Friday 3/14/08
I took my exam today, and it didn't go too poorly (knock on wood!). There was a bit of a hectic scramble after that to get all packed up and respond to last-minute emails before we boarded our little twenty-two passenger bus (to accommodate exactly 22 passengers) and set off for the border! The trip would have been comfortable had we been 6-9 year-old schoolchildren, but as it was, many of us had neither the leg nor the hip room to sit comfortably. After three or four hours, though, you don't really notice it anymore, and it becomes an adventure!
We reached the border in less than an hour, and proceeded first through the Botswana immigration, where we had to fill out forms and got our passports stamped. Then, we drove to the South African immigration office where we again showed our passports and received a much larger and more official looking stamp. South Africa also required that we send our bags through an x-ray machine, although they never searched our vehicle so it would have been quite easy to smuggle any number of contraband items through (although I can't imagine what those might be other than fresh produce and meat?). We then had to walk across the border while the van drove through and met us on the other side, and it was at that point that we decided that we were in no-man's land because we had passed through a gate to "leave" Botswana, and were about to pass through another gate to "enter" South Africa. Crazy! Whitney and I even played "Patty-cake" on the "border" so that we could say that we played patty-cake in two African countries at the same time!
The drive into South Africa was very scenic, and I was surprised at how quickly the scenery changed. Initially, there is a game preserve to the West of the highway, so we searched hopefully for animals, and did have to slow down to prevent hitting a family of baboons that rambled across the road! Those things are so ugly and cute at the same time! We did see a lot of donkeys and cattle, though fewer actually tried to stand in our way as we passed. The first town we came to came as quite a shock. Whereas in Botswana, where every town other than Gaborone looks very quaint and rural, this town could have been somewhere in America (in a particularly run-down area) minus the presence of South African food chains like Wimpys, Pick n' Pay, and Woolworth's. It was not "Africa" as I have come to know it (though my experience is quite limited seeing as how I've only spent three months in one country!).
Whitney, Alyssa and I ate at a place called Steers, which as it's name might suggest specializes in beef burgers, although I ate a chicken burger instead. The one familiar thing that I did see was the unnecessarily large number of employees behind the counter doing very little (because there was very little to do). The funny thing is, many chains like this have the capital to hire many employees, and with a high demand for jobs, this is a necessary evil, yet it still takes twice as long for the food to be prepared and delivered to your table/packaged to go. It's a system that I have a hard time understanding based on the high productivity levels of fast-food employees at home, but I suppose it has a lot to do with the fact that too many cooks in the kitchen can be detrimental rather than beneficial to matters of efficiency.
As we were reconvening back at the van, the other two CC girls, JJ and Sarah came back with a flier promising a safe and affordable abortion at the number written below. Apparently after the legalization of abortion, the industry has taken off because I then noticed a surprising number of signs proclaiming to have the best and safest abortions in town. Yikes!
We drove on for a much longer period this time, stopping only once to pass through a toll booth (and pay 122 Rand which is close to $15!!), and I found myself loving the scenery. It was very hilly and there was a wide array of different greens in the vegetation, probably owing to the sustained dry periods interspersed with wet periods throughout the year. It actually reminded me of parts of Colorado and the Midwest (US) from far away, although there was something distinctly foreign when you looked closely at the landscape.
Our next stop was at around five pm (we left at 10:30am), at the Pick n' Pay (grocery store) in a town called Magaliesburg. The traffic was surprisingly heavy for what seemed like a small town, and the store itself was overwhelmingly colorful. It seemed to carry nothing but house cleaning supplies and a huge array of junk food. I'm talking six or seven entire rows dedicated to the sale of chips, candy, chocolate, you name it!
Back in the car, we stopped for the first of many times, at a gas station to ask for directions to the hostel we would be staying at. Again, I noticed the over-employment trend in that there were two or three attendants at every pump waiting to fill your tank, wash your windows, whatever you wanted done while you walk into the store to pay and do any shopping you so desire.
Leaving town, I noticed a shantytown that we later mused might be a semi-permanent migrant farm worker settlement, although I did see a rudimentary school with children playing in the yard. I couldn't believe that people can actually survive in those little tin, one-room shacks without water and electricity. It's not that I didn't think it existed or that I've never seen it before, but it still blows my mind nevertheless every time I see it/think about it.
Two and a half hours and three or four gas stations later, we finally reached our destination: the Gemini Backpackers hostel, where we would spend the next two nights. Coming into the city was a real trip because the highway we were driving on, with the huge commercial buildings on either side could have been in California or Florida (those specifically because of the palm trees and other vegetation). I almost thought for a moment that we were back in the states!
The hostel is very nice, and a good low-budget option for young travelers. We met quite a few such people who were backpacking through sub-Saharan Africa and using the very cool bus and hostel system that this hostel was a part of, that would allow them to go all the way up through Namibia. Definitely an option for later in life! My favorite part of the hostel, just because of the ridiculousness of it, was the pool table, which was at least twice as large as a normal pool table, despite the fact that the balls were significantly smaller than standard pool balls! I participated in a VERY abysmal game of pool after dinner that only ended when we abandoned the idea of finding a winner, and then about half the group settled on the couches in the lounge to watch one of my favorite movies, Good Morning Vietnam. The rest of the group took a taxi out into the city in search o a hookah (spelling?) bar and other clubs. For me, the movie was a far better use of my evening (and certainly more cost effective!). I retired along with the remaining movie-watchers at midnight to the girls dorm, and spent a fairly uncomfortable night in a bunk bed (although I wasn't unhappy about being unable to sleep for some reason). I was really excited about the fact that apparently they follow the no-top-sheet system here, like in Europe, because it reminded me of Germany!
Summary of the day: South Africa is a very different place from Botswana! TTFN!
Saturday 3/15/08
Today was the main day of "touristy" adventures. We began with breakfast at eight am (but which wasn't actually served until 9:30am), and then departed in our van with our guide Eric, for the apartheid museum. It was raining and surprisingly cold, and our warmest clothes were not sufficient to keep out the chill, particularly since part of the apartheid exhibit is outside. Irregardless, the museum was really amazing. It was a ton of information, and I definitely felt a little word-weary when I left, but the integration of informational plaques with videos and pictures made it very comprehensive and powerful. I bought a few postcards spouting the wisdom of Nelson Mandela before we were ushered back into the bus to go to lunch at... you'll never guess... McDonalds! It was quite a strange event considering it has been several years since I've even stepped foot in a McDonalds. It was not particularly delicious, but was a bit of a nostalgic reminder of home and my childhood when chicken nuggets were a coveted treat.
After lunch we embarked on a tour of the Soweto township, a trip that probably dispelled the most significant misconception that I have had about Africa so far. Rather than the dilapidated, poverty-stricken collection of shacks that I expected to find, Soweto is as (or more) diverse socioeconomically as any large town in the U.S. There were mansions, rich suburbs, middle-class suburbs, and the government-sponsored hostels which serve as the low-cost and subsidized housing in the township. There was certainly a visible degree of poverty in the town, but in driving through some of the neighborhoods, I was transported out of the national geographic depiction of Africa, and I truly understood why South Africa is the "UK" of Africa (according to one of our recent globalization authors). We stopped in several locations, including Nelson Mandela's home-turned-museum where we saw many of his accolades including honorary doctorates from over 100 universities in the U.S. and other European countries! We also visited the Hector Peterson memorial museum that was a tribute to the students that perished in the Soweto uprising. It was a very sobering experience watching videos and hearing the stories of these students who are my age and younger, who stood up to authority, and were gunned down for it.
It was pouring again by the time we left the museum, and our last stop was rushed, but that didn't diminish the impact that it had on me. The place we went to was a shantytown called Elie Moltswedi, named after an important apartheid revolutionary, and it is home to over twenty thousand people, all living in one-room make-shift tin shacks. There are 120 (unreliable) water taps and no electricity for the entire community, and over 80% of the residents are unemployed. We met up with one resident who was to act as our guide, and he told us not to give money to anyone that asks because they had set up a system where the guides collect money from tourists and then use it to benefit the entire community. I see the logic in it, but it didn't make it any easier to tell the little children that followed us around the whole time that we couldn't give them money. The guide kept telling us to take our pictures and the last part of the tour included him ushering us into one of the houses where two young boys were attempting to do their homework. It wasn't clear whether or not we had permission to be there, and the whole thing felt very wrong. When they asked us for money, I felt like the worst person in the world not giving it to them. It was important for us to see the shanty-town to remind us that people are subjected to those conditions in our world, but I felt that going into their house was completely inappropriate and unforgivable. I still haven't really been able to forgive myself for what happened, but I suppose that it strengthens my resolve to orient my life so that I am doing everything I can to help people in those kinds of situations.
The rest of the evening was a bit somber for me, but many of the students decided to go out, I suppose to relieve some of the tension that had built up from our long day learning about oppression and poverty. Once again, I curled up on the couch with Alyssa and a few others to watch "Mean Girls" and part of "Good Morning Vietnam", and was able to relieve some of the day's tension before heading to bed.
Sunday 3/16/08
It rained all night on the wooden roof and it was a lovely sound. The next morning we went on a bus tour of Johannesburg, and it was too rainy to see much, but definitely gave me the impression that I was in a nondescript cosmopolitan city. I would like to come back and spend a little more time at certain attractions, like the apartheid museum, and I've heard the nightlife is very exciting if you know where to go. After the city tour, we ate lunch in Jo-burg and then headed home. The trip back was uneventful and we were home in less than six hours!
Happy nine month anniversary to Anthony and I! Yay!
Monday 3/17/08 - Thursday 3/20/08
Life was back to normal at UB. I'll be honest, I love Botswana and I'm happy to be here, but I am definitely getting a bit restless. We've seen most of the cool things we are going to see and now it's just crunch time for my independent research, finals and buying souvenirs. I did manage to get hold of a few key people in the Department of HIV Prevention and Care, the Ministry of Health, and BOTUSA (Botswana-US Center for Disease Control) to interview for my research. Our outlines are due in two weeks and our presentations in three!! Yikes!!
Friday 3/21/08
Today was the first day of Easter break (no class yay!), and we spent it in a very break-like fashion. This morning Alyssa and I got up to run, and since the track was closed (again), we went on the trail the runs alongside the Gaborone Game Reserve. It was a nice run, and on the way back we met some very curious creatures. As we were rounding a corner on the dirt road, two vagrant warthogs trotted into view, and Alyssa and I both stopped having heard stories of the "vicious" nature that warthogs are know to exhibit. It seems they had wandered outside the reserve grounds, and the only thing we could do was wait until they had moved across the road and into the bush a bit. We walked past to avoid startling them, and had a bit of a staring contest with one as it turned around to assess whether or not we were threats. Luckily we were allowed to pass and continue on with our run. Exciting!
After running, Alyssa, Whitney and I walked to Riverwalk where we planned to spend a majority of the day. Our first stop was PicknPay to do research for Globalization on the product sourcing of dairy products in the store. Not surprisingly, most of the dairy was imported, and most of it came from South Africa, or was routed through South Africa.
