Cold Khutse (J1)

One of the reasons we came to Botswana: endless unspoiled bush and empty land. We finally did our first real trip into the bush this weekend, and I have to say it was loads of fun. Our recently-bought Pajero passed its first test brilliantly, even though it worried us a little, as it did not run so well when we just left home the Friday. I expect there was some air in the diesel system, and diesel engines usually do not like that. It added to the adventure I guess...

We bought our necessary stuff like extra diesel tanks, camping chairs, extra tent pegs and loads of food and beer / wine. We left early afternoon, met V and P on our way out of town, and had to drive about 120km out of town on tarred roads through Molepolole and Lethlakeng (this is the last town with shops, and petrol stations). After this we continued on another 120km of sand track and dirt road, pretty good and pasable, up to the gate of Khutse. We stopped once on our way to have some delicious homemade cake and a first beer. Unfortunately we had to stop a second time, as I managed to hit that rock on the side of the road at about 100km/hour. Our first bit of bush mechanics!! The tire was obviously beyond repair. We might just take an extra spare next time.




We arrived at our campsite at around 6.30, the site was another 25 kms into the park. The whole park is thousands of hectars of bush, with only 24 campsites (most of them not occupied) spread through the park, so really no-one around. We made a big fire, set up camp, and cooked delicious food on the fire.




Next day we spend driving through Khutse, looking for the chance to see some lion, cheetah, leopard, wild dog, hyena etc etc. The last time V and P where there they saw many lions, but unfortunately not this time. We did see many Gemsbok, springbok, and duiker. Then we came to the waterhole, and were surrounded by 13 giraffes. We just sat there and watched them for over an hour. Really cool.



After this, it was back to our camp for another cold night around the fire, eating Jill's famous stew with Oxtail and Kudu meet, yummy. The temperature dropped below 0 degrees celsius at night time, but we had nice warm blankets with us, so it was very comfortable.





Jill made a nice slide show, with all pictures of this first real safari.





J1

Dogs & Trucks

Here is our latest 2-year old foster monster, "Sech", and his little puppy friend, Zoe. S and Z had been in the same kennel together at the SPCA, and had bonded intensely. Boerboels (Sech's breed) are known for being very loyal and an extremely easily-bonding breed, and can get very latched on and co-dependent to both families and other pets (also typically used as guard dogs here in Africa). Zoe, being brought in as such a baby, was under the impression that Sech was her mommy. And, according to the staff, Zoe was distracting Sech so well from chewing off his bandages, that they couldn't possibly separate the 2 of them. (So basically, they came to our place as 1 package)

The problem was that this terrible accident left Sech with a bad, gory stump on his leg, and the kennel keepers were having a very hard time keeping up with him chewing the bandages off all the time. Plus there was the risk of infection, etc. So they decided to call in a foster family who would be able to give it more attention (us). Indeed it worked like a treat, and as soon as he got to our place he was plenty distracted by the madness that is plot 32A.

However, since Sech has settled in& happy, Zoe is now back at SPCA, as she will have a better chance at getting adopted if people see her in this adorable puppy phase, rather than a leggy awkward adolescent. We miss her quite a bit, as she was just so sweet, but we don't miss all the "puppy things", like house training and 24-hour-playtime. She is really cute... looks a lot like she could've been Reilly's long lost daughter:

Sech is massive. His head is as big as a basketball and if he were to stand on his hind legs (which luckily at the moment he can't) he would be taller than both me or Hannes. On all fours, he comes up to my waist. Laying down, he is still taller than Billy (ears not included).

He is such a good dog though. His old owner must have been very strict, as we haven't had to teach him anything (except for not to jump on the bed - the only soft place we have in our house big enough to accommodate him) and he behaves perfectly. He also stays on the plot all day while we're gone and doesn't even think about wandering farther than our dogs are allowed.

In other news, as Hannes wrote earlier, we're now 4x4 owners. It's something we avoided for as long as possible, but now with this new contract in the desert/bush coming up for work, it was unavoidable. Plus I admit we will enjoy having access to the wilds of Botswana and its famous un-tarred road system in the national parks. Notwithstanding this, I'm not about to be the director of Gaborone's most established environmental consultancy driving around a massive yank-tank in city traffic. Therefore, we've kept the Honda for everyday (fuel-efficient) driving, and will only pull out the Pajero for necessity.

The other down side of having a 4x4 in this country is the non-stop flood of "necessities" that goes along with it. Forget ever spending your money on anything else from now on. From here on out we've joined the club of nearly every other motorist in Botswana, effectively the equivalent of sitting in a steel box, tearing up millions of 100-Pula notes!

