Sunday 1 July 2012

Week 9


Monday we were in Gab’s for meetings sorting out our ideas and applying for our partner costs. Partner costs is the money we get from Skilllshare that goes to the organisation we work for; in our case for TXY. We had to propose our ideas then say how much we wanted then see if it was viable. Patty and Massi had said how much they needed stationary for the school and gave us a list of the things they needed most. TXY has about 5 pencils that are about a few centimeters long, 1 small piece of rubber and a sharpener that doesn’t work. So off we went into Gabs to compare prices for various items and try and blag some discount. We had to wait until Tuesday to go buy everything as the banks were closed so we couldn’t cash our checks. Tuesday morning we went to the bank and got 1500pula cash ..... I felt so rich with this big wad of money however its only about £140! We went back to buy all the stationary we had sorted from the day before then Wairimu took us shopping for warm clothes as all of a sudden it has gotten freezing! I know its Africa and it’s meant to be hot but seriously its nippy! I found some leggins for 15 pula and they looked passable so I got them..... however when I tried them on at home they are horrific! They are shiny grey with stirrups and do not even cover my arse, I spent the whole of Wednesday flashing my arse to the whole of Kang, pulling them up every 2 steps!
Wednesday at TXY me and Esther went shopping for the materials needed for the kitchen shelves and some paint to finish the sick bay. So next week if the Brigade fail us again were getting on DIY and fixing shelves then attempting to be artistic and paint a sea scape on the floor. In the evening we went to this guy called Aslan’s farm for brai (BBQ). He has a trophy head of a Gemsbok on his living room wall so we all posed for photo’s with it then he wipped out his gun. The delight on Faye Tray’s face when he offered it to her for a photo was hilarious..... let me say that we all make fetching hunters! We chilled around the fire and ate food. The stars and sky are so amazing out here, you can see all the galaxy’s and tonnes of stars. Me and Faye saw a shooting star on our way to the toilet! We’ve become such geeks just stargazing every night but you can’t imagine how beautiful it is until you have seen it yourself!
Thursday we had a meeting with the VDC to give in the report about the past TXY pupils and how they have progressed through the local primary schools. Hopefully we will be meeting them early next week to formalize a contract between them and TXY for future support for the school. We helped in lessons again today, maths and english. Esther gave Massi a yogurt that she didn’t want and all the kids lined up so that they could have a taste of it. TXY can’t afford to feed the students everyday so on these days the kids that can afford it bring their own food; the “rich ones” as Patty described them. Its easy to tell on days like these which are the Basarwa children (who get schooling for free as they are traditionally hunter-gatherers and bushmen who don’t go to school, so education is offered to them through TXY for free to encourage them to go to school) and the children who pay to go (just normal Kang residents). Two little Basarwa kids sat either side of one girl and every time she looked away stole a handful of her food. We sat with the kids while they ate their lunch in the playground and I was surprised by how they shared everything so the kids who didn’t have anything to eat still ate. 
Friday we did the regular stuff at TXY. On the way home from work we saw men slaughtering goats for the funeral of one of our neighbours on the Saturday. Emma went over and offered to help skin the head, it was fairly disgusting and I was swiney because on thursday a chicken coughed at me at TXY so left her and went home with Faye. About half an hour later Emma walked through the door with goat balls in her hand and went “if I cook them will you eat them with me?”! She came back about 15 minuets later with these goat balls on a plate...... we all tried a bit. For future reference goat ball tastes like tough chicken and the middle bit like boiled egg yolk! In the evening we went back to Abraham’s game reserve again. We toasted marshmallows on the fire and made schmores. Then went jackal hunting with Stefan and Christy, unfortunately we didn’t catch anything because I was in charge of the gun and was to busy staring at the jackal to pass the gun :S however I did look down the barrel of a gun at an African Wild Cat.  We saw the cutest baby Springbok just walking down a track .... it beast Bambi hands down! Again me and Faye Tray were massive geeks and star gazed .... we saw so many shooting stars! There is nothing like sitting in the middle of the Kalahari desert on a jackal hunt watching shooting stars, I will definitely never forget tonight.
On Saturday Christy woke us all up with tea and biscuits in bed. We then went to the cattle post to catch the horses so we could go on a horse ride around the farm.  It was fairly sketchy at first as I’ve not ridden a horse for years but as soon as I was sure the horse wasn’t going to throw me off or gallop away it was actually really fun. We trotted along with the dogs and watched an Eagle hunting. The farm has some camels; one of which is tame and called Lulu. When Faye and Christy went on their ride first me and Emma pretty much crept up on the camels trying to get good pictures - we were scared it was going to attack us or something then as it walked towards us ran and jumped over the fence to safety and hid. Then Christy got back, hopped off her horse and sat on its back; we had no idea it was tame until then..... our explorer style video we made about the savage camel isn't so cool anymore! Lulu the camel was such a joker and helped us get some hilarious camel based pictures. We sat on her, made her wear a hat and then she spat in my face and started to lean on me, then gave Faye a hug. Seeing as England were playing South Africa at Rugby (and the guys are South African originally) we went on a game drive in the afternoon. This time we saw ground squirrels, loads of eagles, springbok, jackals, bat eared foxes, wilderbeast and some gemsboks. I also caught a poacher! I made Christy stop the truck as me and Faye had spied something, we stopped and I wipped out the binoculars, saw it was man and went “oh its just a person” really disappointed that it wasn’t anything exciting. Christy was like “WHAT!!!” so we radioed in then had to speed back to the house. Me and Faye were like little detectives after that as we found the footprints in the sand and followed them. Unfortunately I don’t yet know what happened with the whole poacher as we had to go home that evening but I will keep you posted! Neal, the most hilarious man in the world, who lives at the game park made us Blue Wilderbeast horn napkin holders so hopefully I will be able to sneak them through customs.
Sunday we were woken up about 8am by rowdy boys knocking on the windows trying to wake us up! They all had these home made guns so we were hiding inside scared we were going to get shot at! There was one little boy sat on his own outside and after like an hour of watching him being like “have you seen the spike on the end of the gun!” and stuff Emma went to talk to him. It turns out the guns don’t actually fire so we were safe and just being dramatic. Him and his Dad made the guns and he gave some to his friends who took them then said they didn’t want to play with him so Emma invited him in and sat drawing with him for a bit. He was the sweetest kid ever, we went into the lounge and he went to put something in the bin then we heard him sweeping the kitchen floor, he said it was to say thank you for the sweets and drinks! In the evening we went to Gitu’s house as him and his wife made us an Asian feast :) It was amazing!!!!

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