Snakes!

   I did my first solo snake presentation last week at the Catholic Mission where I have been going every Thursday to give conservation lessons. I have been doing this almost the whole year and I finally decided it was about time to show these kids some snakes!  Something that we do often from the center is use snakes for educational purposes and take them to various events to just let people touch or hold them and to teach them that snakes, although they should be respected, are not to be feared!

    The general attitude of people here when it comes to snakes is see it – kill it! You can’t blame them very much when they live in an area with some of the most venomous snakes in the world, but we try to teach them that it is not a good idea to try to kill the snake because you can hurt yourself even more (plus it is illegal to kill some snakes). The best thing to do when you see a snake is leave it alone! For some, I don’t think that is too difficult because the second they see the snake they run screaming in the opposite direction! But fear is the root of wanting to kill them, so by letting them have the opportunity to hold or touch a snake in a safe environment they can see that not all snakes are bad and there is no reason to just kill them!

    I took a Brown House Snake and a Southern African Python (Rock Python) to show to the group. These are two safe snakes that are very commonly found around here.  It is quite entertaining watching everyone’s reactions when you pull a snake out of the bag. Funny the children were much calmer than the adults! It’s so rewarding to watch people go from screaming and running away to actually coming to touch the snake (after they see others do it safely of course). Overall, great experience! Saving snakes, one human at a time….

Gingerdoodles!

I made these cookies last night just on a baking whim. I had all the ingredients from when mom made ginger snaps when she was here for Christmas, and I decided I should get another use out of those ginger and cloves! Boy are these cookies good!!!! I thought I would share the recipe, originally from http://www.laurenslatest.com/gingerdoodle-cookies/. Didn't get any photos, but they look a lot like a plump snickerdoodle, just a bit darker and yummy and gingery! These are tough competition for your ginger snaps, mom....

Gingerdoodles
yield: 3 dozen

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup molasses
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup granulated sugar, for rolling

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Stir in egg, vanilla and molasses. Whip 1-2 minutes or until it turns a light brown color. Stir in remaining ingredients and mix until dry ingredients are just combined.

Roll a heaping tablespoon of dough into a ball and coat in granulated sugar. Place on silicone baking mat, lightly greased cookie sheet or parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

Bake 7-9 minutes or until outside looks cooked but inside is still soft and gooey. Cool 5 minutes on cookie sheet before transferring to cooling rack.

Serve warm or at room temperature. Store in an airtight container until ready to serve.

Nata

   On Tuesday morning we woke up at oh-dark-thirty to hit the road. Mommy Trish was driving down to Johannesburg, so she was able to take Carrie and I and drop us at Nata Lodge on her way down. After a bit of a snooze and chatting in the car, we arrived nice and early at the lodge…. About 8 am. Sadly we were too early to check in…. so we got some coffee and started our relaxation by the pool! The summary of our trip is reading, swimming, and eating!! We were soooo blessed to have our lodging AND food paid for by Ellen and Trish, lovely ladies who must care a whole lot for us! Quite a gift for us budgeting girls!

     Nata is a town about three hours south of Kasane and is located in the Magkadigkadi Pans, the largest salt pans in Southern Africa (at least). These pans used to be an ocean (wayyy back) but now they fill with water during the rainy season and dry up during the dry season to leave all the white saltiness behind. During the rainy season they get many migrating birds to the pans, such as…. Flamingos!!!! We were able to just catch the end of the rainy season so when we went on our pan trip we got to see the flamingos, pelicans, avocets, etc. They were a bit far away but very cool to see! On that 3 hour trip we also got to sit on the edge of a huge pan that looked practically like an ocean and watch the sunset. It was a beautiful sunset because of two storms on either side of us. The landscape is soooo flat you feel like you can see forever! We could see rain that was probably hundreds of kilometers away. Huge sky! 

     The first night we had a full-course meal – a LOT of food! We started with a cheesy bun and salad, then moved on to our steak, veggies, and chips then ended with a waffle with ice cream and a slice of cheesecake. We are both pretty good eaters but we were both rolling back to the tent after that! But we couldn’t not eat food that was given to us! Also had a wonderful breakfast in the morning… even though we really weren’t that hungry!

