We arrived in Gaborone, Botswana! We were greeted at the airport by the logistical coordinator of the program, Janet. She helped us get settled and checked in. Immediately I was struck by how different things seem here than my last visit to sub-Saharan Africa. I went to Ghana in 2007 where I stayed mostly in a smaller town, but also went through the capital, Accra, for several days. Things in Gaborone seem, in a word, better. The city does not seem as crowded. The streets are cleaner. It does not take far to get out of town and see open fields. There is a large nature reserve just 30 minutes from our house. You can drink the water! I couldn't believe it and had to be told a couple of times that it is okay before I filled up my water bottle from the tap. It seems a little unfair to compare to my experience in Ghana because that was ten years ago, and a lot can change in that time, but overall, Botswana (at least what I have seen thus far in Gabarone) seems to be a richer country with a smaller population localized mostly in the Southeast portion of the country, so more services can be provided per person, at least in this area. I think things will be different when we head out farther or see patients from more rural areas, but, whether based on fair or unfair assumptions, I am surprised by how things are generally very nice. The people are very nice, too, but this was not a surprise.
Speaking of nice, our home is very comfortable. We have a nice, neatly furnished house/condo we share with all visiting residents. It is part of a condo complex of 14 total, and there is a wall and gate separating us from the road outside. Our area of town is called 'the village.' There is also a little pool at the condo complex! The global health fellow and his wife live nearby. In the house, there is a large kitchen that opens into a dining/living space on the first floor. Upstairs, we have 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Adrienne and I are sharing a bedroom. There are 2 air conditioners, one downstairs and one in our bedroom. Plus, there is wifi. A few weeks ago, they lost power from a big storm, but everything is up and running now. There are 2 other visiting residents, who will be leaving in 1 and 2 weeks. They told us a little bit about what to expect when we start at the hospital, and it is going to be hard work, potentially frustrating and confusing at first.
We arrived on Saturday and spent the day getting acquainted with where we live. We went to the grocery store and loaded up on some essentials. Prices are not that different than in the States, and the store had just about everything an American store would have, though low-fat milk was harder to find (but still available). We met Janet and Lorata, who will drive us to the hospital every day. We also met Adam, the global health fellow who lives a few houses down in the same complex, and his wife, Connie, an occupational therapist trying to volunteer at the hospital but struggling through some of the bureaucracy of getting licensed by the health ministry. That night, Adrienne and I cooked ourselves some curry spiced chicken (there is a fair-sized Indian population in Gaborone), and went to bed, glad to be settled in our home for the month.
We woke up early the next morning to meet Adam and Connie for a hike up Kgale Hill, a public park and the tallest point in Gaborone. Most of Gaborone is totally flat, but there is one big hill at the southern end of town, and a few other hills in the distance. It is about a 15-minute drive from our house. At some times, it is not totally safe to climb the hill as there have been some muggings, mostly of expensive cameras, but on Sunday morning, there were families, athletic-looking hikers, and folks finishing exercise before church. There is one main path that splits into two: a mostly concrete path with a gentle slope and steep path involving scrambling up rocks. We took the steep path up and the gentle slope down.
It took us about an hour and a half to reach the top, where there is a sign denoting that we are 11,000 km from Beijing and 10,000 km from Dakar. There were also inspiring signs painted on rocks along the way like "64%" (oddly specific) and "tired." We were greeted with a "you made it" sign at the top. According to Adrienne's fit bit, we climbed 83 flights. According to Wikipedia, it is 4,222 feet in elevation, and in Setswana its name means "the place that dried up." From the view up top, we saw all of Gaborone. We could also see the reservoir behind the Gaborone Dam. Apparently, the reservoir has not been 100% full since 2005 until just recently in the past few weeks. Adam said that when he first arrived in January, it was only 16% full. In fact, that day was declared a national day of thanksgiving to give thanks for the rain. By the way, the currency, the pula, is the Setswana word for rain, so if you get paid, you truly are making it rain. I was also surprised by how much land you could see that was undeveloped. Some of it was nature reserve, but most of it was nothing, just land.
