A little preview (J1)

Having recovered from our porcupine intruder last week, and the dogs (literally) licking their woulds, we went into a very nice and relaxing weekend. Poor Alan really deserved this after putting him to work at our office all week. He came expecting a holiday....

Friday night we had sundowners (drinks while watching the sunset) at the Gaborone yacht club on the dam. There was music by our friend (and ecologist) J, and giant hamburgers from the kitchen, very enjoyable after a busy week at work.

Saturday morning was spent (again) repairing the fence we built for Reggie. When he is determined to get out, nothing can stop him. He can pull chain link fencing apart like it was not even there. We made another attempt in re-enforcing it, and will have to see where he finds the next weak spot.

During the afternoon we had the plan to walk from Gaborone to Gabane, we had done this a few months ago, and it was very enjoyable. Just outside Gaborone we stumbled by total coincidence onto the back of the set for the 'No. 1 ladies detective agency' movie. Of course we had a wander around, until security came to kick us out. No-one was allowed to see anything until the release, so enjoy these pictures, before we get solicitors' letters etc telling us to take them down......

The amazing thing was, this whole village had been built recently as the set for the movie, but it looked like any Botswana village, which had been there for years. It included broken down cars, chickens and buildings in need of repair and re-painting. I am reading the last book in the series now, titled 'The good husband of Zebra drive', and would recommend them to anyone who has not read them yet.

Our 2 1/2 hour walk ended in Gabane village, at the "Mountain liquor restaurant", where cold beer was waiting. At about 6 the barbecues were going at full speed, and the restaurant sell the best marinated steaks, with complementary pap. Some pictures of us around the barbecues at the bar:

We also went to see the Simpsons movie this weekend, I thought is was very funny, and would certainly recommend it to anyone.

Yesterday I played my first game of tennis in over 2 years. Our work experience student E. has access to the university courts, and it was great to play again. We will try to make this a weekly habit. Maybe we might also join a local tennis club (and squash courts), so Jill can start playing tennis as well. I am looking forward to teaching her.

J1

The Night We Fought Off the Giant Porcupine

...and Alan's introduction to Africa just keeps getting more and more entertaining.

Last night we were all a bit late getting to bed, as there was a bit of a bloodbath going on at la casa.

As usual, I let the dogs out to do their thing around 10:30pm before bedtime. Normally I do this thing where I stand out on the stoop and stare up into the sky trying to spot at least 1 falling star before the 4 legged monsters are done peeing and ready to go back inside. Last night, however, I was only out there for about 30 seconds before I realized all 4 of them had all bolted off into the bush, and some seriously scary noises were starting to come out of the darkness over there.

(I keep telling Hannes we NEED SOME LIGHTS OUTSIDE but so far as far as we've gotten is the string of jalapeno christmas lights that hang over the stoop. Not exactly the practical flood lighting I was hoping for)

First there was just branches breaking and a bunch of growling, which then turned into howling and crazy barking and a doggy shriek or two. The scary part that was no matter how much I called any of them, they just weren't listening and it sounded like something ferocious was on a rampage. Then the weirdest sound I ever heard - it was like someone had a corrugated iron box full of timber and was shaking it violently and running and stumbling randomly around through the bush... or something.

Of course my first thought was: "Crikey!!! Leopard!!!" but then I realized

1) the only growling that was going on was very dog-like

2) leopards are graceful and don't thunder around awkwardly in the bush

3) all 4 dogs sounded like they were all still alive

and then I realized how LARGE the thing (whatever it was) sounded, nearly like it had hooves so I thought "crap!. . . probably a cow or a donkey I bet Mary left the gate open again!" but the way the dogs were shrieking bloody murder still made me pretty scared that something huge was going to come crashing out of the darkness and straight at me.

