KalahariLog

By now, Tanya is hopefully on the Johannesburg-Washigton flight. She had to go earlier than me, and get a taxi to Johannesburg so that she could get the cat back to the US. I'm about to follow a little later.

When I get on a plane I usually immediately put my headphones on and start reading my book; that way, I hope to discourage my neighbors from trying to engage me in a conversation. Statistically, the chance that my neighbor and I have something interesting to talk about is very low, and I'm willing to take the risk of missing even a good chat.



Especially on long flights, I notice that other people usually try to avoid engaging in a conversation with their neighbors early on. However, as the flight draws to a close, and especially after touchdown, people start talking, making friends, and exchanging business cards. This could be because the passengers are relieved to have survived another flight. But my feeling is that the socializing-after-landing phenomenon has to do with people being more willing to engage a stranger, knowing that they'll part ways fairly soon; whereas starting the chat at the beginning of a 8-10 hour flight exposes one to the danger of having to keep it up for a long time.

I've noticed a similar phenomenon with my colleagues at the University of Botswana. In the last month I ended up spending more time talking and working with people from the department than in the previous eight months combined. I don't know whether this is the same phenomenon as the airplane one, but it sure seems that way. Of course, the problem with this (and also with the last minute conversations on airplanes) is that that the limited time doesn't allow for much to happen.

I'll be leaving tomorrow, but with a feeling that I didn't manage to do half of what I was hoping to. I had bigger plans but even the best-laid plans of mice and men go oft astray... I did engage in a couple of research projects with colleagues and students at the University. I did help get the beginnings of a wireless network in the department. I did push for and participated in the review and redesign of the computer science curriculum. I did end up teaching some forty or so students and hopefully made a positive impression on them. Yes, I learned a good deal about Africa, and I knew next to nothing a year ago. And yes, I traveled a bit in this part of the world, and i hadn't been on the continent before.

But I didn't manage to complete any papers with colleagues from the University of Botswana yet. And I couldn't get involved in writing joint research proposals. And I don't think I learned enough to understand African culture in general, or Batswana culture in particular. So, I am packing my bags with mixed feelings. This is the end of the blog. When Tanya still had her laptop she used to begin her entries with a local quote. After the house break-ins, after the hostility of the shouted insults from passing combis, and after the spay-painted "die motherf***ers" on the curb outside our flat, a quote by Jerry Seinfeld has been coming to my mind at regular intervals: "Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason."