Btv , national anthem and local music video

Just to give you an idea of the local television station, here's a video promo for "BTV", our television station here.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I7_ci-48so
You can find anything on "You Tube"...... Here's the national anthem of Botswana
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0zRj2FA37o&feature=related .

And here's a music video shot in the parking lot of one of our strip malls. I think it is BBS mall, where we rent our movies at "Vee's Videos"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY_pTSnoVSQ&feature=related

I've got lots for you to watch today... because i don't have much else to report.. We are heading to Odi this afternoon, Kate has a birthday party and sleepover to go to..... Odi is one of my favorite villages .. after that... who knows...... the weather is still gorgeous and i plan on getting all the kids out and running around somewere... I think.

One last video to lay on you before i go........... In August, michelle, Jacob and I will head with his class to the salt pans where Jacob and his classmates will hike for 33 kms. to raise money for cancer patients here. Jacob will begin training for this in the next few weeks..... We will go there, set up tent and camp for a weekend. if you want to see what this looks like, check this out......
It is amazing looking, a bit creepy in terms of how desolate it is, but apparently in the middle of this is an amazing baobab tree forest... so we got that going for us... I can't wait for this trip...not any animals, except scorpions, some antelope and meerkats.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE23h4mk6ho&feature=related .

hope all is well at home.

Chuck Norris, pot smoke and "tail of the goat"

it's 12;30 in botswana right now and our neighbors over the wall are smoking dope like there's no tomorrow. We are all probably getting a contact buzz from the scent. I guess that explains why Jude is demanding to watch "fantasia" while listening to Pink floyd's "the wall". I'm sure they're using it for medicinal reasons.

Michelle and i went out for a bit last night to celebrate me getting old. We went to a local bar at the Main Mall called "Qhwest". We had a great time, met some locals name Kaiser, Charlie and Mooketsi, all professionals who trained in either England or the U.S. We had a nice time discussing things and again realized how ignorant we are about the rest of the world. The discussion was entertaining and I did walk away with a sense that although I am ignorant of most of this region, my perception of the place is correct... I think... Make sense?

They talked of travelling through Botswana, and said it was the "last of free roam Africa" , where you can really feel you are in the wild.....no paved roads, chance of never seeing anyone else for weeks, etc. Travelling through this place is a wild and unique, but i'm not sure if it's the "last" of these places . He talked of people camping in the bush with little babies, and having hyenas take the children right out of the tent... don't worry, we won't take the twins anywhere like that... but if I do, i'll be sure to dress them in their meat suits.

They told us that Chuck Norris comes here every year to vacation..... Then it must be wild.. one side note.... In my search for an image of Chuck Norris, I came across the website.. I'm sure it's very popular and I'm just out of the loop, but it was funny.

http://www.chucknorrisfacts.com/

Another thing I wanted to mention today was the "tail of the goat" . basically its a thumbs up or thumbs down that people use here... It's just like everywhere else and has the same connotations... If the thumb is up, the tail of the goat is up, and everything is "Sharpo", slang for cool, great, awesome, ok , etc. Thumbs down, tail of the goat down, not so good...

not rocket science, but i thought I'd pass that little tid bit on to you....

i'm good for something.

All for now.

big day

Today is a beautiful day here in gabs, not much going on.. we rearranged things in the home, just to make it look a little normal, cleaned and folded laundry. It's been a nice morning, although i am feeling under the weather. We'll braai tonight and enjoy the wonderful weather(which is much like home right now). We had rain on sunday, but other than that, I haven't seen a cloud in the sky for weeks. Here's a random video of us at groot marico and Michelle and i at Khutse... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgOLlGkGvjw Hope all is well at home . To celebrate my birthday today, here's one of my favorite Monty Python skits...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LexvNQy2B_k

tuesday

not much going on today, we've hit a boring part of our story here in botswana.. the kids are doing great though...

maura, Jude and franny are growing like weeds as are Jacob and Kate. I am turning 35 tomorrow and want to throw up at the thought of it.

But we'll see what happens.. maybe we'll have 5 more kids in the second half of my 30's..

Kids headed to a friends house tonight... Thank God.