So I hollered at the boys and they both came running out of the house and neither one of them had any clue what was going on, so weren't really being any more help than a box of rocks. Not to mention the flashlight that I grabbed out of the kitchen was giving off about as much light as a dying wristwatch, so we were all pretty much helpless, standing there in the pitch blackness stunned, listening to 4 hysterical dogs on the attack, an unidentified large disoriented creature making sounds I'd never before heard in my life, and our own voices shouting out the names of dogs who had absolutely no intention of following any commands whatsoever! By this time, every single dog within the entire neighbourhood of Notwane was going crazy in response to Sech, Reggie, Reilly's barking and howling, and of course Billy's high-pitched, blood-curdling screeching.

After about 2 minutes of just being stupid and standing around frozen in fear, we kind of all started moving towards the chaos and somehow that ended up with the dogs dispersing a bit and Sech (of course) charging the THING towards the swimming pool. THen Alan got a glimpse of it fighting it's way into one of our landscaped beds and goes "it's not a cow! it's spikey!" around about the same time Johannes managed to catch Reggie, who was all bloody. I found my way to the swimming pool lights and turned them on, and then Hannes managed to get into the dog pile and grab Billy. His back was full of spines about as long as his own body. I would've believed sooner that it was a porcupine, had I not caught a glimpse of this thing that Sech was currently attacking, and seen the sheer size of it.

It stood taller than all the dogs with the exception of Sech, and had feet the size of a small human. And when it reared its spines, they actually stood HIGHER than Sech (who already comes up past my waist, himself), and it was most definitely fighting off the dogs with some serious agression. It even came AT us a few times while we were trying to corral the tornado of fighting dogs into the light. It was really, really huge!

I was pretty confused because the only porcupine I'd ever seen in my life was back in South Dakota when I was a kid and I remembered it being small, docile, sitting in the middle of the road, and only about as big as a large hedgehog. This thing was bigger than a Boerboel!!

Anyway, to make an already long story shorter, we saved all the dogs & threw them inside, except Sech, within a few minutes. You can tell this dog is bred to fight and protect by the way he was wired to the gills with adrenaline, had a face full of spines, and was STILL GOING. The porcupine was rattling his spines, hissing, attacking, going for it, and Sech just wouldn't back down. There was blood everywhere. I managed to grab the camera, it was taking so outrageously long to get the situation to a manageable position. I can swear that the whole neighbourhood probably thought that there was a full-scale attack in progress on plot 32A.

This photo doesn't do the size of the giant porcupine justice. It was really scary. It was like a small person stomping and storming around with 10,000 million knives sticking out of its back, going rattle rattle rattle hiss hiss click click rattle rattle....

Thankfully Alan didn't know anything about porcupines, and actually got up close enough to be able to grab Sech, eventually. The struggle involved a thick jungle of thorn trees, a pissed-off porcupine, and a raging boerboel who was ready to kill. I'm still not sure how he did it but it must be that insane Waterford warrior blood in him. Check out all that champion blood splatter all over the face:

With all the dogs inside, it became clear exactly how much blood was being lost. The living/dining room looked like a murder scene.

The quills that we pulled out nearly resulted in a few hands getting chomped off, but it was all out of love.

Here's some of the un-broken ones we saved for posterity:

Since none of us knew that much about the Giant African Porcupine, we did some research this morning and found out the following interesting facts:

- They can weigh up to 30kg (60lbs)

- They walk flat-footed and have 5 toes

- They are Africa's largest and heaviest rodent

- It will stamp its feet, click its teeth and growl or hiss while vibrating specialized quills that produce a characteristic rattle.

- Quill length on different parts of the body varies, from 1 inch up to 12 inches on the back.

- Porcupine quills have long been a favorite ornament and good-luck charm in Africa. The hollow rattle quills serve as musical instruments and were once used as containers for gold dust.

Alan's closing remark of the evening:

"Well, that certainly wouldn't have happened in Ireland!"

Back in the office...

...after a nice trip to South Africa last week, mainly time off for pleasure. We did a great job timing our first week-off-of-the-year with the arrival of Alan. The week consisted of:

- Hanging out in Joburg with Jéan.

