July 31 – August 8, 2010
Saturday morning we were picked up and taken to a nearby ferry, where we crossed the Okavango River. On the other side, we drove for a bit and were dropped off on a turnoff point where we started walking. We began our 7km hike to the village, the sand was hard to walk on and the sun was hot. After walking for 2 hours, we arrived in a village we immediately sat down with Chief Chombo Maraka for introductions. After meeting with the chief we took a tour around the village met the partially blind basked weaver, traditional beer maker, traditional doctor, stopped by the church, and the traditional blacksmith. After the visiting the village we had lunch and started driving to our camp. That night we saw traditional dancing music. The performance was started off with a prayer. When the night was over we slept in tents.
The next morning we had breakfast. After we were finished eating, we were driven to the next village where we took a ride on a mokoro (traditional canoe) for a couple hours. After the boat ride we saw a coming of age ritual for a young girl. An elder washed her, clothed her and gave her beads and she was ready to get married. After we saw the ritual we drove back to Shakawe and that was pretty much of our weekend. And it was a memorable experience.
The next event was a 2 night homestay with local families in Shakawe. On the morning on Wednesday August 4th we went to CJSS (Community Junior Secondary School) and met with the staff and to introduce ourselves, as we would be attending school the next day with our homestay brothers and sisters. We also met the principal and gave him some gifts (flag, pin, pen and key chain). In the afternoon we met with our host sister and we were driven to her home and met her family. Their home is more traditional. Kanayok and I had supper with them. The family was really nice. Our host mother didn’t speak much English, only few words. The father could speak some English though as well as our sisters and their brother. The baby brother was shy for a while and then he could come up to us. Early in the morning we went to school. We had to get up at 5am and walk for and 1.5 hours to the school. It was exam week and the teachers were basically correcting the papers we didn’t get to do much in class but we got along with the students. When it was time for a different subject the students stayed in the same class room and the teachers moved around. I found that strange because back home it’s the opposite. In the morning they serve tea/coffee and bread with jam and at lunch time they served beans. After school when we got to our host families house Kanayok and I played volleyball with our bother and sisters. Even thought we didn’t talk much we had a good bond with our host siblings.
Like any other school they have rules for the students. If you are late for class you get slapped on the palm twice if you’re a girl, on the buttocks twice for the boys, and they can’t hit more than 5 times. It’s not to hurt them it’s to discipline them. Teachers don’t necessarily enjoy this but it’s a technique to keep the kids in order because they expect a lot out of the students. If they don’t use this type of discipline that the kids are used to they start to slack off and that’s not what the teachers want. After another night with our family we returned early in the morning to Botshelo Trust Daycare, my home away from home while we’re here in Botswana.
On Friday we had a meal with the staff. Best of both worlds, they cooked for us and we made a somewhat traditional meal as well for them. All of us did our presentations. Sam did the introduction of where were from why were in Shakawe and what we are going to do for them. Paula talked about wild life, Arqnarululnnguaq presented about the environment, Donavon showed them traditional Inuit games, Kanayok talked about the history of Yellowknife and where she’s originally from, and I spoke about some myths and showed them a few drawings form a book. When each of us was done they had good questions and we answered the best we could.
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