After our climb, Adam and Connie took us to one of their favorite restaurants, Sanitas. It is a nursery close to the dam that also has a cafe. The plant life was quite beautiful. I also cannot believe how good the food is compared to my experience in Ghana. I was worried that I would not be eating many vegetables, but with safe water, it is no problem. They also have really good cheese (another thing I craved in Ghana). For example, at this restaurant, where we saw expats and Botswanans alike, I had a scone with cream, lemonade, a side salad, and a sandwich with spinach, mozarella, and red peppers. Unbelievable. Compared to fufu in Ghana, I am not worried at all about eating well and eating healthy foods.
In the afternoon, on the recommendation of Adam and Connie, who we are now calling our camp counselors, Adrienne and I went to a nearby nature reserve, Mokolodi. It is a privately-owned reserve just 30 minutes drive from our house. They have most of the big animals, but our guide, Eddie, made no guarantee that we would see any of them. Fortunately, we did! Adrienne and I went on a game drive with just 3 other guests, including a strange woman from South Africa who kept asking why we could not get out of the jeep to approach the animals. Eddie told her that approaching a giraffe would be a "death sentence," because of their kicking abilities, haha, nice and clear that Eddie. She protested, "I thought they were gentle!" Ohhhh, boy.
We first saw a herd of impala followed by a few males in their own group, growing stronger with likely plans to one day take over the breeding herd from the current alpha male. The alpha changes frequently with impalas, as keeping a whole herd of females and youngsters safe is an exhausting job. We saw two other types of antelope, a waterbuck, which has a white circle on its backside, and a kudu, a large antelope (second largest) that can jump up to 3 meters aka about 10 feet! We saw a couple of Lion King characters; warthogs (Pumba) including a baby one and a hornbill (Zazoo)! The hornbill was squawking on a tree as we drove by. Eddie was either uninterested or sped by too quickly to notice. Eddie did find us some zebra hidden amongst some trees. You would think that their stripes would make them easy to spot against a mostly green backdrop, but their stripes make them blend into sticks and tree branches. Finally, our favorite find of the day was seeing giraffes! We saw one male up-close, about 10 feet away at closest, before he walked across the road and hung out eating some leaves in a great position for viewing. He had dark spots, which means he is older than 10 years. Giraffes live to be about 20 years old. We then drove to a look-out spot, and we could see 2 more giraffes! Their white ears were visible over the tree line. They were probably about a quarter-mile away. Overall, a very fun first game drive!
In the evening, we hung out with the other residents, who were returning from a weekend safari, ordered a pizza, and got rest for the upcoming week.
Speaking of nice, our home is very comfortable. We have a nice, neatly furnished house/condo we share with all visiting residents. It is part of a condo complex of 14 total, and there is a wall and gate separating us from the road outside. Our area of town is called 'the village.' There is also a little pool at the condo complex! The global health fellow and his wife live nearby. In the house, there is a large kitchen that opens into a dining/living space on the first floor. Upstairs, we have 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Adrienne and I are sharing a bedroom. There are 2 air conditioners, one downstairs and one in our bedroom. Plus, there is wifi. A few weeks ago, they lost power from a big storm, but everything is up and running now. There are 2 other visiting residents, who will be leaving in 1 and 2 weeks. They told us a little bit about what to expect when we start at the hospital, and it is going to be hard work, potentially frustrating and confusing at first.
We arrived on Saturday and spent the day getting acquainted with where we live. We went to the grocery store and loaded up on some essentials. Prices are not that different than in the States, and the store had just about everything an American store would have, though low-fat milk was harder to find (but still available). We met Janet and Lorata, who will drive us to the hospital every day. We also met Adam, the global health fellow who lives a few houses down in the same complex, and his wife, Connie, an occupational therapist trying to volunteer at the hospital but struggling through some of the bureaucracy of getting licensed by the health ministry. That night, Adrienne and I cooked ourselves some curry spiced chicken (there is a fair-sized Indian population in Gaborone), and went to bed, glad to be settled in our home for the month.
We woke up early the next morning to meet Adam and Connie for a hike up Kgale Hill, a public park and the tallest point in Gaborone. Most of Gaborone is totally flat, but there is one big hill at the southern end of town, and a few other hills in the distance. It is about a 15-minute drive from our house. At some times, it is not totally safe to climb the hill as there have been some muggings, mostly of expensive cameras, but on Sunday morning, there were families, athletic-looking hikers, and folks finishing exercise before church. There is one main path that splits into two: a mostly concrete path with a gentle slope and steep path involving scrambling up rocks. We took the steep path up and the gentle slope down.
