out and about around town

It certainly has been a busy winter with fairly regular safaris and lots of time out in the bush. And while I’ve managed to find some time to prepare for my fall classes, it never seems like enough. When you add to this the ever rising flood waters and the extended power outages, it has been a wild winter here in Maun. As my study away students say “TIA” – This is Africa! We’ve just got to “make a plan” in order to deal with what we have in front of us.

Our road home, now a lake.

First, the flood waters. You may recall that last year there was a lot of buzz in town about the rising flood waters when rivers, that had not had water in them for decades, filled. But this year, fascination has turned into frustration as the water has continued to spread and cover roads and wreak havoc on our everyday travels. At first we were simply re-routed from one sand track to another as the water spread but when we returned from our most recent overnight trip to Savuti, the road we had come out on the day before was now a lake when we returned! Yikes – how to get home? At this point I can honestly say I’m not sure I could find my way from the tarmac road to our house. Troubling. 

We have had at least three meetings of other residents living out in the Boro area (a group now calling themselves “BEG – Boro Emergency Group”). At each meeting, around 20-30 people have shown up to debate the best course of action. In the middle of all this is a school run by a church called “Love Botswana” – which was, unfortunately built in a flood plain during a dry period. In their attempts to save their school they first dug a trench around their compound (and I do mean “compound” it is fenced and then ringed with razor wire – as I jokingly say, “if you can trust in God, trust in razor wire”???). The trench caused the waters that were over our main road to be diverted around the school to now block our secondary road (thanks for that!). They have now built a road over that trench which they are threatening to charge each vehicle 1,000 Pula (~$150 USD) to get a sticker in order to use the bridge should they put a gate and guard on each end. Nice!

And if the flood water challenge is not enough, last week we had a multi-day power outage (unrelated to the water) which really put a crimp in our productivity. It seems some sort of transformer blew and it took several days to repair it so we were literally, in the dark. All of northern Botswana was without power for several days. I did get a lot of reading done and fortunately, we are pretty well “kitted out” for camping so we had enough camp lights, etc. to allow us to function at night.

Yard Birds

The slow starvation of the ostriches on the farm continues and we are resisting the best we can by buying large bags of poultry feed (over 100 pound bags) to try to save them. Our landlords, who live in Gabarone, for some reason have these ostriches (not for food or breeding) but they fail to provide the Zimbabwean workers on the farm with enough food to sustain them. There were approximately 30 at the start of the year and now we are down to 10 (although I only saw 8 this morning). The Zimbabweans in an attempt to save them have let them out from behind the fenced area (which they have grazed to nothingness) to our side. This means we regularly have “yard birds” out in front of the house. We have one favorite one we call Olivia, which seems to have a bit of a crush on Paul, and she was even supervising his work out the other morning.

Paul's workout coach, Olivia.

Me on top of the vehicle, getting a better view.

Last weekend was a holiday weekend (President’s Day) so we took the opportunity to go up to Savuti for one night of camping to celebrate our anniversary. At the campsite there was a bit of drama when a large bull male elephant attacked a vehicle looking for some food. It seems the owners had left the back window cracked a bit and the elephant could smell some peppers and onions and pulled out the window to try to get them. They were pretty shook up but no one was hurt and the camp managers successfully chased him off (although I admit that I slept with one ear open that night listening for his return!).

Savuti is a beautiful area that has also been affected by the rising flood waters. It is very popular with tourists and the volume of people was a bit striking in contrast to our more recent safaris in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (which is more remote and less populated). For example, we had a nice look (and disgusting smell) of a leopard on a kudu kill along with about a half dozen other tourist vehicles. We arrived after the kill but had the opportunity to watch him with the spoils of his hunt. It was quite shocking to imagine how he might have killed such a large male kudu (which is probably four times his size!).

Large Male Kudu (not the actual victim)

 In addition to dramatic events like kudu kills, rising flood waters and power outages, we experience the more mundane things of living in Maun, like trying to find things at the local hardware store and coming across some unidentifiable items. What the heck is this anyway?

What is this?

 We also enjoyed a rare treat of smores when we camped as my sweet friend Kathy sent along Hershey chocolate bars, graham crackers and marshmallows among the many other treats in my birthday care package. Thanks Kathy!

Care Package for My Birthday from Kathy

 Well, I’d write more but we are heading off to pack the vehicles this morning for two back-to-back safaris. One a group of Americans who read my article in Furman Magazine and the second a group of Spaniards for a trans-Kalahari safari. By the time we return on August 10, it will almost be time for me to head back to the States (on the 15^th).

Will write more when I return.

Kristy

PS: You'll be happy to know that the street lights that have been installed since I returned in May, still do not work. Tragically a couple of them have already been hit and are lying on the ground like tipped over giraffes. Their lives were cut short before they even had light. Sad. Perhaps they'll be working when I return at Christmas!