KalahariLog

Botswana is a land-locked country in Southern Africa, bordering Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, and South Africa (in counter-clockwise order). Botswana is the roughly the size of France but with much, much smaller population. It is one of the most thinly populated countries in the world with about 3 people per square kilometer (5 per square mile). For contrast, the UK has about 250 people per square kilometer. Overall, there are a little over a million Batswana (this is how the citizens of Botswana are known). One reason for the low population density is that over 80 percent of the country is covered by the Kalahari Desert. Here is the home of the world’s largest inland delta, the Okavango delta, where the only perennial river forms marshlands in the middle of the desert.

Botswana was a British protectorate until 1966 when it gained independence (the 40th Anniversary is coming up in September and celebrations are planned). As luck would have it, one year after independence DeBeers discovered diamonds. By value, Botswana and its governmentally owned company Debswana (joint with DeBeers) is the largest diamond producer in the world. This helps explain how Botswana went from one of the poorest countries in the world during the 60th, to the 2nd wealthiest in Africa today. This all sounds wonderful until one finds out about the HIV/AIDS problems here and in Southern Africa, in general. Exact numbers are hard to find but most experts estimate that 30-35% of the population are HIV-positive. On the other hand, I’ve been told that Botswana is the only country in the world that provides free Antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) to all who need it.

With 20% of the land protected as national parks or wildlife management areas, Botswana seems interested in conservation and high-end tourism. One-week all-inclusive trips to the Okavango Delta start at $5,000 per person. Hopefully, we’ll be able to find something cheaper or do our own exploring. The Kalahari is also the traditional home of the “bushmen” or San peoples. Like most native populations elsewhere, they have suffered a great deal and most surviving groups live in reservations similar to those in the US southwest.

It’s been two weeks since we left Tucson. We settled in our new “flat”, which is really a 3-bedroom, 1.5-bathroom, 2 story semi-detached house. We are located in a neighborhood called “The Village”, which is the oldest part of town, where the original settlement began. It was known as Gaborone’s Village, after the local chief and now the entire town, which is the capital of Botswana, is called Gaborone (pronounced ha-bo-ro-nay). The Village is within walking distance from the University and most of our neighbors are University staff members. Within walking distance are also a fairly nice gym, a bottle-shop, and a mini-mart; slightly farther away is an American-style shopping mall with a few restaurants, a supermarket, a hardware store, and most kinds of shops one expects to find in a mall. After the utilities got connected and a leak in the bathroom was fixed, we started to make the house into a home by planting some colorful native plants in the back yard. We bought a sturdy 1998 Toyota Corolla from an Indian expat on his way to the US and took our first out-of-town trip over the weekend. We went to the Mokolodi Game Reserve, just 20 minutes south and quite beautiful. We saw half a dozen different types of antelopes, a couple of groups of warthogs, and lots of birds. They also have rhinoceros, giraffe, elephants, baboons, and many other “big game” animals, but we didn’t see them. The Mokolodi Reserve was made famous by Alexander McCall Smith in the 7th book of his “No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” series. The stories in the series take place in Gaborone and now there are even sight-seeing tours that take you to all the places mentioned in the books. It is the end of winter here and it feels similar to late winter in the Arizona high desert. Unlike Arizona, it doesn’t usually rain in the winter as most of the rains come in summer (November to January).

Teaching at UB. I am teaching a 3-rd year course on Algorithms here. As we arrived after the semester had started, the first week's lectures were cancelled. For the first class, about 15 students showed up. There were over 30 for the second class. Officially, there should be about 40, so hopefully most of them will be there next time. We are using the same textbook ("Introduction to Algorithms" by Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest, and Stein) as we use in Arizona. Here they have the paperback version here and it costs 360 pula, or the equivalent of about $60. Students get a book allowance of about 1000 pula and take at least 5 courses. That means that most students don't have the textbook. I brought about a dozen copies with me -- hopefully, I can distribute some when I collect them from the US embassy.

