Photo: Isabelle Jones
This weekend Lyndsay and I ventured to the ghetto fabulous Francistown where Is and Fai picked us up from the rank and took us for a wonderful lunch of East Indian food and chocolate milkshakes. Sitting on the patio the wasps surrounding our food, especially Lyndsays coke which claimed the lives of six who went belly up in her glass. She is a merciless wasp slayer, stabbing them with her fork in one fluid motion mashing and then flinging the body over her shoulder. We had yet to find a car or solidify the weekends camping plans. We sat at the table flipping through the cars for sale section of the newspaper, calling random adds asking if the car was an automatic and if they would be able to rent it for the weekend. Communication is very difficult over the phone without the ability to lip-read. Faisal was especially funny as his phone voice involves a thick Indian accent. With no luck on the car situation we resorted to calling Kama Rhino Sanctuary to book a camp site (which they had previously said was all booked but which I failed to accept and was not ready after a six hour bus ride to give up the plans of camping.) I called and adamantly persisted, arguing with the guy on the phone (something I must have picked up from my mother sometime over the years). “We only need somewhere within the fence to put ONE tent.” “Yes four people ONE tent.” Anyways we got the campsite A2 and headed back to Isabelle and Faisals home stays to depart for an early morning.
I stayed with Isabelle talking long into the night, laughing about past experiences, spilling hearts, and venting frustrations. Her home stay family was really nice her brother Benny and sister Tando were around our age and super cool. Benny had just gotten back from school in Europe and was really easy to talk to. Also they have hot water! I was able to talk a hot shower/bath/squatting rinse. We watched the extremely popular South African soap Generations and then prayed together. It was a really unique and special experience. It’s interesting how being around people with so much spirituality can ignite a new faith in yourself. After the reading Ms. Osututse said a prayer and invited us all to pray together. It was really beautiful the three of them quietly resisting personal prayer under their breath. The voices mingling together, tangled words, words of thanks, words of hopes, words of the unknown.
Thomas was unable to come with us as he had been sick the last couple of days. He was very much missed on the trip, especially his body heat in the tent!
To get to Kama Rhino Sanctuary we took multiple busses that I don’t quite remember, stopping as various ranks of various small towns. Enjoying multiple mini bananas and Simba raisins and peanuts sold in the little stands and by ladies walking around balancing bowls on their heads (a skill which I am determined to master). The traveling went quite fast as conversation was always flowing catching up and laughing. Is and I decided to plan a future trip to the Middle East. Chatting we decided we would need to find a guy to travel with to which we both turned around simultaneously and looked at Faisal. I got so excited talking about the different places we would need to visit. Morocco, Egypt, Omen, Dubai, Saudi, Turkey. Faisal was talking about how we could stay with his family in Saudi but how it was VERY difficult to get a visa. We proposed the solution “you can have two wives there though right?” As marriage for citizenship has been a running theme over the course of the trip.
When we got to the Rhino Sanctuary and dropped off at our campsite, hopping out of the truck with our small day packs the sites around us were fully equipped and I mean FULLY. There were multiple SUVs and hardcore safari trucks with tents set up on top of the cars with platforms and ladders leading up to them. Setting up out tent purchased from Game (a store similar to Canadian Tire) we felt rather unprepared and skeptical over the possibility of being trampled by a rhino. As soon as we had unpacked and sent up camp, a tour guide from South Africa came over asking us if we wouldn’t mind switching campsites. The Safari Man drove us to the other campsite, riding on the top of his SUV on the bumpy sand roads, holding on the roof rack tightly and dodging tree branches.
At the second campsite we reset up and then started gathering firewood. The trees were so dry that looking for thick pieces I was able to literally pick up a tree from the ground and carry it back. The wood easily snapping in our fingers and mostly hallowed out by termites.
At four a guide picked us up to explore the area, as we were not allowed to walk away from the campsite. We saw the white rhinos ‘hwhite reynos’ and calves. They were very mysterious creatures with a timid disposition. Their muscles plating their bodies like armor and faces with a prehistoric feel, closing resembling triceratops. Isabelle’s South African accent is getting really good, I wish I could put the sounds into words because randomly saying white rhino and black rhino accurately sums up the conversation of the weekend. Along with zebra, wildebeest, zazu bird, kudu, we are crossing animals off our Lion King checklist like none other. When we saw our first Zazu bird Is was like “wow it looks just like him.. only Zazu is bluer.” Faisal responding “Yeah and a cartoon.” One group we met saw a leopard and two cubs right by their campsite! It was kind of confusing to why we were camping with the animals inside the fenced area. Towards the end of the drive we pulled up to a spot and watched the zebras in an open field as the sun went down. A panoramic of watercolors painted across the sky.
Photo: Isabelle Jones
The drive back was frrreezing! I caught a chill and was cold the rest of the night. Defiantly underestimated the African winter. I am also acclimatizing to the heat so that I find myself bundling up at night and bringing a sweater to work in the mornings. I am going to be in serious trouble when back in Canada, wearing a full winter coat in the fall sweater weather. We came across another truck stuck in the sand. All pushing as the wheels spun out reminded me of the heavy snow falls back home.
I put on every layer I had brought and still cold he huddled around the fire for a dinner of beer, banana boats and sausage. The Safari Man came over saying that our dinner was lacking and asking us if we “wouldn’t mind finishing some of his groups leftovers.” After assuring him that it would be no problem for us to “help out”, one of his workers brought over plates of lamb stew and Greek salad with metal forks and steak knives. I can’t even describe how amazing the food was (but I guess that’s what you get for 2000$/week). We sat eating our luxurious meal commenting on every piece brought to our mouth. “Mmm a parsnip. An ACTUALL parsnip!” “OH WOW” zucchini, carrots mm… asparagus, peppers, cucumber, black olives AND kalamada olives. “Guys feta cheese, real cheese.” Potatoes and tender lamb all cooked over the fire and the first meal we had since being here that you could taste something other than salt. This was almost as much of a highlight as seeing the rhinos.
The wood was so so dry that we burnt through the massive pile collected in a matter of two hours. Lucky for us Safari Man (who was starting to look more like our knight in shining armor at this point) graciously gave us two bags of legit firewood that kept conversation and drinks going well into the night. Things we discovered: A minus 12 sleeping bag is not warm enough for me (surprise surprise), Lyndsay is a super trooper wrapped only in a blanket, no mat. Isabelle breathes hard enough to warm Faisal enough for him to take off his coat. And Faisal sounds like a leopard/warthog, quietly growling, sniffing, and snorting.
Oh and.. THE STARS! What could only be described as miraculous. They were stars that could not even be compared to my previous definition of what stars are. It was a dome surrounding us. Looking straight ahead you could turn 360 degrees and be surrounded entirely. You could see the galaxies or as Faisal put it “the milyness of the milky way.” It was one of those sights that not only took my breath away but left me thinking with so much wonder and so much unknown beauty in the world how could their not be a God. This reminds me of something Benny said about those who question God by asking how he can let so much pain and suffering into the world and how those same people fail to ask how there can be so much good and beauty. I often find comfort in knowing that without ever experiencing pain and suffering we would not even be able to appreciate or even see the joy. Maybe God intended it to be that way.
Being here, traveling and life in general presents us with so many struggles. I have found the advice of one of my friends really helpful, when emailing him about the frustrations and difficulties I have encountered he said, “Behind each good experience there’s a ton of unpleasant ones. It’s the hard experiences that make you tougher and lead to the good experiences being better.” And so in repeating this through the difficulties I remind myself to grow tougher and rejoice in the good.
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