Before church!
Some children who came to visit and play games in the 47C temperatures!
Greetings before church!
Monday, February 26, 2007
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Update, At Last!
Thailand
After a 12 hour flight with not even 5 minutes of sleep I arrived in Thailand very tired and ready for a good sleep. I found my driver easily and we were on our way to the hotel by around 10pm. Little did I know what I was letting myself in for. First thing I did, being a good Kiwi girl, was to put on my seatbelt…or to try at least. This wasn’t going to work though as there was no little thingy to stick it into! So I gave up on this figuring it’s not law here and I’ll survive one trip without. So off we went. We were about 2 minutes from the airport when I realised indicating is just not the done thing in Thailand…instead you carve yourself a little spot in the traffic after a short game of chicken to decide who deserves the spot more. My driver seemed to know what he was doing and how to deal with this so after a few deep breaths and a prayer I sat back for the ride. We were a short way along the motorway when I realised we were going quite fast, and so I peeped into the front to see what speed we were doing only to discover that the speedo was firmly fixed on 0! I realised that we were driving slower than the rest of the traffic so I relaxed again and pretty soon we were at the hotel. I finally figured out how to get the lights to go and in my room, only to turn them off again rather quickly so I could get a good night’s sleep.
The next morning I woke up at what I thought was 4.30, but it turns out it was only 3.30 and I had set my cell phone to the wrong time. But seeing as I was wide awake, I got up and re-packed my bags ready for the day. I went for a tour of the old capital city of Ayuttaya which has many ruins of temples from over 600 years ago. There I salso went for an Elephant ride. The photos probably describe it better than I can myself.
The ruins of one of the 'Wat' (temple grounds) in Ayuttaya city.
You can still see some of the detail that would have been all over the temple buildings, even though it's 600 years old.
The Elephants are kept a little outside the city.
I got a chance to feed some of the little ones
My elephant ride! Feels a bit ike a horse ride really, jsut a little more sway from side to side!
My guide with some school children infront of the ruin of a buddah statue.
After the tour I was dropped back at the hotel where I caught a tuk-tuk to Siam shopping area. The trip was fun, with the driver trying to convince me that he can take me on a shopping tour for a 100 bhat, to the point that I pretended to get out at the lights without paying and it was a smooth ride from there. Siam square was a bit of a disappointment though as it wasn’t really a market, but mostly just small shops.
I headed back to my hotel from there and after an hour in traffic finally go there! I was picked up at 8 for the airport and after booking in I headed for BK for a nice chicken burger for dinner (which was a great improvement on my Thai lunch)!
My flight to SA was good as I had 2 seats to myself and so got about 5 hours of sleep.
I arrived in SA at 6.30 and was home at my Aunt’s place by 8.30am. We had a quick drink before heading out to do some shopping for a few things I couldn’t fit in my bags. When we got home I slept for about 2 hours despite saying I would only lie down for a while, but that was really good. My cousin, Willem, and his wife, Aneleen, and children came over in the afternoon so I got to meet her and the kids. They are so cute. That night I went to visit my Uncle and his family and it was great seeing all my cousins again, all grown up! I had a great sleep and was picked up around 9.30am by the Cronje’s to go to Motopi.
The Trip
We left just before 10am from my Aunt’s place and arrived at the border just after 5. From there we went to Mahalapey where we stayed with their children for the night. In the morning we headed out at about 9am. The drive was much the same with low scrub and little trees covering a HUGE expanse of flat land. At about Mopipi it’s as if there was a line drawn in the sand and the landscape suddenly changed to almost nothing but white sand and salt pan. It was beautiful, and almost scary in a way, just so much nothingness. But it was amazing to see all the donkeys! There are heaps of them, everywhere, particularly in that area, just walking around next to the road. From there the road became a little rough as they area upgrading by making a new double lane fully sealed road. This was closed, so we drove partly on the old (one lane partly sealed partly breaking up to dirt) road and newly metaled road. The four wheel drive didn’t mind this, but the poor little overloaded trailer was bouncing around behind us creaking all the way. (this was really a blessing as the trailer was overloaded with clothes for the people in Motopi!)
We arrived at Motopi around 5pm, and surprisingly after 2 days of travel I was not too tired. I really enjoyed the trip, and didn’t sleep along the way.
