Mocholodi

Agust 2, Mokolodi:On our way to Mokolodi Nature Reserve, just outside Gaborone. Good name for a game reserve--it just rolls off the tongue. We spot baboons on the side of the road playing frogger with the passing traffic. Findley guffaws, and then yawns. He is only mildly impressed. We arrive, buy our tickets, chit chat with a World Bank consultant from Canada who is waiting with us for our ranger and vehicle that will take us through the park for our first game reserve experience. We settle in the open air truck, having no idea what animals we'll see, but hope for high numbers. Findley rides bjorned to his papa, facing forward and beside Chase and in front of five other equally excited tourists. The truck bounces along and for the next two hours we are treated to sightings of (in order):kuduswarts hogs,elephants,impalas,gazelles,antelopes,baboons (again)ostriches, spotted hyenas, water bucks. Findley stays awake until the antelopes, then succombs to sleep. As the drive winds down, the sun settles under and the skyline amazes. The temperature drops rapidly and dramatically. (Desert my arse.) Our driver is waiting for us when the ranger drops us off, and we leave with lots of photos, a few of them actually in focus, a hungry baby, and a taste of Africa that leaves us wanting more. Chase and I agree, we've had worse days.

Thank goodness for Theresa!

It's been a while since I've posted. Finn got a cold/flu and then I got it. Normally not such a big deal, but it seemed like one. It sure made me realize how far we are from family and friends. We haven't really had time yet to get to know anyone really well. So I wasn't sure what to do once I got sick. It's not like I can just pick up the phone and call someone to take care of Finn for me. Fortunately he is such a good baby that I survived. And just when I started feeling really bad, Theresa saved the day! She called to invite me for tea. I told her I wasn't feeling well. She not only provided me with the phone number for a doctor, she also came and got me the next day to take me to this doctor. And when she brought me home, she assured me I would be feeling better the next day and most certainly needed to get out of the house. "I'll be by at 10:00 tomorrow to pick up you and Findley."

Theresa is the woman who takes care of the pool. I have only seen her twice before this. But right away, I knew she was going to be an incredible resource! She's originally from South Africa. She moved here 12 years ago with her husband and two children. He is a diplomat and was hired for a 3 year posting. At the end of the three years they realized they had fallen in love with Botswana and decided to make this their home. She knows everything and everyone! The first day she came to clean the pool, happened to be the first day of play group. She was kind enough to give us a ride. On the way there, she suddenly became "Theresa the Tour Guide." I don't think she stopped to take a breath while giving a tid-bit about every building, shop, neighborhood, etc.

Anyhow, sure enough, yesterday morning at 10:00 she was here to pick us up. And she was right, after taking the antibiotics, I was feeling a lot better. I had no idea where we were going or what we were doing but I was so happy to get out of the house. It turned out to be a great morning. She took me to a nursery school that she thinks we would be a great place for Finn. I will say, I was very impressed. It is the end of the school term so the school was having a concert / craft fair. I would say the school was about 70% locals and 30% expats. Finn particularly likes the fact that the school has its own petting zoo and swimming pool!

After that, she drove us around to see more of Gaborone. Then we stopped at a nice little cafe for tea. Everywhere we went, Theresa knew atleast two people. I loved our tea, because I finally got a chance to ask her questions (sometimes she talks so much and fast that it is hard to get a word in edge wise). She is fascinating. In addition to taking care of pools, she makes and sells crafts, and she runs a dog parlor out of her maid's quarters. (Her children attend a boarding school in South Africa). I'm beginning to think that I am her little project. She has all sorts of ideas for me. Right now, I am just so grateful that she has reached out to us. I'm not sure how this past week would have played out had she not stepped in!

Holy Avocado!

Today I got to meet our gardeners. Apparently they come every Friday. I was eager for them to come because I was very curious as to what exactly they would do. The two girls (forgive me, I couldn't make out there names even though I asked them to repeat themselves several times) started by sweeping the leaves out of the landscaped areas. Then Opi, a very nice gentleman, begn the long process of watering all of the plants and trees. The girls decided they wanted to play with Finn (fine by me!). I decided I could actually get some housework done.

