Why did the chicken cross the road?

To get away from the "You and I Kitchen", of course!  (Should it be You and Me Kitchen? Grammar police?)

This photo was snapped at the Botswana / South Africa border yesterday. Because of Cyclone Dineo and all of the rains that it produced, the bridge on the highway from our town, Lobatse, to the capital, Gaborone, has washed away. Normally, it is a 70 kilometer trek that takes us about an hour - imagine Hwy 30 from Clarence all the way to Cedar Rapids on just a two lane highway - it's like that, only with random cattle, goats, and donkeys either grazing in the ditches or meandering willy-nilly across the highway. Precarious! Anyway, we decided to go to South Africa to Mafikeng, which is also 70 kilometers from Lobatse - and - no potholes. The pothole you see in the pic below is on the left hand side of the road - NOT the shoulder. We drive on the left here, so the yellow line you see, well, that is where the shoulder begins. You can imagine, the road was full of random zingers like this. So between dodging cattle, donkeys, and goats, and now potholes, we decided to cross the border.

And, with good reason - this was us on the side of the road the other day after not being able to avoid one of the potholes. When it's 5,000 degrees, the sun is beating down on you, and there is no shade in sight, changing a tire on the side of the road is not fun. For spectators. It wasn't fun for me AT ALL.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we managed to get stuck in the mud on the farm. Typically we have no problems traversing this part of the farm with the car. Welcome Cyclone Dineo. Stuck. About sunset, which is when any and all types of animals typically come out to play (except baboons, they have climbed into the trees and gone up the hillsides to protect themselves from leopards at night). We decided to walk out and come back the next day. This is the next day. 

The farm consists of approximately 1,300 hectares, which is approximately 3,200 acres to you and me (you and I? why did the chicken cross the road?!) It had been vacant since 1994, where previously there had been a bull farm. I'm super excited to share the beginnings of the farm operations here, especially with Tate (Moeller) - we will be working very hard to recycle, reuse, and re-purpose everything on the farm, including cow poop. :) Currently, there are approximately 3 man-made dams left on the farm. We plan to rebuild them as right now they do not function properly. This pic is of one, spilling, during the midst of the storms.

This creepy crawly is a chongololo - just like it sounds - chong go lo lo . I don't know it's purpose, but I do know if you step on it accidentally, it crunches. It got all fat and sassy from the heavy rains, but I bet if I stepped on it, it would still crunch. Ew.

Right now, we live in a house in town. But last year, we built this traditional building up on the hill along with an outdoor fire pit. A place of solitude and a place to enjoy the sunset. We have been considering turning it into a home. We hiked up to determine the best way, living room here, kitchen there....and Teddy Roosevelt (the cockapoo) sat in silent contemplation. This building as it stands now is called a Lapa.

Speaking of dogs...our Rhodesian Ridgeback had ten puppies. Ten. Catastrophe! What do you do with ten puppies? (I won't say what Dad suggested that I do with them....) Well, we gave most of them away. This farm belongs to some friends of ours, it's their weekend getaway farm. The buildings are quite traditional to Botswana, but the insides are completely modern and amazing. We deposited two Rhodies there, Duke, and Lucy.

We ended up keeping three of the puppies. Skipper, because he was perfect. Buddy Holly, because he was a bit sickly, and Finn (as in "Fool's Gold", Finn) because he was a bit hyper-active slash / mentally challenged. See below (don't let his demeanor in this picture fool you):

I will leave you with my last photo today. Celebrated my birthday yesterday in Mafikeng at Ocean Basket - the best fish and chips, sushi, mussels, king prawns, etc., etc., yum! Parting words - Africa is yuuuuuuge! And, what you see on television is a fraction of reality. Imagine if people all over the world were exposed to only the Kardashians, and that's they way they thought Americans lived, not real! Sunday I woke up at 330 a.m. to watch the Oscars (WTF?), a couple of weeks ago I did the same to watch the Grammy's (RIP Prince), have been keeping up with my liberal news, CNN, 24 hours a day, have Netflix (I know! have you seen the IT Group? Hysterical! Grace and Frankie?), our DSTV satellite TV broadcasts "Modern Family", "The Big Bang Theory", and a shortened version of "Saturday Night Live". Don't misunderstand me, there is extreme poverty, I mean extreme. And, not everyone lives in a town, or a city, or a farm, there are many villages scattered around the area. I will share some of the village pics, etc., as we go along.

Note to Rhonda and Jenn: re schools - I will try and snap some pics of the local schools. They follow the UK system, which is still very foreign to me. Form 1, Form 2, O Level exams, etc. so it's not listed as elementary, junior high, and high school. There are public schools, English Medium schools, Setswana Medium schools, and private schools. Most of our friends with kids send them to private schools; some as far away as boarding schools in South Africa. I will endeavor to learn more about them as we have a dairy manager coming from the states with his wife and three school aged boys! 

That's it for this week, have a fabulous weekend! 

xoxo