My Top 10 for 2010

I don’t know about you but I always enjoy the end of the year lists (does that make me a geek? Probably). “Top 10 News Worthy Stories.” “2010 Year in Medical Breakthroughs.” “10 Great Political Moments in 2010.” So for my annual Christmas letter this year, I decided I would make my own “Top 10 in 2010” (and why they make me thankful): 

1. Eleven Flat Tires on Our Trip to Mozambique - 2010 was another fun filled year of travel, learning and adventure. In January, we ventured off through Zimbabwe with a stop at the Great Zimbabwean ruins on our way to Mozambique for some fun in the sun on the Eastern coast of Africa. Despite the eleven flat tires in our two week trip, we had a great time enjoying our little A-frame chalet overlooking the turquoise blue ocean in Vilanculos. We especially liked the snorkeling near Bazaruta Island and the parrot fish chomping on the coral reef! I include the eleven flat tires in my top ten list because it is evidence of Paul’s never failing patience.
   
   
2. Crossing of the Limpopo River – Our drive back to Botswana from Mozambique included a crossing of the Limpopo River near the Parfue Border Crossing into South Africa. This harrowing crossing, where water came up over the Land Cruiser hood and we floated for a while only to catch traction before we floated down the river, was exciting and terrifying all at the same time.
   
   
3. My Laptop Theft in Cape Town - In February I met a group of twenty Furman students to direct, for the second time, Furman’s Study Away trip to Southern Africa. Traveling for nine weeks across South Africa, Namibia and Botswana we faced some challenges when my laptop and several thousand dollars of cash were stolen from my guest house room in Cape Town (we won’t be staying there again this year)! The laptop theft reminded me of the tremendous gap between the rich and the poor in this region of the world. While inconvenient for me (and my record keeping of the budget), I was reminded by a friend that anything that can be replaced by a purchase is really not that important.
   
   
4. Improving Lives at Megameno House - Some of the highlights of the Furman trip included: a visit to Kimberly Diamond Mines in South Africa so the historian on the trip could explore migrant labor issues;  several visits to Megameno orphanage in Namibia to see the progress of the kids and gather data about the effects of poverty on child development for the psychology class; and a day trip to Victoria Falls where, despite my best efforts to safeguard the students’ passports, they all got soaked from the mist of the falls (which can be like a torrential downpour)! Besides that the trip was a great success and we saw lots, learned lots and did lots  --  a great way of being in the world. I’m always thankful to see how well the kids are doing at Megameno House and encouraged by the reality that even small donations can make huge differences.
   
   
5. Visit to New England to Introduce Paul to Family and Friends - In April I returned to the States to finish off the semester and Paul joined me for a quick visit up to New England to attend a conference on Global Health at Yale and visit family and friends (many of whom had never met him before). It was great to have friends (Kathy, Karen and Kevin) and family (from my grandmother down to my nieces) finally meet Paul and get to know him a bit. We even got to celebrate my niece Nikki's 21st birthday and my niece Becca's high school graduation (early) and visit the campus of Bay Path College that she began attending in the fall. Shortly thereafter we returned to Botswana for my summer break (which is “winter” in Botswana – the best time to be there – the heat is tolerable, the bugs fewer and the rains absent!). 
   
   
6. Star Shows at Luxury Lodges - We had lots of opportunities to travel and explore with visitors from the States in June. We camped at some of our favorite locations in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), Moremi and Savute. In July, Paul had the opportunity to do some stars shows with his portable telescope for guests at a luxury lodge, Savute Elephant Camp, Mogotlho, Meno A Kwena and Zarafa (back in January).  It’s fun being an amateur astronomer’s wife!. In August, we led an interesting trans-Kalahari safari and saw lions and cheetahs and had the opportunity to interact with bushman who are currently living in the CKGR.
   
   
7. Teaching the Sociological Imagination - In August I returned for the fall semester where I taught two sections of Introduction to Sociology and one of Sociology of Gender. I always enjoy introducing students to the discipline  in SOC 101 and prompting them to examine the many ways that we “do gender” in our day to day lives in the gender class.
   