- Hanging out in Pretoria with the P's.

- Fetching Alan from the airport.

- Quickly integrating A. into Africa, and Joburg in particular (where he's starting his new job in about a month).

- Shopping around (a bit) in the greater Pta/JHB area for roof tents and other 4x4 accessories.

- Hitting Pilanesberg for a quick camping trip and some animal-spotting for the new guy.

Apparently A. had never slept in a tent before. Well now he can't say that any more. He also got to enjoy my (Jill) campfire eggs & bacon & onions deluxe. And who wouldn't kill for that opportunity.... really.

We've been to Pilanesberg many times, but this time took the cake as far as babies were concerned. Apparently we hit the peak time for new arrivals in the wild kingdom and every adult animal spotting offered a newborn or two, to boot. So for this blog, I will post a couple photos of not even half of the baby guys that we saw in just 2 short days.

(Oh yes, and A. got to see 3 of the Big 5 in his first expidition out in the NorthWest Province, so he's doing very well for himself. He's also proven to be a natural born spotter... catching quite a few really really really long distance views on hillsides at least a mile away that even J1 and I didn't spot. Although I'd say every single time he made me slam on the breaks, it was zebra. I think he's well and truly got some sort of zebra-magnet hidden somewhere on him)

Baby hippo (look to the right)

Baby ellies

Baby waterbok

We also saw: baby rhino, baby bosbok, baby baboons, baby zebra, and baby giraffe.

Once we got back to Gabs, of course we had to make Alan climb Kgale Hill a couple of times (not to mention the end of vacation means the beginning of fitness for us, too), and we did a lot of showing off Gabz-City and that kind of stuff. We also celebrated his birthday and put him to work (kind of) in the office. By the end of this week, he'll probably be desperate for his new company to come through with all his immigration paperwork (which is why he's here with us for a few weeks), so he can get back to Joburg and start working at a real job where the boss doesn't drag you off to yoga class in the afternoon and make you do work on your so-called "holiday"!!!

Thanks to anyone out there who is holding thumbs for our beloved Reggie. He's doing just fine, we're keeping our eyes peeled and our hopes up high that if he did have a cancer "thing", that it won't be coming back. Surely he has a few more good years left in him. The vet thinks he removed it all so we just have to go with that. Meanwhile, he's still the same old high-maintenence, obnoxious food hound that he's always been, so that's good enough for us! I think he's doing just fine.

Poor Reggie (J1)

I am going to have to start this blog with some very sad news: our poor Reggie has / had cancer. He had a swelling underneath his body, that kept getting bigger. We took him to the vet, who at first told us it was nothing to worry about, and treated Reggie with antibiotics. The treatment did not help, and Reggie started to lick the swelling open, with as a result several blood trails through our house and garden. Took him to the vet again, and this time it was decided to remove it. After removing the vet came to the conclusion is was probably cancerous, but luckily he managed to remove it very well, and hopefully it had not spread and rooted yet. It is way too early for poor Reggie to have trouble, is is only 11 years yet.

We have been very busy working, but I will not bore anyone with the details of that (again). But I guess this would be our lame excuse for no activity on this blog. Last weekend was lots of fun though, we went to a rugby game, the vultures (Botswana national team) against Mauritius. We were amazed, the atmosphere was fantastic, the stadium (University Botswana stadium) was nicer then most places in Ireland (such as Musgrave Park), and the game very good. These guys are all not professionals, even soccer players, which is the main sport here, are not professionals. Our friend Eric and neighbour Terry game along for the afternoon, and we enjoyed some beers in the stadium while watching this game. Some pictures:

Jill and Terry.

The police band before the game

The Vultures - Botswana National rugby team

Saturday night we went our for a nice dinner, or that was what the plan was. We went to Dros, a South African restaurant chain, usually very good for a good steak and a nice glass of wine. Not this time.....it was probably the worse steak I had ever tasted. We sent it back to the kitchen, something I never do, and the replacement was just as bad. We took it up with the manager, but they still made us pay! No more Dros for us for a while.

