Start planning again and a quick nip over to Germany!

I had arrived home happy to have met so many wonderful people, and to have had the chance to see a lot more of Botswana than I had ever imagined when I arrived there. I had christened Vic Mr Botswana, as it seemed that wherever we went, people knew him - and even more special, they all liked him. It had made my stay even more enjoyable to be with people who were there because they loved the country, not just as a place to work or just pass their time.

The view from just by the Border with South Africa lookinig into Botswana

My visit to Clifton School had opened my eyes to how difficult it must be for teachers who could not always buy the resources they need - even though, in their case, they had the money to purchase whatever they wanted, provided it was available. How much worse must it be for those children and schools who had very little money, and lived a long way from any towns were they could buy the things they needed.

World Book Day at Clifton School, where each child dressed in a character from a book. Teachers too!

I asked at my local Women's Rural Institute (the Scottish version of the Women's Institute) if anyone had any old make-up they would be willing to donate, plus any craft materials or pens and pencils. They had had a competition to knit babies hats and bonnets, and kindly offered them to me as well. I was inundated with the most generous gifts, and was able to start planning my next visit when I would be able to take all these to the children who would benefit most.

Soon I had booked my next trip - this time going in January and returning in March of 2006.

This is L to R Gernot, Terry, Benita and Vic standing on the Mkadgikadgi Pans

I had also had an invitation from the German couple I had met whilst staying at Kasane, to go and visit them, so the week after New Year saw me on a plane to Nuremburg, where they live.

As we were flying over Germany I was struck by how moonlit everywhere seemed to be. I could clearly see the fields and darker patches, which I took to be trees and forests. (I was on an evening flight and it had been dark leaving Manchester). As we came into land, I suddenly realised that the fields had not been moonlit It was snow. Everywhere. and lots of it. Why I had not thought about that defeated me, but I was completely taken by surprise. Gernot and Benita, my new friends, were at the airport to meet me, and in a very short space of time, we were back at their wonderful home about 10 Kilometres from the Airport. I was made wonderfully welcome, and we had a splendid supper, before tiredness overtook me, and I went to bed. Most of the snow had disappeared by morning, so we were able to start touring around. Southern Germany is very picturesque, with lots of very pretty villages and some very good eating places too.

The following day, they had both taken time off work to show me around their part of Germany. What beautiful scenery they drove me through - to visit the towns of Bamburgh, and Nuremburg, and to eat Sauerkraut as only the Germans can make it, and also to drink Gluewien from the specially deisgned 'boot' cups.

We had a wonderful 5 days, and amongst so many other things, they took me to a huge cinema complex (http://www.cinecitta.de/main.html) that had been developed by a friend of Gernots, in Nuremburg. We seemed to go down and down and down, and the screen was the size of the ones you see at Imax cinemas here. Apparently, when he first built the cinema, it was an 'ordinary' one, then he could not get planning consent to extend it in the conventional way, so he decided to build downwards. I cannot remember exactly how many cinemas were in the whole complex,but I seem to think it was about 18 screens, and it was huge and contained restaurants and other facilities as well. The web link is, naturally, in German, but you will soon see the scale of the place from the pictures. http://www.cinecitta.de/main.html
We also went to Rothenburg - all these beautiful very old towns were a joy to wander round.

All too soon it was time to leave, and get home to more packing, as I was due to leave for Botswana again 5 days later. This had been a fascinating interlude, as well as the chance to meet up with a couple who have become good friends from our meeting in The Garden Lodge, at Kasane. www.thegardenlodge.com
Gernot and Benita