#Okavango16 Journal Day 3

Today we stopped in at Jedibe, a Ba’yei village of about 100 people. We were there to get some supplies and to ask village elders permission to install a pair of sensors just outside the village. After about an hour and some successful discussions, we embarked again, stopping 100m along the river to do the install.

We are deploying 16 sensors along the river on this trip, and will follow up with a dozen more up the panhandle towards Angola. In the fall we’ll put sensors near the Cuito and Cuanavale source lakes, which will give us a good picture of the hydrodynamic and weather systems that exist within the entire Okavango river system.

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Since we’ll be writing another 14 of these entries, I thought it’d be useful to provide a glossary of some of the obscure (and sometimes made up) terms that we use around camp. So here goes…

Ba’Yei (N.): The Ba’yei are the people of the Delta. They arrived in the 1770s from the Zambezi valley, bringing with them the revolutionary technology of the mokoro. Our expedition and our project would be impossible without the incredible wilderness knowledge and tremendous skill of the Ba’Yei.

Mokoro (n.): A mokoro is a flat-bottomed boat traditionally used by the Ba’Yei people in the Okavango Delta. The plural form of mokoro is mekoro. Originally made from riverine trees (mainly sausage trees), mekoro are now most often made from fiberglass. About five meters long, our mekoros can hold up to three people and more than 500kg.

Ngashi (n.): The long wooden pole used by a mokoro poler. These very important instruments are made from a particularly straight variety of Terminalia– one that is found 100km away from the Delta! Ngashis often have a forked end on one side, used to get purchase on the river bank or papyrus beds.

4x4 (v.): Usually one poler stands in the back of the mokoro and propels it forward with the ngashi. You can get more speed and power, though, by 4x4ing: two polers, one in the front and one in the back. We typically do this when we get into thick reed beds with very little water.

Kuba (n.): Yei for hippopotamus.

Kwena (n.): Yei for crocodile.

Spoor (n.): Animal signs– tracks, scat, middens, wallows, bark stripping, etc. We are conducting a series of spoor surveys in the Delta and in Angola, with the aim to facilitate comparison of large mammal populations in both areas.

Bolus (n.): A unit of elephant dung.

Hippo Path (n.): A path through reeds or papyrus made by a hippopotamus. Many of the routes we take through the Delta weren’t made by or for humans; they’re often made by large mammals crashing their way through thick vegetation. Hippo paths can be ideal for mekoro, as they are just the right width. Elephant paths are wider, and if they’ve recently been traveled, very very muddy!

Papyrus Kiss (n.): A damp caress from a papyrus frond. For the front passenger in a mekoro, the papyrus kiss is a common phenomenon. Drooping papyrus fronts dangle into the river, and carry a damp payload when the mokoro passes through. Keep your camera lens covered!

Tsoworo (n.): A traditional Ba’Yei instrument. Made from a bow of brandy bush and a reed from a young leaf of the real fan palm (a new leaf is needed every time the tswowor is played). The reed is vibrated by scraping the bow with a stick, and the amplified by the oral cavity of the tswoworo player.

Jet Fuel (n.): In lieu of a definition, a recipe: Mix 3 heaping spoonfuls of instant coffee with 2 heaping spoonfuls of sugar. Add as small of an amount of water as possible. Consume quickly.

#Okavango16 is a National Geographic expedition into the heart of Botswana’s Okavango Delta. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.