   So I’m totally going out of order, but just writing as things come to me! The tent that we stayed in was en suite so it had a bathroom in it. Very awesome accomodation!!  It even provided enough room for the Cha Cha slide…. Exercise in the morning! I personally loved the shower – so neat to be able to shower under the stars! After our two lovely days of relaxation and reading a lot, we had to head back to Nata to catch the bus back to Kasane. We thankfully found a lift with a nice group of Germans that were heading that way and dropped us at the bus stop. After waiting for nearly an hour for the bus we were getting a bit bored….. so of course we resorted to food and bought a yummy bread patty thing. As we were sitting there eating our homemade bread/pancake thing, a man walked up and asked if we were going to Kasane. We said yes! And he offered us a lift. So we climbed into the back of his car which looked like a couch, complete with seat covers and throw pillows, and had a very lovely drive up. He was an excellent driver and we were quite thankful to have that ‘cushy’ ride compared to the bus! Sooo overall, we had an excellent trip! So glad I got to see another part of the country, now I’ve seen the Delta, the pans, and Chobe! Thanks Carrie for being my travel buddy!

     I had the pleasure of coming back to an ant-infested house. As we head back into dry season they are desperate for water and an entire ant colony seemed to think my shower would be a good place to set up camp! Let’s just say they are all now in a place with plenty of water…. down the drain!

 Unfortunately the pictures aren't loading on to this blog post... will try to post some pix onto facebook instead - got some really great ones!

Easter Travels

         As my time in Botswana draws to a close I am trying to squeeze some last minute traveling in! Since it is now a school holiday I don’t have to do any teaching so I can take some time off work. Last week, Carrie (who graciously offered to be my travel buddy!) and I traveled to a farming village called Pandamatenga, or Panda, where we stayed with a family we know from church. We got a ride with someone out there, about 45 minutes away, and unfortunately were a bit delayed, so arrived around dinner time. We dropped our stuff then went with the whole family (Dean and Ellen, who we were staying with, their two children, then Dean’s brother, his wife and two girls who live on a farm close by) out to a nearby pan to have dinner and watch the full moon rise.

     I rode in the back of the buckey with the two kids – lots of bumpy fun! - as we passed through fields of sunflowers, sorghum, and millet to cross through the farm fence that is supposed to keep out the lions, elephant, and other pesky wildlife that can so easily destroy a farmer’s crop or cattle. The scenery was unlike anything else in Botswana, my personal fave was the huge fields of sunflowers, which unfortunately I didn’t get a great photo of, but were just amazingly beautiful!

    Unfortunately we didn’t see much wildlife while we were at the pan. There are still many larger pans that provide water to the animals farther into the bush, so they didn’t have to come in closer to the one we were at, but we thought we heard elephants and lion at one point. Panda is known for having a huge lion population, but the most we saw of them were their footprints along the fence. Otherwise, we enjoyed a fire, the moon, and delicious food before heading back to the farm to tuck in for the night.

     The next morning we had a relaxed morning with lots of tea and flapjacks! A Canadian neighbor brought her <1yr old daughter over and Carrie and I sang some songs with the kids while the moms set up an Easter egg hunt for the kids. It is so interesting to hear everyone’s story of how they ended up here. There is such a conglomerate of nationalities and stories of why people are living in this tiny little corner of the world. For several of the farmers in Panda, the reasons were not by choice, but because they were forced off of their farms in the early 2000’s when the government in Zimbabwe ceased all of the country’s farms. But I won’t go into all of that at the moment….

A few butterflies playing in the garden!

     After lunch we headed out to get a tour of the farms and a new farm that they had purchased. We also stopped to watch a man and woman who are training falcons to be predatory birds to control the population of Quellea, which are the equivalent to Starlings in the States, and very devastating to crops. We watched them fly the birds for a bit. They are still training them until they can get them to the point where they will chase the pest birds off of the farms. They were hired to pilot this program so that in the future farmers might use them for pest control. It was really neat to watch them!

    That night we decided to sleep out under the stars! We had a wonderful set-up with mattresses in the bed of a huge trailer set in their front yard. We were all snuggled up as we looked up at the vast sky with the almost-whole moon! Early in the morning before the sun came up we spotted a few of the Bush Babies (nagapis?) in nearby trees. Very interesting creatures! We managed to roll ourselves out of our cozy beds to get breakfast and be on our way with a ride back to Kasane. What a lovely trip! Thanks Ellen and Dean for a wonderful visit!!

      Back in Kasane for Easter weekend, Carrie, Octavius and I enjoyed a delicious breakfast of cinnabon cake, bacon and eggs on Saturday morning – it was amazing! And very filling…..

 

On Sunday morning we had a beautiful sunrise service at the Seep, then a fun gathering in the afternoon to celebrate. I introduced Easter egg dyeing to the group and we had a good time coming up with fun designs! We swam and ate food, then went our own ways for the evening. I reclaimed my house from spiders the next day then went into town to get ready to leave for Nata on Tuesday morning.

 To be continued…. Figure I will post this while I can because it is taking so long to write! Will post about Nata after the weekend hopefully!