   
8. Celebrating Paul's Birthday - Paul came to visit for a month around mid-September and we had a nice trip down to the coast to spend the night on our friends’ boat, another night at a friend’s creek house outside of Edisto and a day at the Shrimp Festival in Buford, SC- delicious!  We also took several trips up to the mountains on Paul’s Honda Goldwing motorcycle. Finally, we celebrated Paul's birthday early before his departure with cake and kids at Old Oaks Farms (where I rent a small cottage).They really liked all the animals - goats, horses, chickens, dogs! Fun!
   
   
9. Music with Friends – My time without Paul in the Fall was filled with friends, food, music and just enjoying being back in the States for a bit. The symphony, chamber music, Emmy Lou Harris, Delbert McClinton – you name it, I listened to it. Great fun with friends. My sister also made a trip down to Greenville for a weekend (something she hasn't done in probably a decade!) and we had some good sister time catching up! I also went to Florida for Thanksgiving to see my parents and we had a nice day trip to Busch Gardens.
   
   
10. My Dog Shelby - Finally, I'm thankful for my dog Shelby, now 13 years old. She is almost completely deaf but still as sweet as ever. She enjoys her time at Old Oaks Farms and I know she’s in good hands (under the careful watch of my dog sitter Jeff and land lords Martha and David) even when I’m out of the country.
    
    Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!

alcoholic butterfly, spitting cobra and a laundry frog!

We had a lovely Christmas and hope you did too. We spent two nights at Mogothlo Safari Lodge. On Christmas Eve day we were the only guests in camp and the staff to client ratio was probably about 3:1 so I felt a bit like the queen. The lodge has eight large tents on elevated platforms with beds, showers, flush toilets, etc. It is situated on the Khwai River and has a nice area for self-drive game viewing.

We saw lots of hippos (a couple of them fighting), a large male elephant giving himself a mud bath and Paul enjoyed taking some time to photograph all things great and small(including some baby jacanas). 

   

 

Christmas morning Paul opened his presents. My present came early this year with the help of my landlords who managed to coordinate with Paul to get me a new camera – a Canon Powershot SX210. It is pretty slick and I’m enjoying the 14X zoom capabilities (my previous camera had only 3X) – most of the recent pictures you’ve seen are from me. Paul has already had a couple of workouts with his new TRX exercise system which looks much like he’s suspending himself from straps from the door and is liable to fall flat on his face at any moment (perhaps I should use the video feature on my new camera for that!). 

We spent Christmas dinner with a family up visiting from South Africa. The couple living in Botswana run a local camp ground and they were joined by her mother, sister and brother-in-law and a half dozen kids. We had a lovely dinner of gammon (ham) and a variety of side dishes. After dinner we were even joined by an alcoholic butterfly who shared some champagne with us. 

We returned to Maun on Sunday to be greeted by the largest snake I’ve ever seen in my life. We were putting things away and happen to look out the living room window and to see a six-foot long, two inch in diameter snake coming right toward the house. Upon seeing us, he retreated quickly and Paul got a photo of the tail end of him on his way back into the grass. We’ve identified him as a Mozambique Spitting Cobra. Considered probably the most dangerous snake second to the Mamba, his spit can blind you as he rears up 2/3rds of his body length to hit you in the eyes! Since then I’ve prohibited leaving the front door of the house open (for fear he could make his way into the house). Yikes!

The good news is that Happiness, our Zimbabwean house cleaner, killed a scorpion in the house when she came to clean on Sunday (I’m hoping it’s the same one I saw earlier). On a cuter note, on our daily ride to work we’re greeted by a brand new baby donkey and his mom (super cute) and yesterday, while hanging the laundry, I found a tiny frog in a clothes pin (or clothes “peg”, as they say here). I have no idea how he got up there on the clothes line but I’m sure glad I didn’t squish him while hanging our clothes!

 

For New Year’s Eve we head off to Meno A Kwena (“teeth of the crocodile”) for Paul to do a star show. Hope the skies are clear! I’ll write more when we return.

skulking hyena, jumping snakes and petrol shortage

African Hoopoe

I can barely see the faint shadow of what I know is a large hyena skulking in the darkness as we set up the telescope for an evening of star gazing at Moremi Game Reserve. We’ve seen it walking up the dirt path for camp earlier as we were eating dinner. In our rush to get out to of Maun we have forgotten our large torch (flashlight) and the illumination from my headlamp only gives me about five feet of visibility (too close for comfort for a hyena sighting). As my eyes adjust to the light of the full moon, I’m able to see better only to notice another, larger, hyena coming from the other direction. I feel like we’re surrounded but I know I’m just a little panicky as I re-adjust to my life, or the part of my life, where I have to worry about things that can…eat me!

