Mother and Son Make The World Their Classroom for a School Year: October 6, 2014

Happy Birthday Sandy! Today we got up at 5:30 a.m. and Six, was his name, picked us up at Cornelia’s and took us to the Chobe National Park. This game park is next to the Chobe River, and actually includes the river, a break off of the Zambezi River. When we got inside the park there were many other safari vehicles there. But there was no shortage of animals to see. The view was spectacular looking across the river onto the little islands were there thousands of animals honestly. You could see big herds of Cape Buffalo, Impala, and lots of hippos outside the water grazing, elephants, troops of baboons, a ton of different birds including the Koribastard- royal bird of Botswana that mate for life, African spoonbill, ,… It was so beautiful in the early morning light. I would have loved a camp chair and my binoculars and I could have sat there for an hour and watched it all.

Following our game drive we returned to Cornelia’s and had a bowl of cereal outside on her lawn and played cards waiting for her to come grab us. Her home is a simple home, but has three bedrooms and one bath and has a nice side yard lawn. We enjoyed just hanging out.

At 10:30 we hopped into a little outboard boat and our guide John took us to his village Kasika just on the other side of the Chobe River where he lives in a traditional Namibian Village. We had to go through customs leaving Botswana and then as we pulled up onto shore on the Namibian side about a 15 minute boat ride away, we walked up the sandy road to a small building where we went through Namibian customs. After filling out the forms, which we filled out 2 hours later when we had to leave, we walked across the hot sandy beach/deseret to his little village which took about 20 minutes. I was thinking at first maybe this is set up for tourists. No it wasn’t.

We walked past several sandy pits, those were water holes that people will make to fetch fresh water. They use a spade and dig down 3 feet and they come across fresh water which they fetch and bring back to their homes to filter for drinking water and for wash, cooking etc. The huts are all made from elephant dung and mud and branches and grass roofs. They each make their own homes and then they are fortressed with reeds that are tired and used as fences, for privacy and keep the winds down while they cook outside their homes, and as protection from animals. There was one cement building and that was their town hall where that day they were having meetings and discussions. All the men and many of the women were in there. We made our way and met his grandma who was just leaving the meeting and then met his mother who was taking care of his 2 boys whom we met. The boys were shy and looked in dire need of a bath and some clean clothes. But when you are out playing in the sandy dirt each day and don’t have easy access to water, it’s not an easy option. He took us inside his yard and it was well kept and into his home. It had two rooms essentially with a table for preparing food, a freezer that was hooked up to a propane tank, and then in the adjoining room two beds with mosquito netting, one for the kids and one for he and his wife. No electricity or running water. He had a hole outside his home that he had dug with a spade for water. It’s like if you dug at the beach with a shuvle and you hit water, exactly the same. They take that water to wash and cook and drink. I asked why not go down to the river to bathe or get cleaner water. He said it was too far and the river has many crocodiles. He was kind to show us his home and then took us over to a huge tree where under it his aunts and mom and grandma put on their traditional dresses that are almost like western dresses that are ruffled underneath and can swing when they dance and sang and danced a few songs for us. They were cute and friendly and we enjoyed being with them. The small groups of huts are families. They all live in their own communes and then several families make up the village.

It was so nice to cruise on the water on the way back and get cooler. We had been so hot and the sun had zapped our stomachs and our bodies. We took the small outboard over to some of the men from his village that were fishing. The way those in his village make a living is by fishing. They have dugout canoes made from a single tree and netting that they make and go fish. We went over and checked out what these young men were fishing with nets for and had caught a few, = dinner.

As we arrived back to the docks where we were meeting Cornelia we headed straight to KFC. KFC is everywhere here, more so than in America I am convinced. I was deliriously hungry. Service isn’t what it is in the states, so after waiting 25 mins to get the chicken burger, I just stuffed it down. Sam is much better without food than I am ;) We logged into Cornelia’s internet so I could send a text to Nate that he knew we were alive since we had been without internet for a few days or cell service.

In the evening we boarded another small boat and went out on the Chobe River with two others from Germany. Six was our guide again and wow, what animals we saw!!! It was happy hour for the elephants. We said huge herds of elephants all coming down to the water to swim and drink and eat and cross between the islands in the Chobe. We saw well over a couple hundred with lots of baby elephants. We saw huge herds of buffalo and tons of hippos-apparently called a raft of hippos or pod of hippos! Hippos were in the water, grazing on land, many crocodiles and monitor lizards, thousands of birds including a huge flock of Marabou Storks. We saw some beautiful bee eaters which almost look like hummingbirds, so beautiful. The whole water life was just teaming with activity. It was so amazing. Sam loved chatting up with Six too.

As soon as we got back on land, Cornelia met us and I asked that we run by the market so I could get some bottled water and pick up some food for family home evening that she hosts at her home each Monday night for anyone that wants to come. She said there is generally between 8-20 kids that come. One of the girls birthdays was that evening, the girl that taught the class the night before, I purchased some cake and cookies and other treats. We were greeted when we pulled into the house by all the kids. We came right in and Corn had asked that I prepare a lesson. When we began Cornelia brought out her guitar and accompanied a couple of songs that all the kids sang. They love to sing. The children picked a couple of the songs, and the theme of each was about prayer. Cornelia had also received some bad news while we were out on the boat about her visa from local authorities saying they had some issues with it even though she has been here working for many years and is a huge contributor to this community. It seemed that the theme needed to be prayer. After songs and a sweet prayer by Ronald, I taught about prayer and when do we pray and how do we pray and had some discussion with the children about when have they seen answers to their prayers. I asked Sam to give an example of when he felt his prayers had been answered. He spoke of when his Grandma Karla was going to die. How he prayed that she would live longer and how his prayers were answered, and she basically came back from dying to live for a few more months so that we could have more time with her. After our lesson we played Uno and the kids favorite game “Big Booty”. Then we all sang Happy Birthday to the girl, I can’t pronounce her name and can’t remember how to spell it, but she was very cute and then Cornelia had put together huge plates of treats for each of the kids. The kids are awesome. They are blessed to have what feels like an Aunt in Cornelia who looks after all these children and has been now called as the Primary President, where she will be with the 11 and under children teaching them on Sunday. Sam loved playing with the kids and we also played the telephone game, which turned out so funny since Sam was having a hard time hearing them as they whispered into his ear and then understanding what they were saying- the answers came out pretty funny.

We are grateful for Cornelia. We are moving on tomorrow to the Okavenga Delta. Thank you so much Cornelia for allowing us to stay in your home and share in life and experiences here.