Michaela: On Tour in Botswana

Check out this story from Michaela…it’s quite the read:

Me again…just thought I would tell you about my eventful day yesterday in South Africa. Bantsi had to go to Pretoria (40k outside of joburg) for a wedding fitting so Emily, Shakes (friend of bantsi’s, now dating ems) stucs (bantsi’s boyfriend) and I decided to go with her. We left at about 4am and after picking everybody up headed out to the border and into SA. Everything was pretty much as expected, Pretoria is like joburg- you would think you are in Canada, with the exception of the guys at every traffic light selling you anything from clothes hangers to baby plants, I especially like one guy and his son who performed a routine including flips and stunts at a busy traffic light, very inventive and entertaining considering we were in the turning lane for 5 red lights.

I think our day started going downhill when Bantsi lost her shoe on our way home, we don’t really know how it happened, the thinking is that it fell out at one of the many stops. Anyway bantsi was shoeless… now this would probably not have mattered if we got through the border and home with no problems, but no such luck. We were racing with the time a bit as the border closes at 10 pm and there is no where to stay without going back to Zeerusts about 60 k from the border. We were right on track when at 9 o’clock with 30 k more stucs moved a bit too far over on the road to give a big truck coming in the opposite direction some room and our two left tires popped. We only had one spare so without the help of the some really nice motswanan guys, we would have been completely stuck. But even though they were rushing to the border as well, they stopped and towed our car to a garage only about 1 k back (also another blessing). So we were back on track, the couples were in the back of the truck, trying to keep warm and I was nice and warm in the cab talking to these two guys.

Now during our conversation they were complaining about the truck they were driving, they had borrowed it for their trip to Swaziland where they were delivering some goods- they make some kind of craft. They were telling me that the truck just eats away at oil, they had filled in up when they had left and 250ks into their trip it was already empty, apparently it had been that way the entire time and they had spent an excess of 500 pula on it ( about $100). At about 15 km till the border, ( 9:25) just when I was dreaming of a warm shower and bed, the cars starts making funny noises and dies…..yep out of oil. Ok so no problem, there is a house near by, one of the guys, shakes and myself, head towards the house, in hopes of either oil or a ride to the border (only 15 k away!). We start yelling our hellos- there was a main house and another building with a bunch of single rooms and lots of lights on – but no one answers, we keep at it for a bit, then just as we were about to give up, a guys comes out of one of the rooms.

I don’t if it’s because I’m from Canada and feel as though everyone is nice but I just assumed they would help us, only 15ks!!! This guy did not seem too worried about our situation after about 5 minutes of trying to convince him to help us; he asks how much money we could pay him. Now there were 7 of us that needed to get to the border, and a nice big twin cab truck parked right outside in the yard. But apparently this was the bosses car and his car was small and had some shock problem so he couldn’t all of us. So he heads up the boss’s house to ask to borrow it. The boss doesn’t even come outside of the house but just tell him to tell us to fuck off, that Motswanans are always driving up and down this road and never help, or something of the sort- it wasn’t in English. Honestly, couldn’t believe it, all I can say is bad karma for this guy….. The other guy agrees to help us and take some of us to the border, in exchange for money. So we rush back to the truck and gather our stuff. The other guys told us to go, they would stay if we would phone their wives to bring them oil in the morning… so nice. We got in the car and rush to the border (its about 9:45)…we were so close!!!

We pull up the border at about 10:02 just as the guard is shutting the gate, we run and beg him to let us in, and after some convincing he does but it doesn’t matter the office is already closed. So now we are stuck at the border, with no car to even sleep in and they are making us leave, and they were quite rude about it. It was so cold outside, just above 0 degrees, but they didn’t care. We are standing outside of the gate, only 15 minutes from home with a whole night in the cold ahead of us. When just as we were about to accept our fate, this guy comes out from one of the office trailers, to see what is going on. He starts laughing when he hears our story and with no hesitation invites us into the office, where a bunch of guys are watching the football game and having some beers. And this is where we spend the night, bonding with our new friends- Danny K., Walter, France, Isaac and Ticha. Over beers bought from the Botswana side of the border- they took Stucs, hopped the fence and trekked to the closest bottle store- we enjoyed our night stranded at the border post, waiting till 6 this morning when it opened.

So what have I learned from this experience- there are some people that are so generous they will give you everything and ask nothing in return….and there are others who aren’t. And the only way to tell is when you are desperate and completely reliant on them. I hope that I return the favour when it’s in my hands, and go out of my way to help people, because it’s easy to forget about experiences like this and just think about what’s in it for you.