Rain and More Rain

Yesterday we marked four weeks here by celebrating the end of the month with everyone else. The end of the month is pay day for most people and you can see that on the road and in the shops and restaurants and cafes. We decided we would go out to dinner and chose Linga Longa at Riverwalk. I am not sure how to describe the menu but it wasn’t very good. They serve breakfast all day and I have a feeling that their breakfast menu is probably much better. We were sitting outside and also barraged by yellow jackets. But it was fun to watch everyone coming and going. From the restaurant we could also see Tlokweng Road, one of the roads that leads (in a very short distance) to South Africa. The road was very full – though there is not a whole lot on that road - and I could only conclude that people were traveling to South Africa to load up on goods to bring back to consume or sell. I will have to check into whether that is correct.

We are delighted to have gotten wireless at home. I had been a little wary that I had given someone – who had come to my house with an application (because I did not know where their offices were, though could have found them) – a wad of cash and gotten no receipt. There were problems scheduling the installation and then that particular guy was out. But in fact, the company was very professional and very accommodating. On Thursday afternoon when the rain finally let up some, Koketso and his crew arrived to install something on the roof and a wireless router in Kuno’s bedroom. It was great – no landline, bank statements, pay stubs, yearlong commitment as some of the other companies require. It works perfectly, even through all of the rain. Has made a huge difference for us. We are a little sad not to see the people at the internet café regularly anymore, though we can always go there to have copies made, buy school supplies and more.

We had incredible rain this week; indeed it actually rained non-stop for about 48 hours, some of it torrential. It is fine when we are snug and dry inside our flat, but even just going out to do an errand becomes a chore – never mind our three gates and three locks that have to be locked and unlocked every time one goes in or out. At the same time, I think also of all of those people who are living in not very watertight houses and think how uncomfortable they must be. A second person, Sethunya, told me that my Setswana name would be 'Mmapula' for bringing the rains (pula means rain and is also the name of the currency - since rain is about the most valuable commodity in dry Botswana; Mma is how you address a woman). The rain has wreaked total havoc on the roads; that patching of potholes that had commenced might well not have. The potholes are even worse now than before. I am told that the roads outside of Gaborone are not nearly as bad as in the city and that does seem to be the case. Gaborone has grown so much in the last years and the roads, among others, simply have not kept up. On GABZ FM, when they do the evening traffic reports, it is primarily about where the potholes are bad and where the traffic lights are out. We have seen now that in the evenings there is lots and lots of traffic out of the city as people head out to the northern and western suburbs. I am very happy that we are right in the city center. The electricity has only been out once since we have been here, in the middle of the night one night, despite all the rain and thunderstorms. I am told that during the fall there were regular, even scheduled outages, but have not seen them since we have been here. Something about South Africa, from whom electricity in Gaborone comes, trying to wean Botswana from its use of power from South Africa.