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

Happy Labour Day! (J2)

Well, we have Tuesday off, this week! What a great day to have off... you only have to make it through Monday and then you're rewarded with a day off, and then a short week to follow that!

It's Labour Day tomorrow (2nd May), and then we have Ascension Day on the 17th, another day off. What a great month!

I went to my first baby shower in Botswana this weekend, for our neighbour. It was really fun and I had such a great time. Probably the most funny part was where our neighbour, S., told me it was going to start at 10am. She said "the Batswana are normally very late though, so dont worry about coming at 10, come between 10:30 and 11 or something". I did, and I was one of 3 (ex-pats) who arrived around then. The rest trickled in at... oh, somewhere between 1pm and 4:00! I think that's pretty funny. Talk about "botswana time"!!!

S. is going to be having twins in June. A boy and a girl. The girl will be called Zara and the boy Ayden. Lots of excitement next door, coming soon. The shower was your pretty standard American/Australian/South African-style baby shower... eating, presents, a few cheesey games, and overall girly chit chat. I met loads of really really nice ladies and had a great time.

It seems that Autumn in BW lasted a little bit longer than the "3 days" that our friend L. told us it would - actually it turned out that we had a lovely month of autumn. But that seems to be over now. I think it's officially safe to say that winter is well and truly here. We're having cold nights and cold mornings (+/- 5 deg. C), but the funny part is that the days are still balmy and 20 deg C. or so. So basically we've had to formulate a new dressing regime, whereby we start the day off in layers, and proceed to gradually strip throughout the day, ending the afternoon by putting everything back on again. AND, the really big deal of the day is that: I'm wearing socks for the first time ever here in BW. I'm really not that happy about it though. My feet feel like they need to launch a Prison Break of their own, and these leather shoes I have on at the moment are just not cool. Not at all.

J1 is really turning african - complaining about the cold and running around crying about how "frozen" he is.... I find that funny coming from anyone who grew up in a country where there's actually snow in the winter. but yes, once you get used to the extreme heat here, you really do feel the cold. Also, the houses aren't built for winter, so it is often colder inside during the mornings, than it is outside.

I guess the main thing to keep in mind through all this is the benefits of a dry winter, which is great, not to mention the year-long sunshine. Really, what more could you ask for from winter?

Ireland (J1)

Thanks to our very good friends Scott and Linda, we have this nice little memory of Ireland on our front door. I finally put it up, after the landlord finished painting and fixing the door. I really like it. Thanks guys.

J1

Beers and steak (J1)

It is Monday morning, things are pretty quiet in the office, and it is hard to get started on things like accounts and stuff, much easier to write a little blog entry first. It is one of the first times we are actually pretty quiet in the office, when we first arrived there were deadlines everywhere, and after that we had a number of very big tenders, which have taken a lot of our time. Last week we submitted the last one of those, so we have to wait now. There are still a few small projects ongoing, to keep us busy and pay the bills, and I think we might as well enjoy this silence before a possible storm.

On Friday afternoon at 2 we decided to have 'a directors meeting' over lunch, and call it a day. That is the nice thing about owning your own business. When you are busy you might be working until late at night (which happened earlier that week), but when things are finished you can also go home early. By the way, I know I was going to put up a few pictures of our office. I will do this soon.

Our house had quite a number of snags, which the landlord has finally started to attend to. Doors and screens are being replaced, electrics checked (so we can cook in our oven again), plumbing repaired and the kitchen ceiling (nearly collapsed) repaired. And, just as these guys were working there, our water tank at our borehole started leaking. They are going to replace this as well.

What I did not mention, we have also started a gardener for 1 day per week, it is our neighbours gardener, who wanted to get a few extra Pulas during the weekend, and is now doing some weeding and cleaning up for us. The garden is starting to look much better already.

Yesterday we went for a nice long (3 hour) walk with some friends, we started in Gaborone and walked to Gabane, which is the place we first stayed. Gabane is a real African village, and we were quite the attraction as 5 white people walking through their village, all the kids were so friendly though. We went to a local bar there (with a Norwegian guy behind the bar, totally unexpected in such village) where we had a number of well deserved beer, and some really nice steaks and pap on their outside braais. After this we took a combi back to town. It was such a nice way to spend the Sunday afternoon, be active and then have a few drinks, and not be hanging out in the modern restaurants or bars in the big shopping malls, but in this small place in the village. Something worth repeating.

J1

In Doubt (J1)

After that great report on our Easter weekend by Jill, it is my turn again to share some experiences. And we do continue to experience the most amazing things, let me just start with last week Friday.