Most of the shops were closed because of the Good Friday holiday, so we went to find out whether or not the movie theater was open, and sadly it was not. This ruined our evening plans of dinner and a movie, but we decided to have a long lunch and do some shopping at the stands instead! After a nice soup and bagel lunch at the restaurant, Linga Langa, and spending WAY too much money on gifts for people, we headed back home where I spent a good hour laying out all the gifts out that I had bought, and figuring out who I had bought them for! I actually have quite a lot, contrary to my earlier belief, and I only have a few more select items to purchase.
This evening is going to be a chill one, as we decided to postpone dinner and a movie for tomorrow. TTFN!
Monday, March 17, 2008
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
I'm an artist.... who knew?
Saturday 3/8/08
Today was very very very therapeutic, particularly after all that occurred yesterday with the sink blockage, residence permits, and people falling down drainage ditches. As a group of thirteen, I joined my fellow ACM friends in traveling to a very quaint rural town called Oodi, where there are two craft operations that are supported through microfinancing and allow the people that run them to buy the capital to run their businesses. The Oodi weavers are a group of local women who make and sell woven fabrics and tapestries as either a supplementary income, or in some cases the sole source of income for the entire family. We did not meet the Oodi weavers, however. Instead we met a young, white Zimbabwean woman named Sara, and her boyfriend/fiance/whatever, Kosi (pronounced Kozi), who make and sell batiques (died wall hangings with a wax finish to them). In addition, they host workshops where, for P100, people can come in and make their own batiques. As a self-proclaimed non-artist, I approached this prospect with more than a little trepidation, but soon found the process so absorbing and meditative, that I soon forgot my fears (although I couldn't master my inherent perfectionism, which caused me to spend almost two hours just penciling in the design that I wanted to batique). The process goes something like this:
- choose a design
- draw in pencil, the design on a piece of fabric of the desired size
- melt wax and cover the portions of the design that you want to be white with wax
- take the lightest color besides white in your design, and die this area first using the provided fabric dies
- cover this section in wax to prevent the other colors from bleeding into that area
- continue adding progressively stronger colors and covering the desired areas in wax, with black being the last color added
- cover the entire piece in wax, allow to cool, and then run most of the wax off into a bucket (which is then recycled as a future wax source)
- iron batique between two pieces of special wax paper and then newspaper to remove most of the remaining wax.
- the batique is finished and in my case came out surprisingly well!
There is a lot of room for improvisation in the process, including an option to crack the wax after it has hardened and paint into the cracks with a dark color to create a "cracked" effect. This is particularly powerful with landscape and rural depictions as it gives it a look of antiquity and originality. I will attempt to bring this tradition back to the states this summer, as it was time-consuming (we got there at 10:30am and finished at around 6pm), but highly therapeutic and produced a beautiful result.
The couple (Sara and Kosi) we very hospitable and helped us through the entire process. I am planning to return with Alyssa and Whitney over Easter break to make another batique, although I'm a bit nervous that my former artistry was a fluke and the next one will not turn out as well. We'll see! TTFN!
Sunday 3/9/08
Today was full of homework and updating my blog on the safari, so I didn't do much to entertain. Yep, there's really nothing exciting that I did today. Lol, TTFN!
Monday 3/10/08
It was business as usual again today, with class all day, studying for my globalization test on Friday, and taking my third of six anti-malarial pills. I must say that I will be glad to be done with those pills as sound sleep is difficult to come by in the face of my very vivid dreams. Oh well, it was worth the trip to the Deltas for sure, and I have herbal detox drops given to me by my herbalist mother that will hopefully eliminate any lasting effects of the drug. Once again, not much to get excited about, other than the fact that I learned from Vip's roommate that Vip is out of the hospital after his fall, and that despite a few cracked ribs and a minor laceration in his liver, he is up and about and will be just fine! Guess I got lucky!
Tuesday 3/11/08
I got to see Vip today, and he looked good... tired, but good. He said that his liver clotted on its own and the fractures, though painful are minor and will heal quickly. He was very gracious and expressed his gratitude to all of those who were involved in getting him out of the ditch and to the hospital. Yay for happy endings! My afternoon was quite involved, beginning with Setswana from 12-2pm, when the ACM bigwigs who are visiting for the next couple of days came in to observe the class that everyone has been up in arms about. The class was actually fairly well-structured for once, and we had to make sure that at the meeting after class the ACM people knew that they had not seen a fair representation of what our Setswana class has looked like for the last seven weeks. The meeting was an opportunity for us to sit down with the ACM people, including the program director for next year (whom I fear we've made very nervous with our many complaints), and give them feedback on what has and hasn't worked. Despite our expectations as to how the meeting would go, it was very well played by both sides. We were very open with our criticisms of things like the pre-departure orientation in Chicago and the content of the student handbook on Botswana, and equally, they were open and honest about their lack of experience in dealing with Botswana-specific issues. We are the guinea pigs of this program after all, and therefore the many bumps we encountered on the way are to be expected. Although there is little they can do to address the problems for us, I'm confident that they will take into careful consideration our feedback so that the next year's group will have a much simpler and more enjoyable time on campus. Not that I'm not enjoying myself, but there is a lot to frustrate one on campus.
I had to leave the meeting early to take Whitney over to the UB clinic because she was feeling flu-ish and was worried about malaria. The doctor at the clinic said it probably wasn't malaria, but advised her to see a doctor if she was still ill tomorrow. I then rushed over to Riverwalk to meet with Betsey Brada, the University of Chicago graduate student who helped me find my independent research topic, for coffee and a chat. We had a lovely time and discussed everything from the progress of my research to the problems with infrastructure in Botswana. By the time I returned home I had just enough time to finish answering some questions from my study guide, check email, talk to the boyfriend, and go to bed. TTFN!
Tuesday 3/11/08
Today, providence smiled upon me! I have been sweating the whole summer job thing for the last couple of weeks now because I could go back to waitressing, but my travels here have inspired me to want to do a TON of backpacking/camping/hiking, and most restaurant jobs require that you work most weekends. So... I did not want to return to that, plus it is the right time for me to ditch the low-pay, dead-end summer jobs and start getting jobs that will give me relevant experience in my field of interest. As luck would have it, I received an email today about a summer internship with the National Conference of State Legislatures in the public health policy sector that is 35 hours/week, $10/hr. and involves the intern directly in researching and publishing information on public health policies that can be used by legislators to make informed decisions about these policies based on media information, constituent preferences, and factual compilations. So basically, with international health and health policy
looming in my future, this is the perfect internship for me, and it pays well! I couldn't ask for more, and I am hard at work editing my resume and cover letter to maximize my chances of landing this internship. Hooray!
Wednesday 3/12/08
Today at the clinic was so much fun! One of the doctors was in need of practice in ultrasound imaging because when she was trained in India, the ultra sound machine had not yet arrived in her university. As she put it, "it was coming in as I was going out". One way in which they measure the growth of the baby, and through this extrapolate the approximate due date, is to measure the head circumference and femur length. I can see why this process takes a lot of practice, because although some things were easy to discern, like the ribs and the heart, the cranial fissure off of which the head circumference is measured, and the femur are very difficult to isolate on ultrasound imaging. I had a great time trying to pick out the different body parts though, and the doctor let me feel each mother's abdomen to distinguish the head, arms, legs, and even where the actual uterus ends just below the diaphragm. It was super fun, and super informative! Kind of makes me lean towards maternal health!
When I got back from the clinic I managed to squeeze in a little bit of studying along with writing my cover letter and taking a quick nap. Then at around 5:30, the group walked over to African Mall, which is the original Botswana mall (and one I have yet to visit) for dinner with the ACM people at an Indian restaurant called Ashoka. It was quite delicious, although I am far too full right now, and I am so glad we were able to walk back to work off some of the meal! I suppose I should try to get to bed now seeing as how I will be up at 5:40am as usual. It is getting harder to wake up as the sun is rising later and later each day (winter is coming rather than going here), and it won't be long before I'll have to find an alternative time to run. :( TTFN!
Today was very very very therapeutic, particularly after all that occurred yesterday with the sink blockage, residence permits, and people falling down drainage ditches. As a group of thirteen, I joined my fellow ACM friends in traveling to a very quaint rural town called Oodi, where there are two craft operations that are supported through microfinancing and allow the people that run them to buy the capital to run their businesses. The Oodi weavers are a group of local women who make and sell woven fabrics and tapestries as either a supplementary income, or in some cases the sole source of income for the entire family. We did not meet the Oodi weavers, however. Instead we met a young, white Zimbabwean woman named Sara, and her boyfriend/fiance/whatever, Kosi (pronounced Kozi), who make and sell batiques (died wall hangings with a wax finish to them). In addition, they host workshops where, for P100, people can come in and make their own batiques. As a self-proclaimed non-artist, I approached this prospect with more than a little trepidation, but soon found the process so absorbing and meditative, that I soon forgot my fears (although I couldn't master my inherent perfectionism, which caused me to spend almost two hours just penciling in the design that I wanted to batique). The process goes something like this:
- choose a design
- draw in pencil, the design on a piece of fabric of the desired size
- melt wax and cover the portions of the design that you want to be white with wax
- take the lightest color besides white in your design, and die this area first using the provided fabric dies
- cover this section in wax to prevent the other colors from bleeding into that area
- continue adding progressively stronger colors and covering the desired areas in wax, with black being the last color added
- cover the entire piece in wax, allow to cool, and then run most of the wax off into a bucket (which is then recycled as a future wax source)
- iron batique between two pieces of special wax paper and then newspaper to remove most of the remaining wax.
- the batique is finished and in my case came out surprisingly well!
There is a lot of room for improvisation in the process, including an option to crack the wax after it has hardened and paint into the cracks with a dark color to create a "cracked" effect. This is particularly powerful with landscape and rural depictions as it gives it a look of antiquity and originality. I will attempt to bring this tradition back to the states this summer, as it was time-consuming (we got there at 10:30am and finished at around 6pm), but highly therapeutic and produced a beautiful result.
The couple (Sara and Kosi) we very hospitable and helped us through the entire process. I am planning to return with Alyssa and Whitney over Easter break to make another batique, although I'm a bit nervous that my former artistry was a fluke and the next one will not turn out as well. We'll see! TTFN!
Sunday 3/9/08
Today was full of homework and updating my blog on the safari, so I didn't do much to entertain. Yep, there's really nothing exciting that I did today. Lol, TTFN!
Monday 3/10/08
It was business as usual again today, with class all day, studying for my globalization test on Friday, and taking my third of six anti-malarial pills. I must say that I will be glad to be done with those pills as sound sleep is difficult to come by in the face of my very vivid dreams. Oh well, it was worth the trip to the Deltas for sure, and I have herbal detox drops given to me by my herbalist mother that will hopefully eliminate any lasting effects of the drug. Once again, not much to get excited about, other than the fact that I learned from Vip's roommate that Vip is out of the hospital after his fall, and that despite a few cracked ribs and a minor laceration in his liver, he is up and about and will be just fine! Guess I got lucky!
