Botswana wedding

I had the privilege to photograph a pre-wedding ceremony today in Gabane. I tasted traditional home brew beer, met the elders(men and women) and had the distinct honor of sticking our like a sour thumb. The pictures and video I took were great(i'm not sure on what level) but the experience was awesome. I sat around in the courtyard talking with these old women about their customs and the ceremony while drinking this beer, which honestly wasn't that bad.

each woman dresses in a traditional skirt called a German print(brought to them by the Germans, prior to that they wore animal skin) and a quilt to wrap over their shoulders. The quilt signifies that they have gained the status of married.. they also wear a traditional giant pin that signifies this fact as well. Apparently i was at the groom's home... The women from the brides family arrive to the home, ululating(i think that is what they call it) and singing a song while marching slowly in 2 lines into the home. the song is basically asking "may we enter". It is repeated over and over.. Once they are done with their parade, they all gather under a tree in the courtyard and talk. It was very cool .

I took tons of photos, many of them portraits.

This began at 8 am, all the while, the men sat in a circle outside the home drinking beer out of cups which were hollowed gourds or squash. Not that much different from a Catholic wedding, the drinking at 8 am part. I've never had a beer out of a gourd before..

Here is some video of the procession.. enjoy. Michelle mentioned the beauty of their singing, as experienced at the clinic every morning. This was my first experience, and the video does it no justice... All of the "lalalalalallalalalala" you hear is the women, it is a way of displaying your happiness and joy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00b5Yr8yAfA

Notes for Thursday

Kate has a big assembly at school tonight. big show and dance.. video will follow. It is nearing the end of the school year here and in January, kate and jacob will up to Standard 2 and 7. They are on holiday from dec. 7 to january something.

As stated in the last blog, I head to Gabane tomorrow for a wedding. The place has become my project. I've been there 3 times in the past 2 weeks and have befriended a family, a very big family. They live right next to the shop where i took my first few pictures, and every time I go to town, I always park near the shop and buy a bottle of coke. From there, people become intrigued with my camera, asks me why I am here and then wants a photo. Yesterday I met up with a girl who I took pictures of before out trip to Kasane, her name is Nolitah.. She introduced me to her mom(Joyce), I got pictures of them together and then they invited me to their home to meet the elders. The whole family, aunts ,uncles, sisters, brothers, etc. live on this very small plot of dirt with a small brick home, a traditional hut, and an outhouse. I would venture to say 20-25 people all together.. The photos turned out well, but just the getting into the family and meeting all of them was the experience of a lifetime. they must have liked me, because the oldest woman invited me to take photos of the wedding. Her picture is here, she asked if I would take a pictures of her so that all would remember what she looked like when she died. They couldn't believe what they looked like when i showed them the digital image.

One other note about the experience was the great sense of love, respect and happiness they felt for each other... Particularly the mother and daughter relationship.. It was so natural and sincere. I'll post some of the pictures later, but for now here's a few snapshots...

Also, here's another video from our trip to Chobe. It's a boat ride this time.. if you're getting tired of this stuff, let me know.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMXzrjZ6_Mc

More to follow tomorrow, time to get the kids at school.

chobe trip #2

More from the trip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMTrWkBnGwg

another short video..

here's a short video of michelle pouring a coke... fun stuff. More to write about soon, I've been invited to photograph a traditional wedding on Friday morning in the village of Gabane. I can't wait. All the female elders of the family were making beer in the back yard today, so I think they plan on getting liquored up on friday.. I'll be getting my first taste of traditional beer and some great pictures.. I'll tell you how this all came about with pics in the next entry. Not enough time right now.. here's the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L-ztmdcUj0
If you're looking for pics from chobe, check the last 2 posts.. I'm also downloading another as we speak. it will be up tomorrow... I think

video as well

here's a video too. check out the monkeys!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9mXPLtcYfg

photo slideshow

Here's some photos from our trip. Enjoy!!! Videos to come in the next few days. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhLLTg3ut3g

Cool as all get out!!!!

Well, we are back from the wild at Chobe National Park and what an adventure it was...

I have so much to write about, I don't really know where to start. It was overall a very surreal experience. We drove over 11 hours through small villages, over roads that had no signs, no people, no nothing for hours. Thank God we had no problems. It was such a different driving experience than at home. The highway was a 2 lane road(one for each direction) all the way there. We went north, via Francistown to Nata to Kasane.. the 6 hours to Francistown was scattered with lots of villages comprised of mud huts, grass houses and a few bars. People sit under the sole tree in their yard and talk. There were families riding on buggies pulled by donkeys, a few gas stations and some overnight lodges. We drove behind a funeral procession, which was a huge amount of people stacked in the back of pickup trucks dressed in white.