Leopard Tortoise

As always the journey between my lives is a long and slow process that gives me a bit of time to adjust to the change. Complicated by back pain, the eighteen hour flight seems longer than usual and I am very glad to be on solid ground and able to soak in a luxurious tub that looks like half an egg at our friends’ luxury hotel in Johannesburg (http://www.africanrockhotels.com/). We spend two nights in Joburg, making a mistake of going to Sandton mall a week before Christmas (Western materialism is alive and well in Sandton!) and the rest of the time I basically take back medicine, relax and sleep for two days. 

On Sunday we start the fourteen hour drive back stopping halfway at Kalahari Rest Camp for the night. Continuing on Monday, we arrive in Maun about lunch time. I am a bad traveling companion as I sleep most of the time and certainly can’t be trusted to drive in the condition I’m in. A sighting of ostrich on the side of the road could be mistaken for pain reliever delirium. 

Impala Babies

After a day at home we head off to Moremi to do a star show for friends (actually the ones that own African Rock Hotel in Johannesburg). It is nice to be back in the bush seeing giraffe, impala, kudo, zebra, and water buck (with their tell tale white ring around their butt that looks like a toilet seat ring).  Oh Africa, how I’ve missed you so. Many impala babies have been born and they are so tiny and fragile it is amazing that they make it to adulthood. We also come across a leopard tortoise and I get the opportunity to try out my new camera. 

Water bucks

One of our most interesting sightings is two starlings (iridescent black birds a bit smaller than crows) frantically harassing something we initially can’t see. They are flying and diving and squawking over the grassy ground when we see a thin black snake lift up about three feet off the ground striking at the birds as they dive bomb it. Whatever type of snake it is, it moves fast as we watch the birds “chase” it thirty feet off into the trees in a matter of seconds.

Other adjustments to life in Botswana are required by the scorpion I spotted in our house yesterday. He was kind of flat so I assumed he was squished and perhaps dead, and if he wasn’t, since I don’t know how to properly remove a scorpion from the house (yet) I go to get Paul and when I return…it’s gone. Now I worry about him being somewhere in our house waiting to sting me from some dark corner. Ugh!

The other adjustment problem is a lack of petrol (unleaded gas) in Maun. We drove around to all the petrol stations yesterday before finding one with petrol left to refuel our Subaru but when we went to refuel the Pajero after dinner, the only station that had fuel had a line of about twenty cars deep and we didn’t feel like waiting in it at 11:30 PM at night. So now we are trying to decide if it is worth going back into town to see if any petrol was delivered over night or if we should simply take one of the safari vehicles to the tented camp for our Christmas adventure. Never a dull moment in Botswana! Hope you have a fabulous Christmas! I’ll send our annual Christmas letter when we return.

cheetahs and lions and bushmen - oh my!

The trans-Kalahari trip with the group of Spanish tourists was a great success. In our final dinner with them last night we asked what was the most memorable part of their five days with us. Several stated it was the amazing cheetah sighting at Deception Pan on our final night of the trip. It was my first time seeing more than one cheetah at a time when we observed the interactions of four cheetahs as the sun was setting on the pan. Paul explained that there is a family group of cheetahs that have lived in this area for years. Despite claims by researchers that cheetahs are solitary animals, he has seen as many as seven at one time. We watched them for quite a long time as they elegantly walked across the pan, their long sleek yet powerful bodies in full view, their trademark tear drop marking under their eyes fully visible. They are stunning animals built for speed.  Unfortunately, all the vehicles observing them probably put a damper on any dusk hunting session of the nearby springbok they may have hoped for.

Other guests pointed to the wide open landscapes of the Kalahari Desert. While they had preconceived notions of the “desert” being vast sand dunes, they were surprised to learn that the Central Kalahari is actually bush veldt (open plains of scrub brush and acacia trees). One client remarked how it was breath taking to be able to look in all directions and not see a building or mountain… just ever expanding flatness.

