Having made plans to be picked up at 9am, and asked to be woken at 8.30, we were somewhat surprised to wake up and find it was 10.30. We soon learnt that it was because of a delay with finding a car, and eventually left at 12. We were going with Martha, and another lady called Doris, to a village around two hours drive away. When we drove up there was a crowd of people, mainly children, under a tree in front of the kgotla, which is where village meetings take place.
As soon as we stepped out of the car a bedraggled looking woman came up to us and started hugging us. I suddenly remembered that I’d seen her when I spent a short while in Botswana at Christmas and visited the same village, and that she was probably mentally ill. After she spat in my face a bit (I think accidentally), I firmly pushed her away. However she then went over to Kate and after a few seconds, took her breast out of her top, brandishing it around and then sucking it. A man immediately rushed up and pulled her away, even hitting her with a stick. It was horrible, obviously. But what to do? There’s no hospital or clinic here, they’ve only built a primary school this year (before that the nearest was 40km away), people are desperately poor and a huge percentage of them have HIV, have orphans to look after, dying relatives. What can they do with this crazy woman? I still wouldn’t hit her (in fact that man seemed far too fond of hitting things with sticks, the stray dogs, the ground…), but it’s not like there’s a psychiatric hospital where she can stay. Later I saw her chasing around like a child, with a woman chasing her, and both laughing.
Anyway, we then went over to the kids. Martha spoke to them in Setswana, telling them (I think) about these two nice girls from England who have come to help, and then praying with them (Martha’s husband Opa is an evangelical pastor and everyone working with the charity is very religious except for us. Being handed our food in the car we immediately started eating, not realising they were going to pray first. Ooops.) The kids are mainly orphans, many of them HIV positive. There are horrible sores on some of their heads and faces. Most of them do not have shoes, and many of their clothes are torn. One child was wearing the orange hood from a puffer jacket. Just the hood, with a pink t-shirt and trousers. Some of them have the swollen bellies you see on tv, and one has very swollen cheeks, which we think means a goitre. Each child has a bowl, and we lined them up (smallest children at the front) to come and get some food. Some have been waiting there since 7am Martha says.
In smallish groups they came up and get small amounts of rice, pap, chicken or beef, coleslaw, and vegetable stew. At the moment the charity can only afford to come here once a month, leaving some tinned food behind for the poorest families. If they had the money they would come every week, and leave enough food so that the community volunteers could cook a meal every day. This is not just for preventing hunger. In Botswana people with HIV get antiretrovirals, which improve and prolong life drastically. If you are malnourished, these do not really work. If your stomach is empty, they become toxic in your body and make you sick. So getting food is doubly important.
Once the children have eaten the older adults and teenagers do. Martha pointed out to us one very old woman feeding a small baby. Her hand was shaking and it was difficult for her to get the spoon to the baby’s mouth. She is one of the many grandmothers who, having lost their children to AIDS, now have to look after the grandchildren. Martha knows one old woman who has ten kids to look after by herself.
After everyone had eaten, we drove back to Gaborone. Saw Martha’s two sons, Kabalano and Tswaro. Tswaro lived in my Mum’s house in England for about four months when I was in Year 8. He now has a baby girl, which is quite the scandal as she was born (shock! horror!) out of wedlock. Martha offered to the mum to take the baby, so she now lives with them. She is a darling with immensely thick hair that went up in a little bobble at the back of her head. Kabalano is a pretty successful House and Hip Hop DJ, and has invited us to go see him. Me and Kate enjoyed the speakers in his car J
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