Oldie

Binnie and her 10 siblings refer to her mother, Mma Binnie, as “Oldie”.

At age 82 with bad arthritis I believe she does remarkably well living on her own in the family house.   However, Thamaga is not an easy place to get around if you have bad knees and hips.

Mma Binnie is 40 years older than the country, back in the days when Botswana was a British Protectorate. [Not a colony because it was a desert here and of no real value.] Thus, all her records are paper-based and not readily available or double checked like one would find with a modern government (in theory!)

The old age pension here is 600 pula a month which equates to about $60.  No way you can survive on that.  Moreover, most of the old people grew up when pensions were not really in place.  Consequently, it is the family who has to step up and look after the “oldies”.

I should add that the government does try to help by sending mobile payment offices to various corners of the village at the first of the month to make is easy for the seniors to get their monthly pension a few steps from their houses.  This relieves them of  the need to go to the post office or other government buildings in the village.

I wonder if the government here is ahead of the service level provided by the Government of Canada??

So Binnie and 3 of her siblings contribute monthly finances to Mma Binnie to help her out.

Needless to say, twice this week Binnie has added groceries to our list for the Oldie and dropped them off and tonight walked a casserole over to mom’s house for her supper. 

Yesterday when we were in the capital we were looking for a walker but to no avail at the drugstore that is well stocked.  Consequently we are going to have to ask around to see what other shops there are.

Lastly, Binnie has decided to have a birthday celebration for her mom while she is home.  That will be another adventure I’m sure especially getting all 11 kids and grandkids in sync and organized.