Once we returned to the resort, we pounded down another large and delicious meal (as we were told that it would be our last of this quantity and quality!) and then packed to head off to Maun (Maa-oon). A mini-bus pulled up in front of us with all of our stuff and everyone looked behind it to see the other one coming…there was no way w e would all fit into this one vehicle! However, it was the only one we had. It had a one foot trunk space and seats for fourteen. We had 13 people with us and our luggage amounted to at least another five people…it was going to be TIGHT!
Kasane is in the most north-east corner of the country and Maun was a fairly staright line to the south-west…on a map of the country it looked like it would be a three hour drive – I’ve had worse! However, because of Chobe National Park we had to travel south-east and then north-west to get to Maun….Imagine a equal triangle and driving along two edges to get to the point which is only one side away!
The drive was further complicated by TERRIBLE road conditions. It had the biggest potholes I have EVER seen – I mean bigger than those back home in the country or even on the major highways. Our driver had to carefully , and oh so slowly maneuver the mini-bus around the potholes, which entitled using the entire road and often time pulling off the road when other vehicles had to pass! While we eventually made it through the potholes, we came across two other vehicles that didn’t. One was a small car that had completely blown a tire on one of the potholes and the other was an entire transport that had flown off the road been crushed like a metal can and had spilled all of it contents out!
All in all the drive was around ten hours! We definitely grew closer as a group and bonded a lot. You have to when you spend a good portion of the trip wedged in between people partway in their armpits! It was an amazingly enjoyable ride regardless of the bumps, the discomfort and the length. We sang nearly every song in everyone’s repertoire (trust me we are no choir!) The rest of the time we spent talking about Botswana and mostly the environmental challenges of the country. It was by far the most obscure and untraditional classroom that I have ever learned in – but it really teaches you the power of conversation and that good education is life long and always possible no matter what barriers!
As we finally pulled into Maun, the sun had long since set - a beautiful one with gorgeous warm rays, but hard to fully appreciate from inside a sardine can :) Maun has an interesting and mildly unpleasant odour to it – most likely due to the practice of burning garbage – it is definitely a transient town with some major roads and the majority of the people removed off the main paths. This is the town that I will be doing my placement in and I couldn’t help by try to take in as much as I could. In the dark there wasn’t much to see and after a long drive my optimism was waning, so it wasn’t the best introduction to the small town. We pulled into our next accommodations – Audi Camp – where we quickly unpacked the van. We headed to the ‘house’ that we would be staying in. We had four rooms – three for the girls and then the ‘bro room’ where all the boys shared. It was basic but comfortable – the most exciting was the mosquito nets – which made you feel either like royalty or like you were in some creepy sci-fi movie with big bugs that have cocooned you, haha!
We finished the evening with a hearty meal and quite a few bottles of wine! I had kingklip, which I had never had. It is a delicious white meaty fish that was prepared beautifully and tasted so good after a long day! When we got back to the room we pretty much crashed and went right to bed! Next morning we are visiting the Harry Oppenheimer Okavango Research Centre (or HOORC…haha!) to see the facilities, receive some lectures and visit the library’s special cultural selections. While we have had a lot of discussion and debates around everyone’s different researched areas, it will be really nice to have a more formalized day of learning tomorrow at the centre. I am really looking forward to see how post-secondary education is approached here in Botswana and what the culture is like in academia.
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