn't speak Setswana. I feel as though this last experience really completed it all--having lived in three completely different settings. My Fort Dauphin homestay was the most westernized, and I was able to see how a family with educated adults were able to live in Madagascar. During the Faux Cap village stay, I was able to witness extreme poverty. Seeing how these individuals were surviving day by day, it really gave me a better understanding of life under extreme conditions, and that poverty is caused by a lack of many different resources (access to education, health care, decent soil for farming, clean water, etc.) and as my dear father would say "Location, Location, Location." My stay in Sexaxa really completed the puzzle. I would not say that this family was living in extreme poverty, but they were definitely not well off (monetarily speaking). Although they still lacked electricity and running water, there was an available (and clean) water source in the center of the village. It was truly amazing to me how much of a difference that one factor plays in the livelihood of an area. Also, the people of Sexaxa live relatively close to a larger city, and they are exposed to a much greater level of diversity (among other individuals and lifestyles). I was sad to have to leave my family, but the end of our village stay meant the beginning of our week long excursion!

We left the village on Saturday afternoon and camped for the evening in Maun. It was nice to have a shower and my own place to sleep (since I had been taking baths outdoors with about a liter of water and sharing a bed in a mud hut with Kerileng). On Sunday morning, we departed Maun, and headed towards our first destination, Nxai Pan National Park. It was in Nxai Pan where we saw the majority of the landscapes and mega-fauna that I described in the opening paragraph. We arrived in Nxai Pan in early afternoon, set up camp, and went out on our first game drive. Riding around the park in two big safari trucks, we saw tons and tons of wildlife. We spent hours driving around, watching 1) tall elegant giraffes gracefully gallop along the landscape, 2) many types of antelope (springbok, impala,etc) pronk back and forth through the tall grasses, 3) elephants slowly make their way from tree to tree, and 4) zebra and wildebeest playfully fight for access to the watering hole (and of course, much much more). Pictures to come soon!

Our camp team was awesome! We had a couple of guys travelling with us who cooked all of our meals. It was neat to see how they were able to prepared food for us for a week without adequate refridgeration and on a camp fire...and not normal campground food either. We ate well--potato salad and hard boiled eggs, rice and chicken with summer squash, pasta with a delicious meat sauce, etc, etc. They were quite creative with the meals, and we were all grateful to have one last week of good food (this week I begin cooking for myself!). We camped in special hyena proof tents (which were huge and very very sturdy) and slept on nice thick mattress pads provided by the safari team. Main point: we slept and ate well, and therefore were always happy...even if there were hyenas howling and lions prowling close to our campsite in the night.

**Side Note: I was unaware before I came to Botswana, but the second most formidable creature in Southern Africa is the hyena. The spotted hyena has a minimum weight of 135 pounds and are known to decapitate campers in the night.

We spent two days at Nxai Pan doing two game drives a day. On the third day, the group left the park and headed towards a lovely little campsite named Planet Baobab. This campsite had a bar and a pool, so needless to say, free time was well spent lounging around.

Planet Baobab, just south of Nxai Pan, is situated quite close to Magkudigkudi National Park, and more importantly the Magkudigkudi Salt Pans and huge baobab trees. On Wednesday, we travelled to see Green's Baobab, Seven Sisters, and the salt pans. Green's baobab was used as a travelling landmark in the late 1800s. There are still carvings in the trunk from Green's expedition in 1858. The people on this expedition would leave letters in the holes of this baobab for other travellers passing through the area. The second baobab, Seven Sisters, is the second largest tree in all of Africa. We spent the lovely afternoon climbing the majestic baobab and eating our picnic lunch under the huge branches.

**Side Note #2: There are eight different species of baobabs that occur on planet earth. Six of these species are endemic to Madagascar, while there are seven species that actually occur on the island. Mainland Africa shares that seventh species. Australia is the home to the eighth species of baobab, which is also endemic to the continent.

Our afternoon was spent gazing upon the vast salt pans of northern Botswana. There is no way that I can adequately describe these salt pans. The best way to describe my experience is to say that while staring out over a large landscape of salt covered sandy soil, I was seeing everything and nothing in the same moment. The salt pans were created many many years ago when the lake beds dried up, and all of the sediment remained on the ground. When walking across the salt pan, you could break through the crusty layer of salt. I loved the crunching sound of my feet while walking across the pan. It was one of the most beautiful, and different, landscapes I have ever seen, and I plan to one day travel to Argentina to witness them again.

We returned to Maun late yesterday afternoon. Today begins a week of ISP preparation, and next Friday, I will commence my Independent Study Project. I don't know exactly who I will be working with or what I will be studying, but I am not too worried about it. All will work out in the end.

Last night was the first time I actually realized that I will soon be living all on my own in the country of Botswana. I will be camping by myself, preparing my own meals, and have my own agenda...AND I AM SO EXCITED! Throughout my entire time studying abroad I have been on the SIT agenda, going to class, being fed by homestay families, etc. This will be the first time in my entire life that I will be living on my own in a foreign country. Today I am going to go and buy provisions...a cooking pot, cooking utensils, plate, cup, bowl, firewood, and food supplies. Oh excitement!

I wish you all a very merry weekend, and I hope to hear from you soon!

erin elizabeth