The Adventures of "Flat Addison"

Our niece, Addison, is a 5-year old kindergartener. Her class read Flat Stanley, a book about a little boy who becomes flat. This allows him to travel anywhere in the world by sending himself in an envelope. A few weeks ago, we received a large envelope with a flat kindergartener that our niece made. We spent a week taking our “Flat Addison” wherever we went. This blog post is all about the adventures “Flat Addison” went on while in Botswana. 

“Flat Addison” visited Shakawe, Botswana a village in the Okavango Delta. The Okavango Delta is the biggest inland delta in the world and is home to many animals. Some of the animals that live in our area are elephants, hippos, crocodiles, leopards, lots of antelope and lots of birds.  

On Monday, she spent time at the Shakawe Clinic. She helped out with baby-weighing. Parents bring their small children once a month to see if they are growing well. They use a hanging scale to weigh the children ages 0-5 years old. After their weight is marked on their chart, they get free food. This food is either beans, oil or sorghum meal with vitamins. 

After saying goodbye to the nice people at the clinic, “Flat Addison” went shopping for baskets. Baskets are made from palms that grow in the area. The different colors in the baskets are made from local plants too. The baskets in this area are some of the best in all of Africa. There are also other crafts such as beaded jewelry and leather bags.

On Tuesday, “Flat Addison” went to the Botswana-Namibia border with Aunt Bridgette. Namibia is very close to Shakawe, so it was a fast trip. She saw more of the Okavango River and took a picture next to the sign for Botswana. She also visited the local baobab (bay-oh-bob) tree. Baobob trees can get very big and they have a very nice fruit that tastes like yogurt. The baobab tree in Shakawe is quite small compared to others. Baobob trunks can be up to 36 feet in diameter!

On Wednesday, she walked all around the village. Aunt Bridgette needed to talk with several schools and the new library about an Earth Day event. At the library, she met some pre-school kids and some boys who were reading. The library was very nice. She also saw a traditional house made of mud with a grass roof. It’s amazing what can be built with local things!

 

Thursday was full of farm work. Aunt Bridgette and Uncle Matt work at a garden and farm that teaches people to grow organic food. To get to the garden, she had to walk in the “bush” for 1 mile off of the main road. It was very sandy, but very pretty. 

At the garden, she saw some of the greens they were growing. The most interesting was the native greens that grow really tall. Greens are called  morogo (more-oh-hoh) in Setswana, the official language of Botswana.

“Flat Addison” also helped put up a new shade net with Uncle Matt and his friends.
 

She also visited the farm where they grow food in a more eco-friendly way. Sadly, this area had a very bad drought. Many people’s crops have not grown well. This is bad because most people only eat the food they grow, they cannot go to a grocery store.

 

After getting her feet dirty at the farm, “Flat Addison” visited the nearby crocodile farm. Crocodiles are big reptiles that live in the Okavango River. They are very powerful predators.

 

The end of the week was spent hanging out near the Okavango River. It is very pretty and filled with papyrus, the plant that was used for the first paper. She also saw a mokoro, a traditional dug out canoe. Many people still use mokoros to travel and fish.

 

“Flat Addison” had quite an adventure in Botswana. She enjoyed seeing the Okavango region of Botswana. It was very quite and peaceful. She is being sent back to Mrs. Tammy’s kindergarten class with items from her travels including a small basket, jewelry and the Botswana flag.