Where's the Guide?

Visiting National Historic sites in Botswana is not quite like doing it in the States. Yesterday Drew and I wanted to visit the ancient rock paintings at a small town called Manyana, about 25 miles from home. Gaborone is a city of about 250,000 people, but once you get outside the city, it's more like the Africa you imagine-- smaller homes, more widely spread, and nothing above one or two stories high. There are small villages with a small store somewhere near the center, often with a line of street vendors set up on either side of the store and people crowded around. Manyana was even smaller, a sleepy little village with small groups of people visiting in front yards under the shade of a fairly large tree.

Remember being chased by a moose in Alaska?  This time we weren't chased, but had to maneuver around cows, goats, and donkeys who thought the road belonged to them (and this being Africa, I suppose it does!)

The directions to the rock paintings were a bit sketchy -- go to the center of town and ask directions to the site, and if there is nobody there, go to the thatched hut in the middle of town and they will find I you a guide.  We found the middle of town and the thatched hut, but there was nobody at either place.  Now what to do?  We walked around a little, driving up side roads (all dirt), asked a few people, and finally a couple of young boys who spoke a little English came up to our car and asked if we wanted a guide. They offered to take us to the house where the guide lived.  In the car they got, and soon we arrived at our destination. A woman came out of the house and the boys told her what we wanted (she didn't speak English). She went back in the house and came back with several small children and a bag of pomegranates. Hmmmm. Offered us each one.  OK.

Our boy guides

How much, We asked?  No payment, but could you drive these children to another house where the guide lives.  What?   Total strangers, foreigners, and you are willing to put your children in a car with us and have other children give us directions? But this is Africa, and we really wanted to see the rock paintings, so off we went to Cina's house. These were her children, and she is a guide, but not on Saturday. So we dropped the children off and the boys took us to another house, the one where the Saturday guide lived. At last, someone who could get us to the paintings!

The  guide's house

He ( Justice) was a great guide, knew a lot about the history of the area, and shared it all with us. The rock paintings were done about 2,000 years ago by Bushmen preparing for and then celebrating a hunt. They envisioned what they wanted to catch, then painted it on the rocks.  The paintings are very faint, but since they are protected from the weather, they have been preserved. We also saw a cave where the wife of the chief (1852) hid from the Boers with whom the tribe was at war. We didn't go into the cave--the opening was very small -- but it was right near the paintings. The whole area is a sacred spot for the tribe.

Justice

Gamsbock and a tree

Can you see 4 giraffes?

Corn plants

not sure what animal this was

Justice wasn't finished though, there was more to see. This is an area where Dr. David Livingston settled and saw patients. A short way down another road is the Livingston tree, where he treated the locals. It's huge, and underneath it is cool, spacious, and very cosy! The tree is a wild fig tree, and both birds and other animals eat the figs, although they are tiny. We learned a bit more local history, wandered through the town (along with the cows, donkeys, and goats), but finally it was time to go home. What a day...unlike any I'd ever had in America!

The Livingston tree

Underneath 

Wild figs

PS.  The pomegranates tasted wonderful!