The last few weeks have been a rollercoaster ride with literally a different emotion for every day of the week. Since I last wrote I gained a new colleague, Joyce, who is an absolute angel and fantastic company to work with J. I had a week of enjoying Joyces company & being able to halve my workload before I received a shocking email from a friend asking for help from the site of their car crash L(mobile internet) – fortunately they were rescued shortly after and are now recovering slowly. The weekend after Hattie and I took off for some r&r to Botswana (just an hour from Gobabis) – we both needed a breather from our work & some time to just chill out & chat. After a disorganised start (Hattie was sick & neither of us managed to secure any bookings in Botswana!) we had a great time off roading into the CKGR (two hours to travel 40kmsinto the reserve – the roads were THAT bad) – few moments of panic (no spare fuel can/mobile coverage….) but we made it to the reserve in one piece.
We spent the first night entertaining two CKGRwardens around our campfire in exchange for fire wood, learning about the situation of the San in the reserve and their struggle to survive without government support, and pleasantly surprised at not being hit on. Just before they left they asked if we were Sisters (of the religious variety)…..that would explain it (!) Next day we headed off in search of wildlife, but being rubbish we set off an hour too late (Botswanas an hour ahead of Namibia) and had to settle for Gemsbok/Springbok/Wildebeest and Warthogs. But the scenery was stunning – miles and miles of savannah/pans and only two other cars in three days. Perfect. On the last night Hattie decided we should camp where the warden said there were ‘small predators & possibly cheetahs’ (!) I went along with the plan thinking the night would run along the same lines as the day in terms of our luck with animal sightings. Two hours later I was sat in the back of the truck , hands shaking, reappraising the benefits of roof tents after Hatties strangled shriek of ‘get in the car’ following an alarmingly close crashing noise in the bush! After a few minutes of silence I tried to determine what exactly it was that she saw….nothing, but it was a loud noise, so it couldve been a cat….(!) In fairness we heard a fair amount of hyena/jackal howling later …but we managed to ‘enjoy’ our third dinner of lentils & rice (talk about extreme detox…felt great afterwards…maybe it was the lack of sugar that led to the shaking?)
In the morning I woke at about 5 (I think Hattie thought I was just sleeptalking at 3am when I asked if it were a tent or an igloo) to a snuffling sound by my head (not Hattie – outside the tent) so I prodded Hattie to let her know we had visitors. After some discussion Hattie decided to investigate, opening the tent door with the instruction ‘if theres anything out there, I want you to grab a piece of firewood & hit it’ (!) I nodded…thinking unlikely Hattie….I’m staying right here. Fortunately whatever visited us had obviously taken off after hearing this not so quiet conversation – and all that was left were little hoof marks around the tent – a deer. We then made the mistake of trekking up to the nearest pan in our pj’s & the truck, to catch the early morning action – and getting stuck in the sand. Cue us both digging the truck out with our hands for half an hour before freeing it & finally heading back to civilisation (after changing our pj’s of course) J
We arrived back in Gobabis to find Rob, another VSO working here for a while, had arrived. Had a couple of days of great cooking (courtesy of Rob) and good banter between Joyce, Rob & myself, before I headed to Windhoek for two days of meetings & more good banter. Enjoyed the delights of the city – cinema, good food, and other vso’s, before heading back to prep for our Board meeting the following week. Rob & I trekked out to Donkerbos on the Sunday to pickup some board members (and treat them to very bad karaoke!), Monday my deviant schoolkids caused havoc refusing to return to school without new uniforms (apparently burning the last lot is a good enough reason to get new ones..) which the donor refused to pay for. Tuesday I was completely on edge as it was judgement day for me – finding out if the board would approve my contract renewal. And Paul (VSO program manager) was coming to witness the event.
Rob & I had prepared all the sessions the night before, but for some reason i found myself making sandwiches at 6am on my own…..the wider role of the volunteer. It was a really tough day (oh, yeah, the day before the chief had threatened to beat me L, forgot that bit..) with a good old slagging from the chief after the education donor let slip my opinion of the education program – corrupt. But the rest of the board supported me & agreed that I should stay another year. We then had to go through the saga of the fieldworker and his storytelling to establish his future at OST before he finally confessed to having another job anyway, praise the lord J
The afternoon was great though – Rob & I facilitated a 5 year planning session (it was a tough choice – puppet theatre vs decision trees…) and got some great material from the board to build a comprehensive proposal for the organisation. Since the board there’ve been a few more trips to windhoek (including a (car!) breakdown L), some better than others…..and finally this weekend the ‘Gobabis San Festival’ should be J but was more of a L. Well,a farce. I could write for hours on this one, but I won’t. All i’ll say is private promotions company+council+private donors=not much love for the San. Spent a lot of this week trying to effect damage limitation by pointing out that stealing our logo without our consent may at least be tempered by showing some shred of respect for our board and inviting them to the event LSpent most of yesterday directing a lot of unhappy/hungry San to the disgrace of an ‘organiser’, Isabella Hauses (exceeded Greyhound Ford in the laughable service stakes), before shivering alongside 80 or so San at the outdoor dinner, with no cutlery and no food for the performers! I have never experienced so much anger on behalf of someone else before but the complete disrespect of these beautiful people with more substance in their little fingers than the shower of vacuous idiots that purported to be ‘organising’ this event was beyond shameful. L
To take something positive out of the whole debacle – the performers were breathtaking, and Paulus & Besa (board members) did themselves and the OST proud with their confidence & poise whilst delivering great speeches. Today i’m flying to Joburg to see our donors….first on the list of requests? Money to fund our OWN San festival J
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