Trip Planning

     One week and counting!! I am getting so excited for my family to come. I was working more on planning today and realized, wow, this is actually happening!! We are still making last minute changes to the itinerary, and keeping things flexible, but I figured I would share some of the plans that we have made so far. We will be rendez-vousing in Johannesburg, South Africa where I’ll let them recover from jet lag a bit, relax and visit Pretoria and the Apartheid Museum. From there, we will head to Capetown to enjoy everything they have to offer there, including Table Mountain, Cape Point, the Wine Valley, and of course the coast, boat ride and shark/penguin viewing. This will probably be the more luxurious part of our trip before we head up to Maun, Botswana, where we will explore the Okavango Delta on a mokoro (traditional canoe boat) trip and camping in the bush. I’m the most worried about this part of the trip cause of the mosquitos and other bugs that come out during rainy season.

     After this we are renting a car and driving up to Kasane! This is where I get to share a little of my life with my fam! We will have a few days prior to Christmas where we will hopefully catch the ‘Christmas by Candlelight’ where we sing carols and read scriptures with the community, Christmas eve dinner with some friends, church, visiting the center, going into the park, and just a bit of relaxing. We don’t really have any plans for Christmas day, but I will be getting a huge Christmas gift when Chip arrives! We’ll let him recover a bit, but head to Victoria Falls the next day, where we will spend one night so we can fit in everything there is to do there! For the last three days of the trip we will hopefully be going out to Savanna Lodge (where I helped with the ad) and Chobe Game Lodge. That will be a bit more of a luxury experience but a great time to explore the park and see a couple beautiful lodges! Well that’s a bit of what we have planned, if you have any suggestions feel free to share! Can’t wait for this awesome adventure with the fam!!

Thanksgiving

    Well I guess I’m making up for lost time by writing three posts in three days (maybe I’ll do a marathon and also write one for Black Friday tomorrow!) Thinking of everyone back home today and dreaming of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and family gatherings around ginormous meals full of fried turkey, green bean casserole, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, pumpkin pie, oh and don’t forget Granny’s Jell-o mold! My stomach is expanding at the thought of it…

   Well, us Americans in Kasane wouldn’t let such an important holiday slip by! Last weekend the Honeys hosted our own version of Thanksgiving, including a special-ordered turkey (crock-pot cooked – yum!), cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade rolls, sweet potatoes, veggies, deviled eggs, and pecan and pumpkin pie for dessert. It was excellent! We were quite thankful to be able to have such a huge and similar meal to what we would find at home. Other than the Kasane-style heat (probably at least 90 degrees in the kitchen) and Kazungula power outage (candlelight anyone?) you could almost forget that we were halfway around the world from where we would usually be celebrating this holiday!

    After the delicious meal that ‘tryptophan’ turkey hit me and I zonked out completely! While others watched a recorded football game (not really one of our family’s thanksgiving traditions) I had a lovely nap on the couch. Although it was a bit different from the way my family will be celebrating this year, it was still such a wonderful way to thank God for the amazing experiences and people I have encountered so far this year! Happy Thanksgiving all!

The Thanksgiving spread! Keith carving the turkey by candlelight... luckily the power came back on just before we sat down to eat. 

Dreaming of Autumn

Last night, in honor of fall weather back home, I broke out my frozen pumpkin and whipped up some pumpkin soup! Although not the best I’ve ever tasted, it’s not too bad – and very easy! You really don’t need much more in there because the pumpkin is so tasty, but I added onions and carrots to mine, then some nutmeg and a bit of salt and pepper. Yummm! Gotta admit, not quite the same when its 90 degrees out, but I used my imagination. Mom sent me some fall leaves – looks like it was a beautiful autumn! Only the past few days have I really been thinking of fall weather and missing it a bit. Three summers in a row may very well be too much heat for me….

My nice big pot of soup - I'll be eating this for weeks!

Africa Time

Shame on me!! I have been slacking big time at blog posts and there is no excuse! (Other than a lack of things to write about and perhaps the lack of motivation to write at all). But, in light of my recent reception of my Botswana Residence Permit, I figured I would talk about ‘Africa Time’ a little bit (also to justify the delayedness of this post…). I know I have mentioned that things are just slower, more relaxed here, but the other day I was trying to pinpoint the difference and realized something interesting. In the States, you can plan things by the hour, and here you plan things by the day.  For example, on Africa time, one might think, okay today I will get this done, then I will do that tomorrow. Whereas in the states, you would say, today I will do this, this, this, and that in the morning…..

    And as hard as you try, you can’t try to make an American schedule/mindset fit into the ‘African time’ zone. It’s kind of hard to explain how or why, but it just does NOT work. It becomes extremely frustrating at times, but it is something you just have to accept and get used to (obviously hasn’t been that easy for me!) Although I still find it annoying, it is definitely something I have started to get used to. I'm a little worried about going back to the states and having to get back into frenzy mode! 

    On a happy note, I received my residence permit! It is amazing how long it takes to get a sticker in your passport…. After several visits to immigration to make sure I had everything that I needed (picture, copy of passport, letter from employer, letter from father, etc.) I finally turned the application in. They say they will message you when it is ready, but I decided to go check back after about a month. Still no news. After checking back in about every two weeks, it got down to the wire of when my temporary permit would expire. Finally they told me that it had been approved! But…. The machine to make the permit stickers was broken. They were sending the machine to Gabs to get fixed, so she extended my temporary permit a couple months. I went back in the beginning of November and the machine was back! But I went too late in the afternoon and the lady obviously just didn’t feel like helping me. SO, at long last, I went back the following week and they printed my sticker for me and stuck it in my passport. WOOHOO! Basically, it says I am allowed to volunteer in Botswana until July 2017. 

