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| One of many magnificent sunsets in Botswana, 1989. |
The Forestry Officer decided to take a trip to the western villages of the district to view the successes of the recently held National Tree Planting Day. In addition, he was going to inquire as to the need for more trees as well as check on the progress of three village woodlots. Usually, he travelled with a driver who was assigned to his office. There were three or four drivers: Palagabedi, Onkagatsi, Benjamin and Seepeto, but at this time they were all busy. The Forestry Officer was going to have to go it alone.
For several days he travelled west from the populated villages and diamond mining town to the vast open, dotted with tiny settlements along the dry Boteti riverbed. He wanted to get back home on Thursday, and he was hoping that he could do it before it got dark.
Traveling at night could be a terrifying experience in Botswana. There were the ever present bovines, that would wander across the road, or simply decide to stand in the middle of the road for the duration of the night. Then there was the wildlife--ostriches, impala, kudu, that would think nothing of being in the road, without any reflective gear. There were also other drivers. Several stories were told of somebody's vehicle breaking down on the road, and the driver would turn off the lights, not wanting the battery to die, and walk to the nearest village for assistance. Never would the thought occur to someone to pull off of the road.
The Forestry Officer got a late start from Makalamabedi, and after stopping in Motlopi once again, he realized he was running late. He travelled as fast as the sand track would allow him to drive the Toyota Hi-lux pick-up, and as he approached Rakops, he could see a spectacular African sunset happening. He had several hours to go before he returned home.
At the far end of the village of Rakops was a place people would wait to hitch a ride east. In Botswana at this time, in the "bush," it was common courtesy to give people rides who needed them. Private vehicles were infrequent, and public transportation, buses, taxis, were non-existent. There were thirteen people at the hitching spot.
He glanced in his rear view mirror and saw nobody behind him. No surprise. But he did glimpse the continuing spectacular sunset. Thinking that all of the thirteen people weren't waiting for a ride, that maybe some of them were merely waiting to say goodbye to their friends and relatives, he pulled over and after the appropriate greetings asked, "O ya kae?" Where are you going?
The monna magolo, the old man, said they were going to Orapa, and they all wanted a ride. "A re ye," said the Forestry Officer, we go. The women and children started loading their meager belongings into the bed of the small pick-up, and followed their gear into the open back. The old man, and a young twenty something man got into the cab with the driver. Just to be sure he had heard what he thought he heard, he asked the two in the cab with him where they were going, and they again replied Orapa.
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| A San youngster, Botswana, 1989. |
Just after they started picking up speed there was a knock on the back panel of the pick-up. Somebody back there wanted to stop. The old man asked the Forestry Officer to stop, and because there was seldom anyone driving these primitive roads, he stopped in the middle of the road. A women in the back jumped out, ran to a nearby rondoval, the traditional circular mud hut with thatched roof, and was quickly returning with a blanket. The driver glance in his rear view mirror to make sure she was settled in, and then focused on the blazing sunset.
Again they were underway, and shortly there was another knock from the back. The driver was becoming a little frustrated. He wanted to make some good distance while it was still light, but with every stop, the seconds, the minutes, where passing quickly, and he would soon be driving in the dark. Once the vehicle stopped, he watched a woman jump out of the back and run down the road. The driver watched, puzzled by her running along the road, but awed by the continuing sunset. Sunsets in Botswana seemed to be more vibrant, longer lasting, larger, than the sunsets he was use to in the United States. The woman picked up some fabric, a scarf, that must have blown off of her head,
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| Sunset in the Okavango Delta of northern Botswana. |
A short time later, the old man started fishing around in his oversized, well-worn pants. He pulled out a fist-sized amount of crumpled newspaper and opens it up on his lap. He tears off a corner of paper and then sprinkles some of the dried herbs that had been in the paper onto the smaller piece and rolls it into a cigarette. About this time the driver pushes in the cigarette lighter. The old man was fishing in his pockets for matches when the cigarette lighter pops out and the driver hands it to the old man. After the cigarette is lit, there is quite the discussion about the lighter, and the old man pushes the lighter in several times to witness for himself the miracle of fire on the truck.
By the junction of the road to Toromoja, the sky was darkening. The brilliant sunset was fading to dark. It was becoming harder to see anything outside the headlight beam, and the truck was slowed to about 40 kilometers. By the time they reached Mopipi, it was pitch black.
There was a knock from the back and the driver stopped in downtown Mopipi, population 200. Several women climbed out of the back of the truck along with a child, leaving seven passengers in the back, along with the two men in the cab with the driver.
At the edge of the village there was another knock. The driver thought, what is going on with these people? Couldn't somebody have walked the half kilometer to here? Some of the women in the back got out and squatted. The two passengers in the cab got out, and standing in front of the pick-up, urinated into the headlight beams. Everyone got back into the vehicle and the old man said, "Tsamaya." Go.
It was going to be another hour, at least, to home in Letlhakane, but the road was straight and flat the entire way. The vegetation consisted entirely of mophane, a shrub in the legume family; definately a monoculture of shrubs. The mophane was densely spaced, and uniformly three to four meters tall. In the dark it looked very homogenous. There would be Orapa to deal with, but none of it's lights were visible when there was another knock from the back.
Argh!
How many stops are they going to make, thought the driver, now thoroughly frustrated. The women and children in the back were getting out, handing their bags out one at a time. The young man and the old man in the cab both slid out and closed the door behind them. Everyone was getting out of the vehicle. Suddenly, the old man was next to the driver's side door, and through the open window clasps his hands, bows slightly, and says, "Danki, rra." Thank you, sir.
In the dark, all of his riders stepped into the bush and quickly disappeared. The Forestry Officer got out of the vehicle and peered into the darkness. He reached into the cab and turned the engine off, then the headlights. It was dark and quiet. His nine passengers had disappeared, quietly into the dark, all nine of them. They knew where they were going--home. He looked up and down the road. It appeared just like the other hundred kilometers before and after the stop. No signs. No lights. Nothing that he recognized would indicate that this was a place to stop to let somebody head home. And there were nine people, women, children and an old man walking in the dark to some shelter somewhere.
As the Peace Corps Volunteer stood there in the dark, he tried to ponder the meaning of life. He looked up to the stars spread out from horizon to zenith and into infinity; he looked into the bush, up and down the darkened road; and thought he lived in an awesome place.
The slow drive into Letlhakane was somewhat of a denouement of the final part of his trip to west Boteti. It was good to see his spouse and catch up with all the news, but something was rattling around in his mind--who were they? What were they doing? Where were they going? Are they doing okay? What became of them? How did they know where to go?
They were questions he continues to find the answers to.
