WAR donations, wet riverbed and our daily routine

I spent the last week washing up all of the clothes my study away students left behind from our spring trip for donations to a local women’s shelter sponsored by WAR – Women Against Rape. http://www.womenagainstrape.co.bw/ I hadn’t realized how much there was until it took me a week to wash and hang out to dry all the clothes (we have a washing machine but no dryer). The organization was very happy to receive all the donations (which also included plenty of sun screen and bug spray!).

The biggest news last week was that a river, the Boranyani, that has been dry for at least the last 20 years was filling with water. That’s right, big news in Maun, a river bed…has water in it! People lined the streets looking at the flood water coming in. Each day when we drive by there are cars pulled off the side of the road to see and people peering over the guard rails.

Our daily lives have fallen into a nice routine. Our morning begins with about 45 minutes of weight lifting. We have three different workouts that we rotate through in our desperate attempt to get in shape. Study away didn’t do much for my fitness level. While we did hike a few times (See the picture of me hiking at Giant’s Castle in South Africa), there were too many ice cream options for dessert and not enough aerobic activity. I’m struggling to get back into shape. I added in jump robbing last week, which I suffer through (not silently). So far the cheese and wine at sundowners are winning!

I’m reading about four books currently, two for school and two for fun. For fun, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man is keeping me agitated with American politics and Blinding Light by Paul Theroux is expanding my mind (thanks for the loan Mike!). For school, Intern: A Doctor’s Initiation is for my medical sociology course in the fall and Who Cares about AIDS in Africa for next year’s study away in the Spring.

Compared to my past visits I’m being relatively “super brave” when it comes to making my way around town. With our little Subaru Forrester (her name is “Zwu Zwu”) I zip around to the grocery store, to get phone time, etc. Groceries are surprisingly expensive here (comparable to Greenville) and you have to be particularly careful not to accidently buy your favorite product from home, without checking the price. Today when I was in Spar I saw Campbell’s soup and thought yum Campbell’s Tomato Soup, until I did the pula to dollar conversion and realized it was over $4 for the can! Crazy! Also, you may not know that all cell phones here are “pay as you go.” So we are constantly shooting out to buy time on “Orange” (the cell network) so we have cell minutes. Also, noteworthy is that if someone calls your cell it does not eat up your minutes. Only the caller uses minutes. Interesting, huh?

I know many of you will be surprised to learn that I am trying to build my repertoire of edible meals that I can cook. As many of you know, somehow I have managed to make it to this ripe old age without cooking much. That is possible when you live with people that cook (thanks Karen!) or have friends that feed you occasionally (thanks Kathy and Martha!) or live near easily accessible yummy takeout food (I miss Thai Coon lots!). But here in Botswana, as Paul says I have to become a “generalist” not just a “specialist” (Paul has a theory that Americans are specialists, while Africans are generalists. I think he might be right). One of my best efforts so far has been chicken Florentine (we were given fresh spinach from a friend’s garden) and last night was chicken Masala with spices we got from our trip to Zanzibar. Yummy! Here’s a picture of me shopping for spices in Zanzibar. Today for lunch I've made a rice salad with chicken, pineapple, peaches, mayo, chutney and curry powder. It's pretty good. I’m still slightly shocked when I make something that is edible.

Monday nights are my favorite nights for TV as I do a multi-hour marathon beginning with “Lost” (although we’re pretty lost because we missed a few episodes), “House” (surly sleuthing doctor, who could resist), and “Sopranos” (Kelley - all I can think of is our multi-day Christmas marathon several years back!). It’s pretty decadent as I sit there curled up on our couch, wrapped in a fuzzy blanket, neighbor’s dog (Taffy) at my side…for hours! Given I watch almost no TV in the States, I guess being a Monday night couch potato won’t kill me.

Paul is doing well but is crazy busy at work. Perhaps juggling three companies is a bit too much (safari, mapping, and internet companies)?! He is desperately trying to find a book keeper. Started someone a couple of weeks ago that lasted one week, then a new one last week, who hasn’t been back since Thursday (claims to be in tomorrow). If I was a better person I would just learn Quickbooks and do it for him but since I’m only here 3-4 months of the year, he would be stuck doing it most of the time anyway. For those of you who have asked, his jaw, which was strained from his root canal in April, is finally back to normal and he has moved beyond his “flat food” diet to normal size food.

Friday we head off to Nxai Pan for a Star Show. Saturday is our anniversary! Can’t believe a year has gone by since our kgotla experience. Time flies when you’re having fun!

weird, creepy and just not right

OK, so I know I already posted this week but I couldn’t resist posting a photo of the “blunt-tailed worm lizard” that was in our yard yesterday morning. That’s right “worm lizard”! He looked like a big piece of stretched out pink gum. I took a picture next to my sneaker so that you could see how big he really is. Ick! What the heck is a “worm lizard” anyway?

