Jacaranda

We have a new favorite tree: the jacaranda. Now that it is spring here, they have bloomed all over Gaborone. They are absolutely beautiful!

Respect Your Peeps

We continue to make progress during our Kalahari adventure. I have now burned out a DVD player, computer and flat screen monitor, and magic bullet (blender) because of different voltage requirements here. The good news is that I have no other electronic gadgets to break. There is something to be said for taking a minimalist approach and we are actually adjusting nicely to the slower pace of Gaborone. We have our good days and our bad days. But even on the bad days, Chase reminds me that we all get to spend much more time together here than we did in DC when I would leave for the office at 6:30-7:00 and not return until after 7pm most days because of the commute and longer hours. Here, Chase and Finn and I have breakfast together, they take me into work, then pick me up at 5 so we are home by 5:20 and I get another hour and half with Findley before putting him down. And lots of free time on the weekends. It’s fantastic.

Some of the cultural differences between Botswana and the U.S. jump out and slap you in the face, and some creep in silently and settle in without you even noticing them until someone points them out or you step back and think about it.

Botswana is populated by 20 different tribes. As an outsider it is easy to overlook the fact that there are lots of subtle differences among the different groups, and these differences drive the political dynamics at the national and local levels and everything in between. But there are some social norms that cross over the socio-economic classes.

Botswana (people from Botswana are called Botswana; an individual is referred to as Motswana) place a high premium on respect. There are many gestures to convey respect, and I can say that I have gotten most of them wrong at one time or another. When shaking hands you are supposed to support your right hand with your left; the nearer you place your hand to your wrist the more respectful you are being. It is seen as dishonest if you do not look someone in the eye, unless you are a child speaking to an elder in which case you are supposed to look down as a sign of respect. If you pass someone in the street, it is considered rude not to offer up a “Dumela Ma” to a woman or a “Dumela Ra” if you are addressing a man. It is also rude to accept any object with your left hand. These social norms cross over classes, so everyone for the most part follows them.

I love this whole notion of showing respect and wish we had more of a penchant for it in the U.S. As the presidential election unfolds, and the financial crisis deepens, it angers me to no end how bad things have gotten over the last 8 years. In my limited experience traveling to different places overseas, I can say that we have forfeited a great deal of goodwill and respect that other nations had for us, largely because of the arrogance and failed leadership and policies of the current administration. There’s not a whole lot of sympathy for us to be found right now, and people can say “who cares what other countries think about us” but I’m telling you it matters and will come back to bite us in the arse. I’ll step off my soapbox now and just say that I hope things get better.

Finn on the Go!

Finn is now 9 months + and he is on the go! From crawling to moving around in his little car, it's hard to keep up with him. Even though our shipment arrived (with plenty of books and toys), he much rather play with all the things he shouldn't; chords, outlets, laptop, drawers, doors, bugs, etc. At least he is becoming more independent!

3 Stolen Phones = 4 Lashes

Last month I was in the right place at the right time with my camera. I even thought to myself, "this will be perfect for the blog!"

One Sunday afternoon, Finn and I were hanging out in the car while Ian ran into "Choppies," the supermarket. As Ian would say, "we had rock star parking!" - a space right in front of the store. Suddenly, people started running out of the store, some of whom stood right in front of our car. Even though I had no idea what was going on, I grabbed the camera. Then all sorts of people, young and old, started running for the petrol station. As I looked above the petrol station, I saw a man standing on the roof pointing toward the street. Turns out, this mob of people was chasing a shop-lifter. It didn't take too long for them to catch the guy. As he was escorted back to the store carrying his stolen bag of frozen chicken, there was cheering on the side followed by looks of shame. I was just so excited to have my camera - if only I had thought quick enough to put it on video-mode!

As they approached our car, and I got a closer view of the guy, I started to feel sorry for him. What would happen to him? Who was he steeling the chicken for? Anyhow, Finn and I watched the security guy escort him back to the store. We waited and watched, trying to figure out his punishment. But we saw nothing else. I was hoping Ian could fill us in on what happened next. Unfortunately, when Ian came to the car, he had no idea anything haappened at all. This is the reason I never posted my blog on this matter. It was too anti-climatic!!