As we are living outside Gaborone, in Notwane, our area falls outside the city boundaries and within the so called 'South East district'. To get our household rubbish collected, you need to register with the district council, situated in Ramotswa, a town about 15 minutes driving from our house. We had not gotten around to this so far, and used the skip at the office to dispose of our waste, but Friday was the big day. It took me nearly all morning to get it organised, and involved three different offices at the district council. Real job creation there. But here is the most amazing thing: it costs us 60 Pula (less then 8 euros) to have our trash bag collected every Thursday morning FOR A WHOLE YEAR....How is that for value for money. Especially if you compare with Ireland, where it was costing us over 500 Euros).

In Jill's report about our Easter weekend, she forgot to mention one of our fun activities, we have bought a share in a kayak on the Gaborone dam, and took this out on the water on the Monday. Loads of fun, but we definitely need to train a lot to develop our shoulders....The boat house at the am has a little bar, with beautiful views, and definitely worth a visit.

We had our first visitor this weekend. Our good friend Jean from South Africa came over Saturday and Sunday, and we had lots of fun. On Sunday afternoon we climbed Kgale Hill again, and it is still an amazing experience having baboons all around you.

My job situation is not looking so good at the moment. The company I interviewed with over a month ago, and promised to make me an offer, have still not come through with anything. I rang them 2 weeks later, and they promised me I would hear from them that week. That was nearly 3 weeks ago now, and it is still quiet. I have been a little lazy, and have not actively looked for other opportunities. It really sounded like they were genuine, and we were very busy with our own business preparing tenders. Now I am in a doubtful situation: should I call them (again) to ask about their offer. And even more, if our company is successful with those tenders, we are going to be so busy, do I still want the job? But then again, award of tenders, especially for projects involving government departments, usually take a very long time, several months. In the meantime, I am not sure what to do. Let's just hope something will happen this week that will help me make up my mind.

J1

Easter Weekend Review

And what a weekend it was.

First of all, we desperately needed the break. Tendering for projects at work has been driving us up the walls over the last few weeks. We want the jobs, but we don't like bidding for them. Too many reports to write, too many quotations from subbies to get, and too many hectic hours behind the computer.

So we let loose for all it was worth with 2 days off over the easter break. Good Friday and Easter Monday are both public holidays here.

Friday was spent sleeping late, going for a scenic drive at the Gaborone park & picnic grounds (designed for humans but completely overrun by monkeys).

Other random spottings included these 3 little babies (Impala x 3), as well as some Eland and loads of wandering ostrich.

Had a lovely lunch at the Bull+Bush outside in their beer garden and ordered (gasp!) something other than their dreamy steaks. Peri-Peri Chicken and Schwarma instead.

Went for our usual Friday-sundowners at our favourite bar in the neighbourhood and finished the day off with a movie on TV.

Saturday was a day of rest as well, naturally. This time supplemented with some work around the house and a trip to the BSPCA to pick up our first Botswana charity cases... 2 small kittens in need of a foster home while they're too young for neutering and immunizations prior to going up for adoption. They're a lot of fun, and give the dogs some serious entertainment.

Sunday was extremely special as far as easters go. We were up at a ridiculously early hour to go rhino tracking with the stealthy Mpho and Tshepo from Mokolodi.

(Mpho's gun there, is actually there in case of any potential leopard "incident", not rhino)

This was a really special opportunity. They drove us out into the bush and we hopped out of the truck and Mpho used his uncanny ability to track these massive creatures and off we went on foot. It was incredible how close you can get to these monsters. Makes for great photographic opportunities, and really much more impressive than viewing game from the safety of a bakkie or a car, which we've done too many times now to really get a big rush from, unfortunately.

How does one track a rhino?

Simple....

*

spoor (big poop),

* bonus points here for photo of dung beetles...not doing what they do best (rolling their perfect little balls of poo), but rather: Fighting!

foot prints,

smell,

grass chewings,

sound (of massive feet pounding on the ground)

and...

it also helps if you can see their big butts poking out from behind the thorn trees.

We saw 8 out of the reported 10 in the area. The area, by the way, happens to be less than 3 kilometres from our house!

We finished the trek off with a picnic on the lake, where three hippos and a baby croc also happened to be hanging out. It was really relaxing and worth the hours of walking and whispering and spotting false alarms (monkeys? kudu? impala?).

Let's see... .what else....?

Monday night we enjoyed dinner at Spur and there was a marimba/xylophone duo there to do the dining music. Sweet! Then saw "The Last King of Scotland", which we both highly recommend for anyone interested in Africa or specifically Uganda in the '70s. Or if you just like scottish people for no apparent reason, of course.

Otherwise, we're busy cheering on the South Africans in the Cricket World Cup, but they appear to be letting us down significantly in these late stages. As soon as they bail out, I'm supporting New Zealand. Hannes is going to go for England. Laugh if you will.

