By the time the sun just peeked over the horizon, Kate had already passed Pilane on her way to Malaka. She intended to get OT as quickly as possible into the car and back on the road. But she knew her sister and knew there would be food cooking and a crowd of people waiting to give her a big send off , as if she were going on an around the world trip instead of to Gabane.

Driving into the Tswapong Hills, she was reminded again of the natural beauty of her birthplace. High rolling hills still green even this far into the dry season. Kate had loved climbing around in the rocks near the riverbed when she was a child, laying her cheek flat against their warm surface. There was a wonderful freedom growing up in the village with nature so near at hand. She would not have changed it for anything else.

Turning onto the dirt road leading to their house, she could hear their compound before she could see it. Twenty or thirty people were crowded in the yard, so Kate parked her car outside the fence. Before she could open the door, OT was there. “Dumela, Katie!” she shouted less than a ruler’s length from Kate’s face. Before she knew it Kate was engulfed in arms that nearly pressed the breath out of her. Kate’s husband used to joke that OT was lucky she’d never had children because she would have hugged them to death. Kate was thinking he was just about right.

Prying her head out of her sister’s ample breast, Kate could see a crowd had formed around them. She knew it would be another twenty minutes, at least, of handshakes, hugs and greetings before she’d be able to get through the gate. She realized then that her plan to pack her sister up and get her quickly back on the road was a daydream that didn’t have a chance of coming true.

After greeting half of the village, Kate finally had a chance to sit down with her sister.

“Listen OT, I need to get back to Gaborone tonight, official business,” Kate lied. “So do you have your things ready? I could put them in the car.”

“Sure they’re there by the fence.”

Kate looked toward the fence with desperation. A collection of five large size, three legged iron cooking pots stood next to four suitcases, a stack of plastic chairs, a large zinc bath tub filled with blankets and two goats tied to the fence. “OT, you’re joking, right?” Kate asked.

“I need all that. We’re organising a wedding not some stokvel.”

“But OT, look at my car- it’s a Corolla. It can’t manage all of that stuff. And goats … I can’t put goats in my car.” Before the words were out of her mouth she knew the futility of it. She would have no say in this matter, and many more to come she was sure of. Everything including the goats would be loaded into her poor automobile with or without her permission.

OT called three men stooping nearby sharing a carton of chibuku. “Lulu, you and your friends, pack those things in the car there, hey? Chop, chop! We need to get going. Gabane’s not a drive to Palapye you know?”

Kate watched in amazement while the half drunk men packed and unpacked the car a total of four times, trying to find space where no space could be found. Finally, two hours later, with two goats bleating in the back seat and three heavy iron pots strapped on the roof , Kate and her sister precariously headed south. Relief was not exactly what Kate was feeling because she knew that this was only the beginning of greater things to come, but at least they were progressing. For now that was good enough.