Wednesday, June 23, 2010

holidays back home....


they say there is no place like home, mmhhh.., that i agree, totally agree. i went back to my country for my 3 weeks vacationand believe me, i had a great time that side after being in Malaysia for about 2 years and a few months. it was time to go and experience the atmosphere that i had been experiencing for almost my whole life except 2 years ago when i came to Malaysia. the nice part about this timing was that i was going for the winter season, the best season for me. unlike Malaysia, Botswana has 4 seasons, summer, autumn, winter and spring.

summers normally occur around November - January, in which there is a lot of rain and its very hot again at the same time. it is then followed by autumn, the harvesting season in my country. due to rains expected around December, people plant crops for harvest from February to April. the cold season comes in May till July, where temperatures can fall as low as -5 degrees Celsius and sometimes even lower in some parts of the country and the remaining 3 months are for spring.

basically, i just wanted to feel winter for the first time in 2 years and as you can guess, i was very excited at the idea of winter and the idea of seeing my family and my fellow countrymen once again. its amazing what a couple of years can do to a place and its people. everyone was just different, the toddlers i left were now older kids, those who couldn't speak were now the talkative ones and everything was just different. i went to 3 different places, a city,a town and a village as a way of trying to re experience the atmosphere and of the 3 places, i preferred my home town, Maun, what a wonderful place! with the river flowing endlessly and separating the place into two unequal places, it was a wonderful sight.

the most exciting part was meeting my family, i mean, the feeling that overwhelmed me when i saw my two younger sisters and my younger brother after two years is hard to explain, in fact, it aint hard, i just don't know how to describe it. i realized that i really missed them, all of them including my parents and realized after a few days with them that, they are no longer those little girls and a boy i used to play around with, they are now older and mature. i spent a week with them, then i decided to go to a village, to my Grandma and extended family in a small village about 200km from Maun called Gweta.

well, honestly, the first thing i wanted to do was to sit around a fire at night, and i did. it was just magical, with the cold air around me, i just sat around the fire and didn't wanna budge for another 2 hours or so, "this is the moment i have been waiting for, for 2 years", i thought. the nice thing about village life is that, there is less noise, less traffic and even the technology itself is less. its like being in a totally different place without any noise or any other stuff that cities have. the week i spent there certainly flew by, i ddnt even do a lot of stuff i had in mind, but i guess, there is always another time.

for the last week, i went back to Maun, hung around with some friends for a while since we hadn't seen each other in a while, then it was time for me to go back to the city, with 4 days left for my flight back here. as u know, city life can spoil your holidays with the traffic and noise and so it did, for the first few hours though. its amazing how one can get used to the environment that quick. i spent the remaining days with my younger sister and her boyfriend and other family relatives. it was fun though, i was in a place where people spoke my mother language 24hrs a day, what more could i need? nothing.

the day to come back arrived, everybody was devastated by the idea of me leaving as i was by the idea of leaving them. i had a 10am flight from Gaborone to Johannesburg, South Africa where i had to wait for a flight that got delayed by 12hrs, but that's another story for another time. nevertheless, i had a great time and i really recommend that next time you get a vacation or holiday, go back to your family because there aint no place like home, trust me, i know.....

1 comment:

  1. there is no place like home i totally agree and hey cant wait to be home...

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