June 25, 2008
Just a two-hour drive from here is a land where hundreds of zebra run wild and romp and splash in a water hole outside the Leroo La Tau Lodge. I spent a couple of nights there this week, my final time as a volunteer with Desert and Delta Safaris.
Another camp was on the site, which Desert and Delta Safaris bought and completely overhauled to build thatched-roof bungalows that line an outcropping overlooking the sandy channel. I could sit on my balcony in the Leopard chalet overlooking the vast scene of zebra play and kudu curiosity. Or I could just stay in what struck me as a “safari modernist” room and inspect the animals from the glass walls of the bedroom and bath. From my bed I watched the sun rise over the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park, which Leroo La Tau borders. It has its own character, this (officially) 10-day-old lodge, and I would never grow bored watching the water hole to discover which animals might turn up.
In the distance at 5 a.m. I heard the bellowing roars of lions, a sound I will miss when I return to city life. But I never saw the lions on this quick trip, although their tracks were around. (Leroo La Tau means footsteps of the lion.)
I had a short excursion one day to Khamaga, a village of traditional round houses and cattle about 6 kilometers from the lodge. Guests travel through this village on the way to the camp, and there is some early common hope among Desert and Delta Safaris and the village that tourists eventually might be able to visit the place more formally to meet residents of Botswana (known as Batswana) and learn about their culture and traditions.
I, for one, hope that works out. I visited the Khumaga Primary School, where there are nine classes and 225 students from ages six through 16. “BEWARE AIDS KILLS” is the first thing you see when you come to the gate of the schoolyard. The letters are formed from old soda cans.
The school has a traditional dance troupe in need of some new leather skirts for girls, jackal-skinned pants for boys and rattling ankle wear for all. A teacher, Mrs. G. Tshube, assured me it is quite a talented group.
Maybe it can happen that visitors will be exposed through the schoolchildren to the traditional songs and dance of the Batswana. In my time at the other Desert and Delta Safaris camps, it was a delight anytime staff members gathered as the camp choir and decided to sing and dance around the fire. But the camps were far from villages, so it wasn’t possible to see how people lived day to day in rural Botswana villages. Khumaga would offer a different perspective.When I arrived at Khumaga Primary School, the children had finished their lessons and were all sitting on the floor of a classroom watching a movie. It struck me as funny. They were watching “Anaconda,” which is about, you can guess, a giant killer snake. I had to laugh at the children grimacing at a movie snake when they could walk a short distance and happen across any number of snakes that send me leaping higher than an acrobat. I noticed that on the chalkboard was an assignment in which students were to write a composition about their own encounters with snakes. (I’ve written a few of those myself.) I wish I could read the finished papers, because I’m sure they would be more hair-raising than anything Hollywood could produce.
My great moment with the children came when I opened my MacBook and turned on the Photo Booth program. It allows the kids to see themselves in “stretch” or “light tunnel” or “comic book” or “thermal ray” mode, to name just a few. Mrs. Tshube said she had never seen some of the quiet students laugh and talk so much as when they gathered round to watch themselves on my computer screen.
It works like a carnival house of mirrors. In other words, the children could have extremely fat heads and eyeballs if I put it in “bulge” mode. I shot a couple of photos with the software program so you can see the happy faces of Khamaga kids. I won’t be forgetting them or their laughter anytime soon! My hope is that someday other guests to Leroo La Tau will meet them as well.Maria Henson - Volunteer, DDS
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