Tuesday 3/11/08
I got to see Vip today, and he looked good... tired, but good. He said that his liver clotted on its own and the fractures, though painful are minor and will heal quickly. He was very gracious and expressed his gratitude to all of those who were involved in getting him out of the ditch and to the hospital. Yay for happy endings! My afternoon was quite involved, beginning with Setswana from 12-2pm, when the ACM bigwigs who are visiting for the next couple of days came in to observe the class that everyone has been up in arms about. The class was actually fairly well-structured for once, and we had to make sure that at the meeting after class the ACM people knew that they had not seen a fair representation of what our Setswana class has looked like for the last seven weeks. The meeting was an opportunity for us to sit down with the ACM people, including the program director for next year (whom I fear we've made very nervous with our many complaints), and give them feedback on what has and hasn't worked. Despite our expectations as to how the meeting would go, it was very well played by both sides. We were very open with our criticisms of things like the pre-departure orientation in Chicago and the content of the student handbook on Botswana, and equally, they were open and honest about their lack of experience in dealing with Botswana-specific issues. We are the guinea pigs of this program after all, and therefore the many bumps we encountered on the way are to be expected. Although there is little they can do to address the problems for us, I'm confident that they will take into careful consideration our feedback so that the next year's group will have a much simpler and more enjoyable time on campus. Not that I'm not enjoying myself, but there is a lot to frustrate one on campus.
I had to leave the meeting early to take Whitney over to the UB clinic because she was feeling flu-ish and was worried about malaria. The doctor at the clinic said it probably wasn't malaria, but advised her to see a doctor if she was still ill tomorrow. I then rushed over to Riverwalk to meet with Betsey Brada, the University of Chicago graduate student who helped me find my independent research topic, for coffee and a chat. We had a lovely time and discussed everything from the progress of my research to the problems with infrastructure in Botswana. By the time I returned home I had just enough time to finish answering some questions from my study guide, check email, talk to the boyfriend, and go to bed. TTFN!
Tuesday 3/11/08
Today, providence smiled upon me! I have been sweating the whole summer job thing for the last couple of weeks now because I could go back to waitressing, but my travels here have inspired me to want to do a TON of backpacking/camping/hiking, and most restaurant jobs require that you work most weekends. So... I did not want to return to that, plus it is the right time for me to ditch the low-pay, dead-end summer jobs and start getting jobs that will give me relevant experience in my field of interest. As luck would have it, I received an email today about a summer internship with the National Conference of State Legislatures in the public health policy sector that is 35 hours/week, $10/hr. and involves the intern directly in researching and publishing information on public health policies that can be used by legislators to make informed decisions about these policies based on media information, constituent preferences, and factual compilations. So basically, with international health and health policy
looming in my future, this is the perfect internship for me, and it pays well! I couldn't ask for more, and I am hard at work editing my resume and cover letter to maximize my chances of landing this internship. Hooray!
Wednesday 3/12/08
Today at the clinic was so much fun! One of the doctors was in need of practice in ultrasound imaging because when she was trained in India, the ultra sound machine had not yet arrived in her university. As she put it, "it was coming in as I was going out". One way in which they measure the growth of the baby, and through this extrapolate the approximate due date, is to measure the head circumference and femur length. I can see why this process takes a lot of practice, because although some things were easy to discern, like the ribs and the heart, the cranial fissure off of which the head circumference is measured, and the femur are very difficult to isolate on ultrasound imaging. I had a great time trying to pick out the different body parts though, and the doctor let me feel each mother's abdomen to distinguish the head, arms, legs, and even where the actual uterus ends just below the diaphragm. It was super fun, and super informative! Kind of makes me lean towards maternal health!
When I got back from the clinic I managed to squeeze in a little bit of studying along with writing my cover letter and taking a quick nap. Then at around 5:30, the group walked over to African Mall, which is the original Botswana mall (and one I have yet to visit) for dinner with the ACM people at an Indian restaurant called Ashoka. It was quite delicious, although I am far too full right now, and I am so glad we were able to walk back to work off some of the meal! I suppose I should try to get to bed now seeing as how I will be up at 5:40am as usual. It is getting harder to wake up as the sun is rising later and later each day (winter is coming rather than going here), and it won't be long before I'll have to find an alternative time to run. :( TTFN!
Friday, March 7, 2008
Blocked Sinks, Bureaucracy and Trips to the Hospital...
Friday 2/7/08
So I apologize that I still have not posted the safari events. I promise I am working on that entry, but it will take a while, and the literature review for my paper has monopolized most of my free time the last few days.
Today was a very eventful day, with many varying and unrelated events. To begin the day, I woke up at 6am in order to continue reading through and taking notes on my research for my literature review. Briefly, the lit review is a summary of the existing body of literature on my research topic in a broad sense, ie. as it applies to everywhere but Botswana. The purpose is to highlight pertinent debates and topics within my field and shape the context into which my specific research will be placed. I was interrupted by Globalization class at 8am, and then a trip to the maintenance office located in some obscure corner of the campus where Alyssa and I submitted a maintenance request form to unblock the drains in both our kitchen sink and shower. Apparently there's been too much hair and food going down into the pipes and they got a bit backed up! The man who collected the form from us did not seem interested in responding to our needs urgently, and I did not allow myself to hope that the problem would be addressed before the weekend arrived.
Back in my room, I spent the entire rest of the morning and afternoon writing my paper, which turned out to be two pages over the limit (7 instead of 5). I'm hoping that is a good thing because it shows that there is a lot of material out there on my topic and I will therefore have a better time finding information to include in my paper. While I was working on the paper, the maintenance guys actually stopped by and were able to clear both pipes of debris, so we are blockage free! My roommates and I discussed buying some sort of Drain-o-like substance to pour into the drains every few weeks, and I think we will probably invest in that to avoid future blockages. It was a great bonding experience though!
After finishing my paper (and subsequently nearly forgetting to submit it), Alyssa and I walked over to another student's residence where we were having a meeting regarding the fact that our passports only give us 90 days in the country, which means that as of April 6th, we will be illegally in this country and may not be allowed to stay! According to Charity, in order to extend our days, we have to apply for temporary residence permits, which in the U.S. would be a hassle, and in Botswana is next to impossible! In addition, it requires that we pay a fee of P500 (almost $100 USD) as well as $90 USD for three notary stamps on a copy of a passport, a passport photo, and our application for the permit. Needless to say, everyone is in an uproar, and there is much trepidation as to what will really happen in this situation. We are further discouraged by the fact that one student who is here outside of any programs has been attempting to complete this process for several weeks now, and the only result was that they lost his application which led to him being in the country illegally and having to pay a P500 penalty, at which point they told him to start the process again. I will get into this more in a bit, but the bureaucracy of this country is unbelievable! Please don't fret yet, I have more to add about this situation....
Feeling a bit frazzled after a day of paper-writing and the news about immigration hassles, Whitney, Alyssa and I walked to Riverwalk for our weekly night out looking forward to a relaxing, enjoyable evening. We ate at Spur again, and I thoroughly enjoyed my quesadillas with guacamole! After dinner we walked over to Pick and Pay (grocery store) so Whitney could pick up some food for tomorrow, and we were in the checkout line when a girl from the ACM program called me and requested that I come over to the bank at Riverwalk to help out with an American who had fallen at hurt himself. I couldn't determine much from the phone call, but I could here the urgency in her voice, so I headed over hoping that my limited EMT skills would be sufficient to handle the situation. When I arrived, the guy, Vip was sitting on the curb looking in one piece, but not well. I asked people what had happened, and apparently, Vip had been walking along with the group when he took a misstep and fell into a narrow drainage ditch that is near a fence on the walk to Riverwalk (Alyssa and I often discuss how dangerous the ditch is, especially in the dark because it is only about a foot and half wide, but at least six feet deep and not lit up at night), catching most of his weight on his arms, but also slamming his front into the cement. His friends pulled him out immediately and he reportedly lost consciousness for about forty-five seconds. When I reached him, he was oriented to the date and location, and could answer my questions fairly coherently although he seemed a bit dazed. He was complaining of dizziness, nausea, abdominal pain, and tiredness, which made me automatically suspect a concussion although he and other bystanders continually asserted that he had not hit his head. I palpated (touched) his head and torso to check for tenderness or bruising, but the only source of pain was his stomach. He didn't seem to be in shock, but I still felt very strongly that he should go to the hospital, so we called a family member of his that lives in Botswana to come get him, and I ended up accompanying him to the hospital. After an examination, the doctor decided to admit him and submit him for tests to check for internal bleeding because they suspected that the majority of the impact had been on his abdomen when he fell. A friend of Vip's relative that was with us took me home when they took Vip for x-rays, and I am anxiously awaiting an update, but I'm fairly certain that he will be alright.
While we were waiting for the doctor to explain the situation, I had a lengthy and very enlightening discussion with the friend about Botswana's bureaucratic government systems. He basically said that the reason that anything to do with the government is so difficult to manage is because the systems in place have been in place since before the end of colonization! He said that is one of the major pitfalls of Botswana society and must be addressed in the near future if Botswana wants to continue to open its doors to the world market. Furthermore, he clarified the issue of passport extensions, saying that our best option rather than applying for residence permits, is to go directly to the immigration window with a letter from UB explaining our presence here in UB (and our need to be continually present beyond the allotted ninety days), a letter from ACM proving that we have the financial means to support ourselves, and a copy of our airline departure receipt to show that we are intending to leave the country. With these things, we can then explain the situation and request for an extension of the days on our passport to the departure date listed on the receipt for only P100. Hopefully we will be so lucky as to have that work (fingers crossed) because although ACM is prepared to pay the P500 administrative fee for our residence permits, the notary costs are on our own, and $90 USD is a lot to spend for three stamps! So anyway, good news in that department.
The remaining hours of the evening have been thus far uneventful, and I am looking forward to tomorrow because a group of ACM students are going to a craft center called Odie where we get to learn about and make batiques (spelling?) which are wax-coated wall hangings (made out of fabric) that we can keep for only P100! Should be a lot of fun! I will get to my blog someday! And homework for that matter... TTFN!
So I apologize that I still have not posted the safari events. I promise I am working on that entry, but it will take a while, and the literature review for my paper has monopolized most of my free time the last few days.
Today was a very eventful day, with many varying and unrelated events. To begin the day, I woke up at 6am in order to continue reading through and taking notes on my research for my literature review. Briefly, the lit review is a summary of the existing body of literature on my research topic in a broad sense, ie. as it applies to everywhere but Botswana. The purpose is to highlight pertinent debates and topics within my field and shape the context into which my specific research will be placed. I was interrupted by Globalization class at 8am, and then a trip to the maintenance office located in some obscure corner of the campus where Alyssa and I submitted a maintenance request form to unblock the drains in both our kitchen sink and shower. Apparently there's been too much hair and food going down into the pipes and they got a bit backed up! The man who collected the form from us did not seem interested in responding to our needs urgently, and I did not allow myself to hope that the problem would be addressed before the weekend arrived.