I’m also trying my hand at the video feature on the blog. Here is a clip of our nightly “dog smack-down” entertainment. It ends badly. The dog in the back is the girl. That’s just not right! Unfortunately, I don't know how to edit the footage. Sorry about that!

road cutting, spontaneous smorgasbord and mamba!

Happy belated 4th of July! Hope you enjoyed the day. Paul and I did eat hotdogs and baked beans in celebration but I was really missing buns for the hotdogs (bread selection is seriously limited here), watermelon and good corn on the cob (and of course family and friends to celebrate with!). No fireworks either, but I think I did hear a car backfire…that will have to do.

Last week we spent three days in Savute cutting a new road for the mobile safari sector. Paul mapped it using Google Earth and data on an old road that used to exist there and we were pleasantly surprised to see that the elephants had maintained it quite well. There is still a lot of standing water around from that unusual early June rain we had. The typical way we get up to Savute is not passable due to the mud and water. As such, the only way into the park is a rickety bridge over a river. I usually hold my breath as we go over these.

Once we arrived we easily located the start of the old road which was now being used as an elephant thoroughfare. As such, with some bush bashing and chain sawing some small Mopani trees we were able to clear a good section of it on the first day. My job, along with another safari company owner’s 11 year old son, was to watch out for elephants and other beasts that might be lurking in the bush. Perched up on the wheel well we shouted at the top of our lungs when we heard some angry elephants trumpeting nearby. The work crew (Paul, Stuart and Rian) came running! Later that same afternoon we spotted a herd of Cape buffalo, notoriously some of the meanest and most dangerous creatures out there. We were delayed a bit as we waited for the herd to get to a safe distance from our new road.


The next day we managed to clear the roughly 7 mile road by mid-day so we decide to go find some of the remote Zwei zwei camp sites that are often assigned to the mobile safari companies when the ones closer in are booked. The new road we put in will actually get mobile companies out to these sites much quicker. Zwei zwei was the area where I survived the elephant charge last year and there were plenty of elephants this year as well (but fortunately no charges).

The campsites were much farther out than we expected and we had to break for lunch and eat whatever “tin food” (a.k.a. canned food) was in our vehicles. We had an interesting spontaneous smorgasbord of butter beans, sweet corn, spaghetti in a can and this nasty meat stuff that resembles SPAM and actually lists “beef hearts” as one of the ingredients on the side of the can. I did not partake in that, but Paul loved it. Ick!

We camped for two nights and headed back to Maun on the third day. We were toasty warm at night this time as I brought the heaviest duvet we own and that seemed to do the trick. While the animal populations were quite thin, because of the abundance of water, we did see some beautiful kudu and on the way back another black mamba in the road. I say “another” because we saw one about a year and a half ago in the Transfrontier Park (between Botswana and South Africa) and I was really hoping that I would be able to say (to myself, students, anyone who worries about me over here), “I’ve only seen one black mamba in ten years.” But after this second sighting, I’ve now seen two in two years.

Noted as the deadliest snake in Africa, the mamba is an elegant snake who looks much like a mole snake or black rat snake (both completely harmless). This particular one was about 9 feet long and about half way across the road when it spotted us, lifted up the first half of his body, effortlessly reversed its direction so that one half was elevated about ten inches above the other half while it quickly retreated to the brush on the side of the road. It is hard to explain in words how this snake seems “different” from others. While others are slow and slithery, this one is powerful, lightening fast and elegant. He is noted for his ability to go from flat on the ground to straight up so that the two of you are looking eye to eye in seconds. We thought we might get to see that but no such luck. Still it was impressive and terrifying all at the same time.

PS: Also saw a honey badger running across the road in the park. These are pretty rare to see too and super vicious!

range rehabilitation, star gazing in Moremi and a parrot in my hair

First, thanks to all of you that sent along birthday wishes. I had a nice birthday on the 18th. Paul spoiled me all day beginning with an attempt at coffee in bed (until the parrot in the living room started squawking because she wanted Paul to come out there…she’s quite social…and demanding). At the office I was given a package of assorted “biscuits” (a.k.a. cookies) to eat with my mid-morning tea. At lunch, I announced that I really would like a piece of cake for my birthday to which Paul promptly left the office to retrieve a chocolate mousse cake from his neighbor’s fridge (he had purchased it the day before and was hiding it in there for dinner that night). He said I made a “pre-emptive cake strike” by requesting it for lunch (instead of the plan for dinner). Also received some nice gifts throughout the day including a nice beaded giraffe for the house in Greenville (that we don’t live in yet but are buying things for on a regular basis) and a fuzzy pink bathrobe (very “bush worthy” for my walks to the outdoor shower – although I’m not sure I’ll be using that too much until I recover from the story our friend Mike told me of his sighting of a boom slang in there the other day – that snake has 3 red dots on the snake chart in the living room meaning “super venomous”).

