Whether it is collecting river sand or fire
wood in manual work, taking boys to church or the clinic, moving bricks around
the school or driving boys at the start and end of term all the volunteers at
Bana ba Metsi have to be able to drive. In Botswana you have 3 months when you
can legally drive on your UK (or German) driving licence before you have to
convert it to a Botswana licence. With it being well over 3 months since we
arrived now it was time to get this sorted, as without it a police officer
could slap any one of us with a P1000 fine, a quick way to lose a month worth
of money. We had been trying to get it sorted, struggling to get the right
documents, thinking Archie and I had to get something from the UK embassy in
Gaborone. Luckily in the end we could just print what we needed off the DVLA
website. Also after being told by several people we could get everything processed
in Shakawe, the town an hour and a bit from school, two unsuccessful trips
followed when we were given different reasons as to why we had to go to the
transport office in Maun. So that is what we did. With Tilmann and Nick going
the week before us and converting their licences successfully, it was our time
to give it a go. With a folder full of various documents and after passing the
eye test in Shakawe we headed off early on Saturday morning for our 4 days off
in Maun.
To get to Maun is easy, just a long
process. As we were taking some items down to Maun for the school we got a lift
in the new land cruiser (new to the school I mean – it definitely isn’t new) to
the ferry. There we got a lift the 10km to Shakawe. After getting some food
when the supermarket opened and sorting things in the post office we started
the task of trying to flag a car down to take us to Maun. The buses from
Shakawe to Maun (and vice versa) run pretty regularly and aren’t all too bad on
the comfort levels, but getting a lift in a car (which you still have to pay
for usually, P1 more than the bus) is potentially nicer if you are lucky with a
comfy seat, air conditioning and usually a bit of a faster pace to cover the
400km. However we weren’t too lucky and ended up waiting a while, always a bit
of a pain when you are up at 5:30am to get going early. In the end we got a
quick ride to Gumare, the next big town on the way, 125km from Shakawe. Due to
us again having little luck with lifts and after trying to beat the bus we
ended up getting on the bus in Gumare which luckily wasn’t packed so for the
remainder of the trip I stretched out on three seats and delved deeper into the
good book I had brought with me. Within what seemed like no time, we were in
Maun and being picked up by Peter Dow, the former director of Bana ba Metsi who
lives in Maun and so kindly always lets us stay at his plot.
That evening we had such a treat. A
takeaway pizza from Chaplin’s, a pizza restaurant that is so delicious, there
are perks of travelling to Maun. With transport closed until Monday morning, we
had Sunday to just have a relax and with Peter again being so nice as to lend
us his car it meant we could go to Sedia Hotel, a great place for swimming,
milkshakes and internet. We also just did lots of looking around food shops
thinking up ideas of what we could take home to supplement the Bana ba Metsi
diet as well as watching some football and ending up in the evening at my
favourite spot, old bridge backpackers which is so nice to just chill at in the
evening (yes, they also serve great food unsurprisingly). With transport
opening at 7:30am and after Tilmann and Nick being in there for 7 hours getting
their conversion sorted, we weren’t late to bed for the fear of the long day
that lay ahead of us.
We ended up getting to transport before
6:30am on Monday morning and somehow we still managed ending up being 125 and
126 in the queue, not really what we wanted but we knew it would be a long day.
Little saving graces, by the time we got into the transport building, some
people must have bailed as we were now 110 and 111 in the queue, hooray! To cut
our long day short, we finally got to the man behind the plastic screen and
thankfully all our documents were in order. After waiting 6 hours my heart
skipped a beat when he said the only man who does conversions was out of the
office, this couldn’t be for real I thought, but thankfully he was just out for
lunch, phew! So we had 30 minutes to wait but once he was back we would be back
to the front of the queue and finished in no time. We tried heading off in the
beast of the hilux that we were using to get around Maun and it was having its
very normal trouble of not starting. After lots of lovely people helping to
give us a push, we managed to get the beast going, only to drop her off at a
mechanics to get the problem with the alternator sorted. With Peter again, as
always, saving the day we got back to transport and thankfully the conversion
man was back! Now all we did was pay our P70 and wait for our picture to be
taken. Which you can smile in which is cool, friendlier than the UK passport
type photos and this meant Archie was pulling all kinds of funny faces and
almost got caught with a pout! He settled for a startled smiley face for his
picture. Then within 1 minute of the picture, there it was. We both had our own
Botswana driving licences in our hands! It was such a cool and brilliant
moment, the memory of all the waiting washed away and now we could legally
drive all the vehicles at school with no concerns of being fined. It is just
really cool having 2 licences. A great memory from our year! We even beat Nick
and Tilmann’s time. Just!
Then Archie and I went on a food shopping
spree to take with us back to school in the old cabstar we thought we would be
driving home. With a new favourite of mine being Trident cash and carry of
which we are members which sold lots of my favourite stuff at a really good
price. I was glad Archie pushed to go and see it! With the cabstar, after being
looked at for over a year, still causing problems we weren’t allowed to drive
it home. A little concern as Archie and I had more food than we would really
want to carry on the bus. However with a work bench that needed to be taken to
school and again Peter being a lovely person he allowed us to take his hilux
that had already had the one problem with the alternator fixed. Great news for
us! The bus as I said is fine but having the freedom of driving yourself is
great.
So with it being a fairly cool morning on
Tuesday and with all our stuff in the back of the pick-up we set off for home.
Peter had thrown in a tarpaulin into the car for us if it rained, not something
we expected, luckily he gave it to us as within 50km of our journey we hit some
brief light rainy patches. Nothing we couldn’t just drive through we decided,
not thinking to pull over and tarp our things in case things got worse. Silly
us! It then started absolutely chucking it down and we got soaked, along with
our stuff as we frantically tried to cover everything the best we could. We got
there in the end and everything had a chance now to stay dry. The drive home
was good, lots of signs of more rain since the New Year, which means watching
out for cows and donkeys even more. I drove the first leg to Gumare and then
Archie took over there to take us all the way home. We even spotted a tortoise
crossing the road, the first we’ve seen, and pulled over to take a closer look.
All in all it was a good trip down to Maun
and most importantly we got our Botswana driving licences. Making it a
successful trip.