Back in my room, I spent the entire rest of the morning and afternoon writing my paper, which turned out to be two pages over the limit (7 instead of 5). I'm hoping that is a good thing because it shows that there is a lot of material out there on my topic and I will therefore have a better time finding information to include in my paper. While I was working on the paper, the maintenance guys actually stopped by and were able to clear both pipes of debris, so we are blockage free! My roommates and I discussed buying some sort of Drain-o-like substance to pour into the drains every few weeks, and I think we will probably invest in that to avoid future blockages. It was a great bonding experience though!
After finishing my paper (and subsequently nearly forgetting to submit it), Alyssa and I walked over to another student's residence where we were having a meeting regarding the fact that our passports only give us 90 days in the country, which means that as of April 6th, we will be illegally in this country and may not be allowed to stay! According to Charity, in order to extend our days, we have to apply for temporary residence permits, which in the U.S. would be a hassle, and in Botswana is next to impossible! In addition, it requires that we pay a fee of P500 (almost $100 USD) as well as $90 USD for three notary stamps on a copy of a passport, a passport photo, and our application for the permit. Needless to say, everyone is in an uproar, and there is much trepidation as to what will really happen in this situation. We are further discouraged by the fact that one student who is here outside of any programs has been attempting to complete this process for several weeks now, and the only result was that they lost his application which led to him being in the country illegally and having to pay a P500 penalty, at which point they told him to start the process again. I will get into this more in a bit, but the bureaucracy of this country is unbelievable! Please don't fret yet, I have more to add about this situation....
Feeling a bit frazzled after a day of paper-writing and the news about immigration hassles, Whitney, Alyssa and I walked to Riverwalk for our weekly night out looking forward to a relaxing, enjoyable evening. We ate at Spur again, and I thoroughly enjoyed my quesadillas with guacamole! After dinner we walked over to Pick and Pay (grocery store) so Whitney could pick up some food for tomorrow, and we were in the checkout line when a girl from the ACM program called me and requested that I come over to the bank at Riverwalk to help out with an American who had fallen at hurt himself. I couldn't determine much from the phone call, but I could here the urgency in her voice, so I headed over hoping that my limited EMT skills would be sufficient to handle the situation. When I arrived, the guy, Vip was sitting on the curb looking in one piece, but not well. I asked people what had happened, and apparently, Vip had been walking along with the group when he took a misstep and fell into a narrow drainage ditch that is near a fence on the walk to Riverwalk (Alyssa and I often discuss how dangerous the ditch is, especially in the dark because it is only about a foot and half wide, but at least six feet deep and not lit up at night), catching most of his weight on his arms, but also slamming his front into the cement. His friends pulled him out immediately and he reportedly lost consciousness for about forty-five seconds. When I reached him, he was oriented to the date and location, and could answer my questions fairly coherently although he seemed a bit dazed. He was complaining of dizziness, nausea, abdominal pain, and tiredness, which made me automatically suspect a concussion although he and other bystanders continually asserted that he had not hit his head. I palpated (touched) his head and torso to check for tenderness or bruising, but the only source of pain was his stomach. He didn't seem to be in shock, but I still felt very strongly that he should go to the hospital, so we called a family member of his that lives in Botswana to come get him, and I ended up accompanying him to the hospital. After an examination, the doctor decided to admit him and submit him for tests to check for internal bleeding because they suspected that the majority of the impact had been on his abdomen when he fell. A friend of Vip's relative that was with us took me home when they took Vip for x-rays, and I am anxiously awaiting an update, but I'm fairly certain that he will be alright.
While we were waiting for the doctor to explain the situation, I had a lengthy and very enlightening discussion with the friend about Botswana's bureaucratic government systems. He basically said that the reason that anything to do with the government is so difficult to manage is because the systems in place have been in place since before the end of colonization! He said that is one of the major pitfalls of Botswana society and must be addressed in the near future if Botswana wants to continue to open its doors to the world market. Furthermore, he clarified the issue of passport extensions, saying that our best option rather than applying for residence permits, is to go directly to the immigration window with a letter from UB explaining our presence here in UB (and our need to be continually present beyond the allotted ninety days), a letter from ACM proving that we have the financial means to support ourselves, and a copy of our airline departure receipt to show that we are intending to leave the country. With these things, we can then explain the situation and request for an extension of the days on our passport to the departure date listed on the receipt for only P100. Hopefully we will be so lucky as to have that work (fingers crossed) because although ACM is prepared to pay the P500 administrative fee for our residence permits, the notary costs are on our own, and $90 USD is a lot to spend for three stamps! So anyway, good news in that department.
The remaining hours of the evening have been thus far uneventful, and I am looking forward to tomorrow because a group of ACM students are going to a craft center called Odie where we get to learn about and make batiques (spelling?) which are wax-coated wall hangings (made out of fabric) that we can keep for only P100! Should be a lot of fun! I will get to my blog someday! And homework for that matter... TTFN!
Thursday, March 6, 2008
The Importance of Doing Laundry
Thursday 2/6/08
Hi everyone! I apologize for the long delay in updating you on my activities here. I'm sure you are all anxiously awaiting the details from my safari, and I will tell you that I had an amazing time and have much to say on the subject. I am working on transcribing each day's activities from my journal, but it will likely take me another day or two. As of right now, I should be writing my 5-page literature review for my research paper, but I encountered a turning point today that I feel compelled to write about while it is still fresh in my mind.
I will begin by telling you a story. For the last two days, a mysterious young girl (roughly twelve years old) has been living in Leish's room (same roommate who temporarily housed her two sons a few weeks ago after their father died). She did not speak to us, nor we (Alyssa and I) to her so we mused that it must be another one of Leish's children staying with her for some unknown reason. Things have been particularly strained between Leish and Alyssa and I for the past four days for reasons that are now too trivial to discuss, so it wasn't until this morning when Leish apologized to me (she woke me up last night blowing up an air mattress outside my door for the little girl) that I found out the real story. Apparently, this thirteen-year-old girl is Leish's niece, and was kicked out of her home by her mother because the mother got married and decided she no longer wanted the child. Furthermore, the mother was extremely abusive towards the girl even going so far as to beat her with a pot that was hot off the stove. The girl's grandmother is on her way today to bring the girl to live with her, but Leish is worried because the girl's mother is now expressing an interest in getting her back. As the legal guardian, there is nothing Leish or the grandmother can do to stop the mother from taking the girl back, and Leish has no idea what kind of child protection services are available to forcibly remove the child from the situation. She asked me whether or not that kind of thing happens in the U.S. and I gave her the example of some people I met who had been kicked out onto the streets for telling their parents that they were homosexual. I did say, however, that there were definitely systems in place to keep the mother from being able to reclaim the little girl given probable cause of abuse.
I was very affected by this story, and as I went up to do my laundry in the bathtub, I began to realize something that is not new to me conceptually, but when seen in reality is very very different. Growing up, we as Americans are taught that we are privileged and that most people in the rest of the world have nothing compared to us, and I would have considered myself to be very conscious of this fact prior to coming to Botswana. I even anticipated the fact that seeing this concept in person would be especially shocking.
What I realized today was that for the last two months, I have not allowed myself to see this age-old concept in real life. Instead I have been wrapped up in the fact that I am a victim of the third world. I've seen the injustices that people here deal with every day, but I have seen it in the context of my own well-being when in reality, my presence here is fleeting and I will soon return to my comfortable lifestyle with all the resources and support I need to realize my dreams.
What I have refused to let myself see is this reality in the context of the faces I encounter every day. Leish is a perfect example. Her way of dealing with conflict in the apartment has resulted in a lot of tension between her and Alyssa specifically, but I too have been extremely frustrated at times with the way in which she has handled these issues. What I never stopped to think about was the reason behind her actions. My father attempted to illuminate this in an email yesterday, but I was unwilling to listen through my frustration. In listening to her talk about this poor little abused girl, however, I suddenly was able to acknowledge the hardship Leish must be going through to finish her graduate studies on top of working three jobs and being intimately involved in the problems of her family because she knows that the only way to find a better life for herself and her family (maybe) is by getting as educated as she can. Even then, there are only so many jobs and so many opportunities for advancement. It's like one of the doctors from the clinic was saying yesterday. She and her husband are here from India, and her husband doesn't want to go back to India, because here he doesn't have to worry about working hard to get a promotion because there are none.
The reality is this: where I grew up, life was fair and I was rarely met with a situation that stood in the way of my future that I couldn't work through. Life was not full of little injustices that couldn't be rectified. Obviously this isn't something that applies to all of America, but it certainly applies to many of the people reading this blog. What I am seeing in a way that learning about it can never illustrate, is that all the struggles that I have encountered and complained about here at UB are everywhere in life in Botswana, and instead of four months of being "inconvenienced" by them, people here have to deal with them and overcome them in order to survive. Life isn't fair, and as cliche as that sounds, I don't know how many people can really grasp at the fact that life really is not fair. I certainly didn't until I was here.
What I am left with as of now are a few things:
- guilt at how self-pitying I have been
- guilt at how I have come to treat men in order to "fend" them off
- guilt at how I have failed to understand the meaning of, "you guys are lucky to live in the
U.S."
- uncertainty as to how to proceed from here
- fear that reverse culture shock is going to be very difficult for me to deal with
What I can conclude from all these musings is that there's a lot to be said for the fact that people can deal with all that they must in life and still have the courage to put a smile on their face. That's the biggest lesson I can learn from this, and something I hope to apply to life here in Botswana as well as at home. My response to all the attention my skin color attracts has been to shut down almost completely and isolate myself from the people on the street or walking around campus. I realize now, that's been a major source of stress for me because that's not who I am. I should be rejoicing in the fact that I can say hi to everyone I see without getting weird looks like I would in the U.S. Instead I have become reserved and even bitter towards people who stare at me constantly (or men who want to stop and talk to me). I have allowed myself to get caught up in seeing the negative side of things and that's going to stop right now. If it means that I am inviting more attention than I want because I'm being myself, then I will learn to deal with that in the context of who I am. It's also an important lesson in love and compassion for all people. When I get home, I will be thrown back into a very different lifestyle with very different problems, and there are two ways I can respond. I can be righteous and put people down for being trivial, or I can acknowledge that in that person's reality, that issue is significant and I can serve them best by empathizing with them while still keeping in mind that for every problem, there is another problem that is graver, or more trivial than it and you can drive yourself crazy by letting every problem be earth-shattering, or you can take them in stride.
This was a pretty heavy entry, and I apologize for that, but it is something that I feel is very significant to my experiences and if I don't share it, I am withholding things that will have a marked impact on who I am and become in the future. Thanks for reading. I will send out a much more exciting and happy blog tomorrow. TTFN!
Hi everyone! I apologize for the long delay in updating you on my activities here. I'm sure you are all anxiously awaiting the details from my safari, and I will tell you that I had an amazing time and have much to say on the subject. I am working on transcribing each day's activities from my journal, but it will likely take me another day or two. As of right now, I should be writing my 5-page literature review for my research paper, but I encountered a turning point today that I feel compelled to write about while it is still fresh in my mind.