Our friend AL from Ireland is coming over next week, and will stay for us for a few weeks before starting his job in Johannesburg. We will pick him up from Joburg airport, and will try to make a few holiday days out of the trip, and meet up with some old friends. We used to be planning our holidays so well, but now having our own business, things are different. It sounds like it's great to have your own business, you can do whatever you want. But look how it has worked out: we have been here 6 months, and have taken exactly 2 days holidays so far, and even ended up working on some public holidays. We have to change this nonsense, starting next week!!!

J1

The Detectives are in town

For those of you who STILL haven't taken our advice and read any of Alexander McCall Smith's series of books based in Botswana (The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series), you'll have a chance to get your enjoyment "cheater" style, when the movie comes out! It's been all the buzz around here for the last 9 months or so, but now that the film crews are running around town and actually getting to work on it, you can't help but feel the vibe.

The sets are up all over town and they're filming away. Amazingly enough, one of my favorite R&B singers (Jill Scott) is going to be the lead role in the movie, and hardly anyone here knows who she is... all they're concerned about is that if you get picked to be an extra, you can make 200 Pula per day!

I'm slightly annoyed that the main characters are all Hollywood actors (or in JS's case, not actors at all). Was there not one Motswana (traditionally built) lady that could've possibly done the job? I have very little faith in Jill Scott's ability to pull off a traditional Botswana accent... she's a singer, for crying out loud! eh, we'll see.

Presidents Day (J1)

July is a very good month when it comes to holidays in Botswana, we had a bank holiday early in the month, and this week Monday and Tuesday were days off, because it was presidents day. Unfortunately we only realised very close too the weekend that we actually would have two days holiday, instead of the Monday we expected, and we made no exciting plans to do anything.

Of course it had only been a week since we were in the bush (Khutse) with Jean, so no huge urge to go back straight away. And we are going to South Africa in two weeks time, so no need for that either. Mary went back to her hometown called Plumtree, in Zimbabwe, so no-one to feed the dogs anyway. And it was very nice to have a relaxing weekend at home, the last week at work was very busy, and even though I am still doing a little work, we also had loads of time to relax.

We are trying to get back in shape, so our plan was to go up Kgale Hill every day for exercise. And at places the path is really steep, so it’s a great workout. We went out for dinner with friends on Friday night, and had some lovely Ethiopian food. Later this weekend we grilled some yummy (aged) porterhouse steaks, and we had an Indian lunch. I also got a few jobs done around the house.

Sunday afternoon we went for a little game drive into Mokolodi. Just across the road from us, very convenient. And it is always nice to go game viewing, I never get bored. We saw kudu, impala, waterbok, wildebeest, warthog, zebra, rhino, ostrich, springbok and all that in an hour and a half. The Mokolodi restaurant is being refurbished and getting a new owner, it will be open again on the 3rd August, so we are excited to see what it will be like.

As I said, work is busy. We (mostly Jill) is still really busy with the powerline project, and will be for the coming week. Besides this we were awarded a small job on a new terminal building at the airport, and it seems we might get a job on a new dairy facility. I have been very busy putting a proposal together for a new park in a small town outside of Gaborone. With these jobs we usually form a team, with architects, civil engineers, quantity surveyors, and electrical engineers. It takes a lot of effort to get all this together in a proposal. After submitting a proposal as such to the council, it usually takes a long time, it can take 6 months are longer before a decision will be made, but that is how it works in Botswana. We are also working on a proposal for the environmental input on a new road.

Anyway, that is probably too much writing already, I will try to find a few pictures to go with all this…..

J1

More camping, more friends, more photos

I have been informed by the husband that he is "too busy to blog" today, whereas I have just finished off a big project (WAHOO!) so it's going to be my turn to do two-in-a-row for once.

