With Patrick no longer responsible for Swaneng Hill School, he and Liz were now free to move down into the village and give their two Botswana-born boys, then aged seven and four, a chance to integrate with local village children. They identified and gained approval for a plot just across the main road from the Swaneng Hill's gates, and construction of the new home, to Patrick's own idiosyncratic design, began in January 1971. It was built by the Builders’ Brigade, regularly assisted by Patrick himself, in local stone with a thatched roof.

By April 1972 it was sufficiently completed for the family to move in. This was their first permanent, personal home and it prompted the couple to reassess their lives and think of their long-term future. Patrick applied for Botswana citizenship, which was granted by directive from President Khama in 1973. Liz retained her British passport, on which their two young sons were included, so they would have the freedom when they were adults to choose between British and Botswana citizenship.

By this time Bessie Head and her son, Howard, were back in Serowe. She was now an established novelist. When she returned in 1969 she had completed the typescript of her second novel, Maru, and had just sold the paperback rights to When Rain Clouds Gather. The contract had earned her the princely sum of £1 000 and for the first time in her life she had enough capital to build herself a proper home.

Patrick helped get her a plot bordering the eastern edge of the Swaneng Hill complex, and the Builders’ Brigade built her a small two-bedroom house at a cost of £700. She called it ‘Rain Clouds’ and moved in that November.

Although her relationship with Patrick was often fractious, he had always been a rock of stability on whom she could call in times of need. She was thus very distressed by Patrick's breakdown during the school crisis of May 1970. Indeed, she may have been influenced by the manner of his demonstration against the Fifth when she reached a crisis of her own.