Well, now I can tell you what happened! We recently started hanging out with this really nice couple, Kat and Howard, from South Africa. They have two children; Maya (6 months) and Ella (3 yrs.) They were shopping at Game (Botswana version of Target). Kat put her phone down on the counter so she could get her wallet out of her purse. Just as she set her phone down, a guy behind her snatched it and took off running. Fortunately, Howard was right there and watched it happen. With Ella in his arms, he took off running after the guy. Soon after, the security guys and other spectators joined him (I imagine similar to what Finn and I witnessed at Choppies). Fortunately, they caught the guy. Not only did he have Kat's phone, but two others. Apparently the security guys really gave it to him (verbally). The next day, he had to appear in court (Howard too). Can you guess his punishment?
FOUR LASHES (on his bare bottom).

Our 1st trip to South Africa

For many years I've dreamed about going to South Africa. On Saturday, August 24th, my dream became a reality. Those of you who know me, know that I spent many summers at Camp Seafarer. Fortunately, camp does a great job of recruiting international staff. It was at Seafarer that I met several South Africans and began dreaming about visiting their country.

Soon after arriving here, I was able to find contact information for one of my South African camp friends, Michelle Van der Walt. She was kind enough to invite us to visit and stay with her family. So on Labor Day Weekend (Ian's office observes both American and Botswana Holidays:-)) we crossed the border into South Africa and made our way to Krugersdorp (town bordering Johannesburg).

Fortunately there is only one main road, so it would have been difficult to get lost. We stopped in a village soon after the border to feed Finn, get soeme Rand (South African Currency) and eat lunch. It didn't take long to realize a major difference in this country: there are a lot more white people. Funniest thing about this is that everyone just assumed we were South African. How do I know? Because in both the supermarket and Whimpy's, we were spoken to in Africans. I was actually feeling really good about this...it's sometimes nice not to stick out as a foreigner!

We arrived late afternoon to Michelle's house. Her family and friends gave us a warm welcome. We spent the rest of the day just talking and enjoying the company....and a delicious braai (South African Barbeque).

Michelle and her parents were wonderful hosts! Sunday Michelle took us to the Nelson Mandela Apartheid Museum....absolutely incredible!! We could have spent the entire day there. In the afternoon we headed out to the Rhino and Lion Park. Unfortunately there were fires spreading throughout the park so we could not enter. However, just across the road they have plenty of animals to enjoy so we were extremely happy:-) We saw white lions, lion cubs, zebra, tigers, and a hippo in the water. Finn really enjoyed the animals.

It was a quick trip and we certainly look forward to returning!

Like Father, Like Son

Finn can't even walk yet - but somehow he already loves soccer (his own little version)!

Culture Shock?

When I recently emailed Mike, a college friend, that I was living in Africa, he wrote, "I remember in grad school we studied the process of culture shock and adaptation. They say that when you first arrive in a new culture you experience a period of euphoria where everything feels exotic and exciting, then you swing towards the other extreme where you reject everything as foreign and you feel out of place, and finally you adapt and are able to enjoy the good things and accept the bad. So, if you keep that in mind and know that it is going to happen then you can hopefully deal with it better."

I'd say we are now swinging toward "the other extreme" at the moment! On Monday, when we returned from our long weekend in South Africa, our house alarm was going off and we couldn't get it to stop. To make a long story short - we learned from our neighbor that it started going off Saturday afternoon and NEVER stopped. I won't even go into the details with our dealings with the security company - I'll just say that it makes NO SENSE! And now I am sure the entire street is not so fond of us.

What else...Each night this week we have been awakened by rats running around on the ceiling.

On Friday, we had to speak to the gardners' supervisor because they are doing a whole lot of nothing...except for taking naps on our veranda, washing their clothes in our swimming pool and hanging them dry on our trees over the weekend. If looks could kill, I would be dead as of Friday!

Driving gets more comfortable as time goes on but we still have to adjust to people, lots of people, and animals crossing the road anywhere they want. Good brakes are essential.

On top of all that, Ian's work has been crazy lately.

And while we've met great people here, I miss our friends and family. Chad and Nancy welcomed their second son, Jack, into the world last Friday. We are soooo excited - but just wish we could be there with them right now.

Fortunately, after living in Central Asia, I believe there is validity to what Mike said. I remember feeling a lot more out of place in Kazakhstan than I do here - with similar types of episodes. And we did adapt, and had a wonderful experience. I figured if the purpose of this blog is to share our African experience with you, I should share both the good and bad, right?!