First of all, having Jéan in town with us for 5 days last week was great. We kept him busy. We dragged him to the office with us where he started the ball rolling on our company's first website. It's about time, too! We have already registred the domain name (watch this space!) but we have not yet actually gotten around to constructing THE WEBSITE. So J. came to work with us on Wednesday and created a temporary webpage that basically has the back bone of our future site and some appropriate links that you can click on which all take you to the same page that basically says: "sorry, this is under construction!!" What an anti-climax!! But it's something, and we can hopefully get it hosted and put up for all to see, soon.

If anyone out there wants to finish it off for us, (HA!) let me know, you're welcome to put your name in big fat letters on it, if you do it for free ! ! !

Considering that Jéan is now officially our most frequent visitor, and we have not yet ever taken him outside of the big city of Gaborone, we decided that we would spend a few days out in the bush with him before he headed back to Johannesburg and subsequently up to the rain and gloom of Scotland in a matter of months. Here are some photos:

Jill

Johannes & Jéan

Hornbill - practically sitting on my head

The highlight of the weekend's game viewing was the sheer number of oryx that were out in masses. The oryx (aka gemsbok) is one of my favorite antelope species and they were everywhere (see photo). At one point we came around a bend in the road and caught at least 40 of them in a pack less than 50 metres from our truck. It was really beautiful.We saw giraffe as usual, many mongoose, bustards, springbok, steenbok, impala, and hartebeest. I hate to sound complacent, but I'm getting pretty sick of giraffe by this stage. I think I have suffered a serious giraffe-photo-binge since we got here, and it's about time to declare a photo embargo on myself for pictures of them walking around, standing, drinking, etc. It really is getting ridiculous. From now on unless they're mating, running, playing poker or singing karaoke, I've officially decided to avoid taking any more (hundreds of) photos of those guys.

Lions came very close to our tents at night, carrying on and roaring like crazy - I think there was some substantial mating going on - and scared the pee out of Jéan. In the morning he told us he had even pondered which strategy the Botswana Government would put in place to cover up our deaths in an effort to avoid any potential negative impacts on tourism.

This weekend is yet another public holiday (we have 2 in July - fantastic! The first one being Sir Seretse Khama day 2 weeks ago). This one is actually President's day and we get both monday AND tuesday off, but I believe SOMEONE wants to work on tuesday because we have a big proposal to submit on wednesday morning. It may be possible to do some of that work at home, however. We'll see. We won't be going anywhere far away anyway, as Mary is going back to Zim for the weekend and we didn't line up anyone to look after the dogs.

The only thing I want to do this weekend is exercise. One yoga class per week for me is not cutting it. I'm seriously annoyed by our lack of fitness these days, due to the really early hours of darkness every night which has given us way too nice of an excuse to go home and go running/walking like we used to after work. If we didn't maintain such a healthy diet, we would both probably pack on at least 2 extra kilos during the winter here. I have decided that we are going to climb Kgale Hill every day between tomorrow (Sat) and Tuesday. That's 4 climbs i n 4 days. If that doesn't kick our butts into gear I don't know what will. Oh yes, and kayaking too.

I'm really looking forward to the days getting longer again, but I'm wary of complaining about the cold weather because I know that within a month we'll be back to sweating and sunburns. My only real complaint about this winter has been the climate-challenged nature of our office. Even with our house being freezing cold in the morning and nighttime, it's not so bad because we just make a fire in the TV room or turn on the heater in the bedroom. Here at the office, it is always and I mean ALWAYS at least 5 degrees colder inside than outside!!! Even with the sun pouring in the window, the cement walls and floors that we're surrounded by in here make this place like an icebox. My feet are always frozen and my hands and nose as well. I don't even bother dressing nicely to come into the office because I know I won't even bother removing my fleece, snow hat, and scarf throughout the day. This photo was taken of me looking "professional" at my desk during what should be the warmest part of the day... outside anyway.

Anyway, happy President's day weekend to us and to all who will miss out on a fabulous 4-day weekend wherever you may be! We're off to enjoy some ethiopian food tonight with a couple of our friends at the Abyssinian cafe, and then the rest of the weekend is an open book (for once)!