We stayed in Nata after about a 7 hour drive, which is basically a bird sanctuary. It was quiet, beautiful and the place we lost out Ipod.... No more music for the rest of the drive there and back...We had our own huts and had our first date with malaria medicine and mosquito nets. Pretty cool.

The drive after that was eerie. No people, no villages, no nothing, except for an occassional pile of elephant dung on the highway. The landscape was flat, some green, large sprawling areas of bush, red dirt and an occassional baobab tree. Every so often there would be what they call a "lay-bye", which is essentially a tree and a garbage can( their version of a rest stop). It was beautiful. We arrived in Kasane and stayed in rondavels that were located steps away from the Chobe river. This sounds peaceful, but was very unnerving because along the river were signs telling you to watch your children... hippos, crocs and elephants come to graze here... There were large monitor lizards chilling out in front of Jacob, Kate and Celestes' hut, while in the middle of the night, I awoke to hippos eating outside our hut. Not your Holiday Inn Express. Oh yeah, and were attacked by a group of monkeys again(video to come). They basically took over the area and would let us back in our huts. Every day we took game drives (in our own truck) through the park, and then would venutre back out before the sun went down after Michelle was finished with her seminar.

Michelle and a colleague were in Kasane giving a conference to local health professionals on how to deal with AIDS patients. Apparently, Kasane is one of the worst affected towns in Botswana. It seemed to go well.

While she was in her conference, Celeste and I would pack all the kids in the truck and go 4X 4 ing through Chobe... Chobe is a must for anyone coming to Africa. If you have money to burn on flight, game drives, and lodging(which we all do), i highly recommend it. We were in the park for no more than 10 minutes and came across a group of 25 elephants walking the beach of the river. We saw herds and herds of buffalo, giraffe , all antelope types, crocs, tons of hippos and birds.

2 nights out of the week, we went on boat cruises through the park and were able to take in alot of the sights as well. the landscape of the place seemed desolate in some areas, and teeming with life in others. It was hot, dusty and littered with elephant pooh as far as the eye can see. I will put up a slide show and lots of video in the next few days. In the evening, we would have a "sundowner" , which is term for a evening cocktail, while sitting next to the river. During the drives, we were literally 15 feet away fro herds of elephant and were able to see a whole pack of lions wander down to the river... That was probably the highlight of the trip....

Aside from that, the hotels and swimming pools were great. we spent Thanksgiving by the Chobe River... I think Thanksgiving night was the night we saw the lions..

The people at the hotels were taken by our children(jude mostly). They were so nice and helpful... One of the reception workers walked with me to the grocery store and helped me shop while we talked about all the poverty and AIDS in the city. Not a light hearted discussion, but it made me realize that all the people(mostly white) come to vacation here and never get a sense of what is going on in these places. It made me grateful that we are living here and also made me feel as if I understood the situation a little bit more. Jacob and I took in a round of golf at the lodge, but I had to cut it short.. We had a caddy with us( at his request) who I paid the equivalent of 4 dollars to carry our bags. It wasn't the most relaxing round, the young boy who was from Zimbabwe told me about his poverty, that he hadn't eaten in 3 days, and asked if I could spare an American dollar(the American dollar is apparently worth a million zimbabwean dollars) . He was doing "piece jobs" (part time work) to make ends meet for his ailing mother and to get some food. If you are unaware of what is going on in Zimbabwe, basically the president has run the country into the ground. Due to sanctions, etc. there is no food, gas prices are sky high and people are desperate. They come to Botswana looking for work. Chobe is right on the border so it sees alot of Zimbabweans. As matter of fact, at the local gas station, we were waiting in line for 30 minutes while people filled their canisters to take back home and either sell or use the gas themselves. they come from miles and miles away for gas, and then head back home.

Anyway, The stories the boy was telling me were sad, honest and didn't help my short game. I quit after 6 holes, he asked to wash my car for 3 dollars, I found an American dollar to give him, and gave him some clothing.. The experience put things in perspective and made me feel guilty about staying in such a posh place.

Point is...... for the most part, life is hard here....