I will begin by telling you a story. For the last two days, a mysterious young girl (roughly twelve years old) has been living in Leish's room (same roommate who temporarily housed her two sons a few weeks ago after their father died). She did not speak to us, nor we (Alyssa and I) to her so we mused that it must be another one of Leish's children staying with her for some unknown reason. Things have been particularly strained between Leish and Alyssa and I for the past four days for reasons that are now too trivial to discuss, so it wasn't until this morning when Leish apologized to me (she woke me up last night blowing up an air mattress outside my door for the little girl) that I found out the real story. Apparently, this thirteen-year-old girl is Leish's niece, and was kicked out of her home by her mother because the mother got married and decided she no longer wanted the child. Furthermore, the mother was extremely abusive towards the girl even going so far as to beat her with a pot that was hot off the stove. The girl's grandmother is on her way today to bring the girl to live with her, but Leish is worried because the girl's mother is now expressing an interest in getting her back. As the legal guardian, there is nothing Leish or the grandmother can do to stop the mother from taking the girl back, and Leish has no idea what kind of child protection services are available to forcibly remove the child from the situation. She asked me whether or not that kind of thing happens in the U.S. and I gave her the example of some people I met who had been kicked out onto the streets for telling their parents that they were homosexual. I did say, however, that there were definitely systems in place to keep the mother from being able to reclaim the little girl given probable cause of abuse.
I was very affected by this story, and as I went up to do my laundry in the bathtub, I began to realize something that is not new to me conceptually, but when seen in reality is very very different. Growing up, we as Americans are taught that we are privileged and that most people in the rest of the world have nothing compared to us, and I would have considered myself to be very conscious of this fact prior to coming to Botswana. I even anticipated the fact that seeing this concept in person would be especially shocking.
What I realized today was that for the last two months, I have not allowed myself to see this age-old concept in real life. Instead I have been wrapped up in the fact that I am a victim of the third world. I've seen the injustices that people here deal with every day, but I have seen it in the context of my own well-being when in reality, my presence here is fleeting and I will soon return to my comfortable lifestyle with all the resources and support I need to realize my dreams.
What I have refused to let myself see is this reality in the context of the faces I encounter every day. Leish is a perfect example. Her way of dealing with conflict in the apartment has resulted in a lot of tension between her and Alyssa specifically, but I too have been extremely frustrated at times with the way in which she has handled these issues. What I never stopped to think about was the reason behind her actions. My father attempted to illuminate this in an email yesterday, but I was unwilling to listen through my frustration. In listening to her talk about this poor little abused girl, however, I suddenly was able to acknowledge the hardship Leish must be going through to finish her graduate studies on top of working three jobs and being intimately involved in the problems of her family because she knows that the only way to find a better life for herself and her family (maybe) is by getting as educated as she can. Even then, there are only so many jobs and so many opportunities for advancement. It's like one of the doctors from the clinic was saying yesterday. She and her husband are here from India, and her husband doesn't want to go back to India, because here he doesn't have to worry about working hard to get a promotion because there are none.
The reality is this: where I grew up, life was fair and I was rarely met with a situation that stood in the way of my future that I couldn't work through. Life was not full of little injustices that couldn't be rectified. Obviously this isn't something that applies to all of America, but it certainly applies to many of the people reading this blog. What I am seeing in a way that learning about it can never illustrate, is that all the struggles that I have encountered and complained about here at UB are everywhere in life in Botswana, and instead of four months of being "inconvenienced" by them, people here have to deal with them and overcome them in order to survive. Life isn't fair, and as cliche as that sounds, I don't know how many people can really grasp at the fact that life really is not fair. I certainly didn't until I was here.
What I am left with as of now are a few things:
- guilt at how self-pitying I have been
- guilt at how I have come to treat men in order to "fend" them off
- guilt at how I have failed to understand the meaning of, "you guys are lucky to live in the
U.S."
- uncertainty as to how to proceed from here
- fear that reverse culture shock is going to be very difficult for me to deal with
What I can conclude from all these musings is that there's a lot to be said for the fact that people can deal with all that they must in life and still have the courage to put a smile on their face. That's the biggest lesson I can learn from this, and something I hope to apply to life here in Botswana as well as at home. My response to all the attention my skin color attracts has been to shut down almost completely and isolate myself from the people on the street or walking around campus. I realize now, that's been a major source of stress for me because that's not who I am. I should be rejoicing in the fact that I can say hi to everyone I see without getting weird looks like I would in the U.S. Instead I have become reserved and even bitter towards people who stare at me constantly (or men who want to stop and talk to me). I have allowed myself to get caught up in seeing the negative side of things and that's going to stop right now. If it means that I am inviting more attention than I want because I'm being myself, then I will learn to deal with that in the context of who I am. It's also an important lesson in love and compassion for all people. When I get home, I will be thrown back into a very different lifestyle with very different problems, and there are two ways I can respond. I can be righteous and put people down for being trivial, or I can acknowledge that in that person's reality, that issue is significant and I can serve them best by empathizing with them while still keeping in mind that for every problem, there is another problem that is graver, or more trivial than it and you can drive yourself crazy by letting every problem be earth-shattering, or you can take them in stride.
This was a pretty heavy entry, and I apologize for that, but it is something that I feel is very significant to my experiences and if I don't share it, I am withholding things that will have a marked impact on who I am and become in the future. Thanks for reading. I will send out a much more exciting and happy blog tomorrow. TTFN!
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Living the Dream!
I will warn you that this entry is going to be quite long. I sincerely apologize, and I completely understand if you don't read all of it (or any of it), but if you have the stamina, I think you might enjoy my account of trekking through the Okavango Deltas and Nxai Pan National Park! All of the entries below are copied out of my journal with which I kept extensive record of the days' events. By the way, I have been uploading pictures to an album on Facebook. This link will allow you to view what I've posted so far... enjoy!!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020941&l=6acb7&id=30001818
Sunday 2/24/08
This is the life! Cool breeze, full belly, the great outdoors and people taking care of our every need! Ok, so the last part is a bit over the top, but it's nice to be catered to once in a while. This morning, we drove to the Gaberone airport in a red combi playing Alicia Keys and other wonderfully overplayed R&B artists. I began the first "Number One Ladies Detective Agency" book (again) at the airport and nearly finished it by the time the plane landed in Maun. For those of you who have not heard about this book, it details the exploits of Botswana's first and only female private detective (fictionally speaking), and it a true delight to read, plus it gives you a wonderful look at Botswana culture. Interestingly enough, despite it's reputation for poor customer service, we were given a drink and a packet of peanuts during the short plane ride to Maun. That's better than many American airlines can boast!
The airport in Maun to my surprise was quite a bit nicer than Gaberone's airport, which speaks wonders to the impact of the tourist industry here, which is quite developed when compared to Gaberone. Indeed, the town of Maun, as we drove through it in a less exciting white combi, was largely made up of tourist shops boasting to have the finest handmade pottery, woven baskets, fabrics, etc. in all of Botswana.
Our base camp, called Audi Camp was our destination for the night, as our official safari trek would not begin until the next morning. The camp itself epitomizes "African tourism". The bar/restaurant/lounge area equipped with a pool and extensive sitting areas is all beautifully decorated in a traditional, rustic yet expensive style. The floors are made of multi-colored flagstone, and the lounge overlooking the pool is abundantly furnished with sturdy wooden couches padded by large, very comfortable orange cushions. After settling into our tents, which are large and furnished with a nighstand and two cots, we ventured over to the lounge to relax for a few hours before dinner. A large portion of the group jumped in the pool to splash around, but I was perfectly content to sit on the veranda chatting with the other non-swimmers.
Dinner was a delightful reminder of home with spaghetti, salad and rolls, with ice cream and chocolate sauce for dessert! After dinner, we sat at the dining table playing Hearts and sipping ice water before retiring to our spacious, yet stuffy tents for the night. Before bed, my tentmates, Alyssa and Whitney and I ventured into the beautiful bathrooms to brush our teeth and I myst say that I have never seen so many bugs (and even a frog) in one toilet stall in my life! Note to self: do not use the restrooms at night whenever possible!
Monday 2/25/08
Morning came as a welcome reprieve rom the hot, sweaty night and I thoroughly enjoyed the hot water and spaciousness of the roofless showers. Words cannot describe the incredible architecture that adorns the Audi Camp bathrooms! The continental breakfast too surpassed all my expectations, offering toast, pancakes, scones, muffins, granola and yogurt, corn flakes, fruit salad, cheese, ham, a variety of juices and lots of tea and coffee. Breakfast alone made the trip completely worth it!
Following breakfast we prepared our overnight packs for the mokoro trip on the Okavango River, and then we all met in the reception area at 8am for departure from Audi Camp. The sight which greeted us in the dirt parking lot was unbelievably cool! The safari jeep that was to take all twenty of us to the deltas was HUGE! It was the monster truck version of a safari jeep (which is no compact car itself). We loaded up our packs and off we went, living up the tourist image, waving to people as we thundered down the road and snapping thousands of pictures of absolutely everything! There were cattle, goats and donkeys everywhere on the roadsides, and on quite a few occasions we were forced to come to a near stop to wait for a stubborn animal to move out of the center of the road. After a while, we left pavement behind and turned onto the sandy side roads that would lead us into the heart of the Okavango wilderness. At one point, we passed through a small village along one of the many veterinary fences that partitions Botswana into wildlife areas and domestic, cattle-grazing areas, and it was here that several of our guides who live in the area jumped on board. We then passed through the quarantine fence and set off into the wildlife zone. Almost immediately we saw giraffe, ostrich, zebras, and even a glimpse of an elephant as it disappeared into the fringes of the trees. This was undoubtedly my favorite part of the ride as we did a significant amount of off-roading/sliding around in the sand while thorn trees thrashed at our arms and faces. It was amazing! Finally, we came upon the edge of the Okavango River where the rest of our guides waited to pole us through the deltas! We were two to a canoe (called a mokoro) with one poler per mokoro. At first we were certain that we would tip over the side of the mokoro, but it was like riding a bike in that once you find your balance it feels like you've spent your whole life on the water! We were set up in a comfortable reclining position with cushions behind us, and despite the leakage of water into the boat that soaked my pants about twenty minutes into the ride, I felt like I was lying on a beach chair floating on the river! We saw no wildlife, but the vegetation was very nice and we came in very close proximity to a hippo as evidenced by the grunting and splashing sounds that seemed to be just beyond the wall of reeds. We finally landed at some obscure destination which I am convinced I could never find again, and after erecting our tents we had lunch which was a mix of traditional and Western foods with potato salad, carrotslaw, coleslaw, chicken and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. There were also tea, coffee and biscuits for after lunch during the siesta, which I discovered to be a delightful tradition despite the fact that I was drinking a hot beverage in the middle of the African summer! We also discovered the largest spider I've seen yet in a tree above our campsite! Although we couldn't get close enough to touch it, I would say it's at least as big as my hand, legs and all!! TTFN!