Here is an abridged surface-scratching of the all important accessories to now be added to the list:

- Roof rack

- Roof tents (x 2)

- Bull bar

- Manual air pump

- Air pressure gauge

- Emergency dig-out kit (collapsible spade, boards, corrugated iron tracks, etc)

- Jerry can

- Extra diesel tank

- Refrigerator

- Wench

- Tow rope

- Spare tube/liner

- Stereo

- Fire extinguisher

- Spare wheel cover (preferably with cool logo. Anyone ever seen a Rolling Stones wheel cover?)

It's one of those things that snowballs, and before you know it you've spent more money at Cape Union Outfitters than you did on the vehicle in the first place!!!! Good riddance!!!

This past weekend we attended the Snake talk at Mokolodi education centre. I can now identify a Puff Adder, African Rock Python, and Spitting Cobra. I also know the difference between cytotoxic and haemotoxic venomous snakes and what to do if you get bitten/spat at. For our future visitors' peace of mind: only 7 out of the 70 snakes in Botswana can kill you. That's not too bad at all.

This coming weekend we are going camping with some friends to the central Kalahari, in a place called Khutse. Will definitely report back with photos. If, that is, we survive the cold! Temperatures of -2 in the mornings/nights are making me feel like I'm back in Wyoming again. However, in Wyoming at least the buildings were built for cold and all had built-in heaters. We luckily have a heater in the bedroom and living area. I don't know how the 70% of Batswana who live in traditional housing survive! Well actually, they do walk around wrapped up in blankets- that is how. Mary doesn't have a heater in her place, and every morning we see her out in the garden wrapped up in her woollen blanket, woollen cap on her head, and actually wearing shoes (for once!). I nearly want to give her one of our old portable heaters but I know she'd worry about the amount of electricity that it uses. (€€$$)

Cold (J1)

Winter has certainly arrived now, the picture below tells it all, taken this morning in our garden at 06:45. This is degrees Celsius. The garden hose was frozen, and there was ice on the bird feeding table.
As mentioned in the last post, we finally got our 4x4. A Mitsubishi Pajero (turbo) diesel. We picked it up last night. Here some first images:


We already have plans to go on a little trip into the bush this weekend, so hopefully some more 'action' pictures next week.


J1

I have found a job (J1)

A hectic week is nearly over, it is lunchtime on Friday afternoon, and I still have to finish two tenders, due later this morning, and Monday morning. So my apologies if this ends up being pretty short, but I did not want to leave without posting anything this week.

Some exciting news this week, first of all: I HAVE A JOB...In fact, I have had it for the last few months, but this week we have decided I am going to stop looking for jobs, and stay at our own company. The contracts awarded, combined with some of the tenders we are very hopeful about, would create plenty of work. This, combined with the fact that our employee (part-time) has decided to to accept a full time position elsewhere, has sealed the deal. My new boss will be Jill, I could do a lot worse than that, especially considering the last two bosses I had to deal with. When we were in Ireland we often dreamed of running a company together, this dream is now reality. It might be difficult at the start (finances / cash flow) but we are going to make this work.

I am going to sign up for a online landscape design course, so that we do not have to hire a landscape architect in the short term. I am also going to try and start some business with an old contact from Belgium, importing equipment into South Africa. I am very excited about all this, but most of all about knowing that Jill and I can go to work together everyday, surely that is worth some financial sacrifices in the short term.

Other news: we have bought a 4x4, a Mishubishi Pajero, we are waiting for registration and road worthy tests etc, but might even be able to collect it tomorrow morning. I can't wait to take it into the bush.

We also have two dog rescue cases again, a 2 year old Boerbull dog, which has been hit badly by a car, and a little puppy that was sharing his kennel at the BSPCA, and really bonded. They are both adorable. I will make sure to post some pictures next week.

Back to tenders now.

J1

Our Business (J1)

I mentioned a while back that I might post some pictures of our office on this blog. Earlier this week we had our new sign put on the office building which we are part of, after weeks of waiting. We did not have a ceremony of unveiling the new sign, as I have seen some companies do, but I guess this blog entry can be our ceremony.

This is the new sign on our office building, our office is probably the smallest in the building, but we have the biggest sign.

This is our entrance, our office is upstairs, we are sharing with a structural engineer and a building consultant.

Here a picture of our small set up, not very glamorous, I know. But big offices cost money, this is working just fine for us at the moment. There is a bigger office in the building, which has been vacant for over a year now. If we need more space soon, this would be the easiest place to move into.

We have been awarded with a big contract last week, one we totally did not expect to get. It is for an environmental study of over 250 kilometres of power line, with associated substations. Besides this we are currently working on environmental studies for an airport terminal building, a cigarette factory and a high school. We are also doing the landscape design for a big health institute.

We have done quite a number of proposals in the last months, for projects ranging from court houses, dairy factories, libraries and national parks. Mostly environmental studies. Some should be awarded soon, and I think we stand a very good chance on some of them.