A view of the hills from a city roundabout
Halfway there! Looking towards nature and nature reserve
Scrambling up rocks to the finish! I think at this point we were "45%" there.
It took us about an hour and a half to reach the top, where there is a sign denoting that we are 11,000 km from Beijing and 10,000 km from Dakar. There were also inspiring signs painted on rocks along the way like "64%" (oddly specific) and "tired." We were greeted with a "you made it" sign at the top. According to Adrienne's fit bit, we climbed 83 flights. According to Wikipedia, it is 4,222 feet in elevation, and in Setswana its name means "the place that dried up." From the view up top, we saw all of Gaborone. We could also see the reservoir behind the Gaborone Dam. Apparently, the reservoir has not been 100% full since 2005 until just recently in the past few weeks. Adam said that when he first arrived in January, it was only 16% full. In fact, that day was declared a national day of thanksgiving to give thanks for the rain. By the way, the currency, the pula, is the Setswana word for rain, so if you get paid, you truly are making it rain. I was also surprised by how much land you could see that was undeveloped. Some of it was nature reserve, but most of it was nothing, just land.
The reservoir! view from the top
At the top of Kgale Hill
After our climb, Adam and Connie took us to one of their favorite restaurants, Sanitas. It is a nursery close to the dam that also has a cafe. The plant life was quite beautiful. I also cannot believe how good the food is compared to my experience in Ghana. I was worried that I would not be eating many vegetables, but with safe water, it is no problem. They also have really good cheese (another thing I craved in Ghana). For example, at this restaurant, where we saw expats and Botswanans alike, I had a scone with cream, lemonade, a side salad, and a sandwich with spinach, mozarella, and red peppers. Unbelievable. Compared to fufu in Ghana, I am not worried at all about eating well and eating healthy foods.
In the afternoon, on the recommendation of Adam and Connie, who we are now calling our camp counselors, Adrienne and I went to a nearby nature reserve, Mokolodi. It is a privately-owned reserve just 30 minutes drive from our house. They have most of the big animals, but our guide, Eddie, made no guarantee that we would see any of them. Fortunately, we did! Adrienne and I went on a game drive with just 3 other guests, including a strange woman from South Africa who kept asking why we could not get out of the jeep to approach the animals. Eddie told her that approaching a giraffe would be a "death sentence," because of their kicking abilities, haha, nice and clear that Eddie. She protested, "I thought they were gentle!" Ohhhh, boy.
Looking for hippos (we didn't see any today)
We first saw a herd of impala followed by a few males in their own group, growing stronger with likely plans to one day take over the breeding herd from the current alpha male. The alpha changes frequently with impalas, as keeping a whole herd of females and youngsters safe is an exhausting job. We saw two other types of antelope, a waterbuck, which has a white circle on its backside, and a kudu, a large antelope (second largest) that can jump up to 3 meters aka about 10 feet! We saw a couple of Lion King characters; warthogs (Pumba) including a baby one and a hornbill (Zazoo)! The hornbill was squawking on a tree as we drove by. Eddie was either uninterested or sped by too quickly to notice. Eddie did find us some zebra hidden amongst some trees. You would think that their stripes would make them easy to spot against a mostly green backdrop, but their stripes make them blend into sticks and tree branches. Finally, our favorite find of the day was seeing giraffes! We saw one male up-close, about 10 feet away at closest, before he walked across the road and hung out eating some leaves in a great position for viewing. He had dark spots, which means he is older than 10 years. Giraffes live to be about 20 years old. We then drove to a look-out spot, and we could see 2 more giraffes! Their white ears were visible over the tree line. They were probably about a quarter-mile away. Overall, a very fun first game drive!
I see you, Zebra!
Seeing a giraffe walk is other-wordly
"Eatin' some leaves with my spongy tongue!" They can eat from thorny trees because the thorns pass through their tongues without causing damage.
In the evening, we hung out with the other residents, who were returning from a weekend safari, ordered a pizza, and got rest for the upcoming week.
Such a fun beginning. I love your description of the lady who insisted on getting out and touching the animals. This isn't a petting zoo, lady! ha.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting. So excited to see you both in a few weeks.
ReplyDelete