For some, it was the classic views of lions in the open field as the sun was rising on our final morning. We had heard them roaring all night (or at least I heard them, Paul slept through it). I listened as they traveled past our campsite. I could distinctly hear two males making their territorial roars. They seemed to be calling “over” each other meaning you normally hear one call in one location and the next call from a different location. That night they seemed to be very close to each other. One starting his roar only to be followed in an overlapping way by the other male’s roar. Our early morning drive (at 6:30 AM) revealed the cause of this unusual pattern.  

The first morning light revealed two male lions and one female lion in heat. It seems they were both vying for mating rights with her. When we arrived the dominant male was with the female on one side of the road and the other male (the one who lost out) waited and watched from across the dirt track. Every time she got up to move, her male suitor stuck to her like glue. He occasionally tried to “make his move” at which point she would turn around and let about a growl in his face bearing her large white teeth and give him a quick swat with her giant clawed paw. Following this rebuff she would roll over coyly on the ground in a playful way --sending some mixed messages if you ask me. This happened multiple times before we had to leave, never successfully proceeding beyond the foreplay. Perhaps our three vehicles observing them put a damper on the mood.

Finally, the real highlight of the trip for most of our guests was a visit to a bushmen village. The Batswana government has had a somewhat contentious relationship with the bushmen resulting in their relocation into created towns outside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in the mid-1990s. Ultimately a court case against the government reversed the decision in late 2006 allowing some of the bushmen to move back to the Central Kalahari. We stopped at two of these villages where bushmen have returned.

Unfortunately, in order to return, the bushmen were required to live “traditionally” at which point bore holes supplying water were removed by the government leaving them with almost no access to water in the dry season (in the rainy season they can gather rain waters and store it in barrels). Despite these difficult living conditions, many have returned to what they consider “their” lands. This, for them, seems like a better option than living in the government created towns where there are high rates of alcohol abuse, fighting and they often face discrimination from others.

Paul and Roy Sesana

Having visited the village in June to see if a stop with the Spanish tourists would work, word had spread that Paul had been there and his old friend and colleague in the struggle for bushmen rights, Roy Sesana, was waiting for his return. It had been over ten years since Paul and Roy had seen each other and they had a nice reunion before Paul gave him some money for fuel in exchange for a tour of their village with his wife and Roy headed off on the five hour drive, one way, to get fuel and supplies.

For the rest of the afternoon we were escorted on a walk through the bush, learning about native plants and their uses, finally arriving at our host’s homestead to see their outdoor kitchen, sleeping huts, and storage hut. It was quite a privilege to see an authentic bushmen village. This was not a “canned” touristy activity set up for outsiders, but rather, a brief glimpse into the world of a culture that has existed for over (an estimated) 40,000 years. One of their dogs, who seemed to have a face of a jackal to me, spent the evening at camp hoping for leftovers. I think he was sad to see us go!  

 

We head off to Gabarone on Sunday and then Johannesburg on Monday and my flight to the States departs on Tuesday arriving Wednesday morning. Couldn’t help but think how odd my life on two continents is…on one Thursday morning I’m out looking for lions and only a week later I’ll be headed to a department meeting and faculty retreat!

excuse me, there's a spotted hyena in your toilets

Yesterday we decided to take a quick trip up to Moremi Game Reserve (about a two hour drive from Maun). My time in Botswana is quickly coming to an end and we thought one more quick trip up the National Park was in order. We also needed to scout out a location for an upcoming star show on Thursday night.

We stop at South Gate to check into the park and I run into the toilets for a quick pee. Toilet paper in hand (there is never toilet paper in public restrooms in Botswana), I round the corner and see the door wide open. I think, “Ugh! Why do people always leave the doors open? Don’t they know that creatures can walk in?” Having just passed two women, who say nothing to me, I figure the coast is clear and notice a recently swept out dead bat and owl bullous (the hairball like balls of animal hair, bones, mouse skulls, etc. that owls cough up). Someone must have swept the place out this morning.

I chuckle to myself when I round the corner looking to my right and see that one of the three sinks is out of order and another one is dripping non-stop. These “new” arrival gates to the parks and toilets have only been open for the last couple of years and they are already in disrepair. Typical.

