Trip to a nearby village

A combi

Two weeks ago I went with my family to a village near Gaborone called Gabane ["Ha-ban-ee"]. To get there we went in a kind of bus that is called a "combi." A combi is a big white van that takes people to towns and places outside of Gaborone. They are not expensive.

Me and my family waiting for the combi

Inside the combi

We rode in the back seat

The seats in the aisles fold down so that people can sit there

In the village, there were lots of little stands that sold fruit and stuff like snacks. There were lots of dirt roads. The only paved road was the main road into the village. All of the combis went on that road and stopped at the end of it at a big combi stop.

A store in the center of the village with a bar and butcher

There were big drainage channels that went through the village with lots of garbage in them. There are lots of donkey that walk around. We saw some donkeys with their front feet tied together so they would not wander away.

A drainage channel

A fruit store in the center of the village

Donkeys

When we got to Gabane, we went to this place where people make pots. One place made clay pots and another place made aluminum pots for cooking. I played soccer with a kid there. At the aluminum pot place they melt old aluminum and pour it into molds made of soil [mixed with a chemical called bentonite to make it firm]. They make pots one at a time.

Playing soccer outside the aluminum pot place

Inside the aluminum pot place

Where they melt the aluminum

We hiked up this big hill that was outside the village. It had this big stone path that we went on, but when we got up to this water tank that was there, the path ended, so we hiked the rest of the way to the top through the bushes. And then when we went down, we went through a dry riverbed and then we went up a little ridge and went down that. When we got to the bottom, we went to a store and got some cold drinks [fortunately it was overcast and not too hot].

Hiking up the hill

The view looking back towards Gaborone

Looking down on the village from the hill

Some houses in the village

On top of the hill

Can you see us coming down through the bushes?

One the way back to the combi stop, we saw some people who had killed a goat and they were skinning it so they could eat it. They said that it took them two hours to skin and prepare the goat.

Skinning the goat