Suddenly, Opi came knocking on the window and asked me to come outside. He was holding what I thought was a small coconut. He wanted a knife to cut it open. We do have trees that look like palm trees - but I sure haven't seen any coconuts. When I brought him the knife I got a much closer look and realized that it definitely wasn't a coconut. It looked like a HUGE avocado. Indeed it was. I ran inside to get our camera - I wanted to take a picture for our godson, Will, who LOVES avocado. Of course I couldn't find the camera - it was in Ian's bag at work. When I came out they had cut it and each person was eating a slice (like the size of canelope slices). Will would have been in his element! Anyhow, I was trying to explain that we have avocadoes in America, but they are much smaller. Before I could finish, one of the girls went to their truck and returned with another one for me. While it was super sweet, I kindly declined. We all know Ian isn't a fan of veggies, and Finn doesn't eat table food yet, there's no way I could eat it all for myself and I couldn't stand the thought of wasting their food. I did, however, ask them to bring one next week so I could take a picture!

Mocholodi Game Reserve

After spending our first full week in Gaborone we decided it was time to check out some animals. We made our first trip to one of Gaborone's Game Reserves. I'm embarrassed to say that we saw more animals (monkeys and cows) on the way there than we did at the actual park. Unfortunately, we came at the wrong time for viewing any animals. We just missed the game drive for the afternoon by about 15 minutes. However, we did get to see the finish of the "Kalahari Challenge," a two day mountain bike race. We immediately thought of my brother, Skiles. How about it Skiles - Botswana next year this time? I think you could win the race!

Anyhow, we did enjoy a nice picnic lunch and picked up all the brochures so we come at the right time in the future.

Getting Settled

We've now been here for one full week. I wouldn't say that I feel "settled" but I can say we finally are in a routine with Findley. Considering the time difference and the several weeks of living in different places prior to our departure, there was no schedule or routine. The first four nights were a nightmare. But we survived and we are thrilled with the results. Candy - if you are reading this, you would be pleased! Bed-time is 7:00 and he takes a nap in the morning and one in the afternoon. As much as I hate being tied to a schedule, it sure makes a nice difference for Finn. He is now one happy little booger!!!

We love our house but we can't seem to get the electrical stuff all figured out. For example, we were watching a dvd the other night. Suddenly, smoke started pouring out of the dvd player. The next morning we heard a strange noise coming from the guest bedroom. The lightbulb in the light fixture hanging from the ceiling exploded. A few hours later, Ian plugged in the microwave and we lost all our power. The electricians came out and said it was just a short circuit. I asked if we were using too much power and they laughed at me. But then, as soon as they left, I plugged in something else, and we lost power again. I know how to use the fuse box, but it shouldn't happen every time. When they came out again, they found a problem with one of the converters we were using. Let me tell you....we have to use converters for everything! Even the stuff we purchase here....because it is all imported. I wish there was just a standard converter that would work for everything. Guess I just need to be patient until we get it all sorted out.

The other challenge I am currently facing is understanding the language here. As I wrote before, English is spoken here, but it might as well be a different language. I really cannot make out what people are saying. I feel so rude asking people to repeat themselves 20 times. But if I don't I seem to put myself in awkward situations. For example, the security people called and said they were testing our system. (I only had to ask them to repeat that one time:) Then they asked me to press the pound key (so I thought). She asked again so I pressed it again. She then said nothing was happening so I should find the other pound keys in the house and press them. Other pound keys? What? How can there be other pound keys? At this point I realized I probably wasn't making out what she was saying. I told her we had only one pound key. After sending out the technical crew, I quickly realized she was saying "the panic key." I felt so stupid - but in the long run it wasn't a problem because some of them weren't actually working.

