Maun Madness

Spotted Bush Snake

“Kristy, we have a problem in here,” Paul shouts from the living room on Saturday morning as I’m in the bedroom changing the sheets. I hear furniture scraping and turned up on end as I rush to see what’s happening. Of course, if he had said, “SNAKE!!!” I would have locked myself in the bedroom and cowered (safely) behind the closed door. I should have known it wasn’t good when he called me by my proper name. He rarely does that.

Typically we keep the doors and windows closed, especially since we were inundated by mosquitoes about nine months ago (for Valentine’s Day I got a custom made mosquito net for the bed, how romantic…), but a brief burst of air blew it open as Paul was rewiring our battery UPS – Uninterruptible Power Supply source (that keeps things running temporarily when the power goes out), and in that 30 seconds in slithers the speediest meter long spotted bush snake (of course, we didn’t know that he was harmless until we identified him up in the tree after the fact). Grabbing two brooms I arm both of us and build up all my courage to go towards the door to open it again (Paul is trapped behind turned over furniture). When I do this, the uninvited guest makes a beeline directly for it and out he goes and up a tree in a split second. Once he’s there we try to identify him, snake books in hand, until his camouflage wins and we lose sight of him. Makes you wonder who else is up in the trees that we don’t notice. Yikes! Time to change the latch on that door…

We suspect he came in to eat our resident lizard but he fled  to the safety of the office and hid among the power cords. 

Our Resident Lizard

In honor of “March Madness” (a phrase used in the States to refer to basketball finals) I’ve decided to title this entry “Maun Madness” and tell you a little bit about our day-to-day lives in Maun and some of the madness which that sometimes entails.

Much of our time, since I wrote last, has been spent in Paul’s office where he is busy making maps and working to help with the anti-poaching efforts by training some of the Botswana Defense Force (BDF) to use GIS (geographic information system) to better chart the patterns of poachers. I’ve been busy using the first part of my sabbatical to prepare a new course called the “Social Determinants of Health” that I’ll teach in the fall. I’ve been reading lots and making a syllabus and day-to-day class schedule. So far I’ve read several books, two of which I will definitely use. One is called The Body Economic: Why Austerity Kills and the other is The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger.  Both help to illustrate how things outside of the individual (societal level economic policies and the amount of inequality in a society) help to shape health outcomes. Hoping the students will find them as interesting as I have.

We haven’t had much of an opportunity to get out in the bush, partially because Paul has been so busy and working on weekends to catch up and partially because it has been raining lots and that makes roads soggy and difficult to navigate. The sand track that leads from the tarmac (paved) road to the ostrich farm where we live has been so full of water that we have been unable to use our Subaru Forrester (she would sink) but instead have to take one of the Land Cruiser safari vehicles in to work on a daily basis. One day last week it was raining so hard when we got to the gate to the ostrich farm that I have to open (if I don’t drive, I have to open the gate), I literally stripped down to my underpants, took off my shoes and trudged through a shin deep muddle puddle to open the gate. No point destroying my “school” pants and shoes. It is moments like these that I often think, screaming silently in my head, “But I have a PhD!!”

We did manage to make it out to Black Pools in Moremi Game Reserve one Sunday for a picnic lunch. We are about a two hour drive from there so we headed out mid-morning and by lunch time were eating our lunch in the company of hippos (immersed in green weeds), lechwee (water antelopes), and whistling ducks. It was a good day for giraffe sighting as well and  we kept encountering one family after another on the road. Carmine Bee Eaters were still present to escort our vehicle through the high grass, eating all the bugs we stir up.

Hippos at Black Pools Covered in Weeds

Giraffe Family in the Road

Curious Zebras

Carmine Bee Eater with Swallows in a Bush

Despite our lack of time in the bush, our days are filled with wacky and wonderful animals. Each morning, for example, around 6:30 AM we hear banging on our windows made by one of the two red hornbills who have taken up residency in our yard. We call them “Koko” and “Tsena” which is the Batswana equivalent to “Knock Knock” and “Who’s there?” They like to get our attention in order to encourage Paul to bring their birdseed breakfast that he puts out every morning. Their large red bills prevent them from landing on the window sill silently so instead they BANG their way onto the sill (as if someone threw an apple at the window) and then peer in with one eye. If not on the sills they can be found perched on the top of the outdoor shower looking through the kitchen window, hopping on the roof rack of the Land Cruiser or eating windshield wiper blades (which must taste good, since they are often in need of replacement).

Koko and Tsena on the Outdoor Shower

"Cable Chewers" or Tree Squirrels having Birdseed Breakfast

Each afternoon, we try to eat our lunch we bring from home outside at the new picnic table that Paul had built for the office block. We get out of the office for a little while and sometimes have interesting people to watch or birds to listen to. The other day, for example, we were entertained by a forked-tail Drongo, a rather ordinary looking black bird with a unique talent for mimicking sounds that others make. We saw one in Khumaga near the Boteti River a while back confusing the heck out of a Pale Chanting Goshawk by mimicking its call only to dive bomb it when it came to see which of its mates was calling it. The other day at lunch we hear, “Meow, meow,” and thinking one of the local feral cats has managed to get on the roof, we’re surprised when to see this Drongo meowing like a hungery cat. More Maun madness…

Upon returning home from work each day we feed our neighbors, the ostriches, and then we are enthusiastically greeted by Spike, our landlord’s Jack Russell Terrier. He stays with us pretty much every night. We feed him dinner. I give him his nightly brushing. We play with toys and bones we’ve purchased for him. Sometimes I trim his nails. On weekends he gets his flea dip, if needed. So…if you’ve followed this, in Greenville I have a “cat that is not my cat” and in Maun a “dog that is not my dog.” I’m the only person I know who buys pets supplies regularly, that doesn’t own a pet. Except for the toe chewing and ankle biting in the morning (did I mention I’m not a morning person?), he’s really fun to have around. When he gets too “full of beans” as Paul puts it, I send him out the door to where ever he goes for the day shift.

Our weekly entertainment includes getting the local paper, The Ngami Times, each Friday. The editing errors keep my paper grading skills limber and there are always a few bizarre stories to keep things in perspective. One of my favorites recently was about a new “soap” that supposedly “prevents” HIV/AIDS named after a previous president (that caused a stir). On a more serious note, there’s been a big stir over a local farmer’s wife from Ghanzi that was raped and murdered. The tragedy is that the two guys suspected of doing it were let out on bail (this is AFTER one of them had already escaped while he was in custody and then was found by local farmers, not the police, who proceeded to beat the heck out of him before returning him to the police). They were then re-arrested for “stock theft” (stealing cattle) – and no bail was offered for that! Most recently the Magistrate that gave them bail for the rape and murder but not for the cattle theft was shocked when the case was moved to another district. He is now refusing to hear any further cases until he gets an explanation as to why it was moved. You’re kidding me right?

On a lighter note, my friend Mike shared an article from the Botswana Guardian about how “Botswana won’t allow grass-eating at church service.” The subtitle of the newspaper is “Fearless and Responsible”. The article comes with a photo of people lying on the ground in their Sunday best eating grass with the caption “No herbivorous worship within Botswana borders…Botswana Government is not going to allow its citizens to be coerced into herbivorous behavior all in the name of faith.” You really can’t make this stuff up…

Just a little Maun Madness to let you know what’s been happening so far this March. 

Sleepy Spike

Sleeping Spike