Tuesday 2/26/08
There is nothing more liberating and yet so luxurious about showering under an open sky with a cool breeze filtering through the gentle stream of warm water raining down from the faucet above! But I'm getting ahead of myself...
Our hippo companion remained with us on the river for the entire afternoon yesterday, and was still wallowing seemingly right next to us as we poled our way back down the river this morning. After yesterday's siesta in the afternoon, several of us went back out onto the water where our guides taught us how to mokoro in an area where the current wasn't as strong. Despite a few harrowing moments involving Alyssa and I attempting to slide past each other when we were switching places and nearly tipping the boat, it was really fun and I think I actually got the hang of it!
A cup of tea and about thirty minutes later we all headed out for our evening game walk. The walk itself was quite arduous as we were following hippo trails through brambles and tall grasses, but the sights were well worth the hour-long trek. On the way to the hippo pool which was our intended destination, we saw lots of different types of birds and our guides pointed out a tree that had huge seed pods that looked like sausages. The tree was fittingly dubbed a sausage tree, and a preferred option when making the mokoro. I learned later that the mokoro industry is threatened as of late because the sausage trees which produce the best quality boats require twenty to forty years to reach maturity, but the mokoro only last five years.
When we arrived at the hippo pool, there was a family of hippos resting just below the surface of the water at a distance of about 100 yards from us. We could just see the tops of their heads, and at times the baby hippo's head would emerge from the water as his mother, on top of whom he was riding, would come up for air. It was really cute to see the set of little ears emerge followed by his little head, and then an identical but much larger set up ears and the top of the mother's head would appear shortly thereafter. My pictures do not do the sight justice, but it was incredibly exhilarating to be in the presence of these seemingly docile creatures in their natural habitat.
On the way back to camp, we spotted monkeys frolicking in the trees, and crossed paths with a young puff adder (a fairly deadly snake that in the adult stage is not something I ever hope to encounter!). Dinner was a bit more traditional, with rice, salad, spicy beef stir-fry and peaches-and-cream for dessert! Like I mentioned before, this was five-star camping for sure! After dinner our guides and cooks entertained us with traditional song and dance, at which point we attempted to reciprocate the gesture by singing "traditional" American pop tunes. They enjoyed the hokey pokey, chicken dance, and the macarena, but we struggled through off-key renditions of Proud Mary, the Fresh Prince of Belaire, Lean on Me, I Want it That Way (Backstreet Boys I believe), and a smattering of rap/hip-hop songs that thoroughly entertained us but were less than pleasing to the ears of our guides!
We sat around the fire for several more hours talking and sipping tea before retiring to our tents for the night. We couldn't retire without going one last time to the toilet however! Allow me to attempt to convey to you the awesomeness (poor grammar I know!) that was our toilet! As you set off down the path, you grab the toilet paper and small shovel. Twenty yards further on, you come to a deep rectangular hole freshly dug by our guides that morning with a fold-able chair over the top of the hole. The unique feature of this chair is the seat which is actually a plastic toilet seat. So out here, on a random island in the Okavango deltas, not only do we have gourmet meals, we have our own private outhouse with a view! It feels quite strange to pee on a toilet seat in the middle of the forest, but when in Rome....!!
I spent a hot and short but restful night in a tent with Alyssa, and we rose at dawn for a delicious continental breakfast (including yogurt and granola!), and then we packed up our campsite for the trip back out. The trip back down the river was brief but relaxing, and our safari truck was waiting for us in the same spot to whisk us out of the bush. We saw a good deal more wildlife on our way out including zebras, giraffes, eagles, storks and a black cobra that entertained the idea of attacking our tires for a second before realizing that the truck was significantly larger and more dangerous than it's own venomous fangs.
Our next stop was a small village of Bayei tribesmen who welcomed us into their homes and demonstrated various aspects of rural life including cooking, music, the bedroom, and various traditional medicines used in treating minor ailments. A young woman who spoke English very well was our guide and she allowed us to taste the various berries and grains that they eat, and several of us participated in crushing sorghum seeds (a grain that makes porridge, a staple food for rural Batswana) and attempting to balance a clay pot meant to carry water on our heads. That was really difficult, and those pots have to weigh at least ten pounds without any water in them! I really enjoyed the bit on traditional medicine. It is so amazing what people have discovered in this world for curing anything from a headache to colic in a young child! I am a bit disappointed that I wasn't introduced to this earlier because my original research intention was to examine the prevalence of traditional medicine in the midst of Western influences on "proper" medical practices. Our final stop in the tour was a make-shift gift shop where the wares of the craftsmen and women were sold for very reasonable prices, and I had no qualms about spending my money to support these people in their way of life. They even tracked who had made each specific item so that person would receive the money directly!
We then returned to Audi Camp for the evening, ate salad with cold meats and cheeses, and then sat around talking and relaxing long into the evening. The night was uneventful aside from frequent and numerous animal noises, and the roosters started crowing long before the sun decided to creep into view. TTFN!
Wednesday 2/27/08
I'm sitting in a portable chair, legs crossed, a light breeze blowing my hair around my face, and watching the most breathtaking sunset I have ever seen in my entire life. I will attempt to describe the scene before me, but I don't even think my pictures will do the sight justice. The clouds are flung artistically across the sky, reflecting the glowing ember that is the setting sun on the horizon of the trees. The sky is alight with a rainbow of pinks, yellows, blues, grays and oranges. On every horizon are the undulating beaches of the Nxai Pans, each decorated with a thick layer of small green trees and the occasional lone Baobab tree, towering over the landscape. Down teh beach and into the pans the remnants of summer rains reflect the light of the sunset and the green of the surrounding vegetation. It is breathtaking and utterly indescribable. If I have to pick one event in my entire Botswana experience that has made the entire trip completely worth it, it would be this moment.
I will digress from my reverie to recap the events of the day, as I have exhausted my limited vocabulary's capacity to capture my surroundings...
This morning brought another delicious meal at 7am followed by frantic packing for our three-day trip to the Nxai Pan and Makgadikgadi National Parks. Once our guides had finished wiring the trailers equipped with all of our camping supplies to the safari trucks (we were to take two this time), we piled in and set off down the road, wind blowing, dust flying and our spirits soaring (cue cheesy inspirational music!). Three hours later, windblown and gritty, we turned off the paved highway and onto the sandy trail of the Nxai Pan National Park. We saw two elephants and a springbok (small deer-like creature that is really cute!) on the main road, and then turned off onto a smaller trail deep into the bush. Thirty minutes in we stopped at a dried up watering hole next to the road to investigate what looked like thousands of tiny, moving clots of dirt! In fact, they were frogs! Some as small as my thumbnail with bits of tail left from their tadpole days, and others as large as my fist that were busy burrowing into the moist ground. There were literally thousands clambering over the top of each other in a frenzy to go nowhere, and our guide told us that during the rainy season, the frogs reproduce in mass in these watering holes, and as they dry up, the frog spawn mature and disappear into the mud to hibernate until the next rainy season! Brilliant! We stopped a few more times after that to look at more elephants and gemsbok (larger antelope-like creatures with a big stripe down their front and long spiraled horns), and we were about to reach our lunch destination when a girl on my truck spotted a small speck moving towards us in the distance...
I will take a moment to explain what the Pans are. They are dried up saltwater lakes (or one really really big one depending on how you look at it) that run for miles in every direction. During the rainy season especially, they will become muddy, and begin to fill in places, and this can make for some very precarious driving, even in the boat-sized trucks we were riding in.
The speck we saw turned out to be a very tired and thirsty Canadian man named Glenn who was visiting Botswana/South Africa/Namibia with his girlfriend Alina, and their Afrikaner guide Pierre. They had been on their way north to Victoria Falls, and decided to stop briefly in the Pans to check them out. Unfortunately, their lack of planning and a bit of misguided bravery from their guide had landed them entrenched in the mud in one of the pans. They had been stuck for two hours with no food or water and no idea if they would even see another person that day. So Glenn and Alina hopped onto our truck and we drove over to the area of the Pans where Pierre was knee-deep in mud trying to dig them out. We were only able to reach him after driving for several minutes around the edge of the Pans until we found a spot that was dried up enough to prevent our vehicle from getting stuck. I applaud our guides for knowing exactly which areas were not safe to forge through, and we were never even remotely close to getting stuck in the Pans. That aside, we finally reached the four-wheeler, attached its bumper to ours, and pulled it out in a matter of minutes. We then invited them for lunch so that they would not have to drive for another three hours before getting anything else to eat or drink.
Lunch was served amidst a large cluster of Bains Baobab trees, and I will say again, I have never seen anything like them in my life! They are broader than any redwood tree I have ever seen, and the bark looks like something out o a fairy tale. It was absolutely surreal.
After lunch, we said goodbye to our Canadian friends and completed the final leg of the six hour trip driving along the edge of the Pans to our campsite. The site was just off the Pans in a clearing that featured a lone Baobab tree. We arranged our tents in a tight circle around it and for bathrooms, our guides erected two square tents with no roof that each sported a portable toilet seat, toilet paper, and a shovel (and a hole of course). To add to our luxurious accommodations, we had dinner at a table with a tablecloth and lanterns to light our meal! Short of having running water and electricity, I'm as comfortable here as I am at UB! I've now come back to the moment when we went down to the Pans and watched the sunset over the next horizon of trees. Once the sun had set and we had eaten our meal, we walked back out onto the beach to see the most amazing starlit night I've ever seen. Even the milky way was clearly visible. We laid there attempting to point out constellations and shooting stars, and listening with tremulous excitement to the lions roaring in the distance (our guides said they were less then 2km away!). The evening was cool, quiet and pure heaven. I was disappointed that I had left my mosquito net at Audi camp because I briefly entertained the idea of setting up a makeshift transparent tent right there on the Pans so I could watch the stars all night! TTFN!
Thursday 2/28/08
Happy Birthday Alex Trow!!!!!!!!!!
This morning we departed early to go into another section of the park that reminded me of nature films about Africa, with watering holes and wild plains stretching out for miles. We saw many animals during the course of the day, including way too many species of birds to recall, zebras, jackals, elephants (who were quite shy), giraffes, eagles, a leopard tortoise, two male lions (less than fifty feet from us!), a cheetah, and a black mamba (poisonous snake) that thought it could take on our jeep, but quickly admitted defeat and scurried into the tall grass. We drove back to the pans as the sun was beginning to dip towards the horizon and enjoyed another gorgeous sunset on the beach. That night we were unable to see the stars because of a rainstorm, but the sound of the rain on our tents was quite soothing. TTFN!
Friday 2/29/08
Happy Leap Year's Day!
