A visit to Desert Cottage
Emma and I went to see our friends Johanna and Peter, who live in Gaborone. Johanna is an architect, and Peter is an IT business systems consultant. That's their city lives, complete with nice house and posh cars. However, they have another side.
Farming and the countryside are still of great importance in Botswana. Many wealthy city dwellers have large herds of cattle that they keep at a cattle post in the Kalahari. Peter and Johanna have continued this tradition through buying a small holding along the road between Phakalane and the village of Odi. This is a realy nice area, along the Ruretse farmland given to the first President, Sir Seretse Khama and his English wife Ruth.
Many of the plots along the narrow tar road have been developed well, sometimes as farms and sometimes as country estates with stables and delightful cottages. There is plenty of underground water, although Peter's attempts as locating a site for a bore hole have so far had no luck. The plot also contains a run down house which they plan to renovate.
Robert O'Toole
09 Aug 2004 11:46
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The cattle thing sounds like a lovely tradition. Perhaps you should buy a couple of cattle and go to visit them once a year?
09 Aug 2004, 13:30
Robert O'Toole
when I married Emma, Johanna (who is an expert in these matters) told me that I should pay a bogadi of ten good cows and a prize white bull. I managed to bargain this down to a new overcoat for her father (another traditional gift), although at one point i was in danger of having to provide him with a new Mercedes (a more modern but equally common gift).
I still owe him the overcoat.
I also agree that a small herd of my own would be nice, although I prefer goats.
10 Aug 2004, 13:27
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