As I walk past the first of two toilet stalls on my left I see something on the ground between the toilet and the wall. It looks like a large fur blanket. People sometimes leave things in public restrooms for use later so I don’t think much of it as I enter the second stall (e.g. the night watchman at Paul’s office block often leaves a pair of shoes, hat, a large bag, a blanket under the pedestal sink, tucked between the pedestal and the wall at the toilets at work).

I give the door a good shove and it makes a horrible scrapping noise as it resists closing. It is misaligned and hits the tile floor. I leave it about a third open so I have some natural light coming in to the otherwise pitch black cement cell I’m in. There are no overhead lights so the entire restroom is like a little cave. As I’m squatting my mind goes back to the “blanket” in the next stall and I start this internal conversation with myself.

Me – “Who would leave a blanket here in a public rest room? Maybe it was a dog?”

Myself – “There aren’t any dogs near the national parks, there are too many dangerous wild animals that would eat them. Plus…it had spots. Dogs don’t have spots.”

Me – “Well what kinds of animals have spots?”

Me and Myself – “Crap, I think I’m in a toilet stall next to a spotted hyena!”

Myself – “Now what do I do? When I open the door again it’s going to make that horrible scrapping noise and wake him up!”

Me – “Well you can’t just stay in this stall!!”

So I quickly zip up my pants and yank open the door. I ever so slowly peer around my stall door into his stall at which point he picks up his giant head, which has previously been wrapped around the back of the toilet and looks at me with one of his pitch black soulless eyes of evil and I scramble past him and out the door as fast as I can hoping he doesn’t chase me.

I quickly walk over to the office where Paul is checking in and say, “Excuse me, do you know that you have a spotted hyena in your toilets?” To which the woman replies “eeeh” in a high pitched sqwack – a typical Motswana response. Paul looks at me, at first thinking I might be kidding and then he sees how red my face is (I had no idea my face turned colors so often but apparently it does, particularly when I’m excited, agitated, embarrassed or hot). One of the other park rangers goes in and confirms (as if I don’t know what a spotted hyena looks like when he looks me in the eye!) that there is, in fact, a spotted hyena in the toilets just as several safari vehicles are pulling up with clients. They get wind of what’s going on and a Japanese tourist (no, I’m not kidding) grabs his camera to go in and take a picture. This is an extremely bad idea, as there is only one way in and out, and if the hyena gets agitated and charges, this tourist is sushi!

We don’t hang around to figure out what they are going to do about it. The women from the desk gently taps on the window, but that isn’t going to work! It doesn’t dawn on me until later what danger I was probably in. Not many people can say they’ve peed in a toilet stall next to a hyena! (not many people want to say that, I suppose!) The entire encounter probably took less than two minutes and fortunately I moved faster than him in finishing my business.

The rest of the trip was (relatively) uneventful. It was a nice warm day in the park. We had a quiet picnic lunch near the ever expanding Khwai River. We saw elephants, kudu, impala, wildebeest, zebra, vervet monkeys, etc. Just a couple of weeks left to my adventure here (this time). We’ve got a star show on Thursday night (assuming the skies are clear, it has been quite cloudy lately) and on Saturday we leave for a five night trans-Kalahari safari. From there it’s just a few days to pack and head down to Johannesburg for my international flight on August 17.

decadence and disease

Last week we had a nice trip up to Moremi, Savute and Chobe Game Reserves that is until the wicked intestinal malaise hit. Unfortunately, there’s something going around Maun. Paul got it first, then he shared it with me (what a nice anniversary gift!). All I ate in three days was a piece of bread and some chicken broth. So I won’t focus on the last few days of the trip but to say that I have a heck of a story for my friend Kirby (who collects stories like this). Not pretty. Enough said.

The first part of the trip, however, was quite fun and Paul and I enjoyed a couple of nights of decadence including free accommodation and dinner in exchange for a his star shows. We rather enjoy the barter system. Thursday night we stayed at Mogothlo tented camp (http://www.mankwe.com/mogothlo.htm). This modest tented camp situated on the way to Savute has comfortable tents, newly renovated bathrooms and nice big decks for sundowners. We had several visitors during the night – all creatures great and small! The “great” creatures were the elephants that munched on camel thorn seed pods right near our tent all night long (mogothlo means camel thorn, hence the name of the camp). One of the things I enjoy most about Botswana is the experience of not quite knowing what I’m hearing. I woke to sounds that reminded me of someone vigorously shaking a newspaper over and over again. What it turned out to be was elephants right by our tent going through the brush. They had quite a feast and made quite a racket. We also heard hippo, hyena, and a lion pride fairly close to where we slept. Exciting stuff!

