Tree Talk

 Life Happens Under Trees.

“Under her acacia tree was a dusty place to sit… 

 It was a place that encouraged thought. It was here that Mma Ramotswe would 

contemplate some of the issues which, in everyday life, may be so easily pushed aside.” 

 There are more trees in Gaborone than I expected to see in a city that hugs the Kalahari.   

I’ve come to learn that not only thought happens under the shade provided by Gaborone’s 

and Botswana’s trees...Significant moments happen under trees.     There is a 100+ year old 

morula tree that spans over Nelson Mandela Drive.    It is protected as the founding site of the  Botswana Democratic Party in 1962.  In Kasane, there is  baobob tree in whose hollow prisoners were held until the town’s first prison was built ...Enterprise happens under trees. Trees provide shade for make-shift snack stands, for car washes, for tire shops.    When I direct friends to my house, I say, "Turn right after the car wash tree."  They know what I mean. 

My taxi stop is an unmarked tree behind the Methodist Church....

  Rest and respite        happen         under trees.   

           Half way       through     my walk home, 

I pass under a small grove 

of large trees.    

Their roots 

poke through

the pavement, 

as a reminder 
to the city that, 

“ We were here 
before you rose

 and we will be here

long after you fall.”   

For the 30 seconds or so 

that it takes for me to pass under the trees, 

    the din of traffic     is replaced     by the banter of birds   who breed in the branches.  
For 30 seconds,         I am transported     to another world.       Life Happens Under Trees.