Rola Gathering

Rola Gathering Lay it down. A gathering for reflection and acknowledgement. Botswana — July 2026.

ROLA I We Broke BreadEvery ROLA gathering begins with something beautifully simple.We eat.Not hurriedly.Not between sess...
06/08/2026

ROLA I We Broke Bread

Every ROLA gathering begins with something beautifully simple.

We eat.
Not hurriedly.
Not between sessions.
Not because it is on the programme.
But because nourishment is one of the first languages of love.

So we gathered around a table beneath the acacias.
We hydrated.
We slowed our pace.
And we allowed the day to unfold, one gentle course at a time.

Our first taste was a warm cocktail of home-grown samp and beans soup, delicately infused with fresh coriander and parsley from the garden.

Comforting.
Familiar.
Rooted.
It tasted like home.

Fresh fruit followed, harvested to awaken the palate and gently prepare us for the day ahead.
Nothing extravagant.
Only honest food.
Food that invited us to arrive.

And then came tea.
Not just tea.
A bottomless medley of Kenyan infusions.
Cup after cup.
Conversation after conversation.
Silence after silence.
There was never any need to ask,

“Would you like another?”

The kettle simply stayed on.

Because some conversations deserve another cup.
Some tears deserve another cup.
Some laughter deserves another cup.

At ROLA, hospitality is never measured by abundance.

It is measured by attention.
By remembering that sometimes the greatest gift we can offer another person is to say,

“Stay a little longer.”

So we did.
We sat.
We ate.
We drank.
We lingered.

And somewhere between a warm bowl of samp and beans soup and another fragrant cup of tea, strangers slowly became companions.

Not because we shared a meal.
But because we shared a table.

And that, is ROLA.

A Gathering for What We Carry.

We, Rola’d.

05/08/2026

ROLA I When the Artist Became the Art,
The Pause

There is something profoundly beautiful about watching an artist with nothing to create.

No audience.
No stage.
No performance.
No one waiting for the next masterpiece.

Just Loretta Keabetswe Mekgwe.

The artist.
The author.
The actress.
The founder of The Art Lab.

A woman who has spent so much of her life creating spaces where others can be seen.

And yet, at ROLA, she chose something different.
She chose to disappear.
Not from people.
But from expectation.
Tucked quietly beneath the acacias, she found a chair hidden among the thorns.

No script.
No brush.
No microphone.
No applause.
Just the warmth of an August sun.

The breeze moving gently through the branches.
And the rare luxury of having absolutely nowhere else to be.
I see an artist allowing herself to become the masterpiece.
Because creativity is not only born from making.
Sometimes, it is born from resting.

From laughing.
From breathing.
From remembering that before we create for the world…
we must first make space for ourselves.

Perhaps that is what this moment was.
Not an escape.
A homecoming.
A quiet return to the woman behind the work.
The one who laughs before she performs.
The one who dreams before she designs.
The one who simply sits beneath a Botswana sky and lets the day unfold without asking anything of her.

Thank you, Keabetswe.

For reminding us that even those who spend their lives creating beauty deserve moments where they don’t have to create anything at all.

Where they can simply…
be.

That, too, is Art.

That, too, is ROLA.

We,
Rola’d.

ROLA | The StillnessBefore we could gather with one another, we first had to gather ourselves.Nestled quietly beneath th...
04/08/2026

ROLA | The Stillness

Before we could gather with one another, we first had to gather ourselves.

Nestled quietly beneath the acacias and tucked among the thorn bushes were small sanctuaries waiting to be found.

An olive-green chair.
A simple side table.
A journal and a pen.

Nothing extravagant.

Only enough to say,
“This space is yours.”
One by one, we wandered away from the gathering.
Not to escape one another—
but to return to ourselves.
There, in silence, we paused.

Slowly.
Intentionally.
No conversations.
No expectations.
No interruptions.
Only the sound of birdsong.
The gentle whisper of the August breeze weaving through the trees.
The warmth of the winter sun reflecting softly on our faces, while its familiar chill reminded us to stay present.