The “small” creature I didn’t learn about until the next day when I unpacked my bag and noticed that the jacket cover on the book I had been reading for my Sociology of Gender class had been chewed to smithereens. Fortunately, he wasn’t still in the bag. Do you think I can tell my students that a mouse ate my homework?

View from our tent at the Savute Elephant Camp

Friday during the day we drove around scouting out new campsite for the mobile safari sector (the government allots certain sites for the industry and we were trying to find new ones). That night we stayed at Savute Elephant Camp where Paul did another star show (http://www.savuteelephantcamp.com/web/osec/savute_elephant_camp.jsp). This was the real decadence where room prices run $1065/person/night this time of year! Yikes! I’d say that was a well compensated star show!

This amazingly beautiful lodge is situated on the Savute channel (as I mentioned before, the channel has water in it for the first time since the early 1980s). This place is really top notch – food was excellent, service was first rate (we were greeted by several staff on our arrival and escorted to our tent), accommodations stunning! Our “tent” overlooked the channel (and I put that word in quotes because it had heat/AC, an amazing outdoor shower with a view… in fact, our “tent” was much nicer than the “house” we live in!). The bar/lounge/eating area is right next to the in-the-ground swimming pool.

Dining/Lounge area at Savute Elephant Camp

Double outdoor shower, Savute Elephant Camp

Fortunately, we both were feeling pretty good that night and very much enjoyed the three course meal – tomato herb soup, bream with steamed vegetables and mash potatoes, and a dessert of baked apple in a puffed pastry shell with caramel sauce – yum! Paul gave a stunning star show with breath taking views of the crescent moon, the rings of Saturn and a whole array of other celestial objects from the birth place of stars to the grave yard of stars. The guests seemed to really enjoy it (except for the group from the States who had recently arrived in country on their “private jet” and were too tired to stay up for the show! Talk about decadence!).

Saturday night we stayed just around the corner (on the wrong side of the tracks??) in the “public” campsite (now actually privately owned). It was funny to think about the electric fenced fortress surrounding Savute Elephant Camp in contrast to the open public campsite. Are their lives really more valuable than ours? Maybe wildlife prefer the taste of money?

Saturday we made our way up to the Chobe National Park through the forest reserve (rescuing a group of people stuck in the deep sand along the way who announced they were “sitting fast” in broken English indicating they were stuck). As always, we were not disappointed with the abundance of animals on the Chobe riverfront (I think this is one of the best places for game viewing in Botswana if not THE best). We saw kudu, zebras, giraffe, and a few large herds of elephants.

From there our health went downhill. Paul acquired a nasty head cold in addition to the gastrointestinal malaise. We stayed at a small lodge outside of Kasane (really needed indoor plumbing!) and Paul marketed his many business ventures (maps, print house – for copying, binding, laminating, and the safari company). I tried to remain awake and vertical and completed a nice tour of the toilets of Kasane. Maybe I should write a review of those…

Fortunately, we’re (mostly) back to feeling better. I’m back eating solid food (Paul never stopped) but he still has a head cold I’ve somehow managed not to get. The other day I received the official notification of the schedule for a start of the school year. A little less than a month from now I’ll be sitting in a two-day faculty retreat. Such is my life on two continents!

rising floods, energetic 80 year old, a parrot eating soup

Things are just plotting along here as usual in Maun. Our typical day includes a dust filled, donkey dodging ride into work where Paul makes maps, coordinates safari itineraries, and does a variety of things during his crazy day. It is a bit chaotic as he jumps from one thing to the next. I try to keep my nose in a book and focus on my own work but I also keep a running list of all the things he’s committed to in an attempt to keep track of what’s on his ever growing “to do” list. It’s a bit like herding cats.

