A Blog in Three Parts: Ghanzi Show

July 2, 2012

The Ghanzi Show is an annual fair that fondly reminded of the Cochise County Fair and the Dixon Mayfair.  Farmers bring in their livestock and vendors of the cheap stuff you can only find at those fair stalls were everywhere.  All it lacked was rides.  And instead of the old staples of Indian fry bread and churros were replaced with “pancakes” which were actually crepes with cinnamon and sugar and fat cakes, a deep fried and delicious ball of bread.

And my favorite delicacy of the whole thing, whole fried bream seasoned with either a spicy, chili based flavor or a classic BBQ flavor.  Delicious.  Messy but delicious and for a mere 15 pula, a steal.  Mmm…

Last year the show was apparently freezing cold, this year it was windy as all get out.  We broke two awnings before the show really even started.  At that point we sent Phale back for one of the big tents used at the education center, pinned everything down with big rocks, and prayed.  When we got the tent set up, we could set up all of brochures and pamphlets with a little less paralyzing fear that they’d be gone in a moment.  We also set out all of the lovely CCB swag to tempt passersby with.  And tempt us volunteers with.  I ended up with two shirts, a fleece jacket, and a ball cap.  If the show had gone on any longer I’m sure I’d have come away with more.  As it was, I ended up with plenty.

But it was fun.  The kids especially were fantastic.  We had two skins, one of a leopard and one of a cheetah and we would ask people which was which and how to tell the difference.  Leopards are shorter, stouter, climbs trees and have those rosette shaped spots while cheetah are tall, slim, and fast with small, solid, round spots.  Someone compared them to a pit bull (the leopard) versus a greyhound (the cheetah) I thought that was quite apt.

In addition to bumming around the stand and flagging down the CCB employees who spoke Setswana, I wandered around the show grounds.  There were some absolutely gorgeous animals at the show.  The bull that won the show was simply gorgeous.

And after the show, there was sitting round, drinking beer or cider, and chatting with the farmers.  I enjoyed that bit.  We met some lovely people that way.

Friday we also got to visit one of the farms to collect camera traps.  No cheetahs, though, just loads of leopard photos.

After the Ghanzi show, our time seemed to fly even faster.  My last night in Ghanzi was Wednesday June 27.  We had a braai (BBQ) and spent the night chatting, all of the CCB folks and Caoilfhionn and myself.  And I had the honor of having a T bone the size of my face.  Seriously, massive T bone.  And after hovering over it for over an hour, finally finishing it.