We had heard that Gaborone would empty out during the holidays, with all business, shops and restaurants closing for the better part of one month and locals traveling back to their home villages. Still, it was a little surreal just how quiet it was. Streets normally bustling with traffic and activity were silent. We were able to take long walks without fear of being steamrolled and spent lots of time trying to cool off in the pool. People returned in good spirits and looking refreshed, and it reminded me that we should take more time off in America than we do.
The inauguration was closely watched here, and locals celebrated as if Obama had just been sworn in as their own president. Lots of congratulations were extended to us, just as they were after he won the election. There seems to be more respect, and even envy, towards Americans than at any other time I can remember in my time abroad. We even renewed our cancelled satellite subscription for a month just so we could watch history unfold.
Seeing the reaction of locals to the inauguration got me thinking about the culture and mentality of people here. I may be guilty of generalizing here, but Botswana tend to live for the moment. They do not dwell on the future nearly as much as we do, and this can be both a good and a bad thing. They are a people less stressed and carefree, able to appreciate what is good in their life (no matter how much hardship might befall them). But with this mentality comes a vulnerability to bad times that may lie ahead. I worry that my staff are not going to be prepared for the loss of employment and income that comes when our project comes to an end. I talk to them about “what next” and very few seem to have a plan. I worry about Patience, our nanny from Zimbabwe, and what she will do when the family we share her with (and who also employs her and houses her husband and little girl) move from Botswana. Most don’t have a ‘Plan B’ which is disconcerting in even good times, but even more worrisome when there is a global economic crisis like the one that is just now starting to hit Botswana.
Most Southern Africa countries are very poor. The ones that are better off rely on one sector, such as oil (e.g. Angola) or diamonds (e.g. Botswana) or tourism (e.g. Seychelles). You can say their economies should be more diversified, but it isn’t really realistic. You can’t create a manufacturing sector, for example, in a place with no infrastructure, resources or comparative advantage such as cheap skilled labor. And so they face a real dilemma. In looking at Botswana, we are seeing the diamond mines begin to retrench. The U.S. and to a lesser extent Western Europe are the biggest consumers of diamonds and anyone watching the news can figure out that not many people are splurging on high end items right now. So diamond prices decline, manufacturing stops, the mining companies are sitting on huge inventories, new mining projects in the early stages are being halted because they can’t get financing, and the Government of Botswana is facing a serious spending crunch because their budgets are based on income from diamond exports (about 80% of Botswana’s GDP) that clearly isn’t going to materialize. It is going to be a bad year here, even if things rebound soon which is unlikely. And sadly, Botswana is better off than most countries in the region. They at least have political stability and a significant amount of reserves to carry them through in the short-term. On a more personal level, we have started to see many of our expat friends working in the mining industry lose their jobs and they are packing up to return home. In terms of my project, we are not really feeling much impact because our funding is already obligated. It remains to be seen what it all means for future development aid coming to Botswana, Southern Africa and the continent. There is obviously a lot of need right now everywhere and I think everyone in the development world is waiting to see where the focus of the new administration will be. So we trudge on, like everyone else, trying to forget about the troubles to the extent that it is possible and focus on the bright side.
One of the things I love about Botswana is that it is a place you can experience Africa without being overwhelmed by the hardship. I’ve heard some people describe it as “Africa for beginners” and the description is apt. (For many aid workers, it is in fact not hard enough.) On the one hand we have amenities in Gaborone that would make it a crime for us to ever complain, such as air conditioning (at least in part of the house), clean water, and a pool for gods sake. There is not one but two modern malls, cinemas, and restaurants that would seem right in place in most American cities. But within the cities and even across the street from these modern commercial districts, you have shacks adorned with nothing more than a stool and a razor that serve as barber shops, cows roaming the streets, makeshift car washes and tire repair stands and people selling everything from aquariums to crafts to fish, literally on the side of the road. You see women balancing large baskets of fruit on their head and smiling, little boys, barefoot and shirtless playing soccer on rocky dirt patches with a pathetic, unraveling ball and empty beer cartons serving as goalposts. It is this comingling of modernity and what I envisioned before I came as the “real Africa” that fascinates me. The contrast only sharpens when you leave Gaborone and venture out into the villages. One of the places we went to on our trip was a place just north of the Central Kalahari Desert, on the edge of the pans. We stayed in a very cool place called Planet Baobab. When we arrived I was in desperate need of ice (a sometimes hard to find commodity here) so that I could chill Findley’s milk that we had brought with us. The lodge did not have any ice, nor did the only gas station nearby. So one of the women working there offered to take me into her village to try and find some. We drove to four different places without success. Finally, she leads me down this dirt road to a small church where we began to hear beautiful singing. She went inside, then came back out with a woman and her child who had abandoned the service to pile into my car. We drove to the woman’s small home where she disappeared and then reemerged triumphantly with a block of ice. Apparently those with enough money there to have freezers make and sell ice to supplement their income. I’m not sure why I bring this up but I guess it kind of strikes me as a good example of how progress can reach remote places and in strange ways.
2009 is shaping up to be banner year for Findley. He started nursery school and will be going three mornings a week. This will give him a chance to experience new kids and new activities, as well as start preparing for the SATs and perhaps pick up some extracurricular activities that will look good on his college application. He has four teeth now, almost, and has expressed interest in walking but not enough to actually do it on his own. He laughs a lot and cries a lot and talks non-stop in his very own language. We relish all of it (ok, most of it). In addition to working with the teens and little children at the Baylor Clinic, Chase is now famous in diplomatic circles here. She recently was hired to write the bi-weekly newsletter that the Embassy sends out to all of the American diplomats and aid workers. The first issue went out last week and rocked the house. If you ever want to know what is going on in Gaborone, we’ll send you a copy.
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