Yes it goes on and on my friend / Some people started building it not knowing what it was / And they’ll continue building it forever just because…
That’s right folks. The kraal still isn’t done. We’re looking at probably another 2 days of work, at the very least. What was supposed to take just a week has become a month-long task.
My first week in Botswana was slow. It took a couple days to get the requisite supplies together so we decided to start construction on Monday, August 15th. And last week was great – we got three-and-a-half of the four sides built, and just wanted to finish the last bit and fortify the other parts on Monday this week. With Olf gone to a workshop, it was left to me to manage the process.
The delays started first thing Monday morning when I couldn’t get the Cruiser started. For 15 minutes I tried again and again to get the ancient motor to turn over but no luck. So instead, I spent the day in the office working on a draft of a report to Lesley about the current status of the insurance program.
Tuesday I got the Cruiser started and made it Shorobe optimistic about our last day of work, but we arrived at the cattle post to find that one of the new sections had already been ruined! Some cattle from another cattle post had been grazing nearby. The herders at the chief’s cattle post (the one where we’ve been working) heard some hyenas calling, and apparently so did the cattle because they stampeded to the kraal. They couldn’t get inside, but when they say the water trough inside the managed to push over one whole section to get to it. So Stopper, Kay and I spent Tuesday re-building one of the sections we had already done.
Yesterday morning, the Cruiser was almost out of gas but I thought I had enough to make it to Shell station for a fill-up. False. After getting around the corner from the BPCT office, the engine sputtered and coughed and finally died, so I hopped out to walk back to the office. I jumped in Margaret’s car (which I’m renting right now), drove to Shell, bought a jerry can and $15 worth of fuel, drove back to the Cruiser, added the gas, parked Margaret’s car back at the office, walked back to the Cruiser, and managed to drive to Shell and fill up. I didn’t get on the road to Shorobe until 10:15 am (very, very late – we usually try to leave by 8 am).
After picking up Stopper and Kay, we headed out to another cattle post to pick up new poles to finish the last section of the kraal, but it turned out to be a wild goose chase. The road had recently been driven by a huge truck which had ruined it, so I got stuck three times and Stopper had to get us out. Then when we finally arrived at the cattle post, no one was there! Stopper called the herder and it turned out he was back in Shorobe! He wanted us to drive back to Shorobe, pick him up and drive back out to the cattle post. Since it was nearly noon, we decided instead to go back to Shorobe and try to find a livestock owner who had agreed to sign up for the insurance program and who needed to pay his premium. We found him, but unfortunately he had changed his mind. He still might join the program, but doesn’t have the cash right now to do so. All in all, yesterday was a major bust.
This morning, we were going to head out to pick up those poles (since the herder promised to be there today) but Stopper is sick and I can’t do this without him. Tomorrow I am finalizing paperwork for my new car (details to come…) so I have to be in the office. I’m sorry to say that Olf is going to return from his workshop to find that literally no progress has been made on the kraal.
All in all, things just haven’t gone as I had planned this week. And therein lies the rub – it wasn’t for lack of trying that we didn’t get any work done. If I had been able to start the Cruiser on Monday, we might’ve been able to finish and fortify the kraal before the cattle had ruined it. If the herder had been at the other cattle post like he said, we would’ve been able to pick up the poles at least.
It’s hard to not get discouraged. I feel like we are spinning our wheels with this kraal building. Until it is finished we can’t start doing any of the other work that we need to get done, namely getting more people signed up for the insurance program. And with every day that ticks by, Lesley & Tico’s return inches closer. I will do everything in my power to make sure that the kraal is done by the time they get back, but there is only so much that I can control for.
wildlife, wild life 