This also brings me to my own current job situation, with the big power line project there is enough work and money for me to stay at our business at the moment, and since it seems impossible to find a qualified landscape designer / architect, I am considering doing a course in landscape design, and take on this part of the business myself. I have all details for a very good online course from New Zealand. I will never become a landscape architect (this takes 4 years), but since there are none here, with a landscape design training and diploma I should be able to do quite well. So this is the plan at the moment, unless some incredible engineering offer comes along. It is quite nice to have options.

OK, this is enough about work related stuff, I hope I haven't made it too boring.

J1

It's Finally Come to This...

Living on a hectare of land with nothing but feeble cattle fencing around the perimeter, I think we've done pretty darn well to have 2/3 of the 4-legged-family members successfully trained to stay within a certain area of the plot.

Actually, even the 3rd one would have us believe that he's well trained, too. Every night we come home from work and there he is, sitting pleasantly out on the back stoep, happy to greet us and even happier to get his evening handful of food.

It was only recently that we noticed Reggie was putting on stacks of weight, and it just didn't make sense as we're already feeding him diet dog food, and have cut back his portions and upped his exercise, etc. It was a long time ago that Mary stopped throwing out her food scraps, so he certainly wasn't scavenging over at her place...

Come to find out he's going on little mini-walkabouts during the day, always sure to be at home and in place on the porch by 5:30 when we get home. According to nearly every neighbour in the street, he's been spotted at each and every dog bowl in Notwane at various times throughout the afternoon. And he's just so bloody cute that each one of them can't help but give him extra snacks. !!!!

Sure, the upshot of all this is that we're meeting all our neighbours who are all really nice and who just adore the infamous Reggie. I suppose it's a good way to make new friends (???) And our neighbourhood is extremely laid back, no traffic, no uptight neighbours, no problems. But now he's just getting too fat. And the "Hello dear, I'm Mrs. So-and-so from Plot XX... I believe I have your dog?" phone calls are becoming more frequent.

And apparently Mrs. Hester was giving her pottery class the other day when he waltzed right into the studio and plopped his face into a whole cake that one of the ladies had brought for tea break. Apparently they weren't impressed when he started howling, upon having it taken away from him.

So, that being the last straw, we're going to have to bite the bullet and fence a good chunk of the yard in for him to stay in while we're away at work during the day. We were trying to avoid this so far (given that it's only a rental property), and it might be awhile before we can get the fencing and get it erected. So in the interim, the info-sign will have to do.

On the back of his new fashion accessory, it says:

My name is Reggie Westra and I am a bad dog who wanders away from Plot 32A. I am a food-obsessed escape artist, and my owners probably don't know I am gone. Can you please take me home or phone the following numbers....

Cork (J1)

My good old colleague OC from Ireland just emailed me the following:

While I was in Cork yesterday (very fine day of course) I came across this house with a sign on it - never see a house before with a sell- by- date on it ?

J1

Africa???

In some ways things are really happening ‘the African way’ over here. Things usually happen slowly, especially when it comes to decisions that involve government input, and since nearly everything runs on government investment and input, one gets used to the slow pace for everything. But then, just as you think you are really in Africa, some things work so surprisingly well. I will give a few examples:

We just got set up on internet banking at the office. The internet banking offers all sorts of options, including international transfers, something that most banks in Ireland could not offer yet. And here is the most amazing thing: I was given a cell phone number which I can ring 7 days per week, if I have trouble. And the fact that it works was proven to us this weekend. We walked into the bank employee that came to the office and installed the software, and as I was saying hello, he got a call (this is Saturday at 2 in the afternoon) and started talking this customer through his problem. Try to get this service in Europe….

The trash collection I mentioned before, every Thursday morning our bags are collected from our gate, and that for the equivalent of 8 euros for a whole year.

A while back an ATM machine swallowed our bank card, really annoying of course, and it was a Saturday afternoon again. But we rang the number on the ATM machine, and within 1 hour someone from the bank came to give us our card back. This would certainly not happen in Ireland.

There is a full recycle drop of centre in town, where they recycle glass, paper, cans and plastic. Again something Ireland only managed to get organised last year.

When you try to ring someone, and this person is unavailable at that time, you can actually leave a message with the receptionist to ask if this person could please ring you back, and be confident this person will ring you back. In Ireland this was a total waste of time, and Australia was not much better. The person answering the phone would not even bother taking your message or passing it on, and even when passed on they would usually assume you would be ringing back anyway if it was important.

Other things are real African still. Like how most people are just learning how to use email. Botswana still relies on the fax machine for absolutely everything. And often when you send someone an email, they will actually ring you back with a reply, or even reply by fax. Most companies do not have websites either, even really big ones.

Anyway, these are just some random thoughts and experiences I thought would be interesting to share.

J1