Journey Through Botswana and Namibia

Asher Kaufman, at 18, set out on June 28 for a yearlong trip to help spread the Children's Rosary in Europe and Africa. He spent the months of July, August and the first two weeks in September in France. He arrived in Uganda on September 15. From Uganda he traveled by car to Rwanda on September 28. After a week in Rwanda there was once more a return for more travel in Uganda. On October 11 he arrived in Tanzania and on October 26 traveled to Kenya. A visit for three weeks to Madagascar followed on November 7 and then South Africa. He spent several weeks in Cameroon and then the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Angola, South Africa and Mozambique followed. This dispatch chronicles his journey from South Africa to Botswana and through Namibia.

The journey into Botswana and Namibia began on, as I said in the last post, one day after my return from Mozambique. We were set to depart early on the morning of the day appointed. Our group was comprised of a diverse group of faces, Cynthia Stimpel, a former executive for South African Airways who lost her job in 2016 due to her role as a whistleblower in exposing the deep corruption present in the airline. Also on our trip was Dr. Mimi Choon Quinones, a public health professional with the Pan-African Parliament. Of course, Gail Walters and I rounded out the group.

Prior to setting off, we had the perpetually humorous experience of attempting to cram as many bags and suitcases into a small car as one possibly can and the tremendous feeling of satisfaction that comes along with successfully doing so. When we finally pulled out of the driveway, we looked like we were leaving on a cross-country road trip, which in point of fact, we were.

The drive to Gaborone was not slated to be a long one, given that that municipality sites quite near the South African border to the northwest of Johannesburg. However, along the way, some traffic cops informed us that one of the main roads into Botswana was closed due to maintenance work, and so we were forced to divert onto a road of noticeably lesser quality and of greater distance.

Our drive included a great deal of monotony as one might expect; however, there was a generous share of funny and memorable moments, such as when we arrived at the border crossing and found the large trucks parked there for processing nearly alive with monkeys that ran about the parking lot like so many escaped prison convicts intent on enjoying their few hours of freedom. Upon finishing the formalities at the border, we went to drive out, only to realize that there were no clear markings indicating where to proceed to enter Botswana. We drove through what appeared to be a gate, past some trucks, around a corner, and…back to the South African entry! We turned around, made our way back to the parking lot where we were and saw some people who looked like they might be able to tell us where to go. We asked, and they vaguely indicated in the direction we had tried. Encouraged, we attempted going in that direction again.

“Perhaps we missed a turn or something,” someone suggested.

We found another gate opening we had not seen before, leading into what seemed to be a truck waiting area. We continued through, found the exit, followed the ensuing road, and found ourselves…back at the South African entry!

Really becoming frustrated (but also secretly quite amused) by this point, we saw a lady walking along the side of the road. We asked for indications to the Botswanan border, but she only vaguely indicated in the direction of the building we had started from. Finally, the third attempt yielded the desired results, and soon we were cruising along the road into Botswana.

It was not a particularly stunning landscape that greeted us, but rather a wooded, grassy landscape set against an overcast, slightly wet day.

We drove to the Diocesan offices in Gaborone, where we were met by Fr. Ketshepileone Puoeng and Tapiwa Mokoka who is in charge of children’s affairs for the diocese. They took us to a parish of children who were waiting for us that same evening, where we were treated to a carefully curated event of prepared music, messages, opportunities for us to address those present, and gifts prepared by the the children. It was really quite an event, but it was the first of many such.

The next day, we had four visits to make. That was Saturday. We had the first visit in the morning just after breakfast, the next around lunchtime, and then two in the afternoon, stretching into the evening. We did not want to shortchange the groups that were waiting for us as they had come a distance and prepared so much. We shared rosaries with them and tried to help them come to know the Rosary better. They had clearly coordinated among themselves about which gifts to give us because we never received the same ones twice. By the end, we had traditional head coverings made of animal hair, framed pictures with messages thanking us for our visit, Botswanan flags, Botswanan national soccer team shirts, and more.

In the evening, we took Fr. Puoeng and Tapiwa, as well as another priest friend, out to a local restaurant for dinner where we enjoyed some nice fellowship time.

The following day included a morning Mass some distance from Gaborone itself where we were able to address the faithful at the end. We then had to exit the premises rather quickly in order to make it to one last parish in time (as was rapidly becoming a common theme on this trip), they had been waiting for us for a while.

We stopped there, and having honed our skills in presenting short and engaging material on the rosary, we were able to have what I thought was a wonderful and memorable last parish visit in Botswana.

What ensued afterward was rather interesting. We went to a shopping mall where we ended up having to wait on something (the specifics of which evade me at the moment) which so delayed us that we decided, instead of driving part of the way to Windhoek (for that was our next destination) and staying the night in Charles Hill, near the border with Namibia, to instead drive through the night to Windhoek in order to avoid being late for our meeting with Fr. Matthias, the OMI priest hosting us in Namibia.

I had never driven through a night before, and so I was rather looking forward to this experience. The road we were traversing was remote, to say the least, and downright isolated and forsaken, to say a bit more. It contained treacherous potholes, which we had anticipated, but also something far more dangerous and difficult to manage: cows. There were a number of cows and bulls grazing along the side of the road, and they would not infrequently take it into their minds to traverse the roads, or, what was worse, simply stand or kneel in the middle of it. The effect on night driving is a profound one. One minute you are cruising along at a comfortable 100 kph with a clear road ahead; then suddenly the headlights pick out a large brown cow just in front of you. Then two more. You’re forced to swerve to the side and slow way down. Sometimes the cows were so numerous and blocked the whole road such that we were forced to come to a complete stop and wait for them to move.

At one point, it began to rain, further impeding the visibility. Then a large attachment to one of the windshield wipers flew off, rendering the one on the right-hand side (that is, the one that enables the driver to see) completely ineffective. Thankfully, the rain stopped, so we just wiped off the windscreen with a cloth and continued resolutely forward.

Finally, around morningtime, we arrived at the Namibian border crossing. We succeeded in coming through that border with less confusion than we had endured when going into Botswana.

The landscape in Namibia was markedly different from that of Botswana. It was noticeably hotter, drier, and much less vegetated in Namibia. The road stretched on in a straight line through the empty desert with depressing monotony. Everyone’s cell service stopped working once we entered Namibia, but thankfully we had already loaded directions to Windhoek. These we followed, and then we stopped off at KFC to use their WiFi to load more precise directions to the OMI house where we were staying.

By 1:00 p.m., we rolled into the expansive OMI property where we would be staying. We had the opportunity to shower and change, much needed after our journey, and then we went into town to meet with Fr. Matthias, the OMI provincial who was hosting us.

Gail had already corresponded with Fr. Matthias before about the Children’s Rosary efforts, but this was the opportunity to hand over materials and coordinate efforts with everyone present. The next day, we visited a kindergarten run by the sisters right next to our OMI residence as well as a parish in town in order to begin the process of starting Children’s Rosary groups.

Alas, our visit to Namibia was all too short. Soon enough, we were on the road again, this time headed for South Africa. We stopped in Keetmashoop to visit Fr. Steven, an OMI priest there, who will be starting a Children’s Rosary in his school. Then, we spent the night in Upington before coming back to Johannesburg the next day. It had been an unexpectedly wonderful trip, and I think we had all bonded pretty well by the end, particularly after that long drive through the night.

To see all of Asher's dispatches from his journey click HERE