August held us.
Tenderly.
Patiently.
Completely.
We sat still.
Listening only to our breathing.
Listening to the stories our hearts had carried for far too long.

Stories we had buried.
Stories we had survived.
Stories we had quietly continued to carry.
In those moments, our journals became more than paper.
They became witnesses.
A safe place to remember.

To revisit.
To rewrite.
To forgive.
To honour.
To begin again.

There was no rush to find answers.
Only permission to be.
Long enough to finally lay our burdens down.
Perhaps that is what stillness really is.
Not the absence of noise—
but the presence of ourselves.

Held by nature.
Held by grace.
Held by the quiet certainty that healing does not always arrive through conversation.

Sometimes…

it arrives through stillness.
And beneath those ancient acacias, surrounded by thorns yet embraced by peace, we discovered something profound:

Even in the places that have pricked us the most, there is still room to rest.
There is still room to breathe.
There is still room to heal.

We paused.
We listened.
We released.

We,

ROLA’d.

Rola
A gathering for what we carry.

ROLA | The GatheringIn the serenity of August, beneath the generous shade of an old acacia, we gathered.A gentle breeze ...
03/08/2026

ROLA | The Gathering

In the serenity of August, beneath the generous shade of an old acacia, we gathered.

A gentle breeze carried the first hint of winter across our faces. Hats on. Sunlight resting softly on our shoulders. We arrived quietly.

A cool Patchouli-scented towel welcomed us.

Then, unhurried, we found our places around a table dressed with fresh fruit, peace lilies on the verge of bloom, and the quiet promise that today would be different.

There was no rush.
No performance.
Only peace.
The kind that settles before words ever do.
We came with one hope:
To leave lighter than we arrived.

So we ROLA’d.

We talked.
We laughed.
Then, somewhere in the middle of it all, Sad tears found permission.
The conversation gave way to silence.
We painted.
We ate.
We cried.

One by one, in silence, we acknowledged the burdens we had carried for far too long—not to anyone else, but first to ourselves.

Because we were tired.
Tired of being sick and tired.
We wrote our burdens down.
Then we carried them to the fire.
To ashes, we committed them.

We declared death over the weight we had carried. And as the flames lifted them away, many more tears followed.

As ROLA unfolded, something within me began to soften.

Parts of my own broken soul no longer demanded to be carried. They quietly surrendered to the moment, becoming lighter with every breath, every embrace, every tear.

For the first time in a long time…
I simply felt held.
We were held.
I was held.
We held one another.
And we embraced—
not out of obligation,
but with intention.

In a way that allowed our souls,
our hearts,
and our eyes
to meet.

For a moment, there was nothing to fix.
Nothing to prove.
Nothing to carry alone.
Only the quiet assurance that healing does not always arrive with answers.
Sometimes, it arrives with presence.

That is ROLA.
The Gathering.
A gentle reminder that no one was ever meant to carry everything alone.

ROLA.

A Gathering for What We Carry.

We came carrying.
We left carrying less.

We,
Rola’d.

🌸

Until we gather again.Communities are not built in a moment. They are shaped over time—through conversations, trust, sha...
02/08/2026

Until we gather again.

Communities are not built in a moment. They are shaped over time—through conversations, trust, shared values, generosity and the quiet decision to keep showing up for one another.

To everyone who has walked with ROLA, whether you attended a gathering, encouraged the vision, shared our story, volunteered your time, or simply believed in what we were building—thank you.

You made ROLA what it was always meant to be:

Deep. Raw. Real. Ours.

This lotus is an original artwork I colored during ROLA. It became more than a painting; it became a reflection of everything we carried, released and created together.

Our gathering may have come to an end, but what was formed continues to live within each of us.

Until we gather again.

With gratitude,
Malebogo Busang
Founder, ROLA

31st July, we gather. A gathering for what we carry.
28/07/2026

31st July, we gather.



A gathering for what we carry.

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