The road between Mopipi and Rakops
Salt pans by Mopipi
Motopi
Motopi in one word is definitely beautiful. It’s on the bank of a (dry) river, but the area is beautifully green at the moment. There has been some rain (by some I mean a very little) over the last few days, and as I write this (9 Feb) there is thunder in the distance, which hopefully means more to come. Rain here is very important, so important in fact that the name of the currency, Pula, is the same word as that for rain! There are so many beautiful birds here and there are little squirrels everywhere. It’s great. Today has been mostly cloudy, so it hasn’t been unbearably hot yet. I’ve also been mostly resting so the heat hasn’t really affected me yet.
My caravan. It's actually nice and cool inside during the day! :)
One of the many Hornbills that come and get food and water at the compound.
Last night when we were having dinner there were all these tiny little black stink bugs that came to the light, I mean thousands of them. To the point that we had to leave the room because it stank so much and they were starting to crawl into our hair and clothes! We sprayed the room and left the light on while we sat outside in the dark, and this morning there was a black carpet of bugs covering the entire dining room, kitchen and bathroom!
Today I had quite a quiet day, just wandered around meeting the animals (Goats, cattle, and 6 dogs!) and watching the hornbills and squirrels coming to get food and water. This afternoon we went to feed the children in the village. There were between 50 and 60 today and they are so beautiful. The people are lovely and all want to have a chat, but off course their English is limited to about the same as my Tswana…Dumela ma/ra. It was quite tiring, but I look forward to seeing them all on Sunday at church. There was one man whose first question was whether I will be there on Sunday at the chapel. J
10 Feb. 07
The rain was really heavy last night, and carried on right through the night until about 10am this morning. The sun has come out now though, and with all the dampness it’s quite warm really! This morning two girls from the village came to get some cold medicine and we also found some shoes for them from the trailer of donated clothes. They were very amused by my laptop and I showed them some pictures and things on it.
I think that’s most of the news for now. I am very thankful that I haven’t had any jetlag problems and that the heat has not been too bad in the first few days with a lot of cloud cover.
My fisrt two of my visitors! These photos look very dark on this screen,but can be lightened!
Sunset in Motopi! It's beautiful every night!
15 February
Well, it seems a long time since I wrote all of that! It continued to rain the next night, with a lot of thunder and lightning. One lightning bolt struck so near to us that I woke up and jumped! It was so loud, if I didn’t know I was in the middle of no-where I would have thought it was a bomb! Well the middle of no-where is not really the right description. It is so beautiful here. The sunsets are absolutely magnificent! The nights are quiet and the starts are as bright as can be! It’s been a great first week!
It feels so much longer already. Oh, we went down to 5 dogs for a couple of days, but Betina (she was given away) just came running back, very hungry and thirsty. Poor thing. I don’t think she was fed for those 2 days she was away. I have made good friends with the friendly beast though. He is the hugest dog, but he’s so good natured. He’s real name is ‘Optel’ which basically means ‘pick up’, because Mr Cronjé picked him up as a pup in the bush.
I have started writing Sunday school lessons, and will get there, slowly but surely. We went to Maun on Monday for the day, but unfortunately I didn’t have enough time to update my blog (Obviously!). Today is Friday and we are going to feed the children again before heading to Maun to pick up a guy called Kobus who’s flying in from SA about a building project.
I found out a couple of days ago that Mascom, the mobile company I’m with here doesn’t have a partnership with Vodaphone, so I can’t text NZ and if anyone has texted me, it’s floating around somewhere and will never arrive here, so don’t!
I’m going into Maun today mainly to find out if ‘Orange’ the other company does allow for texting to NZ.
My audience as i wrote this! unfortunately we had light behind us!
So far, all is going well here, and I’m enjoying myself. I’m certainly enjoying the quiet and slow pace of life!
I'm getting used to cooking on the gas stove here, and will soon start trying out the fire, which is the best option because the wood is free from the bush!
17 February
I finally made it to Maun today. Kobus (a guy who's here to discuss building plans) took us all out for breakfast, which was nice. Now i've got most of the mnorning to sort out a few things here. It threatened to rain again last night, but nothing came in Motopi, so we continue to pray for rain on this dry land!
Well. That’s it for now! God's blessings!