In other news, babies are everywhere. The local baboons from our neighbourhood have given birth and we see the most adorable little kitten-sized guys running and jumping and climbing and generally creating nuiscance all along the main road to our house. They're funny now, and it's interesting to see them growing bigger every week. Lots of baby antelope in the parks as well, and one of the rhinos we were tracking on sunday is actually pregnant-- they gestate for 16 months. Ouch.

She's a BIG ol' girl.

Long Time No See... (J2)

Well it's been a long time since I've written in here and I suppose I better sort that out before the Mr. starts beating me for slacking off.

Firstly, things are going very well. Autumn is my favorite time of year and it's turning out to be very nice in Botswana. I've never had an autumn in BW before, only in South Africa and it appears that it'll be much warmer here, than there.

We have lovely cool mornings and evenings, but daytime temperatures in full sunshine are still quite hot. As in, you'll regret wearing a long-sleeved shirt, no matter how nice it feels in the morning. But long pants are still managable. It's just really great to sit outside on the hammock and read a travel magazine and hear the wind in the trees and even see some leaves changing colour (not many, but some trees like the peach tree are actually dropping their leaves. Otherwise the thorn trees are pretty boring, as far as autumn foliage goes).

Swimming is over, though.

Our new employee, Tutu is coming along just fine. I enjoy a bit more female company in the office and she's so able that sometimes I forget she's only a graduate.

Hannes is still in a grey area about this prospective engineering job that he interviewed for. They have had a second conversation on the phone recently, again the company is intending on hiring him, but apparently they're dragging their heels on making him a money offer (I reckon because they're waiting to see if they get a certain tender for a big job, but who knows). Which makes me secretly pleased, as I still don't like the idea of losing our No. 1 Office Manager!

We had a lovely weekend in Pretoria last week. It was exactly 3 hours and 15 minutes from the border post by our house, to the Polson's front door. Not bad at all. Jéan came up from Sunninghill to hang out with us on saturday and we got lots of shopping done for bits and pieces for the house.... really exciting stuff like curtains and ceiling fans. woo hoo!

I suppose the biggest development over the last week, however, was the official arrival of DSTV at the Westra house. Uh-oh.
Now we're back to a hundred channels including TEN sports networks (right in the midst of the Cricket World Cup, the start of the 2007 Formula 1, and Super 14 Rugby season!!!!!!) and a heap of international news channels. Whoops. There goes breakfast out on the stoep, and evenings of reading or sitting outside listening to the cow bells!

We must come up with a sustainable solution for this one. Figuring that one out is on the agenda.... right after this episode of Prison Break....

AAGHHH!

quiet

We are still alive, do not worry. I realize it has been a while since the last post on this blog, but it has been very busy at work this week, and we had a nice weekend away to Pretoria last weekend.

I am still working on a deadline today, but promise to post something before the weekend.

J1

Christmas (J1)

Is it a little early to talk about Christmas???? Well, not really….Our best friends Christiaan and Susan from Friesland just sent us an email that they have booked their flights to come visit us at Christmas. We are soooo excited to have them here, and have so many plans about what to do. They want to see lots of animals and wildlife, and want to visit Vic Falls, we will try to combine that with some camping in the real bush, and Christmas celebrations of course.

And….for anyone who was also thinking about visiting at Christmas, sorry, too late. Snoozers are Losers.

J1

T-Bone (J1)

I know there is probably too much writing, and not enough photos on the blog at the moment. We will try to change this soon, but every time we see something we want to take a picture of, the camera is in some bag in the boot of the car. For example this morning, on our way to work, in the middle of a roundabout on the 'Western Bypass', the most busy road in Gaborone, cattle were grazing while traffic was flying around from all sides like crazy. Something like this would only happen in Africa.

Our weekend was very relaxed, we watched Ireland make a decent performance in the Rugby game against Italy, we still follow the Irish rugby team. It was on big screen in the "Bull and Bush" bar, anyone who will come visit us will be guaranteed a visit there. Did we ever mention they are on the top 50 of best steak restaurants in the world?

The beef is amazing here anyway, I have eaten the best steaks in my life. Botswana is very proud of their beef. For example, McDonalds is only allowed to set up restaurants if they use Botswana beef for their burgers. They do not accept this, and are therefore missing the opportunity to make some decent food. Botswana is one of the few countries in the world without McDonalds.

Even though I am from a farming background, i can not explain why the beef here tastes so good, the texture of the meet is different I think. Most cattle wanders around along roadsides and fields that belong to no-one, and offer very little to eat. Would it be that they grow slower, and therefore it tastes better? Or does it have to do with them sometimes not drinking water for longer periods of time. I would be interested if anyone has a theory on this.

I still did not hear about my possible job offer, so I rang them this morning. He said he had been in South Africa for business most of last week, and I would receive my offer this week, to join them in a month from now or something. I was getting worried, so this is a relieve, as you can imagine.

OK, this is enough writing now, will be sure to post some pictures.

J1