Back to the trip.... we are animal snobs.. we've seen it all and it was a great trip.. give me a day or two and the pics will be on the blog as well as lots of video... On the way back, we stayed at the Baylor AIDS Corps home in Francistown and capped off the trip watching "Lion King". The kids watched the beginning scene saying.... "we've seen that, we've seen that, we've seen that"

On the drive back, we encountered a few African rain storms(cool lightning), and a foot and mouth disease checkpoint. All of us had to get out, take off our shoes, put them on a pad of disinfectant, and then drive the truck through a pool of the disinfectant. Very strange.

Oh yeah, and we saw our first snakes.... I saw one by the pool side, a big green one that scared the hell out of the waitress.. I was in the pool, so no one saw that I peed my pants... Joking.. Or am I? Michelle saw a baby puff adder (one of the deadliest snakes in the world outside our room).

It was a successful trip. No one was swallowed whole by a wild animal or bitten by a deadly mosquito.. We saw the sites and it was truly an African experience.. Keep checking back for the photos and videos.. I hope everyone had a great holiday..

One other thing that came from this trip was the realization that we are really, really far from home. While i was waiting for Michelle to get out of the grocery store, we noticed a family of warthogs wandering the parking lot... It was at that point that I realized this was going to be a Thanksgiving like no other. I think the holiday, coupled with the fact that we were in the middle of nowhere, made us a bit homesick... Or maybe we were drunk from the constant scent of elephant dung.. I'm sure more stories from the week will come to me, but for now , that's it.. The kids have school for 2 more weeks and then we take off for our next adventure, the Indian Ocean.

Jacob had to go back to school today and perform a one man play he wrote, which was a fractured nursery rhyme, based on "Old King Cole." Jacob basically wrote this very witty comedy in which "old king cole" was replaced by "president Smush," which of course is a character based on our beloved president (who is not well liked here either...surprise, surprise)... Jacob wrote about the naked seals diving into the ocean looking for the presidents' lollipop, etc. It was pretty funny and well received by his teacher, who is a Bush- hater a as well.

All for now, it's good to be back in Gabs... The pics..... Elephant, a pool of 30 hippos waiting to eat us, chobe landscape, chobe sunset, and me waiting/ asking about gas

headed to Chobe!!! and photo slideshow

We just received word that Michelle is helping direct a conference in Kasane, which is right outside the main entrance to Chobe National Park, the best in Botswana. we leave Saturday and will be gone all week. I dont think I'll be able to upkeep the blog during this time, sodon't forget about us. WE'LL BE BACK!!!! With some great stuff. Apparently, we are staying in some cool places right on the Chobe River. No swimming in the river, crocs and hippos by the hundreds. Apparently Hippos roam the grounds at night, so I hope Jude doesn't escape our sight. On the drive up, we travel near all the salt pans and I hear that lions, elephants, and various other animals roam wild near the highway. Crazy. I wonder if the elephant crossing signs. ...
Anyway, Kasane is on the border where Botswana Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia meet. We are planning on seeing Victoria Falls(Zimbabwe) while we're up there and taking a boat ride to see elephants crossing the river.
Here's where we're staying... Chobe Safari Lodge for 2 nights

http://www.chobesafarilodge.com/


and Mowana Safari Lodge for 3 nights

http://www.cresta-hospitality.com/index.php?page=destinations/Botswana/Mowana%20Safari%20Lodge/about


Cool stuff.

And as promised, here's a video slide show of my day in Gabane. Lots of windows, walls, etc.. But they make for some good pictures.. I think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdscIMDDMK0



The photos above are the side of the shop where I met Mary, Koketso, Sheila, Banyana and Onthusitse, the characters in some of the photos. The other photo is of the huge combi(bus) that Michelle gets to drive on some her visits to local villages. Cool eh? She's only killed 5 people backing out of out complex.This is also the first vehicle we took a ride in upon our arrival to Gaborone.



Enjoy!!!!

