Mokolodi Nature Reserve

We don’t come to southern Africa to see animals, but since we did not get to visit the Nata Bird Sanctuary, go into the Okavango Delta or make it to our favorite Khama Rhino Sanctuary I thought maybe we should do a two hour game drive at nearby Mokolodi Nature Reserve on Sunday morning. We have been there on a couple of occasions in the past and have not been so impressed; indeed the Gaborone Game Reserve in your own car is often better. Anyway, the most pleasant surprise was that our guide was Vivian, who was our guide on our two visits to Khama Rhino Sanctuary in 2009. It was great to see her again! The hippos and rhinos eluded us but we did manage to see a whole lot of other animals and birds: impala, warthogs, wildebeest, guinea fowl, kudu, fish eagles, Egyptian geese, zebra, ostrich, giraffe and baboons. Wildlife photos courtesy of Kuno.

Two Kombis to Game City

Mave realized recently that she had never ridden in a kombi – the ubiquitous white vans that efficiently and effectively provide most of the public transportation within Gaborone and also to some of the outlying areas (with large busses covering the more distant villages, towns and cities). So she proposed that late Saturday afternoon she would meet her friends Leoni and Mabedi at ‘their’ school, MAP, and they would take a kombi together to Game City Mall for an evening movie and dinner. We would then pick her up afterwards. Well, mission accomplished. It turns out, she said, that it takes two kombis to get to Game City – first one to the bus station and then another to the mall.

Thapong Visual Arts Centre

I dragged Mave and Kuno to the Thapong Visual Arts Centre today to see the exhibit of Batswana artists that opened last Friday. The art center is more or less right across from where we used to live in Village. There is always lots of activity going on with artists on the premises doing pottery, linocuts and other art forms. We saw lots of oil and acrylic on canvas as well as sculptures and lots of multimedia. Now looking forward to a last long weekend in Gabs before heading back to USA on Monday afternoon/evening.

Ramotswa

So this morning Leloba and I traveled to nearby Ramotswa, a village south of Gaborone on the Lobatse Road. Our destination was the kgotla and tribal office of the Balete where we met with Kgosi Mosadi Seboko, Botswana's first woman paramount chief. Her installation in late August 2003 was attended by royal representatives from neighboring countries as well as Botswana, the diplomatic community, members of parliament, current and past presidents and more. She is actually the one who gave me the idea for my current research project when I interviewed her two years ago. She is much admired by women and men chiefs and many others.

Thabantle

Our friends have a weekend cottage at a place called Thabantle about 50 kms south of Gaborone on the road to Lobatse. It is near the Nnywane Dam; it used to be a farm and has now been carved up into about 40 four acre pieces. Slowly people are building small houses and the land is even being stocked with wildlife like kudu and zebra. Mave and Kuno were able to spend part of the weekend or the whole weekend there while I had to attend to some other business, though I at least got to join them for lunch. Speaking of which, some of the items for lunch were ditloo, very nice Setswana beans, kudu and snoek. I understand that once I left there was other game like impala and eland.

Palo Batho: 2011 Census

Botswana truly is an amazing country. It is census time and so one can see census takers all over town smartly dressed in their census t shirts and hats (and black slacks it appears) and carrying large pale yellow cloth bags containing their census documents. They come into each house and sit down and enumerate the household. There are apparently 600 enumerators assigned to Gaborone’s many different neighborhoods. Each one has two weeks to reach an assigned set of households. And because we are living here at the moment, I, as head of our three person household, was interviewed as well. She thought she should skip over the questions about whether I had cattle or land but I wanted to hear them all. Censuses have led to conflict in Africa, especially the question about ethnicity (as it will reveal which group is larger, due more resources etc). This census asked what language is spoken at home, which is one way of getting at the ethnicity question. Also lots of questions about what the house is constructed of and access to electricity, toilets, and the internet. I hope the internet question will reveal the need for a major upgrade! The last population and household survey was in 2001.

School's Out!

As noted, Mave and Kuno have been attending their respective schools for the last two weeks, Maru a Pula and Thornhill, when we were not away. They would go in a couple of hours late and then attend classes and hang out with their friends. Well, now it is school break and so next week Kuno will attend a camp at Northside, which he has attended before, and Mave will attend Setswana Week back at Maru a Pula. Perfect! The University of Botswana is on the same academic calendar, more or less, as universities in the USA, but the primary and secondary schools are on a southern African schedule, namely, three months on and one month off – that is the rotation for the whole year. Above, some of Kuno’s friends at Thornhill.