I failed to sleep well in the stifling tents, but I'm getting accustomed to the sleep deprivation and it fails to dampen my spirits with everything that we are experiencing this week! Today we packed up camp and headed to Makgadikgadi National Park which is much more of a wilderness area and contains quite different vegetation from the Pans. The drive to our campsite was a bit wearying seeing as how we had spent the last two days sitting in the trucks for six hours plus at a time, but we did get to pass through another cattle fence and into a rural village that was straight out of a national geographic with mix of thatch huts and colorful clay houses. We drove for another thirty minutes before crossing the cattle fence again (going back into the wilderness area) where our campsite, Menoakwena camp was situated. Menoakwena means tooth of the crocodile, and the man that runs it, a native Kenyan (white man), is a very cool, very conservation-oriented guy named David. This is the website describing the camp: http://www.kalaharikavango.com/. They are basically a permanent portable camp from which people can take safaris to see game, or they can just stay in the camp and watch animals come to the watering holes sitauted about fifty feet below the camp. If you are ever interested in going on a safari, or just learning about the sustainability plan that David has enacted in order to preserve the watering hole for the wildlife and employ as many local Batswana as possible, you should check out the website! Very cool, and some great pics as well!
The lodge itself is luxury camping with high-quality tents, flush toilets and bucket showers (supplied by several water towers situated in the camp), a bar, a pool that circulates through the watering hole and is purified as it comes back into the camp, and ample space for cooking and watching the animals come to drink. The entire camp is set on a ridge overlooking the park and watering holes, and it was so wonderfully peaceful just to sit there as lightning storms flashed in all directions around us, and a few small animals played near the water. If I'm ever rich and have free time, I will definitely be back here! TTFN!
Saturday 3/1/08
March already! It rained all night last night, and aside from a leaky spot in the roof that dripped on me all night, it was a lovely night! I did have to get up to pee far too often, but the sound of the rain pelting on the tent always lulled me right back to sleep. The morning game drive was quite fruitless, although we got to see hippos from very close up, an experience that was as invigorating as it was terrifying, and we were all glad to return to camp for a brief lunch before heading back to Audi camp. The ride back was riotously fun with lots of off-key singing and very creative song rewrites. The only interruption was going back through the "security checkpoint" where they searched our bags and scrutinized our passports, but did not check the voluminous cargo space of our safari trucks. What they were searching for, I have no idea, although there was speculation that they were looking for illegal immigrants.... in our backpacks....
We finally arrived back at Audi camp at 4:45, glad to be able to shower and relax after an exhausting five days in the sun. One of the girls, Lindsay, was going to be celebrating her 21st birthday on Sunday, so there was much drinking and general merriment that went on until midnight when we all sang her happy birthday and immediately proceeded to fall into bed, exhausted. I am very sad that this vacation has to come to an end because I am anticipating all of the things that need to be done when I get back and this is soooo much better! TTFN!
3/2/08
At last! I finally slept all the way through the night!! I'm still sleep deprived, but I feel significantly more rested than I have been all week! Today is our final day of vacation, and it ends at one pm when we depart for the Maun airport. Thus far today, I have contented myself with sleeping in until 7:20am, eating a delicious breakfast, and lying on the couch catching up in my journal. Next, I will go back and pack, write postcards, read if there's time (I'm on my way through the Number One Ladies' Detective Agency for the second time), and eat lunch! Lovely! TTFN!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020941&l=6acb7&id=30001818
Sunday 2/24/08
This is the life! Cool breeze, full belly, the great outdoors and people taking care of our every need! Ok, so the last part is a bit over the top, but it's nice to be catered to once in a while. This morning, we drove to the Gaberone airport in a red combi playing Alicia Keys and other wonderfully overplayed R&B artists. I began the first "Number One Ladies Detective Agency" book (again) at the airport and nearly finished it by the time the plane landed in Maun. For those of you who have not heard about this book, it details the exploits of Botswana's first and only female private detective (fictionally speaking), and it a true delight to read, plus it gives you a wonderful look at Botswana culture. Interestingly enough, despite it's reputation for poor customer service, we were given a drink and a packet of peanuts during the short plane ride to Maun. That's better than many American airlines can boast!
The airport in Maun to my surprise was quite a bit nicer than Gaberone's airport, which speaks wonders to the impact of the tourist industry here, which is quite developed when compared to Gaberone. Indeed, the town of Maun, as we drove through it in a less exciting white combi, was largely made up of tourist shops boasting to have the finest handmade pottery, woven baskets, fabrics, etc. in all of Botswana.
Our base camp, called Audi Camp was our destination for the night, as our official safari trek would not begin until the next morning. The camp itself epitomizes "African tourism". The bar/restaurant/lounge area equipped with a pool and extensive sitting areas is all beautifully decorated in a traditional, rustic yet expensive style. The floors are made of multi-colored flagstone, and the lounge overlooking the pool is abundantly furnished with sturdy wooden couches padded by large, very comfortable orange cushions. After settling into our tents, which are large and furnished with a nighstand and two cots, we ventured over to the lounge to relax for a few hours before dinner. A large portion of the group jumped in the pool to splash around, but I was perfectly content to sit on the veranda chatting with the other non-swimmers.
Dinner was a delightful reminder of home with spaghetti, salad and rolls, with ice cream and chocolate sauce for dessert! After dinner, we sat at the dining table playing Hearts and sipping ice water before retiring to our spacious, yet stuffy tents for the night. Before bed, my tentmates, Alyssa and Whitney and I ventured into the beautiful bathrooms to brush our teeth and I myst say that I have never seen so many bugs (and even a frog) in one toilet stall in my life! Note to self: do not use the restrooms at night whenever possible!
Monday 2/25/08
Morning came as a welcome reprieve rom the hot, sweaty night and I thoroughly enjoyed the hot water and spaciousness of the roofless showers. Words cannot describe the incredible architecture that adorns the Audi Camp bathrooms! The continental breakfast too surpassed all my expectations, offering toast, pancakes, scones, muffins, granola and yogurt, corn flakes, fruit salad, cheese, ham, a variety of juices and lots of tea and coffee. Breakfast alone made the trip completely worth it!
Following breakfast we prepared our overnight packs for the mokoro trip on the Okavango River, and then we all met in the reception area at 8am for departure from Audi Camp. The sight which greeted us in the dirt parking lot was unbelievably cool! The safari jeep that was to take all twenty of us to the deltas was HUGE! It was the monster truck version of a safari jeep (which is no compact car itself). We loaded up our packs and off we went, living up the tourist image, waving to people as we thundered down the road and snapping thousands of pictures of absolutely everything! There were cattle, goats and donkeys everywhere on the roadsides, and on quite a few occasions we were forced to come to a near stop to wait for a stubborn animal to move out of the center of the road. After a while, we left pavement behind and turned onto the sandy side roads that would lead us into the heart of the Okavango wilderness. At one point, we passed through a small village along one of the many veterinary fences that partitions Botswana into wildlife areas and domestic, cattle-grazing areas, and it was here that several of our guides who live in the area jumped on board. We then passed through the quarantine fence and set off into the wildlife zone. Almost immediately we saw giraffe, ostrich, zebras, and even a glimpse of an elephant as it disappeared into the fringes of the trees. This was undoubtedly my favorite part of the ride as we did a significant amount of off-roading/sliding around in the sand while thorn trees thrashed at our arms and faces. It was amazing! Finally, we came upon the edge of the Okavango River where the rest of our guides waited to pole us through the deltas! We were two to a canoe (called a mokoro) with one poler per mokoro. At first we were certain that we would tip over the side of the mokoro, but it was like riding a bike in that once you find your balance it feels like you've spent your whole life on the water! We were set up in a comfortable reclining position with cushions behind us, and despite the leakage of water into the boat that soaked my pants about twenty minutes into the ride, I felt like I was lying on a beach chair floating on the river! We saw no wildlife, but the vegetation was very nice and we came in very close proximity to a hippo as evidenced by the grunting and splashing sounds that seemed to be just beyond the wall of reeds. We finally landed at some obscure destination which I am convinced I could never find again, and after erecting our tents we had lunch which was a mix of traditional and Western foods with potato salad, carrotslaw, coleslaw, chicken and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. There were also tea, coffee and biscuits for after lunch during the siesta, which I discovered to be a delightful tradition despite the fact that I was drinking a hot beverage in the middle of the African summer! We also discovered the largest spider I've seen yet in a tree above our campsite! Although we couldn't get close enough to touch it, I would say it's at least as big as my hand, legs and all!! TTFN!
Tuesday 2/26/08
There is nothing more liberating and yet so luxurious about showering under an open sky with a cool breeze filtering through the gentle stream of warm water raining down from the faucet above! But I'm getting ahead of myself...
Our hippo companion remained with us on the river for the entire afternoon yesterday, and was still wallowing seemingly right next to us as we poled our way back down the river this morning. After yesterday's siesta in the afternoon, several of us went back out onto the water where our guides taught us how to mokoro in an area where the current wasn't as strong. Despite a few harrowing moments involving Alyssa and I attempting to slide past each other when we were switching places and nearly tipping the boat, it was really fun and I think I actually got the hang of it!
A cup of tea and about thirty minutes later we all headed out for our evening game walk. The walk itself was quite arduous as we were following hippo trails through brambles and tall grasses, but the sights were well worth the hour-long trek. On the way to the hippo pool which was our intended destination, we saw lots of different types of birds and our guides pointed out a tree that had huge seed pods that looked like sausages. The tree was fittingly dubbed a sausage tree, and a preferred option when making the mokoro. I learned later that the mokoro industry is threatened as of late because the sausage trees which produce the best quality boats require twenty to forty years to reach maturity, but the mokoro only last five years.
When we arrived at the hippo pool, there was a family of hippos resting just below the surface of the water at a distance of about 100 yards from us. We could just see the tops of their heads, and at times the baby hippo's head would emerge from the water as his mother, on top of whom he was riding, would come up for air. It was really cute to see the set of little ears emerge followed by his little head, and then an identical but much larger set up ears and the top of the mother's head would appear shortly thereafter. My pictures do not do the sight justice, but it was incredibly exhilarating to be in the presence of these seemingly docile creatures in their natural habitat.
On the way back to camp, we spotted monkeys frolicking in the trees, and crossed paths with a young puff adder (a fairly deadly snake that in the adult stage is not something I ever hope to encounter!). Dinner was a bit more traditional, with rice, salad, spicy beef stir-fry and peaches-and-cream for dessert! Like I mentioned before, this was five-star camping for sure! After dinner our guides and cooks entertained us with traditional song and dance, at which point we attempted to reciprocate the gesture by singing "traditional" American pop tunes. They enjoyed the hokey pokey, chicken dance, and the macarena, but we struggled through off-key renditions of Proud Mary, the Fresh Prince of Belaire, Lean on Me, I Want it That Way (Backstreet Boys I believe), and a smattering of rap/hip-hop songs that thoroughly entertained us but were less than pleasing to the ears of our guides!
We sat around the fire for several more hours talking and sipping tea before retiring to our tents for the night. We couldn't retire without going one last time to the toilet however! Allow me to attempt to convey to you the awesomeness (poor grammar I know!) that was our toilet! As you set off down the path, you grab the toilet paper and small shovel. Twenty yards further on, you come to a deep rectangular hole freshly dug by our guides that morning with a fold-able chair over the top of the hole. The unique feature of this chair is the seat which is actually a plastic toilet seat. So out here, on a random island in the Okavango deltas, not only do we have gourmet meals, we have our own private outhouse with a view! It feels quite strange to pee on a toilet seat in the middle of the forest, but when in Rome....!!