Andy, Photographer from the U.S. of A

I finally took the plunge and became a phtographer. I had the morning free and pursued what I've been wanting to since we arrived... I drove off to a local village, parked the car and walked. I drove to Gabane, 17 km. outside of the city, . I don't feel comfortable approaching people here about pictures, simply because i heard they find it insulting. I wandered and wandered, camera in hand.. no pictures..
I decided to walk into a local goods shop and buy a coke(Boipelego shop). The owner of the shop said hello in Setswana , I replied and asked how are you in Setswana... She answered, laughed at me and then corrected my pronunciation. I asked her if I could take a picture of her shop,showed her and others my camera. They loved the camera, couldn't believe you could see yourself right away, and that was that. I gained some confidence, told them I was a photographer from the U.S (hilarious) and got the guts to beging taking photos. I now understand why photographers love their job and what I've been missing being as a painter all these years. I got suckered into taking photos of these guys at a car wash, which was a blast. I promised them that for their time, I would make copies and drive it back out to them. I'm most interested in windows and walls for some reason though.I think the colors here are so vibrant, the sun so incredibly hot and bright, you have to take pictures. It somehow makes you want to record every second of your experience. Hard to explain. I'll post a few of them in a couple of days. But for now, here is Aubee, me and a few of his friends. Koketso(man) in front of shop, and Banyana(in front of shop). enjoy.
The whole experience was surreal... Being in this small village, in the middle of Africa, surrounded by quiet, and having a blast with people who I'm sure are laughing at you right in front of your face. The surrounding felt like an old western ghost town. On the way home, I gave 8 hitchhikers a ride back into town. Little did I know that all of them wanted to get off at different spots. It was a great morning.
One note... Images look best if you click on them to blow them up...
.

Weekend thoughts

After being here for so many months, I think it's safe to say we are finally feeling like life is normal here. This weekend was a good one, in the sense that we didn't sit around talking about how nice it would be if we had ........ (fill in the blank) . I think the pace of life here has finally caught up to us and we have joyfully accepted it. When I speak of the pace of life, I mean how slow, slow, slow it is. As Americans, I think we've always felt like there had to be something to do, somewhere to go , etc . Michelle and I are bums as it is, but here, we feel right at home because no one does anthing, except be with family. Saturday night was great. We visited friends in a village (Oodi), which is a total change from Gabs.. No paved roads, quiet, a real african village. The sunset was unbelievable. Across the street from the home was a group of women, huddled in a circle singing..They sang for a good hour and a half, it was beautiful. Behind the home was a group of girls playing jump rope and soccer, occassionally peering through the gate to see what we were up to. I saw my first snake, it was dead in a pot. The cousin had killed it. When I asked what type it was, the boy said.. `"The kind that if it bites you on the leg, it will kill you.... This is a small one, there is a big fat one here too, we can't find it just yet." We proceeded to play soccer and ride bikes through the yard for the next 3 hours. Maura played in the sand box in the back of the house. Good parenting? When in Africa, do as they do.

Sunday, we cleaned a bit, cut hair and sat around the baby pool, hangin', In the evening, a family from the states who has been here for 7 years came over and had dinner. Both of them are doctors and their children are around the same ages as ~Kate and Jacob. They helped reinforce all the reason we dragged our kids here in the first place. The kids had a blast and swam in the pool as we sat around and watched them.

I fell asleep on the couch watching an old Jay Leno show. What a bum. All in all a great weekend. Weekends hae been tough here, but I think we've found a comfort level with it and don't whine about how much we miss home. It was good. Don't get me wrong, we miss home, but a sense of normalcy has been found. We hope that you can visit.

Celeste

Here's a picture of our friend Celeste, who is a huge help with the kids during the week. She comes every day during the school week to lend her hand in keeping the twins safe and happy. The kids love her , expecially Jude. Franny walks around the house saying, "bye-bye Leste". She is orinally from Zimbabwe and lives here now. She's been a blessing to have around and is extremely kind, patient and loving to our children.

This weekend, not much going on. We are headed out to the village of Oodi to visit the home of a friend of Michelle's from the hospital. Tomorrow we are having a U.S. family over for dinner. Michelle and the kids met them on the night of the U.S. Embassy Halloween party. They have a son Jacob's age and a daughter Kate's age. That's about it.... I have been teaching at Jake and Kate's school this past week, filling in for the headmaster. I'll be doing it next week as well. It's been nice to be back in the classroom.

We are waiting to see if Michelle will be teaching at a conference over the Thanksgiving week. (No Thanksgiving here). It would be in Kasane, which is on the outskirts of Chobe National Park. If she gets to go, we''ll all tag along and check out Chobe, where many National Geographic films are filmed. It's supposed to one of the top destinations in Africa, so we'll see.

http://www.botswana-places.co.za/chobe.html

Photo Slideshow

Attached is a photo slideshow from our weekend trip to Pilanesberg. The imagery is much clearer than the home movies posted in the last entry. Enjoy and yes, the McDonald's here tastes exactly the same as home...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIeQWfWtpLg

On a side note... Our Batswana neighbors that live next door, listen to the song Carrie by Europe, all day long... I heard it 6 times this afternoon.. It's amazing what our culture has given to the rest of the world. Every time I hear the song playing, I stop and salute.

