Saturday – Happiness Brings Joy

Our week in Francistown ended on Friday night with a Braai under velvety star studded African skies with our guests of honour Clement and his family, and an early Saturday morning start on our drive back to Gaborone. 440 Kms of dead straight road provided plenty of opportunity to catch up on sleep or for quiet reflection on another week of incredible experiences.

K.B delivered us in record time back to Gaborone, safely delivering us to the traditional market at Main Mall, where the team were able to stock up on authentic Botswanan memorabilia – really gifts to thank our friends and families for their support in this venture, as we all have more than enough memories and tall tales to last a lifetime. The Botswanan airforce even obliged us with an ear splitting three-jet low level fly past.

Time for relaxation before a final sharing of hospitality at the BCA oval. Not quite. Regular readers (and if you are not, put everything down and scroll through the previous two weeks’ entries right now) will recall our Good Friday visit to the Gamodubu Child Care Trust, where the remarkable Shirley helps to care for many many children in the local area who have been orphaned or otherwise affected by the HIV epidemic. As a small charity, funds are tight and they have recently had their water supply cut off. This obviously interferes with the core activity, which is providing a main meal every day to over 200 children. The team resolved to do their bit.

Two of us summoned a taxi and negotiated a fair price for the round journey. One of the smallest taxis ever hired arrived, but punctually and with a driver who introduced himself with an impossibly long name – which he promptly translated as meaning Happiness. His parents obviously had intuition and he brought with him a positive attitude and willing smile. He knew just the shop for us – a Choppies Hypermarket. We surveyed the options and used our best visualisation techniques before settling on 60 five litre bottles of water. Helpful staff queued up help Happiness test to the limit the carrying capacity of his car – now officially confirmed as at least 300 litres – and probably beyond the limits of its suspension. No problem he said, as the car groaned with the final addition of two volunteers carrying the extra pounds of last nights meat feast. Final bottles of water were balanced on their knees and as Happiness eased the car forward we both hoped his driving skills matched his positive outlook – otherwise we were at severe risk of drowning! We needn’t have worried as he tackled both made up roads and rough track with equal skill and with only the occasional scraping sound from underneath. ‘Not my car,’ he smiled as we winced!

The gratitude expressed by Shirley when we revealed our cargo was breathtaking – literally, as we were embraced in the warmest expression of thanks we are likely to ever receive. Whilst willing hands unloaded the taxi – which emitted an audible sigh of relief – there was time for an impromptu game of cricket. The first tennis ball thrown out was returned with an immaculate straight armed bowling action, surely testament to the impression CWB’s earlier visit had made. After the play there were hugs all round from the children, including a family of four who Shirley was looking after for the day to give their carer – their thirteen year old sister – a short break, as well as from the same 3 year old boy (the one who was mentioned in our previous visit) still waiting for his ARV medication, but looking much healthier than last week. Shirley is literally keeping some of these children alive.

The water won’t last forever we know and the cash we donated will run out, but like everything CWB does it’s a step in the right direction and the speed with which the team saw a problem and tried to do something about it illustrates the charity’s values and the quality of the volunteers it attracts. It was us this time, but we promised Shirley it will be will be another group of equally committed volunteers next time. Of that we can be sure. Welcome to the CWB family.