We had a nice President’s Day Holiday (Monday and Tuesday) starting with our star show trip to Nxai Pan on Friday night. Arriving just in time to see the most spectacular sunset, Paul set up his telescope for star viewing with a grandmother currently residing in Pretoria, South Africa, and her teenage grandson and two of his friends from the Netherlands. They had just finished a week of working at a community project the grandmother founded (painting a clinic, etc.) and were on a two-week trip traveling through Botswana. They were a pleasant and enthusiastic group of star gazers and we endured the high winds on the pan for several hours viewing the stars.
On Saturday, our one-year anniversary, we spent the day driving around Nxai Pan. With the late rain in June, the animal populations have dispersed so we didn’t see too much. We did watch a determined honey badger for some time and saw a good number of springbok and gemsbok. We also had a nice picnic lunch at an elevated point in the park overlooking the pan. The drive back was riddled with cows in the road as usual. I took a picture so you’d see what we have to contend with.
Unfortunately, Paul’s business obligations prevented us from taking the entire long weekend off as he had to spend the next few days working on tax issues and trying to get forms together for his renewal of his “C” license (mobile operator’s license). Botswana is an odd country which is heavily ladened with bureaucracy but doesn’t seem to have the wear with all to keep up with the requirements they actually put in place. For example, in order to get the license a tax clearance certificate must be obtained and it appears that the tax office has misrecorded information for the last several years (recorded 2008 tax records as 2007, etc). Anyway, it is the "irrationality of rationality" at its best and no one seems to know how to fix it. Of course, these were issues present before Paul purchased the company and no one seems to know how the previous owners were able to get their license renewed since this seems to have been going on for several years.
Anyway, we did properly celebrate the 40th anniversary of the moon landing by inviting a dozen people over for some star gazing on Monday night. Paul set up his telescope and his friend Lee brought his and we had amazing views of Saturn (which is currently tilted in such a way to resemble an olive with a tooth pick through it) and Jupiter with its bans and moons. I made the popcorn with my secrete ingredient, Aromat, that makes it oh so delicious!
The rest of the holiday break I spent reading and hanging out with Taffy, the neighbor’s dog, who has become like a little shadow to me. Every time I get up and move, he follows me. I actually tried walking through the office and down the hall and back to the living room to see if he'd make the loop with me and...he did! I walked around singing “me and my shadow” most of the weekend. He’s very sweet and I’ll be sad to see him go (his owner is suppose to be moving back to Namibia this weekend). Both he and his “sister”, Fudge, seem very happy here.
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