Maru-a-Pula

Maru-a-Pula Campus

Today I leave the Maru-a-Pula school, where I have stayed my first few weeks in Botswana. Maru-a-Pula is a "co-ed, independent day & boarding secondary school with a reputation as one of Africa’s premier academic institutions" founded in 1972 as one of the first non-racial schools in the region. It's here in the capital city of Gaborone. I've been living on campus with some of the other teachers.

I was based in the school library, but I've been involved doing a few creative writing activities with some of the English classes and joined in the activities of the Permaculture and Wildlife student clubs. Working in the library has been really fun, and I secretly love reshelving the books. Of course I do. I get to handle so many troves of creativity and knowledge and make them more accessible to their readers. The library has a fair collection of books about Botswana or by Batswana writers, and I've been reading as many as I can. Some of my favorites have been Windsongs of the Kgalagadi by Barolong Seboni and Okavango Gods by Anthony Fleischer. 

Hoodia gorgonii, edible and medicinal succulent

Here at MaP, I helped to compile a guide to the campus flora. I spent a few days walking around campus with MaP's horticulturalist and wonderful plant enthusiast, Diphetogo. He taught me all about the many uses and lives of these plants. One tree, the Buffalo Thorn, for instance is purportedly lightning-resistant; another: Erythrina has knobby seed pods containing red lucky beans. If you carry them in your pocket, good luck may come to you. These are the things I love to learn about--it gives the plants so much character!

I think it was a good choice to start my stay in Bots here. I got to meet many poets at the several poetry events around Gaborone this month. There's a huge wealth of written and spoken word here, and I feel fortunate to have shown up in the right place at the right time. Last Friday, I got to go to the opening of a brand new poetry collection at the Gaborone Public Library. Poets TJ Dema, Gomolemo, and Moroka Moreri all spoke at the event, and it drew a big crowd to the library. 

Resurrection Plant comes back to life after it dries and turns brown

I had met Moroka Moreri a few days prior for an interview. He is one of Botswana's traditional praise poets. He is capable of composing vocal poems, in couplets, on the spot. He warned me that I would "run away when I saw him in his traditional regalia" which he wears for special occasions like these readings. He changed from his business suit (he works in Parliament) into a hide tunic, fur cap, and (I think) hyena fur cape, and spoke many words of praise to the poets in the room, all completely improvised. He even included me, and although I didn't understand (he was speaking in Setswana), I was blushing HARD. But, I tried to be graceful about it. I think I smiled at the right moments (when the crowd was laughing), and everyone was kind to me in the reception afterwards. EEeeeee.

So, now I move up to Khama Rhino Sanctuary for the next few weeks. I hope to travel to points north afterwards, like the Makgadikgadi Pans, Kasane and Chobe National Park, and then Maun and the Okavango Delta, before I leave Bots at the end of December. Wish me luck! I may be away from the internet for all of that.

Love,

Carrie

Quelea quelea male surveying his nest

Rewind: Kalinago Territory

Rewind! (this post is out of chronological order)

view of the Atlantic near the Kalinago Barana Aute

some members of my host family in the Kalinago Territory

Toward the end of my stay in Dominica, I spent two nights with a Kalinago family. I stayed with Robinson and his family at their home in the Kalinago Territory on Dominica’s east coast. Robinson said he was one of the few Kalinago to still remember how to build the traditional mwina huts. He and his wife had lived in this style of housing (built from bamboo and zermoosh leaves) for many years, but recently built a more modern home from concrete. He kept the traditional houses for visitors and for other Kalinago who may want to learn the building techniques. I slept comfortably, completely safe and dry inside my mwina. Robinson also taught me about the medicinal uses of many plants in his garden. He was a true wealth of knowledge.

me and my guide Justin

I spent the day touring with Robinson’s neighbor and son-in-law, Justin, leader of a Kalinago cultural group specialised in dance. Justin led me to L’escalier Tete Chien (stair of the snake), where legend tells that the snake god emerged from the sea when the land was young and left a track where he climbed into the mountain. Walking around and on this lava plume rock formation (with Justin’s leadership and permission) gave me the very real sense that this was a sacred place. The waves surged up from the drop-off, crashing and spraying dozens of feet into the air, threatening to carry us out to sea.

I heard a few different tellings of the legend of the snake god, but in each one he is alive to this day and capable of granting wishes. None of the snakes I saw in Dominica rivalled the legendary king, but I did see some big boa constrictors while out doing field work with the mountain chicken team! I even got to hold one!

panoramic view of L'escalier Tete Chien where it rises from the sea

Léscalier Tete Chien

Léscalier Tete Chien: check out those waves!

I also went on a tour of the Kalinago Barana Aute, a model village demonstrating features of life before Columbus and all the subsequent invasions of the island by Europeans. I am sorry to say that I did not much enjoy my tour of the KBA. It was indeed interesting to learn about canoe-building and casava-bread baking and to see some of the traditional structures, but the tour felt very rehearsed and rushed. The experience was further soured when I learned that the admissions fees (it was the most expensive site I’d visited on the island) do not stay in the community.