Our weekend trip to Pilanesberg

Well, we have returned safely from our first weekend excursion and it was a major success. The landscape was beautiful, the animals were a-plenty. Zebras, elephants, giraffes, lions, springbok, many birds, hippos, impala, blah, blah, blah, blahh... The highlight of the trip for the kids though, was hitting the McDonald's in Rustenberg. Ronald has his claws in this place as well. Gross.... but oh so good.

The drive was about 4- 4.5 hours and was a beautiful drive through Botswana and some of the North- west Province of South Africa. Alot like Virginia, but with black mambas, volcanoes and all kinds of other cool things. No major headaches during the drive except for the border posts. We all had to get out and register our car, check our passports, etc.in Botswana and then the same on the South Africa side.(about 300 ft.) . Not a big hassle, but with 5 screaming kids asking if we're there yet, it wasn't fun.

Pilanesberg was very nice though. The weather was great and the game viewing was awesome, as was the night sky. On Sunday morning Jacob and I got up at 5 to take an early morning game drive. We saw lions relaxing in the bush and a huge pack of elephants climbing the hills of the park. The videos highlight both of these parts. Upon our return, Jacob ventured back out with Michelle and the girls to check out the game while the twins took a nap. The great thing about most of these places is that you don't have to pay a guide for the game drive, you can simply drive around on you own.

During the afternoon, we hit the pool(salt water pool) talked with some older folks and enjoyed watching the kids splash in the pool. That evening, we took a great drive around, going on the tops of the mountains and viewing a bunch of animals, including many elephants, some a few arm lengths away... The kids loved it, especially Maura. You were literally in the middle of nowhere, hoping to God your car would make it over the rocks and dirt paths. It was a true Africa experience... I think....

At night, we all fell asleep early only to wake up at 5 a.m. again, due to the fact that birds are really freakin' loud here at that time of the day. Our chalet was attacked by a group of monkeys who stole a sippy cup and some garbage off of our front porch. No harm done. It was kind of scary though, when I was packing the car up to leave, they were waiting there hissing at me, hoping I would drop the box full of food.

When we went down to eat at the restaurant, we passed the pool... I wish I would have gotten video of the site before us, because it was nothing I had ever seen before. Lined up in the pool were hundreds and hundreds of frogs, having a good ole' time. Jacob and Kate were under the impression that they were all giving each other piggy back rides, but we know better, don't we? Jacob kept trying to coerce them into jumping, but I tried to tell him to keep his distance and let them enjoy themselves.
After breakfast we headed back through the park and took in the sites one last time..

A few observations about our trip into South Africa.... The poverty is just as bad there as in Botswana... Many creatively built homes using car hoods, metal sheathing(sp?), and rocks to keep the panels from blowing away scatter the landscape. There are villages setup in the middle of nowhere, with people walking the streets looking to catch a ride.These villages were completely populated by black South Africans, not many Afrikaaners or white South Africans living in those homes. Also, the level of racism that we noticed here was unnerving. To say that South Africa is a country in turmoil is an understatement. The staff at the complex was great... respectful and deserving of our respect.... Unfortunately, most people don't give it... From my experience, a little respect and acknowledgement, whether it being saying hello or tipping someone for their services, seems to go a long way.
Here are 2 videos from our trip. Sorry for the lengths of these, I just didn't know what to eliminate, so i didn't eliminate anything. The third video will be added in an hour or so, so check back. I'll put a slide show of the photos up shortly... Those will give you clearer images..
All for now. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwiyr5QvZCs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Lw0RUcSJ1k
Here's the third video. it 's number 2 in the series of 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYThQCebiak

time out in production

Just got back from Pilanesberg last night and boy are our arms tired!!!! God I'm good. Had a great time and am in the midst of putting some video and photos together for your viewing pleasure....
It will be ready tomorrow... Our computer moves really slow with large downloads. I apologize to our millions of fans out there, but I have no choice. Check back early afternoon and on.

In the meantime.. check out a few of my favorite skits from one of the all time, all time greatest shows. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQlVbWXr2E4