Long time, no post.

Well, there's a good explanation....
we're just busy!!!

Never has more work been cranked out of the office than over the past week. The power line jobs are eating into both our days and nights. Proposals still keep rolling in like crazy, and we have a visitor staying with us as well (Jéan again, from Pretoria). However, we made an effort to stop and smell the roses this weekend, for a change.

Saturday we slept in until 9am (YAHOO!) and woke up, got in the car, and drove about an hour and a half south.... over the South African border, through the R51.00 toll gate, and into the booming platinum mine town of Rustenburg. Rustenburg has recently been named the fastest growing city in South Africa. Why is that little fact important? Because with major growth comes.... Major shopping malls!!!

The new(ish) Waterfall Mall in Rustenburg is home to many, many shops (where I finally proceeded to spend many, many Pula on clothing... my first time clothes shopping in a whole year!!) as well as....

....?

.... The CAPETOWN FISH MARKET!!!!!!!!! Home of the only SUSHI BAR to be found within a 3 hour radius of Gaborone!!!!

We had been craving sushi for so long now (it's been over a year since our last raw fish feast, as there is none in Cork, either) that it was all worth it. A nice glass of white wine and a conveyor belt full of tasty, delicious, fishy/sea weedy delights was by all means worth the 3 hour round trip and R102 toll fee. (I hear Dutch people shreiking in horror!) It was also nice to do some clothes shopping, and we picked up yet another boxed set of another season of "24". It was a really great day. And we were home around 9pm.

Since Monday was a bank holiday here, there was also more time to attempt some relaxation, and even though I ended up working on the laptop at some stage during the afternoon, we still managed to work a run in, as well as a bike ride (with Reggie) and some bonding time with the neighbours and their newborn twins.

The new babies are unbelievably tiny (they were a few weeks premature) and together the 2 of them only weighed in (combined!) at 4kg when they were born. Boy and girl, pretty cute. I think they will definitely keep S-H&S (mom and dad) plenty busy. S-H's mom has come up from Cape Town to live with them and be the nanny, indefinitely, so the household has not only grown by 2, but by 3, all of a sudden. Pretty ironic considering that S still hasn't finished building the house yet!! Luckily he got 1 bedroom & 1 bathroom totally finished while S-H was down in the Cape giving birth. Mom & grandma have since moved into that room and S is hiding out in the half-finished guest room.

At any rate, there's the update for now. Given all our hard work and accomplishment over the last mad week, we're taking thursday and friday off to go camping with Jéan, which we're really looking forward to. With any luck we'll spot the lions that our friends saw when they were at the same campsite a few days ago. Fingers crossed.......

Week Away (J1)

Lots of things have been happening in Botswana, so after a quiet spell on this blog, here follows an update on everything, both fun and work stuff.

First there was a weekend, the 1000 Desert rally race came to Botswana, and the finish was at the shopping mall right up the road from us. These cars are seriously tuned up. Most teams are South African, and I guess after a few you pretty much have seen everything, as they just flash past and leave you with a dust cloud. Here some pictures.


From the rally race we went to see our friend B. play rugby. It was really cool to see an amateur rugby game, we had expected it to be a huge ex-pat event, but it was mostly locals playing, as well as refereeing and coaching. It was high school teams play each other, and the Maru-a-pula team, with our friend, beat St. Joseph college, which is right up the road from our house. Some celebration pictures:
On Sunday we had a really nice fathers day lunch with our lovely neighbours, but after this we had to leave to travel to Serowe. We stayed in a really nice place called Lentswe Lodge, on the top of a mountain, with nice views, and a cute little bar. This was our ‘base’ for the next 3 days of public consultation for the big power line job we are working on.

The public meetings take place in a “Kgotla”, a customary court, and are lead by the Kgosi, which is the chief. The kgotlas are organised through the tribal administration, and every small village has one. All sorts of things are handled here, from sentencing people who have committed crimes, selling cattle, and also public presentations such as ours.

