What an amazing time to be in Botswana - the 50th anniversary of its independence from England. On the 30th of September 1966, Botswana became an independent state. Since then, it has maintained a strong tradition of stable representative democracy, with a consistent record of uninterrupted democratic elections.

A mid-sized country of just over 2 million people, Botswana is one of the most sparsely populated nations in the world. The economy is dominated by mining, cattle, and tourism. Formerly one of the poorest countries in the world, Botswana has since transformed itself into one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. This is why (and rightly so) their anniversary slogan was "United and Proud".

OUR CAMP STAFF SANG THE BOTSWANA NATIONAL ANTHEM AT BREAKFAST

Spokes, our lead guide and owner of Classified Safari's, wanted us to be a part of their national celebration. He had custom shirts made for all the members of our group. We put these on at breakfast and felt honoured to be wearing them on what was a very special day for all the people of Botswana.

Our morning game drive would be quite different today, a trip to Khwai's community centre to join in the national celebrations. This would prove to be one of the highlights of our trip to Africa. We met people along the way and joined in spontaneous celebrating - dancing, singing and calling out Botswana to everyone we met.

The village celebrations were taking place at the Khwai Community Centre. Children were lined up to get their plates of food. No cutlery, as everyone was eating with their hands.

We became instant celebrities ourselves as we had brought Canada pins and a whole bunch of sticker books. Soon all the children were surrounding us to get a pin or as many stickers placed on them as possible. We drove through the village the next day and saw many children still had the stickers on.