The last issue, which is minor, is that we haven't hired a maid. Apparently everyone here has a maid, a gardener, etc. Most houses, including ours, even come with a separate maid's quarters. And trust me, I do understand that we should hire one so that we are providing someone with a job, etc. But it just hasn't been a priority. Ian and I have often talked about what would a maid do all day? We certainly don't have enough to keep her busy all of the time. You all know what a neat freak Ian is and our house isn't that big. It's almost like we would have to make messes to provide work. Anyhow, back to my issue. EVERYONE that we meet, either on the street or at Ian's office, or people who come by the house ask us why we don't have a maid yet. Then they ask for a pen and paper so they can write down the name of their sister or cousin or friend who is a "good, dependable maid looking for work." Even the women at the supermarket come up to Findley and go goo-goo-ga-ga and then proceed to tell us we need to hire them to be his baby sitter.

I guess I need to get on the ball. Finn and I did go to our first play group this morning. It was the Sanitas Tea Garden (described in previous entry). We met several nice women and lots of cute kids. All of them are from the UK or South Africa. They were quick to tell me that Gaborone is a wonderful place to have young children. Anyhow, Finn had a great time watching the little ones play on the playground and I enjoyed meeting these women. Hopefully we will continue going to this play group. There is another one on Friday that we hope to check out as well (kids that are closer to Finn's age).

Our First Weekend

It finally feels like we are in Africa! I was preparing myself for another Central Asia-type of experience where everything was so difficult and different at first. However, I have been amazed by our rather smooth transition. While we haven't had time to really get to know or experience the culture yet, on the surface Gaborone seems similar to many American cities. For example, the supermarkets are just like ours. We can even buy pampers....for less!! There are lots of restaruants including fast food and pizza places that deliver! There are shopping malls, movie theaters, car dealerships, exercise facilities, etc. English is spoken, however, it will take some time adjusting to the accents.

We took a long walk around our neighborhood this afternoon. We discovered that our street is called "President's Drive" because we actually live on the street of Botswana's President!! There are several emabassies on our street as well. Needless to say, there is LOTS of security in our neighborhood. We also came upon an International Primary School on our walk as well as the headquarters for the Red Cross. (For those of you who don't know, before teaching, I worked for the Red Cross - both in DC and Central Asia). I will probably explore job opportunities at both places. Sure would be nice to walk work!!

Anyhow, back to feeling like we are actually in Africa! Yesterday we had breakfast at the Sanitas Tea Garden. It's a huge nursery with a little restaurant and incredible playground. As we were leaving our table, I was suddenly distracted by the most incredible music. We didn't know where exactly it was coming from, so we decided to follow it. As we followed the path that winds through the fruit-tree section of the nursery, the music was getting louder. We turned the corner to find a wedding ceremony taking place. There were other eavesdroppers, so we decided to stay for a few minutes. The congregation was small - but they were all singing and it was something incredible. Finally, I feel like we are in Africa!

Our LONG Journey to Gaborone

It's Wednesday evening in Gaborone, early afternoon in the US. After 26+ hours in planes and airports, we finally made it. Our home in Cheverly is finally packed up, everything is in storage, renters have moved into our house. Now we are at the beginning of this new and exciting chapter in our lives.

While we much rather be sleeping now, Finn decided that he would like to keep us awake...go figure. I won't complain, however. Finn was an absolute rock star on our 19&1/2 hr. flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg. Thank goodness we were able to use Ian's extra miles to get into business class. There was so much space in front of us (being short is always a bonus in these situations) that Finn was able to have a little play area on the floor. We sure did get a lot of attention from the flight attentands as well, thanks to the little one. It was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

We are spending our first night in the Gaborone Sun Hotel. Ebrahim, Ian's colleague, picked us up from the airport. It was at this moment that I experienced my first bit of culture shock. Finn's carseat did not make it with our other luggage. When we asked the people at the airport if they had one to loan us, they looked at us like we were kidding. Carseats are optional here. I put Finn in the baby bjorn, buckled us in and said a desparate prayer. One little voice was telling me that I was an irresponsible parent while another little voice was laughing at me explaining that I would quickly learn to put paranoia aside and just go with the flow.

Ian warned me that Botswana (plural for peolpe of Botswana) drive on the other side of the road. I don't recommend putting yourself in that situation at night, after not sleeping for 2 days.
Let's just say, we made it. I cannot wait to get some sleep!