On the drive from Shakawe to Qangwa, we stopped in the town of Gumare to pick up Peace Corps volunteers Kevin Draper and Skye Peebles; Skye's brother Cameron, a college student spending two months in Botswana for an independent study project, came along. We planned to camp in Quangwa on the property of Tocadi employee Joyce Tsaae, one of Jeff's colleagues, so that early the next day we could continue on to the Gcwihaba Caverns.

When we arrived at the caverns at about 11 a.m., a contingent of 12 members of the Botswana Defence Force (BDF), working with a guide and geologist from the University of Botswana, had just finished their day's work of excavating sand from the entrance via hand-to-hand bucket conveyor. Sand from the surrounding areas blows into the cave entrance, and has to be removed from time to time. The BDF group departed for lunch and to play a soccer match at 3 in the afternoon back in Quangwa. The guide and geologist handed each of us a hardhat, checked their high-beam torches (flashlights), and led us down a steep set of boulders into the caverns.

We walked from chamber to chamber as the guides described the history and formation of the structures. Three different species of bats live in the chambers; in some areas we saw five or six tiny bats clustered together, but in the deeper regions there were thousands of large bats. In those areas the floor of the chamber consisted of droppings several feet deep, decaying bat bodies, and, of course, countless insects. The temperatures ranged from very cool at the entrances and in the spots without bats, to very hot and humid.

We resurfaced after a 90-minute tour and began the drive back to Qangwa. When we arrived at Joyce's place, she was outside making a necklace from ostrich eggshells. Women from several of the San tribes in this area of Botswana make and sell traditional jewelry made from ostrich eggshells and beads. Although Joyce is employed by Tocadi, and sometimes is resident in Shakawe, her work assignments require stays of several weeks in the San villages of Qangwa and Dobe, so she keeps a home there.

The next entry will feature the arrival of Jeff's brother Ron and family from Louisville, Kentucky and our road trip with them through Botswana and Zambia.