coming to an end

Sadly, this entry finds my time for this trip to Botswana rapidly drawing to an end. We made one final venture out to Nxai Pan for another star show Thursday night. Spring has sprung so we didn’t freeze our butts off and, with the moon rising so late, we had a perfect dark sky filled with an uncountable number of stars. We saw the beautiful blue and yellow of Albrio, the binary star and Saturn has titled at such an angle that there are no rings. Quite unique!

You’ll be happy to hear the Mazoe, the parrot, has returned to Paul (he’s decided to keep her) and she and I are coming to terms with each other. Here is a picture of her on my shoulder (I'm admittedly looking kind of tentative). I’m wearing Paul’s shirt so, if she poops, it is not on me! Dave and Vikky, Paul’s partners in the safari business visiting from England, insist that she speaks…saying “hello” and attempting to get to “good morning.” We hear nothing but what I call “cricket bird noises.” Perhaps she doesn’t like our accents. I’ve been trying to sound more like Mary Poppins the past couple of days, but it’s still not working. At least she’ll be around to keep Paul company when I’m not here. Fortunately, Paul’s other safari business partners, Eddy and Mano, have agreed to watch her when he’s not in town.

In other good news, the ostriches that have survived the lack of routine feeding (ten total out of the original twenty) are now being fed again and are starting to thrive. We even had one lay an egg near our fence…perhaps a token of appreciation after all the corn we have fed them (I'm giving it a little shake. Is anybody in there?).

Today we are packing, tying up loose ends, and getting ready for our departure tomorrow morning. We’ll drive to Gaborone, spend Sunday night, and then Paul will put me on the plane Monday morning to Johannesburg and he will head off to Khutse Game Reserve for a second trans-Kalahari safari with more Spaniards. While most of the trip is long and uneventful (the company that has hired him set the route and booked the campsites and it involves some really long days driving in the endless nothingness of the Southern Kalahari), the day or so in the Northern Kalahari makes it well worth it. I sure wish I was doing that instead of heading back to the States where they’ll be Board meetings, faculty meetings, department meetings, etc. Not quite as exciting as lions in camp!

I should be back in the States by Tuesday morning.

PS: In the middle of all of this Paul has been changing his office location in his office block. The new arrangement will give him three offices, one for the safari company, one for Ngami Data Services (his map making company) and one for a production room (laminator, large plotter/printer, copier, etc.- all to assist in the map making). I have a new view out the office window. Yesterday there was a goat attempting to sneak under the fence!