As for me, I’m reading and preparing for my fall classes and also trying to cultivate research relationships with some well known sociologists currently working in Malawi (on HIV/AIDS, gender, marriage issues) hoping to branch out to Botswana (I’m trying to convince them that I’m the Sociologist they need to assist ;o)

When we’re not in the office, we fill our time with a variety of activities. In addition to our morning weight lifting we’ve been trying to add some aerobic activity by walking before the sun goes down after work. The deep sand walking does a number on my ankle (it’s been years since my ankle surgery but the twisting and turning in the sand still gets to it).

The rising flood water are another diversion. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the combination of a wet rainy season and high flood waters have caused water to be rising in places it hasn’t been in years. The prediction is that the ostrich farm we live on will be an island when all the water actually comes down (from Angola). Yesterday we had a new pond to contend with on the ride home.  Completely dry the day before, now a fairly good size pond in the middle of our path, interesting. We can still drive around it but the same can’t be said for some other locations. On the main road to Ghanzi, the Toteng bridge is now under water (see photo of the swirling waters). Drivers currently have the option of taking the “old bridge” which is still above water (if they are traveling in a light enough vehicle) or completely rerouting their trip in the opposite direction.

The biggest news in Maun regarding flood waters was the recent activities at Island Safari Lodge. A couple weeks back we dashed out of the office to see the big event as a “bund” (barrier of sand) was pulled down to release some of the flood waters under a newly constructed bridge thus making “Island Safari” back into an island. It was an interesting series of events.

Day 1 – we heard about the “new bridge” and went over to have a look. At the time there was simply a trickle of water coming through a small break in the bund. The owners explained that they would not purposefully break the bund for fear of being sued by people downstream (who would likely get flooded).

Day 2 – we get an urgent call to come see as the bund is pulled down with a big earth mover (guess he changed his mind from the day before). We dash out of work and gather with a large group of onlookers to watch the big event (this is exciting stuff for Maun)!

Day 3 – we stop back on the way to work because we’ve gotten word that the new bridge has actually collapsed under the pressure of the water and they are rebuilding the bund to deter the water (“collapse” was a slight exaggeration – the culverts under the dirt bridge have filled with sand so they were not really doing much good at getting the water from one side to another). We also stop at a bed and breakfast downstream to find the empty sand pits we visited on day 1 have now turned into lake front property!  Fun stuff, I’m telling you – mud, water, collapsing bridges…it’s all the talk of the town.

We also had the opportunity to celebrate Georgette’s 80th birthday (Paul’s business partner Eddy’s mother  from Belgium). It was quite a fun event. Eddy’s wife Mano cooked up a feast. Mazoe especially enjoyed the soup (you may remember Mazoe was the parrot that Paul and I bird sat for a while but Eddy and Mano have now taken in permanently – you’ll see from the photos, I think she’s found a good home). Georgette enjoyed her two birthday cakes – how else do you fit on 80 candles? And the best part of the night was Georgette’s tribal dance in full out Bushman gear. You can't really see too well from the picture but she is dressed in skins with a bow and arrow and feathers and quills in her hair dancing and singing "Pula, pula!" Which means rain (and money) signifying good luck. I only hope I have that much spunk and energy when I’m 80!

We also had a chance to visit the crocodile farm the other day. I was checking it out to see if it would be worth visiting when my students are in town. The crocodiles are arranged in pens according to their age. The one year olds. The two year olds. Up to the five year olds which are horribly crowded in the final pen which serves as their final destination before they are killed, skinned and made into belts and shoes. I’m not sure I need to go there again although it was impressive to see the size of the big ones (they are HUGE, up over 12 feet long!) and to hear the other ones actively making their way around the pens (crawling over each other). It sounds as if someone is dragging a leather purse across cement…over and over again…

We’ve also been cooking quite a bit. I know, I know who knew it would take me moving to Botswana to start cooking?! Banana pancakes, broccoli salad with homemade dressing, Portuguese chicken, blue cheese polenta cakes, and this fabulous dessert with crushed ginger cookies, caramel pudding, and apple sauce. It didn’t look great but it was delicious! Our friend Mike seemed to enjoy the "pudding" (that is dessert).

Off to the bush for a few days on Thursday! Hoping to celebrate our second anniversary (on Sunday) somewhere fun!