A love letter to my home village Kasane.

Dear Favorite place. 

I'm coming home in december. 

It has been four years but 

I remember the way the green of the north

is different from the green of the south. 

The air is cooler up there right at the corner of Botswana. 

My dad called today and said

" Hi pumpkin, I'm in the middle of nowhere right in that corner of Botswana" 

and I knew he was almost home. 

And I know its 1000 Kilometers of not quite so tarred road. 

And just 45 minutes of flight away. 

But I'll take the long way. 

So I can see it outside my window as I get closer. 

You see just after francistown you can't really tell. 

But right after Nata the worst part of the road you can tell you're in the Chobe. 

You can smell it in the air.

You can see it in that northern Green you Don't get anywhere else. 

And you can see it in the white sands. 

By now the elephants have come to play. 

I can always tell who isn't from around here by how scared they look. 

and by the time the sand starts to change from the white Nata sand to that black rich Pandamatenga sand I can hear my grandfather's laugh. 

Its rich, I have a lecturer who laughs like him so maybe that's why I haven't gone home in so long. 

But I can already here all the stories he is going to tell me when he says " Tshepo d Baby lets go to town" 

And we'll drive in on that curve and I'll see that lush green, then the majestic bends of the Chobe river. And that's when I'll know I am home. 

My soul will settle into its peace. 

Peace I didn't get on any other holiday. 

So we'll spend the day on the riverbank my grandfather and I. 

Trying to catch the biggest Chobe Bream. 

He'll talk and I'll listen. 

He'll laugh the way he does with his whole being and my heart will Smile. 

I'm coming home soon baby. 

Tell my ancestors to wait for me.