1st of August 2012, around 6.00 pm, the panic
began! Fee along with a team of members
from group A had been working hard all day to create an amazing last meal, the
menu was as follows:
Starter - Homemade
Mixed Breads; olive, garlic and onion and cheese and tomato
Made By: Polly, Tim, Joe R, Jack
Main Course- Haggis
(thanks to the container arriving in Maun) with Mashed Potato
Made By: Charlotte, Mhairi, Andrew, Andy
Desert- Banoffee
Mess (which was the nicest mess I have ever tasted!)
Made By: Beth, Cheyenne, Jamie
Cocktail: Mango
Juice mixed with Sprite
So anyway everyone came back from work with gleaming
smiles on their faces as they had hit the target of finishing the ablutions
block up to roof level, well done to all Group A! As we had guests coming they then rushed off
for a group shower, that is until Fee shouted on certain members of the team to
help start preparing dinner- she was a little panicked! Dinner time arrived, our guests were Allison,
our medevac coordinator, and a lecturer from the local technical college who
have supported us throughout the build. The team of group A who served and kept dinner
going for the night consisted of: Tim (our MC), Charlotte, Cheyenne, Jessie,
Sam, Joe R, Andy, Mhairi, Elliot and maybe more of us (Fee and I are struggling
to remember!)
Anyway, at this point your probably wondering why I used
“serving” as it doesn’t often happen at camps, however we did decide that
tonight would be a night that the leaders could sit back and relax with our
guests and enjoy what we had to offer. Everyone
really enjoyed their cocktail and first two courses and with that it was time
for a small surprise! As a group we had
decided that all the leaders deserved an extra something, after all they have
had to put up with us for 5 weeks, so Ben took over MC’ing and each leader was
presented with their own individual gift from a certain team. It was at this point that we swiftly moved
onto dessert before either Martin or more likely Chris got up and made a
speech.
Dessert went down a storm, thanks very much girls! It has
to be the richest thing we’ve had in 5 weeks! However the speech wasn’t avoided
but luckily it was Anne who had decided to make that speech just to thank us
all for the meal, the hard work put into the project and the corporation
between both leaders and scouts to make sure the our part of the expedition was
a success.
Dinner ended around 8:05pm and at this point we were
expecting to be late for the campfire- however we are in Botswana! The fire wasn’t quite ready and the Botswanans
rushed off to prepare the final stage, The Nest.
Me, Elliot and Mark were opening, MC’ing and organising
the campfire and had already put a running order together, the part we wanted
to make special was the lighting of the fire- now usually this would be done by
one person and with only three matches to strike, however we wanted to make it
a bit more “UK linked” we decided to take two of our elders and let them carry
a torch to light the fire together- these being Mr P Maleffy and Mrs A Masino.
As I said, we were running on Botswana time- the fire
didn’t get going until after 9:00pm but as soon as it was lit, the entertainment
was well underway. With plenty of sketches and songs from all different groups
and people it was a great success and I hope I am right in saying everyone
enjoyed themselves, however I don’t think anyone there will ever forget Tim and
Chris singing Caledonia and what the atmosphere was like in those last few
songs. I would say the campfire ended around 11:15pm and at this point there
was a real sadness going around not just Contingent A but also Contingent B and
the Botswanans that we had got to know and work with as friends.
Before going to bed there was a time of roughly half an
hour where certain people, myself included,
just sat and watched the fire burn to embers, realising we were leaving
the next morning was not something many of us wanted to think about, but as the
Botswanan’s say “we meet to part and we part to meet”
Andy