The students seem no different that those in the US -- it is difficult to get them to interact and after two classes I haven't received one question. However, they do respond when I ask questions, so that's fine. I'll pass out a questionnaire next time, to find out whether they can understand me and my illegible handwriting. I am also curious as to how much and what they know coming into this class. The system here is more like that in the UK than that in the US: professors typically lecture twice a week and "demonstrators" lead problem-solving sessions. The final comprehensive exam is typically worth 50% of the grade. There is a "continuous assessment" requirement, typically fulfilled by 2 in-class tests. In addition to that, I am planning to have a few homework assignments and as I don't have a "demonstrator" yet, I will be doing all the lectures, grading, etc.

How to turn on utilities in Botswana? One goes to the offices of the water and electric utilities with one's passport and an "Allocation Letter" which assigns a flat to the person in question. One hands 250 and 300 pula, respectively, and fills out several pages of paperwork. One gets told that the utilities will be turned on the same day. One is duly impressed at the efficiency of the whole thing. Four days later neither utility is on and one seethes with the futility of the situation. Despite all the help from people at the University, who make phone calls to the utilities people and drive us around to the flat every day, there is no water and no electricity yet.

While waiting for the utilities to be turned on we are staying at a "lodge", which a euphemism for a motel/hotel. Naturally, the lodge we are staying at, The Planet Lodge, is about 7km out of town with no convenient transportation. The lodge provides meals. The way it works is they call you at 7:30am/noon/6:30pm and ask what you'd like to eat. They get perplexed when you say that you don't eat meat. They take 90 minutes and produce a piece of bread and a couple of slices of tomatoes and cucumbers. This is presented on a plate and wrapped in cling-wrap. This repeats every time ("no MEAT?!?" "are you SURE you don't want MEAT?") and it always takes at least 90 minutes to come up with the above piece of bread (cold) with the handful of limp vegetables.

To make life a little more exciting, on Saturday, they decide to do some work on the lodge. The hammers and drills start on at 7:30am, just as one falls asleep after tossing and turning all night. There are at least half-a-dozen staff members, knocking stuff around, adding new and exciting noises all the time and sending the cat scurrying under the bed at regular intervals.

The cat. Yes, our cat is here too. She flew with us in the cabin on the US-based portion of our trip. For the Washington-Johannesburg portion we had to take her as "manifest cargo" as South Africa doesn't allow pets in the cabin on incoming flights. Once we arrived in Washington we had to leave the airport and take a taxi to get to the cargo terminals. In there, we filled out many pages of documents waiving any and all kinds of rights regarding the cat and her safety. We left her in the terminal, hoping that she'll make it to Johannesburg 24 hours later. From there we needed yet another travel arrangement. South African Airways insisted that the last portion of our trip (Johannesburg to Gaborone) was on an Air Botswana airplane. Air Botswana insisted that it was on South African Airways plane. Neither offered any options for taking our cat. Apparently, we are not the first ones to run into this problem and to deal with it, several companies offer the service of collecting pets from the Johannesburg airport and delivering them to their final destinations. Naturally, they charge and arm and a leg for that, in our case 5000 South African Rand, which seems to be about 800USD. The flight turned out to be South African Express and I can't see any reason why we couldn't take the cat with us. It seems like a good way for pet-handling companies to make a pretty penny.

After 40 hours, 5 flights, and several unappetizing meals, we arrived in Gaborone. The last leg was on a turbo-prop from Johannesburg -- we got a good view of the nearby Kgale Hill, the Limpopo river (think Rudyard Kipling), and the town itself.

The weather is almost the same as that in Tucson in the spring: 70's during the day and 40's at night. The agaves, prickly pears, and low-lying homes make the town look even more like Tucson.

The University's connection to the internet is pretty slow, often as slow as 1bps which makes for short posts. Hopefully, we'll be able to get a faster connection via DSL. Then we might even post pictures :)

Tanya and I are almost ready for our trip to Botswana. We will be there for about 10 months, beginning in mid-August 2006. Assuming we can get a reliable internet connection, this is where we'll be posting updates and pictures. We will be based at the University of Botswana in the capital city, Gaborone. Botswana is mostly covered by the Kalahari Desert, hence the blog name.