While Matt was here we decided that it would be cool to go down to Durban in South Africa. Durban is a modern mixture of Indian, Islamic, African, and Western culture all mixed into a cool ocean side city. Unfortunately, it turns out that the Intercape Bus has possibly the most poorly planned route schedule for any bus anywhere. Flying proved much too expensive, so we insteaded decided to cool our heels (actually, to sweat profusely) in Gabs. One of the two weeks Matt was here sported the highest temperatures I've experienced yet. Luckily his hotel room was airconditioned and there was a pool. We spent some good time there, while he worked on Anitigone, and I languished in the cold water. We also enjoyed evenings out at Linga Longa where we sat at the bar for hours and drank Windhoek and had rambling conversations about everything. I think it might have been here that the subject of getting a giant rabbit came up....
Unfortunately it was also in Botswana that we learned that our little 8 month old kitten, Luis, had died. Matt found out Luis was terminally ill from the vet about two weeks before. He had Rodrigo, our other cat, taken to live with his parents temporarily because Luis was contagious. While he was in Africa, Matt's parents doted on Luis as often as possible and made sure to check that he was eating, drink, etc. One morning they came to check on him and found Luis curled up near the couch. He apparently died in his sleep.
Since we didn't go to Durban, we had ample free time to do other things, like go on game drives at Mokolodi. We signed up for a morning drive on a Tuesday. I had never been there so early in the day and it was lovely and cool in the morning. Right off the bat we saw some giraffes grazing near the trail. They seemed not only extraordinarily tall, but also completely unphased by our presence. After that we didn't see too much for a while apart from impala and warthogs. About half way through the drive Matt spotted zebras! There were two and they were attempting to hide behind some thin trees. Zebras are shy and they didn't stick around too long to see what the noisy vehicle was up to. It was my first time seeing zebras in Africa- thanks Matt! It turns out that our driver on that trip was a woman who spent a year working in Florida at the Animal Kingdom in Disney World. She was pretty talkative once she found out we were from the States.
Besides going on the early morning game drive we also attempted to show up for a day of volunteering. I wanted to give Matt a chance to feed Letoatsi, the cheetah, and possibly the hyenas too. We took a sweaty ride to the bus rank...and then couldn't find a bus to Remotswa. Or we did eventually, rather, but after waiting around for about 45 minutes in the extreme heat we scraped the idea. Instead, we booked a night time drive and a night's stay in one of the chalet's by the water hole.
In the mean time Matt's time at Innisfree had come to an end and we reluctantly moved his stuff to my dorm room (which has no air conditioning and no fan). We actually walked with all Matt's luggage from the hotel to UB because the last taxi driver we had had charged a rediculous fee and we were quite fed up with greedy grasping taxi drivers. Even though my room was quite hot in the summer weather, it was so nice just to have Matt around for a change. The room seemed much nicer.
I took Matt on some field trips with the rest of the CIEE group. Batsi didn't mind having an extra person around and the trips were totally free for Matt- win! The first weekend we went to SOS, the local orphanage CIEE volunteers at. Matt spent a couple of hours having kids climb all over him and demand spinny rides. There are adorable photos up on facebook in the album titled 'Mattswana'. The weekend after SOS we went to see a traditional healer (what most people think of as a witch doctor) and learned about the trade. We also got to see the healer's...workshop? It was a tiny little room with a broken couch and mysterious smelly objects. On the door was a sign which read, 'This premesis protected by a ghost'. So yeah, be warned. After that enlightening experience Batsi had the combi drivers take us to the much-hidden location for No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. The set was abandoned and pretty decrepit, but the sign for the agency still hung bright and colorful as ever. We all explored the actual building and took a look around at the rest of the shops on set. About a third of our group was excited (myself included) and the rest just wanted to leave. After No.1 Ladies Batsi had us taken over to the Gaborone Game Reserve for a drive and a braai. It was my first time being there and I was not terribly impressed. First of all, you must have your own vehicle, so you pay an entrace fee. Then you drive around and see nothing but a few gazelle and ostriches, lots of construction and trash, and nothing else. The braai area was full of people cooking and drinking; despite the generally crappiness of the rest of the park, this area was pleasant. Batsi and his friend were on braai duty and he had brought some food from a caterer and (ta da!) beers and ciders. Yay Batsi! It was a wonderful feast, which included macaroni and cheese!, and which was monitored closely by a gang of monkeys. These little buggers actaully stole meat off the braai! They also moved in to steal from people's plates and hovered in the tree above our table. It was all fun and games until one dropped a digusting load of monkey poop onto Zach's steak. Photos on facebook. I spent a lot of that time on Monkey Patrol, chasing them away. But they allllwwwaaaayyyss come back.
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