I spent a hot and short but restful night in a tent with Alyssa, and we rose at dawn for a delicious continental breakfast (including yogurt and granola!), and then we packed up our campsite for the trip back out. The trip back down the river was brief but relaxing, and our safari truck was waiting for us in the same spot to whisk us out of the bush. We saw a good deal more wildlife on our way out including zebras, giraffes, eagles, storks and a black cobra that entertained the idea of attacking our tires for a second before realizing that the truck was significantly larger and more dangerous than it's own venomous fangs.
Our next stop was a small village of Bayei tribesmen who welcomed us into their homes and demonstrated various aspects of rural life including cooking, music, the bedroom, and various traditional medicines used in treating minor ailments. A young woman who spoke English very well was our guide and she allowed us to taste the various berries and grains that they eat, and several of us participated in crushing sorghum seeds (a grain that makes porridge, a staple food for rural Batswana) and attempting to balance a clay pot meant to carry water on our heads. That was really difficult, and those pots have to weigh at least ten pounds without any water in them! I really enjoyed the bit on traditional medicine. It is so amazing what people have discovered in this world for curing anything from a headache to colic in a young child! I am a bit disappointed that I wasn't introduced to this earlier because my original research intention was to examine the prevalence of traditional medicine in the midst of Western influences on "proper" medical practices. Our final stop in the tour was a make-shift gift shop where the wares of the craftsmen and women were sold for very reasonable prices, and I had no qualms about spending my money to support these people in their way of life. They even tracked who had made each specific item so that person would receive the money directly!
We then returned to Audi Camp for the evening, ate salad with cold meats and cheeses, and then sat around talking and relaxing long into the evening. The night was uneventful aside from frequent and numerous animal noises, and the roosters started crowing long before the sun decided to creep into view. TTFN!
Wednesday 2/27/08
I'm sitting in a portable chair, legs crossed, a light breeze blowing my hair around my face, and watching the most breathtaking sunset I have ever seen in my entire life. I will attempt to describe the scene before me, but I don't even think my pictures will do the sight justice. The clouds are flung artistically across the sky, reflecting the glowing ember that is the setting sun on the horizon of the trees. The sky is alight with a rainbow of pinks, yellows, blues, grays and oranges. On every horizon are the undulating beaches of the Nxai Pans, each decorated with a thick layer of small green trees and the occasional lone Baobab tree, towering over the landscape. Down teh beach and into the pans the remnants of summer rains reflect the light of the sunset and the green of the surrounding vegetation. It is breathtaking and utterly indescribable. If I have to pick one event in my entire Botswana experience that has made the entire trip completely worth it, it would be this moment.
I will digress from my reverie to recap the events of the day, as I have exhausted my limited vocabulary's capacity to capture my surroundings...
This morning brought another delicious meal at 7am followed by frantic packing for our three-day trip to the Nxai Pan and Makgadikgadi National Parks. Once our guides had finished wiring the trailers equipped with all of our camping supplies to the safari trucks (we were to take two this time), we piled in and set off down the road, wind blowing, dust flying and our spirits soaring (cue cheesy inspirational music!). Three hours later, windblown and gritty, we turned off the paved highway and onto the sandy trail of the Nxai Pan National Park. We saw two elephants and a springbok (small deer-like creature that is really cute!) on the main road, and then turned off onto a smaller trail deep into the bush. Thirty minutes in we stopped at a dried up watering hole next to the road to investigate what looked like thousands of tiny, moving clots of dirt! In fact, they were frogs! Some as small as my thumbnail with bits of tail left from their tadpole days, and others as large as my fist that were busy burrowing into the moist ground. There were literally thousands clambering over the top of each other in a frenzy to go nowhere, and our guide told us that during the rainy season, the frogs reproduce in mass in these watering holes, and as they dry up, the frog spawn mature and disappear into the mud to hibernate until the next rainy season! Brilliant! We stopped a few more times after that to look at more elephants and gemsbok (larger antelope-like creatures with a big stripe down their front and long spiraled horns), and we were about to reach our lunch destination when a girl on my truck spotted a small speck moving towards us in the distance...
I will take a moment to explain what the Pans are. They are dried up saltwater lakes (or one really really big one depending on how you look at it) that run for miles in every direction. During the rainy season especially, they will become muddy, and begin to fill in places, and this can make for some very precarious driving, even in the boat-sized trucks we were riding in.
The speck we saw turned out to be a very tired and thirsty Canadian man named Glenn who was visiting Botswana/South Africa/Namibia with his girlfriend Alina, and their Afrikaner guide Pierre. They had been on their way north to Victoria Falls, and decided to stop briefly in the Pans to check them out. Unfortunately, their lack of planning and a bit of misguided bravery from their guide had landed them entrenched in the mud in one of the pans. They had been stuck for two hours with no food or water and no idea if they would even see another person that day. So Glenn and Alina hopped onto our truck and we drove over to the area of the Pans where Pierre was knee-deep in mud trying to dig them out. We were only able to reach him after driving for several minutes around the edge of the Pans until we found a spot that was dried up enough to prevent our vehicle from getting stuck. I applaud our guides for knowing exactly which areas were not safe to forge through, and we were never even remotely close to getting stuck in the Pans. That aside, we finally reached the four-wheeler, attached its bumper to ours, and pulled it out in a matter of minutes. We then invited them for lunch so that they would not have to drive for another three hours before getting anything else to eat or drink.
Lunch was served amidst a large cluster of Bains Baobab trees, and I will say again, I have never seen anything like them in my life! They are broader than any redwood tree I have ever seen, and the bark looks like something out o a fairy tale. It was absolutely surreal.
After lunch, we said goodbye to our Canadian friends and completed the final leg of the six hour trip driving along the edge of the Pans to our campsite. The site was just off the Pans in a clearing that featured a lone Baobab tree. We arranged our tents in a tight circle around it and for bathrooms, our guides erected two square tents with no roof that each sported a portable toilet seat, toilet paper, and a shovel (and a hole of course). To add to our luxurious accommodations, we had dinner at a table with a tablecloth and lanterns to light our meal! Short of having running water and electricity, I'm as comfortable here as I am at UB! I've now come back to the moment when we went down to the Pans and watched the sunset over the next horizon of trees. Once the sun had set and we had eaten our meal, we walked back out onto the beach to see the most amazing starlit night I've ever seen. Even the milky way was clearly visible. We laid there attempting to point out constellations and shooting stars, and listening with tremulous excitement to the lions roaring in the distance (our guides said they were less then 2km away!). The evening was cool, quiet and pure heaven. I was disappointed that I had left my mosquito net at Audi camp because I briefly entertained the idea of setting up a makeshift transparent tent right there on the Pans so I could watch the stars all night! TTFN!
Thursday 2/28/08
Happy Birthday Alex Trow!!!!!!!!!!
This morning we departed early to go into another section of the park that reminded me of nature films about Africa, with watering holes and wild plains stretching out for miles. We saw many animals during the course of the day, including way too many species of birds to recall, zebras, jackals, elephants (who were quite shy), giraffes, eagles, a leopard tortoise, two male lions (less than fifty feet from us!), a cheetah, and a black mamba (poisonous snake) that thought it could take on our jeep, but quickly admitted defeat and scurried into the tall grass. We drove back to the pans as the sun was beginning to dip towards the horizon and enjoyed another gorgeous sunset on the beach. That night we were unable to see the stars because of a rainstorm, but the sound of the rain on our tents was quite soothing. TTFN!
Friday 2/29/08
Happy Leap Year's Day!
I failed to sleep well in the stifling tents, but I'm getting accustomed to the sleep deprivation and it fails to dampen my spirits with everything that we are experiencing this week! Today we packed up camp and headed to Makgadikgadi National Park which is much more of a wilderness area and contains quite different vegetation from the Pans. The drive to our campsite was a bit wearying seeing as how we had spent the last two days sitting in the trucks for six hours plus at a time, but we did get to pass through another cattle fence and into a rural village that was straight out of a national geographic with mix of thatch huts and colorful clay houses. We drove for another thirty minutes before crossing the cattle fence again (going back into the wilderness area) where our campsite, Menoakwena camp was situated. Menoakwena means tooth of the crocodile, and the man that runs it, a native Kenyan (white man), is a very cool, very conservation-oriented guy named David. This is the website describing the camp: http://www.kalaharikavango.com/. They are basically a permanent portable camp from which people can take safaris to see game, or they can just stay in the camp and watch animals come to the watering holes sitauted about fifty feet below the camp. If you are ever interested in going on a safari, or just learning about the sustainability plan that David has enacted in order to preserve the watering hole for the wildlife and employ as many local Batswana as possible, you should check out the website! Very cool, and some great pics as well!
The lodge itself is luxury camping with high-quality tents, flush toilets and bucket showers (supplied by several water towers situated in the camp), a bar, a pool that circulates through the watering hole and is purified as it comes back into the camp, and ample space for cooking and watching the animals come to drink. The entire camp is set on a ridge overlooking the park and watering holes, and it was so wonderfully peaceful just to sit there as lightning storms flashed in all directions around us, and a few small animals played near the water. If I'm ever rich and have free time, I will definitely be back here! TTFN!
Saturday 3/1/08
March already! It rained all night last night, and aside from a leaky spot in the roof that dripped on me all night, it was a lovely night! I did have to get up to pee far too often, but the sound of the rain pelting on the tent always lulled me right back to sleep. The morning game drive was quite fruitless, although we got to see hippos from very close up, an experience that was as invigorating as it was terrifying, and we were all glad to return to camp for a brief lunch before heading back to Audi camp. The ride back was riotously fun with lots of off-key singing and very creative song rewrites. The only interruption was going back through the "security checkpoint" where they searched our bags and scrutinized our passports, but did not check the voluminous cargo space of our safari trucks. What they were searching for, I have no idea, although there was speculation that they were looking for illegal immigrants.... in our backpacks....
We finally arrived back at Audi camp at 4:45, glad to be able to shower and relax after an exhausting five days in the sun. One of the girls, Lindsay, was going to be celebrating her 21st birthday on Sunday, so there was much drinking and general merriment that went on until midnight when we all sang her happy birthday and immediately proceeded to fall into bed, exhausted. I am very sad that this vacation has to come to an end because I am anticipating all of the things that need to be done when I get back and this is soooo much better! TTFN!
3/2/08
At last! I finally slept all the way through the night!! I'm still sleep deprived, but I feel significantly more rested than I have been all week! Today is our final day of vacation, and it ends at one pm when we depart for the Maun airport. Thus far today, I have contented myself with sleeping in until 7:20am, eating a delicious breakfast, and lying on the couch catching up in my journal. Next, I will go back and pack, write postcards, read if there's time (I'm on my way through the Number One Ladies' Detective Agency for the second time), and eat lunch! Lovely! TTFN!
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