Last weekend we went down to Ghanzi, a big cattle farming area, about a 2-3 hour drive from Maun to visit a friend of Paul’s Kevin and his wife Merle. Paul had worked with Kevin several years ago when he started the range rehabilitation project with funding from Tiso Kalahari. Botswana is a big cattle raising country (hence the cows in the road) and there is a lot of “over grazing” of farm areas, meaning there is no grass left to eat. Paul worked with Kevin on some “controlled burns” in areas to clear out the under-brush that gets so thick there is no room for grass to grow. We spend the weekend bashing around the farm in a giant tank like tractor mapping the farm with the help of Paul’s GPS so that long range comparisons can be made between burn and non-burn areas. We stayed in an elevated reed chalet on a watering hole and heard howling jackal at night and enjoyed the bird life during the day. In addition to cattle, the farm also had plenty of kudu and ostrich roaming around.

This weekend we went up to Moremi Game Reserve to give a star show for a safari. The group was a very nice family of fifteen from grandparents to grandkids from California. We came in on Saturday night just in time to celebrate one of the granddaughter’s 16^th birthdays with a traditional elephant dung cake (a classic of safari companies, there’s always great laughter when they figure out it is filled with poop!). The real cake delivered, champagne poured, and the evening was off to a good start as the sun set over the pan. It was a beautiful sunset.

With pre-dinner sundowners Paul told them a bit about the galaxy, astronomy and bushman folklore regarding the constellations of the southern hemisphere. As he was talking, with the sky only partially illuminated by a quarter moon, we notice movement about 20 feet away as a huge hippo made his way to the pan. With a flash of a torch (a.k.a. flash light) he backed up a bit but eventually worked up the courage to make a mad run to the watering hole sending water flying everywhere like a tank driving full speed into the water. He signaled his triumph with a signature set of grunts as we cautiously looked on.

We continued the evening with a fabulous steak dinner and after the meal Paul entertained them for hours with his telescope viewing Saturn (which at this point is tilted in such a way that it looks like an olive with a tooth pick stuck through it), Jupiter, the moon, and many fascinating stars and nebular clusters. I enjoyed observing the family dynamics of what must have been a very wealthy family. This was just one evening of a two week trip which involved multiple chartered flights from one scenic location to the next. A quick Google search on return to Maun revealed that one of the sons was a TV producer from LA who had directed several episodes of Lost! One of my favorite shows.

One of the advantages of money like that is that you don’t have to endure the actual drive to these unspoiled areas. Since they were jet setting to their next destination there was an extra vehicle that needed to be driven back to Maun so while Paul drove the safari vehicle back, I drove our Mitsubishi through mud, sand and slippery calcrete roads (which felt like driving on corrugated ice, bumpy and slippery at the same time!). There is still a lot of water up in Moremi, unusual for this time of year (which is supposed to be the dry season). On several occasions Paul had to wade into the icy cold mud water to see if it was passable. Better him than me.

Fortunately, no elephant encounters while driving in the bush this time (unlike my first time driving in the bush). We did see some ellies but they were calm. We also saw giraffe, kudu, impala, lechwee, zebra, baboons, vervet monkeys, etc. The coolest sighting of the weekend was a small pack of wild dogs. While I had seen some before in captivity…never in the wild. They were not fussed at all by us and walked right by the car. Two of them were collared for research purposes but the others were not. We were very excited about our good luck in seeing them and I was surprised how much they looked like skinny lanky domestic dogs!

It was a very nice weekend. In a couple of days, we head off to Savute to help cut a new road for the mobile safari companies. It has been very cold at night (close to freezing) so I’ll have to pack everything warm that I own. It was a long cold night in Moremi listening to the hippos, lions and hyenas and freezing my butt off!