The thing generally went as follows: The kgosi would wait for around an hour after the time it was supposed to start, then finally when he decides all people who would want to attend would be there, the meeting would be opened with a prayer. After this he would do a small introduction, after which our presentation starts. And don’t imagine a nice shiny PowerPoint presentation, all this is happening in the open air, under a big tree. We had a translator, Mr. S., who accompanied us for the week, because these meetings are held in Setswana only. After our meeting the public would come back with their questions. And the public are usually a number of old men who have lived in the village their whole life. Comments generally included job creation, power to pumps in cattle posts, and compensation issues. The funny thing was that most people really wanted this power line as close as possible to their village, even though they will not be able to get any power from it, because the voltage is too high.

Besides having 7 of those meetings, we also met with various land boards, water departments, town and village councils, planners, defence force, telecommunications, and even a game park on our way. We even managed to squeeze in some site visits. It was a very hectic week, and we came back absolutely exhausted on Friday night, having travelled 2200km in only 1 week, dragging three people who work on the project with us all the time, and starting every day at 6.00 AM sharp…We did get a lot of really good information, and it is now a matter of working all notes out.
I must admit I am very glad to be back home and in the office, a week of breakfast, lunch and dinner from some small place or hotel might sound nice, but get very boring, and made me quite sick actually. I have come to two conclusions this week: mining towns (I mean Lethlakane) are really, and I mean really ugly, it is probably one of the worse places I have ever visited. And second, in this town we lost a cell phone, we considered it stolen, and already bought a replacement this weekend. On Sunday someone send me a message to ask if I knew someone who had lost a phone, it was found, and the guy dropped it at the hotel for us, the manager will keep it there until we visit again. How about that for Africa?

To end on a sad note: The All Blacks (New Zealand) beat the Springboks (South Africa) in Tri-nations rugby this weekend.


J1

Powercuts, Parties (and Pumps) J1

That is exactly how I would summarize our last week(s). Botswana has been experiencing major power cuts over the last 2 weeks. Nearly everyday the power disappears for a while, this morning it was gone when we left home, last night it dropped out for an hour, and Sunday was a day without power until night time. Same thing happened the Sunday before, with minor interruptions during that week. Apparently, this is a sign of what we can expect for the coming three years (not sure how realistic this is...), until the new power plants have been completed. People are already making jokes that in the near future the only thing you will hear in Gaborone is the noise of many diesel engines, powering the many generators. We have candles all over our house, and luckily have a gas stove, so we can cook at anytime, so I guess it is kind of romantic. If it would be my own house I would be interested to investigate a backup system with solar power and batteries. A dutch friend here sells solar power systems, and the technique sounds very promising. But given the fact that we are living in a rental house, there is really not much point.


We have met so many people since we have moved here, and it is quite amazing what a group of new friends we already have or know. Probably more then after nearly 5 years in Ireland. And we have been invited to so many parties. Last weekend there was a birthday party of a 10 year old, with more adults attending, who all were just hiding outside, away from the kids party, drinking and eating yummy foods. Then we went to a birthday party in the Saturday night, with more eating, drinking and going out. We also attended an Indian food festival in town. Gaborone is full with Indian people, and if you know us, you know that this is one of our favourite foods. Imagine a whole park full with small stalls selling all kinds of Indian food, while playing the most awful Indian disco music. It was great! This weekend we went to a cocktail party, the couple who run the Dutch consulate were married 40 years, and invited a bunch of friends for a spontaneous cocktail party in their backyard, it was really 'gezellig'. Next week we already have invitations for a farewell party and a lunch party. Weekends are pretty packed like this....


To keep ourselves in shape, especially after eating 'Kroketten en Bitterballen' this weekend, we went for a hike up Kgale Hill twice, and we went for a paddle on the Gaborone dam, Billy and Reilly joined us.


