This morning, one of the stops on our game drive was to visit a Botswana village. It was disturbing. Here we have so much and the people we met have so little.
The villagers have a 40% HIV infection rate. There is very little food they can grow because the animals eat most of it.
They get regular visits from a medical team, but children have to go to boarding school in Maun (over 100 miles away).
Their homes are huts made from the mud of termite piles and reinforced with layers of used soda cans to prevent the rain from washing away the walls. The roofs are thatch.
Like we saw in Zambia, the villagers' primary source of income is selling baskets and other handmade souvenirs. They do gorgeous work so we felt good buying multiple items. One Aussie surgeon in our group just decided he needed to hand the children money. It was a good gesture.
No comments:
Post a Comment