October Skies

You know it’s hot when:

- The hot water heater isn’t necessary at all. Cold showers twice a day are almost necessary

- You can use outside in the sun as a microwave for your lunch

- You are exhausted at the end of the day and you don’t really feel like you did anything

- Carrying an umbrella to block the sun is not abnormal at all

- 85F feels amazingly good and 77…. That’s just chilly

- Your skin turns a shade darker from being outside for 20 mins

- Sweat stains... oh yeah..... 

October is known as suicide month. Why, you might ask? Temperatures reach well into the 100's every day and there's not much break. I am extremely thankful that we have air conditioning at work. As long as you are sitting inside you forget how durn hot it is outside. That is until you go out to use the toilet and the heat hits you like a brick wall as you step out the door. Although we do a lot of work outside, you try to keep it to the mornings before it gets too too hot. 

   I haven't actually been bothered by it too much. Again, the aircon makes a ginormous difference. Plus, my house manages to stay at a reasonable temperature if I close it up during the day, another huge blessing. The one thing I am dying for is more rain! The past couple weeks we have seen more cloud cover (whoa, amazing) and a bit of rain. The other night we got massive thunderstorms (felt the ground shake while laying in bed) and that was awesome! I think if it rained every day for a week I would be perfectly happy right now. Can't wait til rain starts to come more often and we get the first 'official' rain (20 mL).

   So as you all enjoy the beautiful, crisp fall days in the U.S., just remember those of us permanently stuck in summer!

Charity Case

     Last week I had an interesting conversation and further realization of the ‘charity case’ mindset adopted by Americans (and others I’m sure) when it comes to Africa. When I say Africa, what’s the first thing that pops into your mind? That photo of little children smudged with dirt and tummies swollen from hunger, holding out their hands asking for food or money. Or the older woman with a tired frown on her face as she sits in the dirt, weaving a basket with worn fingers. Probably not too far off?

     And this, my friends, is the broken image of Africa. While these pictures are such reality in so many parts of Africa, I must inform you: this is not how all of Africa is! Especially Botswana, which has done incredibly well for itself through the diamond industry (I think, I don’t know a whole lot about their economy, but I do know that the government is very wealthy). Something I’ve realized from living here is that this is just the way they live. The same way we would live in a neighborhood with a car parked in the driveway, a playground in the nicely fenced back yard with a green lawn. The bus comes to pick the kids up in the morning and parents drive to work to make money to support the family. For Motswana, maybe their neighbors live a little closer, their home is just one room, their ‘oven’ is the fire they make in their dirt yard, the kids play with wheel rims and sticks and any other scraps they can create a toy out of. The kids walk down the street to school and the parents catch a taxi or walk to work so they can make money and at month end, budget out money to buy food for the next month. But it’s all they’ve ever known. It’s their lifestyle.

     Now I guess I shouldn’t be speaking for all Africans or Motswana, but I would venture to say that most are pretty happy with this way of living. I think it is hard for Americans to understand, because we see pictures of such poor conditions and think the people are miserable. But it is something you come to understand and get used to when you live in that place. It’s just different. When Americans try to project their needs and wants into a different lifestyle, it just doesn’t work as well.

    This whole thought process was sparked by a group that is leading an effort in a nearby village to build a school so the children don’t have to walk as far to school. Sounds great, right? Well I watched the promotional video that is online and was amazed at how ‘disadvantaged’ they made this village sound! They managed to turn it in to a charity case when really it is a typical village of Botswana with the lifestyle I described above. Plus, there is already a fully functioning government school there. A friend said she had showed the video to a Motswana friend, and he was offended because of the way they portrayed this seemingly normal village. Americans can be so ignorant sometimes.

     Now, I don’t mean to discourage people from donating to a good cause, because there are still many many places and people in Africa that are suffering. But I do warn you to do your research before giving money to any organization or charity that appears to be helping needy people in Africa. Throwing money at an issue is not always the answer, and I’m afraid that the U.S. has gotten sucked into that mindset. So, in conclusion, just remember that the African lifestyle is simply very different from American lifestyle, and not all parts of Africa are the same – it’s a huge continent! (Yes, continent….not country)

Birds!

On Saturday morning I crashed a Birdlife Botswana trip onto the river. Birdlife Botswana is an organization that has groups throughout the country that conduct events and bird counts to keep track of various bird populations. We have a small group here in Kasane and I’ve participated in several of the events since I’ve been here. On Saturday we met at the jetty at 6am to head out on one of Cornelia’s boats to see what we could see on the river. I will start by saying that I was not wearing the proper clothing and that it was FREEZING! Brrr. But we got to see some awesome birds! Here is a little sample of some birds we got to see that I got photos of:

Black Crake: very elusive bird, not very commonly seen!

Cattle Egret taking a ride on a hippo!

Purple Heron - such neat coloring!

Malachite Kingfisher

Pied Kingfisher

Brown-Hooded Kingfisher

Squacco Heron

White-Backed Night Heron, also apparently very rare