All for now.

notes for monday

as i've stated many times over the past few posts, everyone is missing home a bit. I think the time alone with no outlets, the lack of family, friends , etc. is amplified during these times off of school.

but today was a nice day, a normal feeling day where the kids and I ran errands, jacob went to a friends home and Kate tried to recover from an illness.. We've had a hard time of late not thinking of home and concentrating on how great our experience has been here. But today Maura and I visited Michelle at the clinic to drop off some paperwork, and i realized(again)why we are here and how truly blessed we are to have what we have. The clinic was full of children, waiting to be seen, waiting patiently with their mothers, grandmothers and a few fathers. It made me happy for our time here and happy for the time left here to experience this great place. With my dad's death a month ago, i've been eager to get home. But when I see that place and the kids in need, getting treatment, etc. I realize it will be awfully difficult to leave everyone here.

That's it.. Nothing new to report.. Kate's no longer puking, don't know if i stated that earlier.. I went to Spar(grocery store) and bought rotten chicken for dinner... had a new license plate made(ours fell off of our truck) which is a cool thing.. they make it in front of you, blockprinting and all. Bought some soft cirtruses from a vendor in the parking lot and watched the babies and Maura devour 7 ears of corn for dinner. We went to the big department store(Game) looking for french press for coffee, no one knew what i was talking about... i got the classic Botswana "What?!?!" from the workers.... I'll always remember that. And we headed to an art store "Artswana" to get jacob some drawing supplies... he's really into drawing of late.... digging the how to draw books alot... pictured is his recent doodles.

khutse and sweets

Michelle and i just returned from our one night out at Khutse lodge. It was nice getaway and we enjoyed our time without the kids. We were able to eat a meal without interuption, have discussions with other adults without having to chase around the little ones and drive through a game park without having to tell anyone to sitdown, shutup or to keep their hands to themselves.

we didn't see much game, but sat out on the salt pans and watched the sun go down..

On our way there we encountered some little ones working on their cattle posts.. this is located on the edge of the Kalahari desert and the people here are out there, in the middle of nowhere. they were families on donkey carts riding to town, boys riding horses and children working, fetching water and all the while asking if we had "sweets" as we drove by.. We stopped for a group of 3 boys who we thought we needing assistance, only to find out they wanted sweets. The reason they want sweets is because the only thing they ever have to eat there is porridge(sp.?). we had nothing to offer them, only a few bucks and one boy gave us kisses. It was very sweet. Here they are on their donkeys fetching water. Other pictures include the road through Khutse(dirt path through the bush), which in fact is the way the road is for 60 miles to the gate of khutes. also included are photos of the salt pans/bush at sunset, our mighty "Pajero" parked and awaiting the arrival of lions, road sign and a bus stop on way to Khutse. All in all a nice day trip, we will have to do it again before we leave.

One thing i forgot to mention is the absolute quiet that is in these places. you can click on the photos to enlarge them, but i don't think the photos do a good job of capturing the vastness of these places... And all you hear is the wind... michelle and i were perched on the top of our truck for about 10 minutes when the absolute silence of the place got to us.. Just not used to it. no airplanes, no people.. nothing.... so out of fear of being attacked by a large predator, we got in out truck and enjoyed the sunset from there.At night, back at the lodge, the power went out for about 2 minutes.... It was so dark then and even sleeping there, that I couldn't sleep at all.. Maybe my fear of snakes has become a fear of everything wild. But it is unbelievable, beautiful and unlike anything i've ever experienced.

right now the kids are with michelle shopping for yarn, while i am watching Botswana v. Zambia in soccer. It's rainy and cold here, for sure a movie night with popcorn.

all for now.

