Hitching and the Hitched

Ke kwala thata (I write a lot)
--so now I’ve decided to be lazy and simplify this blog with dot points--

The blog combines two very amazing and culturally insightful weekends I had; one is about the weekend I hitched with a friend around Eastern bots, and the other is about a local village wedding I attended.

Hitching weekend
To the worried adults: please note that hitching is a legitimate form of transport in Botswana. There are informal ‘hitching’ points around the country that locals line up at, typically a bus stand, to wave down any passing traffic. You generally pay the driver a bit of cash either less than, or the same as, an equivalent bus fare.

The events of this weekend played out as follows:

-After 2 buses and 1 hitch ride, arrived at Moremi Village in Tswapong hills – Eastern Bots. Camped on a cattle farmer’s plot by his huts.

-Witnessed the first desert rains, complete with epic thunder and lightning

 

 

-Visited the spiritual Moremi Gorge – also only 1 of 2 places in Bots where the cape vultures breed.

The next day and 5 separate hitch rides later (with admittedly long waits in remote areas, opting not to take a ride on a back of a ute with a dead cow carcass) we went further east to Bobonong. Some locals let us stay at their place, letting us loose in their house when they went out; amazing hospitality and trust!

 

From Bobonong we headed to Matlhabaneng on a monster truck. Conversations went from the usual introductory ‘hi/what’s your name/ where are you from’ etc to them revealing a sincere dislike for their government, claiming that to get by in Bots they had to resort to thieving and elephant poaching. Following their self-confessions, we were relieved they had no quarrel with us and we peacefully hopped off by a small corner store in the somewhat deserted town, getting a few bemused looks by locals as though we were the last things they expected to appear.

We joined the local shop keepers when they went to restock from the nearby farm (the place was sheer greenery in the middle of the desert) where we were able to pitch our tent for the night. The farm itself was more like a community with 800+ people including families that were born, raised and worked there.

We met Zimbabwean refugees (ex-border jumpers) and local ladies who were carrying out HIV-AIDS testing in the compound. Apart from being amazingly friendly/ fun people, they had truly insightful stories to tell. The sort that really make you appreciate the life and conditions you have been given (too long to detail, but always happy to chat if you’re interested!)

Visited ‘Solomans wall’ – a pretty cool geological formation nearby – and almost ran into some less-than-friendly elephants. Climbed some rocks as usual and admired the surrounding landscape.

The hitched

A local friend of mine, Glow, knew someone who was having a traditional village wedding; these types of weddings are open to everyone. Audrey, Michael and I tagged along to see how it all works! About the wedding/Batswana wedding’s in general:

-First of all, when a man wants to marry a woman he must ‘offer’ cattle to her uncle as a ‘bride price.’

-Weddings are typically open to everyone and the groom must cater for all – lots of food!

-Age seems of little consequence; we were perplexed as to why the bride’s father was sitting between her and the groom. It was then we realised that she wasn’t next to her ‘father’ but that the groom was just… a bit older. The other guy was just the best-man.

-Traditionally a man would organize to marry the daughter of a good family long before she was of age. He would look at the family, see if they were well-tempered and decree that he would marry their daughter when she was old enough – even if a mere baby in a womb. Not sure what the case was with this wedding.

-Church service comes first with A LOT of singing.

-The bridal party wears matching clothes. They change the clothes at LEAST once (often more) in the wedding ceremony. Again, all matching outfits and perfectly tailored.

-Similarly, the bride changes wedding dresses a couple of times and the groom and groomsmen do likewise.

-Photos are taken in a nearby landscape (incidentally, we seemed to be novel enough to feature in many)

-Car horns sound almost the ENTIRE day in celebration and women make that weird ‘war cry’ noise “a-le-le-le-leeeeehhhh!” (well that’s the only way I can really try to relate the noise).

-DANCING! After all the formalities, the bridesmaids and groomsmen start the dancing, and then anyone can join. The instant I joined on this, a HUGE crowd surrounded me – the Lekgoa (white person) was dancing! A local would pull a move, I would copy and then someone would say “Lekgoa o itse go bina!” (The Lekgoa knows how to dance!). I’m not sure what they found so great about it, but they loved it in any case. For me, it was just great fun! Despite feeling sick, even Audrey joined in and felt better for it -- though we both ended the day with pounding heads.

-In many ways, the wedding reminded me a lot of what it would be like back home. But then certain practices or just a glance at your surroundings would bring you back to where you were. ‘Same same’ but different!