After a 12 hour flight with not even 5 minutes of sleep I arrived in Thailand very tired and ready for a good sleep. I found my driver easily and we were on our way to the hotel by around 10pm. Little did I know what I was letting myself in for. First thing I did, being a good Kiwi girl, was to put on my seatbelt…or to try at least. This wasn’t going to work though as there was no little thingy to stick it into! So I gave up on this figuring it’s not law here and I’ll survive one trip without. So off we went. We were about 2 minutes from the airport when I realised indicating is just not the done thing in Thailand…instead you carve yourself a little spot in the traffic after a short game of chicken to decide who deserves the spot more. My driver seemed to know what he was doing and how to deal with this so after a few deep breaths and a prayer I sat back for the ride. We were a short way along the motorway when I realised we were going quite fast, and so I peeped into the front to see what speed we were doing only to discover that the speedo was firmly fixed on 0! I realised that we were driving slower than the rest of the traffic so I relaxed again and pretty soon we were at the hotel. I finally figured out how to get the lights to go and in my room, only to turn them off again rather quickly so I could get a good night’s sleep.
The next morning I woke up at what I thought was 4.30, but it turns out it was only 3.30 and I had set my cell phone to the wrong time. But seeing as I was wide awake, I got up and re-packed my bags ready for the day. I went for a tour of the old capital city of Ayuttaya which has many ruins of temples from over 600 years ago. There I salso went for an Elephant ride. The photos probably describe it better than I can myself.
The ruins of one of the 'Wat' (temple grounds) in Ayuttaya city.
You can still see some of the detail that would have been all over the temple buildings, even though it's 600 years old.
The Elephants are kept a little outside the city.
I got a chance to feed some of the little ones
My elephant ride! Feels a bit ike a horse ride really, jsut a little more sway from side to side!
My guide with some school children infront of the ruin of a buddah statue.
After the tour I was dropped back at the hotel where I caught a tuk-tuk to Siam shopping area. The trip was fun, with the driver trying to convince me that he can take me on a shopping tour for a 100 bhat, to the point that I pretended to get out at the lights without paying and it was a smooth ride from there. Siam square was a bit of a disappointment though as it wasn’t really a market, but mostly just small shops.
I headed back to my hotel from there and after an hour in traffic finally go there! I was picked up at 8 for the airport and after booking in I headed for BK for a nice chicken burger for dinner (which was a great improvement on my Thai lunch)!
My flight to SA was good as I had 2 seats to myself and so got about 5 hours of sleep.
I arrived in SA at 6.30 and was home at my Aunt’s place by 8.30am. We had a quick drink before heading out to do some shopping for a few things I couldn’t fit in my bags. When we got home I slept for about 2 hours despite saying I would only lie down for a while, but that was really good. My cousin, Willem, and his wife, Aneleen, and children came over in the afternoon so I got to meet her and the kids. They are so cute. That night I went to visit my Uncle and his family and it was great seeing all my cousins again, all grown up! I had a great sleep and was picked up around 9.30am by the Cronje’s to go to Motopi.
The Trip
We left just before 10am from my Aunt’s place and arrived at the border just after 5. From there we went to Mahalapey where we stayed with their children for the night. In the morning we headed out at about 9am. The drive was much the same with low scrub and little trees covering a HUGE expanse of flat land. At about Mopipi it’s as if there was a line drawn in the sand and the landscape suddenly changed to almost nothing but white sand and salt pan. It was beautiful, and almost scary in a way, just so much nothingness. But it was amazing to see all the donkeys! There are heaps of them, everywhere, particularly in that area, just walking around next to the road. From there the road became a little rough as they area upgrading by making a new double lane fully sealed road. This was closed, so we drove partly on the old (one lane partly sealed partly breaking up to dirt) road and newly metaled road. The four wheel drive didn’t mind this, but the poor little overloaded trailer was bouncing around behind us creaking all the way. (this was really a blessing as the trailer was overloaded with clothes for the people in Motopi!)
We arrived at Motopi around 5pm, and surprisingly after 2 days of travel I was not too tired. I really enjoyed the trip, and didn’t sleep along the way.
