go siame
After enjoying a lovely Windhoek Special (a nice beer), I felt like updating my blog. First of all, because I haven’t done so for a while. Secondly, because my time in Botswana draws to a close.
The last few days have been busy. Writing, looking at data, finishing a philosophy paper which had a deadline which was a bit more urgent than my thesis.
Today I decided that I could have a bit more of a chill-out-day. (Last week I was working in the weekend as well! I know, it’s close to blasphemy).
Monday morning I will be taking a bus to Francistown, where I will cross the border of Botswana for the last time, for now. On the one hand I am very grateful to know that I can conclude a work well done. Yet on the other hand I feel sad to leave a country so beautiful.
For Botswana is beautiful. The warm reception you will find when meeting people. The blistering sun which competes with gentle, or rough winds. And don’t forget the lovely beef, tender and juicy.
In retrospective I can say that sometimes I have been blind to this beauty. Blinded by frustration and the challenges of being away from home. Home in the deepest sense of the word. Not just the locus of my belongings. Home as a culture I understand and function in well, a language in which I can express myself eloquently and a place where my friends and loved ones are. (On a side note, I have no literal home at the moment: a place to live.)
But looking back it is always easier to filter experiences and insights to a picture that may be less real than what was experienced, but nonetheless true.
If my future permits me, I would certainly not mind to come back to Botswana.
As for next week, I am planning to go to the Victoria Falls or Mosioathunya – the smoke that thunders. I am going to the Zimbabwean side of the Falls, with someone I met in Mopipi: Washington, a nice Zimbabwean, who helped me a lot in Mopipi (and who smokes a lot of pot by the way). Afterwards I will be traveling to Jo’burg once again and flying of to Cape Town, where I haven’t been for 3 years. Looking forward to that.
Go siame is Setswana for Goodbye (literally: it’s alright)