On the work side Jill is keeping me busy with our projects and stuff. It is really nice to be able to work together every day. Especially, when fieldwork is required, we can just go together, instead of one having one leave the other behind. In the meantime I am talking to an old business contact from my Ireland time, a pump company from Belgium. They sell pumps to pharmaceutical and wine industries all over the world, but not in South(ern) Africa. They have shown interest in my (or, "our") company representing them in this region. I believe that given the fact that these industries are large in South Africa, combined with the enormous economic growth, there might be some really nice opportunities (and more work at the already-busy office). I working on a proposal for them at the moment, and hope they will employ us (part time) for the start up months as a consultant, while we investigate opportunities and market, and make their product known. After that, when the supply of some equipment will hopefully start, I would be working on a commission basis. I am really excited about this, and it will give us a nice excuse for a few visits to South Africa every year.


I realize that I have done too much writing now, not enough pictures. But a picture of a stainless pump is not that exciting. But we did get this picture from V., from our weekend in Khutse.




J1

Workload update & Pula returns

It's been a bit quiet on the blogger front recently, due to the huge amounts of work going on down here in Gabz-city. "Swamped" would be a pretty appropriate word to use, actually. Which is one of the reason I've spent the last 5 months pleading with Hannes not to leave me for greener pastures in the engineering world!

June 18th begins the week of solid public consultations that we will have to undertake for our big powerline job. Our schedule includes holding public meetings in the villages of:
Serowe,
Palapye,
Mmashoro,
Mabeleapudi,
Orapa,
Paje, and
Letlhakeng

These are all villages in the Central District, and the powerline will be running through, or bypassing each one. So we need to investigate how the locals feel about the potential environmental implications of this proposal on their doorsteps. The red pointer on the map here vaguely shows the corridor between Palapye and Orapa, in which we'll be operating (smaller villages not shown).

The light-yellow line refers to a pretty sub-standard type of road that is at best considered to have a "tar" surface. But for the majority of the trip it will be a pretty bumpy, uncomfortable ride, with the exception of the days when we're in Palapye, Serowe, Letlhakane, and Orapa. We'll be loading up the new rig and spending the whole week out there in the bush, facilitating meetings with the Cheif of each village in their kgotlas, and inviting the public to participate in discussions on the topic. Richard, our ecologist and public consultation specialist will be joining, as will Eric, our student intern and Setswana translator.

This project is only in the first 1/3rd of it's lifespan at the moment, we still have to do a constraints report to pick the best route for the power line, and then do the full Environmental Assessment. There may be a helicoptor ride involved, which I'm looking forward to. We'll see.

Otherwise, life in Gaborone came to a screeching halt this weekend when we had a massive city-wide power blackout. This was the first one all year, and it lasted about 4 or 5 hours. South Africa experiences this all the time, because there's not enough power for their country. However, Botswana also buys power from South Africa (until the end of the year) so the SA blackouts are bound to affect us from time to time until Botswana becomes self-sufficient. This is why there is so much work in our field at the moment, with such a desperate push to find power sources. SA is going to be literally "turning off the switch" on Botswana, within the next 6 months, as our contract with them runs out.

And finally, "Pula comes back to Gabs for one night only!!!" Last night we had rain for hours. This incident is completely bizarre, as the rain season ended several months ago. Life in a desert climate is so much different to anywhere else we've ever lived, because the weather patternsare ALWAYS consistent. You just simply will. not. get. rain. during the winter here in a typical year. In fact, we usually don't even see clouds between the months of May and October. But some freak climate anomole occurred last night, and we had a huge summer storm in the middle of winter. It made us very happy as all we've been hearing so far this year are announcements of drought and "national emergency" conditions whereby everybody will be seeing a lot of dead livestock scattered across the landscape this year and severe drought is going to see most wildlife struggling from now until October, because this year's rainy season didn't bring enough water. This is never a good thing, as the many cattle and donkeys that wander around the city die of thirst and starvation, and that's a really cruel way to go. So the sound of rain and thunder pummelling the city last night was not only an incredible "What the....?" surprise, but also made everyone very happy.

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