The road between Mopipi and Rakops
Salt pans by Mopipi
Motopi
Motopi in one word is definitely beautiful. It’s on the bank of a (dry) river, but the area is beautifully green at the moment. There has been some rain (by some I mean a very little) over the last few days, and as I write this (9 Feb) there is thunder in the distance, which hopefully means more to come. Rain here is very important, so important in fact that the name of the currency, Pula, is the same word as that for rain! There are so many beautiful birds here and there are little squirrels everywhere. It’s great. Today has been mostly cloudy, so it hasn’t been unbearably hot yet. I’ve also been mostly resting so the heat hasn’t really affected me yet.
My caravan. It's actually nice and cool inside during the day! :)
One of the many Hornbills that come and get food and water at the compound.
Last night when we were having dinner there were all these tiny little black stink bugs that came to the light, I mean thousands of them. To the point that we had to leave the room because it stank so much and they were starting to crawl into our hair and clothes! We sprayed the room and left the light on while we sat outside in the dark, and this morning there was a black carpet of bugs covering the entire dining room, kitchen and bathroom!
Today I had quite a quiet day, just wandered around meeting the animals (Goats, cattle, and 6 dogs!) and watching the hornbills and squirrels coming to get food and water. This afternoon we went to feed the children in the village. There were between 50 and 60 today and they are so beautiful. The people are lovely and all want to have a chat, but off course their English is limited to about the same as my Tswana…Dumela ma/ra. It was quite tiring, but I look forward to seeing them all on Sunday at church. There was one man whose first question was whether I will be there on Sunday at the chapel. J
10 Feb. 07
The rain was really heavy last night, and carried on right through the night until about 10am this morning. The sun has come out now though, and with all the dampness it’s quite warm really! This morning two girls from the village came to get some cold medicine and we also found some shoes for them from the trailer of donated clothes. They were very amused by my laptop and I showed them some pictures and things on it.
I think that’s most of the news for now. I am very thankful that I haven’t had any jetlag problems and that the heat has not been too bad in the first few days with a lot of cloud cover.
My fisrt two of my visitors! These photos look very dark on this screen,but can be lightened!
Sunset in Motopi! It's beautiful every night!
15 February
Well, it seems a long time since I wrote all of that! It continued to rain the next night, with a lot of thunder and lightning. One lightning bolt struck so near to us that I woke up and jumped! It was so loud, if I didn’t know I was in the middle of no-where I would have thought it was a bomb! Well the middle of no-where is not really the right description. It is so beautiful here. The sunsets are absolutely magnificent! The nights are quiet and the starts are as bright as can be! It’s been a great first week!
It feels so much longer already. Oh, we went down to 5 dogs for a couple of days, but Betina (she was given away) just came running back, very hungry and thirsty. Poor thing. I don’t think she was fed for those 2 days she was away. I have made good friends with the friendly beast though. He is the hugest dog, but he’s so good natured. He’s real name is ‘Optel’ which basically means ‘pick up’, because Mr Cronjé picked him up as a pup in the bush.
I have started writing Sunday school lessons, and will get there, slowly but surely. We went to Maun on Monday for the day, but unfortunately I didn’t have enough time to update my blog (Obviously!). Today is Friday and we are going to feed the children again before heading to Maun to pick up a guy called Kobus who’s flying in from SA about a building project.
I found out a couple of days ago that Mascom, the mobile company I’m with here doesn’t have a partnership with Vodaphone, so I can’t text NZ and if anyone has texted me, it’s floating around somewhere and will never arrive here, so don’t!
I’m going into Maun today mainly to find out if ‘Orange’ the other company does allow for texting to NZ.
My audience as i wrote this! unfortunately we had light behind us!
So far, all is going well here, and I’m enjoying myself. I’m certainly enjoying the quiet and slow pace of life!
I'm getting used to cooking on the gas stove here, and will soon start trying out the fire, which is the best option because the wood is free from the bush!
17 February
I finally made it to Maun today. Kobus (a guy who's here to discuss building plans) took us all out for breakfast, which was nice. Now i've got most of the mnorning to sort out a few things here. It threatened to rain again last night, but nothing came in Motopi, so we continue to pray for rain on this dry land!
Well. That’s it for now! God's blessings!
Friday, February 2, 2007
One More Sleep!
This week went surprisingly fast, but I have a feeling the rest of today will drag a little. My bags are all packed and I'm ready to go! It's only one more sleep to go now and I'm really excited. Went to the market this morning like I do most Saturdays, and then just finished off packing the last few things. I'm having a quiet night with the family tonight and hopefully an early one!
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