PS: Well the parrot finally worked up the courage the other morning to try to land on me again. There I was innocently drinking my morning coffee and the bird launches itself off its cage, flapping erratically, and lands…square on my head. Paul insists it’s because my shoulders are too small to suffice as landing strips. So there I was in my pink fuzzy bathrobe, coffee cup in hand, with a bird in my hair. With nothing to grip on to, his talons are digging into my skull and the more Paul tries to get him off the more he digs in. At some point I start to cry in a complete fizzle as he backs up towards my face. Finally, our friend Mike walks in and the bird calmly walks off my head and onto his arm. It was quite a start to the day. Fortunately, he didn’t poop on my head (especially since we had no water that morning for a shower!).

adjusting to life back in Botswana

It always takes me a bit of time to adjust to life back in Botswana. I’m not sure if it’s watching for snake spores or trying to discern between the different types of black ants to know which are the ones who’s bite hurts like hell (the Matabele ants that bite and make you go numb for hours. They are black and slightly bigger than other ants but otherwise they have no distinguishing features). Today I’m home alone and I’m currently trying to identify the wasp that is circling my head. If it is a mud wasp, he’s fine and is just trying to find a place to build his mud home in a crevice in the house. If it is a red wasp, I need to be worried as his sting hurts like hell, Paul says worse than a scorpion! To me they look the same and so basically I’m leery of both of them. I’ve just managed to let him out the window so…either way I’m covered.

It is the oddness of daily events that throws me off a bit. The other day, for example, we were called over by Happiness, our Zimbabwean neighbor to come see a snake fighting with a chameleon, neither of which is liked by the average African. By the time we got there, the snake had consumed most of the chameleon and only his tail and one of his legs was sticking out of this mouth. Despite the fact that it was simply a harmless mole snake, the Zimbabweans were ready to kill him. Joe informed us that his grandmother had warned him that all snakes were bad. A friend of theirs insisted that, “the Good News Bible even says that all snakes should be killed because there are our enemies.” What kind of church is preaching that? Poor Paul was beside himself trying to educate them about harmful and harmless snakes. I’m not sure how far he got.

As you know we are involuntarily watching our neighbor’s animals who are away for a month. As I mentioned, the parrot met us in the tree outside of our house the day we arrived from the states and the two dogs have basically set up camp on our front stoop. As an animal lover, I like the company although I must admit that the bird worries me a little. The other day, in what must have been a comic scene, he flew from his cage right toward my head. In a panic I covered my head with the news paper I was reading, jumped out of my chair, throwing the red wine in my glass to the wind and ran out of the room. In the chaos the bird flew out the front door off into a tree some distance from the house. Paul, the bird lover that he is, insists that he was simply trying to land on my shoulder. I think he was going for my eyes!

Paul spent the next hour trying to coax him back inside before it got dark and he got eaten by some sort of bird of prey. On his return flight, he thought he’d land for a moment on the roof, which is metal but he slip, slip, slipped until he lost the battle with gravity and landed, phu-whap!, right in the dirt. Poor little thing was winded for quite some time, huffing and puffing for air. We thought he might have cracked a rib or something! He (and I) eventually recovered from the experience but every time I hear wings flapping, I shutter a little. The other day I ducked in to the indentation created in the hall by the side door as he flew from the living room, through the office, down the hall to the kitchen to see what Paul was cooking (he likes snow peas, whole oats and herb crackers).

At times we take the two dogs, Fudge and Taffy, for a walk with us.They love it and run like mad on the dirt roads near our house. Regularly they get thorns stuck in their paws but they continue to run first on only 3 legs, then sometimes on only two. Like athletic amputees competing in the Special Olympics they carry on! Paul will call out, "Taffy has a puncture (which is what they call flat tires here). Front right and back left!" And I'll try to convince him to stop long enough to let me pull the thorns out of his paws.

We had a nice little route for walks around the ostrich farm until the river came up so high there was no path left around the fence. The Thamalakane River is higher than anyone has seen it in years. At night the frogs are so loud, it sounds like we are being invaded!

I’m still struggling with driving. Honestly, I would much rather drive a 25 foot RV through traffic in Atlanta than drive around here. There is too much car to my left and too much road to my right. It just doesn’t feel right. Additionally, taxi drivers are unpredictable…sometimes driving extremely slow, other times only partially pulling off the road to let passengers out, still others making a wide left turn only to cross the road to the right (as if they were driving an 18 wheeler). As if the vehicle traffic isn’t enough to deal with, there are the donkeys, cows, goats and occasional pedestrians to worry about. I’m not sure I’ll ever drive at night as all of those things seem to like to occupy the roads after dark and none of them are easily seen (I have yet to see a pedestrian not wearing black at night).

As I’m continuing to write I hear a crunch, crunch, snap, crunch outside. I can see that a red horn bill has managed to catch a grasshopper about 4 inches long and is trying to eat it. It’s longer than his beak so he’s flipping I up in the air, crunching, flipping again. I don’t know how he’s going to eat that thing. But then again if that snake managed the chameleon, I’m sure he’ll manage too. I think he got it but now he looks like it’s stuck in his throat. Ouch! It’s a tough world out there.

Well, I’d better get back to reading and lecture writing.