Whew

Hello all,

Back from Shakawe and a very hectic weekend at the Maun Festival, but as it turns out I'm heading off into the field again tomorrow, back on Friday. My garden is suffering. No time for big bold entries, but I'll leave you with a couple of photographs. The picture above is of the reeds lining the river, which people harvest and dry to use for fences and walls. It's quite beautiful, actually, the silver-grey bundles of reeds surrounding the houses. You can't buy them in Ghanzi, sadly.
Above, the papyrus, which gives the illusion that the river is just a narrow channel. In fact, though it seemed to be only 30m across, the section of river pictured above stretches several kilometers, broken by floating beds of papyrus. The roots twine together to form a raft, which can dig into the river bottom if it gets low enough, but will detach and float away with the next flood.

Then we have Sam, the kgosi of the Croc Farm, and the largest crocodile I've ever seen. What a monster. He just lay sprawled in the sun, blinking lazily at us. He has to be kept in his own pen, or he'd eat the other crocs.

SWEET DEAL. See you all in a week.