Cultural Excursion Weekend

So this weekend the international office planned an overnight trip for us, which was great. I was really happy to get a chance to see some of the villages surrounding Gaborone. First we went to see some rock paintings from about 2000 years ago. I guess the people would gather around a fire and talk and dance and then smoke "herbs"(as the guide said) and would draw pictures of what they saw on the cave. Mostly it was pictures of giraffes and other animals with the occasional person thrown in there. After that we went to see a tree that David Livingstone (one of the big Europeans that came into Africa, I believe he brought Christianity to much of the continent) camped under. As we were leaving a whole bunch of village children came up to us and we took pictures with us. They LOVED having their picture taken and always wanted to get in front of everyone else in the picture. They were all so adorable!

From there we had lunch at a dam. It was so weird to finally see water!! We had a really nice catered lunch, which shockingly included a salad! But otherwise it was the standard chicken and rice etc.

After lunch we got to go to a large village (one of the 10 biggest in the country) and meet with an elder and the chief. They were really funny and great.

The Kgosi (Chief) kept on pretending to marry different girls in our group.

The compound included a cattle pen for all of the lost cattle of the village as sort of a lost and found. It also included the courthouse and some old houses. After meeting with the chiefs we walked along a river gorge which was really just beautiful. Very large rocks and cliffs with water trickling through them. It was gorgeous.

When we got there a wedding party was taking pictures and asked us to be in a picture. All of the neighborhood children saw we were there and followed us as we walked through the gorge. It was really funny. Then we went to our "hotel". I slept in a traditional hut with a thatched roof on a thin mattress on the floor with about 12 other girls. At night we had a bonfire and some old women and an old man did a traditional dance for us. For breakfast Sunday I had my first fat cake which was like a donut but waay better. When we arrived at the game reserve they had mimosas waiting for us! So that day we went to a game reserve where we saw lots of springbok, ostriches, elephants, warthogs and even 2 cheetahs.

It was really fun and we were in one of those big jeeps that made so much noise. It felt so adventurous! We had a really great lunch, probably the best meal I've had here so far. It was right on a lake that had a sign that warned against hippos and crocodiles. Didn't see any up close though.