trip to Groot Marico

just got back from a few days at a river home in a small town called Groot Marico, south africa. it was a great, relaxing(as much as you can with 5 kids) 2 days of outside activity. We had a huge yard and a nice home to hang out in , and the weather was perfect. it was about a 2.5 hour drive from our home and the place was beautiful. The town itself was a little like rabbithash. it had a general store, a bottle shop, a butcher and an art shop and coffee shop. It was like a hippy dive where people claimed the beauty of the place "was in the magnetism of the rocks". but, of course, it had its obvious poverty gap between whites and blacks.. the blacks again lived in a shanty town away from the town centre, in small tin homes , clustered together.... The disparity between the two groups of people is depressing and quite honestly, embarrassing. But again, everyone, regardless of color, was a friendly as can be. And the home and yard were a blessing.... We braaied both nights, Maura introduced me to 2 new card games .. "Jamie was" and "cranky" and I shopped at 2 new stores.. the "Krap and Kry" and "buti's". I bought lamb and chicken from a butcher who was filling up people's empty 2 litres with goats milk and we met abraham, a black South African who each day kept our water hot by making a fire in a pit under the water tanks. He did it early morning, midday and late afternoon. he lived with his family on the property in a makeshift home out of discarded tin... He tended to the lawn, the orange trees and grape vines, etc. He was cool. Wore a great cowboy hat, pinned on the sides.

The kids and I took a hike through the bush, down to the river and spent an hour skipping rocks and climbing trees. Now, I've been here 9 months and hate hiking through the woods here... when we arrived, I asked the people at the information centre about wildlife, what we should look for, etc.... they said, " there's small game here, bushbuck, gemsbock, steinbock ," etc.. I said, great.. No worries.. "Well,then there's the snakes" they said... We've got 'em all.. Just saw a spitting cobra yesterday, and a puff adder the other, and a huge boomslang a week ago. And of course, we've got the black mamba, which we don't hate... we respect." awesome, I thought to myself.. We're going to be eaten alive.....

I hate snakes , and my running fear here is to run into one... We set off on an hour hike through the woods, and it just isn't as relaxing as home... every shift of the wind, the jumping crickets here, they go from blade to blade and go right past you, making you jump at the slightest movement... the kids don't care.. they have a great time, runnning through the place... staying on the trail of course... I on the other hand am sweating bullets. Dad, what do we do if we see a snake? Kate asks me calmly.... I say with a straight face.... "we just ignore it, and let it go on its way" knowing well enough that what I'm thinking is... "s***t our pants is what we'll do!"

We did have a blast though.. skipping rocks, putting our feet in the cool water and hanging out.. We ate well and talked alot about home, zebra cakes, wendy's, taco bell, etc. I think everyone is missing home a bit right now.... These long breaks are exactly that... long. And the trip was a good one to mix it up a bit for the kids and get them out of Gaborone and get their mind on somehting else.

Here are some photos of the trip.. And here's a slideshow of our experience there.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CsWfqcEB3M . Hope you like it... One thing i should also mention.... The main roads here are just fine.. but once you get into these small towns, backroads that lead to your vacation homes.. . It gets bad.. All dirt roads, lots of rocks.. I helped a woman change a tire on one occassion.... She said she loses a tire once a week.... Also, there are no Mcdonalds, rest stops, parks, etc . as you travel here.. you have to be flexible and able to roll with it.. that means kids peeing on the side of the road, eating makeshift PB and J's in the car and patience.. The border crossing itself is a pain, but once you understand that they think of time and luxury here alot different that we do, it's ok.. as a matter of fact, it's enough. I love travelling through these beautiful places here... everyone waves, stares, etc. it's just different.. and the kids have adjusted.. the great thing is... they've learned to live without. I think.. Maybe not.... I can't wait for a mcdonalds though.... god it's going to be great. you thought I was getting all preachy and high and mighty about how life here is so much more wonderful than home..... It's not...It's just different.. a good different though. It lacks all excess and feels comfortable.. as long as your willing to go without... But I swear on our next trip to North carolina... I will love being able to pull over at any time, find an exit with a bathroom that has running water and let my kids go to the bathroom while i get them a slushy. what's funny is.. Kate's becoming very comfortable with her surroundings... I don't think she used our inside bathroom once these past 2 days... She just pulls down her pants outside, wherever she is and lets it loose...

Michelle and i head to Khutse for a night tomorrow... It's my birthday in a few days and i think this will make for a nice celebration.. We plan to hang out on the salt pans, have a sundowner and watch the lions and hyenas rip apart our truck... the kids will hang with Celeste and kabo, eat pizza and hotdogs and make a night out of it..... be back on Saturday...

All for now.