Although the vision for the KBA was by two Kalinago men, the government took control of the project, and now nearly all the funds that it produces leave the territory. Even a portion of the price to do my homestay goes to the KBA and then to the government. I was unable to learn more details about this, but what I heard from the Kalinago individuals who explained the situation to me indicated a serious usurpation of their cultural identity for very little gain on the part of Kalinago people.

me in a traditional mwina

I do recommend a visit, and an investment in the crafts and stories and future of the Kalinago people and territory, but I recommend doing so through individuals, rather than the official booking agencies. Please email me for contacts.

Love,

Carrie

Rewind: SCUBA Training

Rewind! (this post is out of chronological order)

training area at Aldive 

Back in mid-October I learned to SCUBA dive! I trained with Aldive in Loubiere, Dominica, and had an excellent experience. Thanks to my instructor Billy, I am now Open Water Diver certified, and aching to get back underwater. Alas, I’ll have to wait for Australia. (Botswana is landlocked and the only surface water is the drinking water reservoir behind the Gaborone Dam, and the multitude of shallow rivers in the Okavango delta (the world’s largest inland delta).

me and my dive buddy (the other diver taking the course)
ready for our first dive

Billy said I was a natural, and I definitely felt at home in the water once I understood how to use the gear. I highly recommend the experience to all. I’ll never forget the first breath I took through the regulator. It takes a great deal of trust in oneself and one’s gear to reject the idea: nope, no air underwater. But I inhaled the compressed air, and had to figure out how to hold the regulator in my mouth while grinning like such a buffoon. The most important rule of SCUBA is to breathe normally--never hold your breath!

Our deepest of the training dives was 60 feet, where the coral reef transitioned to seagrass beds. It was such a joy to see the relatively healthy reefs off Dominica’s coast. And I was pleased to have recognized many corals, gorgonians, sponges and fishes from my tropical biology courses at Wheaton. Diadema urchins galore! (Lionfish too, though, which are invasive to the region.)

Solomon Reef (from above)
mm those clear waters!

Of course, there were plenty of algae growing on the reef, but I was very impressed by the diversity of species and all the beautiful colors. While hovering above the sandy bottom, I got to chill in the middle of a school of blue chromises.

I found diving extremely meditative, and hope to do it frequently in the future. Let’s go together!

Love,

Carrie

P.S. Billy is sending me some underwater footage. I'll try to share that in the future.

me post-dive. those tanks are heavy!

First Days in Botswana

view from Kgale Hill toward Gaborone Dam

I arrived in Botswana a few days ago. I was supremely jetlagged, but am at last feeling re-energized. I flew from Dominica to Paris, and spent a delightful but brief stay at Arty Paris hostel with my friend and hausmate Emma. Sometime when you and I are together in person, I'll tell you a story about the time Emma and I sang for a crowd of at least 100 outside Sacre Coeur cathedral. Mm, what. a. Time.

Departing Paris, I flew via Doha, Qatar and Johannesburg, South Africa to arrive in Gaborone, Botswana. Thursday evening, I went right to the Maru-a-Pula school where I'll be based the next few weeks. "Maru-a-Pula" means "clouds of rain" or "promises of blessings." At MaP, I'll be helping out in the library and learning from the campus horticulturalist about local ecology. I want to get involved with some of the extracurricular groups, particularly those about permaculture, wildlife, and poetry. I hope my stay here will also be a good jumping point for me to learn about writing and nature conservation in and around Gabs.

I was lucky my first night here to find out about a poetry slam happening right on campus by the Gaborone based group Poet's Passport. The theme of the night was Heat, which was appropriate in many ways. That day it had gotten up to 38 degrees Celcius! The country is dry dry dry, with months of no rain and years of drought conditions. But the poetry performed Friday night was saturated with passionate rhymes and rhythms. The second half was an open-mic, and I thought this would be a good way to put my foot in the door. Although I'd come unprepared, I copied down one of my poems from memory and asked the MC if I could read it.


Midway through the open mic session, he goes on stage, and kindly explains that there's a first timer coming up. As if I'm suddenly transported to a Rocky Horror show, the crowd starts clapping and shouting Virgin!, but they were supremely kind to me during my reading. I got many of their contacts afterwards, and one even asked if we could trade commentary on each other's future pieces. It was a blessed night, and a great start to being in Botswana.

granite hills surrounding Gaborone

The folks here at MaP have been very welcoming as well, and some of the teachers I'm living with on campus invited me to join them for rock climbing today. We went up to Kgale Hill, which means in Setswana: "the place that dried up." We could look across to the Gaborone Dam, where the water levels are only at 10% capacity. The red rocks of the hills are ancient, some of the oldest rock on the continent, according to local and lead-climber, Guy.

As I understand it (and I want to learn more on this) these are the remains of the super-continent that preceded Pangaea, a land mass called Gondwanaland. These rocks have been eroding and shifting for billions of years. It is hard to imagine a landscape more different than the fresh volcanic rocks and rich rainforests of Dominica. Long ago, it would have been more similar, when Botswana was the base of an inland superlake. Eventually, over millions of years, the lake dried as the land tilted and shifted the drainage systems of the land. Since, the land has been arid and water scarce.

It seems that change comes at its own pace, when we are ready and when we are not. And this afternoon, on my third day in the desert, it rained.



Many blessings,
Carrie

me while exploring the rocks of Kgale Hill