By Katherine King, Colby College
Typical days of the week don’t always apply for Round River students in Botswana. Each day brings another transect and always another adventure. One of our Saturdays, the 19th of November, started out how most of our mornings here have, a 5:30 am wake up and two groups out on transect. Perks to an early start of the day are getting the “work” finished (hard to grovel over a long morning drive looking for African animals), clearing the hot afternoon for study and chill time. We spent the middle of this hot Saturday lounging in our hammocks, quizzing each other on the Latin and Setswana names for the mammals, birds, and trees we’ve seen, and getting in a few rounds of cards.
For the afternoon, we drove into the village of Mababe to one of the tuck shops for an unbelievably refreshing cold soda. We practiced our Setswana with the local people and they were kind enough to giggle and help us with our pronunciation. Everyone especially enjoyed hearing our Setswana names that Sixteen has given us. Every name in Setswana has an important meaning behind it so it is always interesting to ask people what the meaning of their name is. The name Sixteen gave me is Tebogo, meaning thankful, Amber’s is Masejo, meaning blessed, Sam’s is Pelontle, meaning warm hearted, Addison’s is Mmoloki, meaning savior, Lori’s is Naledi, meaning star, Caroline’s is Boutoumelo, meaning happiness, and Kristie’s is Setsego, meaning laughter.
Hanging out with the girls from Mababe on top of Lucy.
Next, we drove down to the Khwai river to enjoy the sunset and our favorite Setswana music. We all kept pinching ourselves as we watched an adult elephant (Loxodonta africana) wading in the reeds and heard the Hippo (Hippopotamus amphibious) in the water, reminding ourselves how awesome this life we have grown so accustomed to really is. It wasn’t long until a group of young girls from Mababe followed our tire tracks and music to the river. We turned on our best Setswana song, Thomela, and it was an instant hit with the girls. They did their best Thomela dance and tried to teach us a few new dance moves, amazingly, with some success. We asked them their favorite animals and shared our own.
Since being here, we have all decided which African animal best fits each person’s personality. Lori is the resident warthog (Phacochoerus africanus), Amber is a lioness (Panthera leo), Kristie is a steenbok (Raphicerus campestris), Addison is an African Buffalo (Syncerus caffer), Caroline is an elephant, Sam is a black-backed jackal (Canis mesomelas), and I am a giraffe (Giraffa giraffa). We have taken these animals to heart and fully embraced their personas. As we drove back to Dizhana Camp through the sunset we saw some of Caroline’s inner critter bathing in the sunset pink water. Once again, pinching ourselves and taking in every bit of our last three weeks in this beautiful country.
Sun setting over rain trees (Lonchocarpus capassa) by the Khwai River.