Hello Seattle.
On Friday, just as Bafana Bafana scored their goal against Mexico and the airport erupted in wild cheers and the trumpeting of vuvuzelas, I boarded my plane to come home after what I would call the best and most rewarding experience of my life. My travels took me from Joburg to Dakar to DC, and 27 (mostly sleepless) hours after my initial departure, I looked out the window to see snowy mountains, evergreen forests, and sparkling expanses of water. That could only mean one thing: I had arrived home, in (my humble opinion) the most beautiful city in America. Goodbye Okavango, hello Puget Sound.
My last few days in Joburg, spent with my cousin-twice-removed (I think) Vivienne and her 18-year old daughter Alissa, passed wonderfully. We hit the museum circuit (the Cradle of Humankind, where a majority of hominid fossils have been discovered, and the Apartheid Museum), saw the Soccer City World Cup stadium, and enjoyed home-cooked family dinners every night. Our most exciting excursion was to the Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve in Gauteng, a private game park where I saw my first rhinos in Africa (they're not common in Botswana), as well as buffalo, gemsbok, eland, and other good stuff. Most of the predators are kept in their own enclosures, so not "wild," but I still saw a leopard there to complete my Big 5 sightings. Then, there were 2 adorable lion cubs named Lilo & Stitch, and for a meager R30 they allowed you into the enclosure to play with them! Alissa and I both went in and got 5 mins of quality lion time. For the record, lion cubs are the cutest and softest animals I have ever encountered. Lilo quite enjoyed biting my fingers and arm, but luckily he's still a little guy without the capacity to break skin.
After playing with the cubs, we went to watch a cheetah running demonstration on the lawn. A retractable line was criscrossed around the lawn with bait at the end, so that the cheetah would chase it when it started to move and thus show off his speed skills. The trainer began the demonstration by asking for 3 volunteers, who were then assigned to race the cheetah when it started to run. This was too cool, so when the first 3 had lost badly and the trainer asked for 3 more volunteers, I was the first out onto the pitch. So yes - I raced the cheetah. I held almost level with it for maybe 10 meters or so, but as soon as the line turned the cheetah cut the corner and I was left in the dust. Cheater. (Or should I say, Cheat-ah?) Basically I had the time of my life surrounded by animals that afternoon, which allowed me to be in denial that I was leaving the following day. But leave I did.
Now that I'm immersed in a land of freeways and free wi-fi, it's hard to reflect on life in a place that seems worlds away. American city life feels so normal to me again - I did spend 20+ years in this setting - but I'm also vaguely unsettled by it, since it's no longer the only way I've experienced. Maybe this will all become clearer to me in the coming weeks and months. In the meantime, though, I can come up with a short list of things that Africa has given me a better appreciation of:
1. Cooking meals
2. Communication
3. Family
4. Patience
5. Clouds
I've chosen quite a busy time to come back home. (Side note: what does "home" even mean? I haven't lived in any one place for much more than a month this year, but I've called them all "home.") My cousin graduated from college the day I got back, the next day was Talia's last concert with the Garfield Jazz Band, and now she has her graduation on Wednesday. Then we're taking a celebratory trip up to Vancouver BC for a couple days (also for my parents' anniversary). And pretty soon I'll be shipping out again - I'll be spending the rest of the summer as a camp counselor at YMCA Camp Orkila (in the San Juan Islands). For a couple of the weeks I get to teach marine biology, which is exciting. And that takes me all the way up to mid-August, when I'll go back to Pomona to lead an orientation camping trip and then write my thesis fall semester and then enjoy being a second-semester senior and then graduate and then... let's not go that far into the future. Anyhow, one thing at a time. Currently that thing is unpacking and uploading my thousands of pictures from Botswana, which will go up on Facebook soon-ish.
Thank you all for sticking with me through these rambling stories of my time in Africa, and I hope I'll get to talk to you all soon (and listen to your stories!) in person. Since I'm closing the book on this adventure while I open many others, that's gonna be it for my first foray into the blogosphere. Hope you've all enjoyed it as much as I have! Of course, I'm sure I'll be right back here soon enough, because if there's one thing I'm positive of right now it's that I'll find a way to make it back to Africa. (And any or all of you are invited, too. You've really got to see it to know what it's all about.)
So, wherever you're reading this from, go siame! Adios! Sayonara! Shalom! Shapo! (That last one is a Setswana-fied version of the English word 'sharp,' and can mean anything from 'OK' to 'I'm full' to 'goodbye.' In this case, it could mean any of the above.) Bye!!!
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Va-CAPE-tion!
And just like that, my study abroad in Botswana was over. Crazy and amazing experience, I'll certainly never forget it, and I'll be collecting my thoughts and reflections on the whole time for a while - maybe by the time I post from the States I'll have some coherent conclusions. But not yet - for now, the adventure continues!
I took a bus out of Gabs the morning of Friday the 28th, bound for Joburg, where I would meet the others who had flown in - Peo, Lily, Sam, Andrea, and Matt - for the trip down to Capetown. (As you may remember, my original intention was to travel after the program on my own, theoretically to Namibia, but I decided to change my plan to Capetown about the same time the rest of the group came up with the idea of extending their stay. Worked out pretty great, and traveling with friends is always fun.) My bus to Joburg was supposed to arrive at 1, but we broke down by the side of the road and waited 2+ hours for a replacement bus (which was a double decker, for small consolation), so I ended up getting in at 4:30. Lucky we'd had a 4-hr layover to begin with, so it worked out ok. From there, we took a 20-hr bus trip to Capetown, putting my total travel time at 31 hours. Not something I'd like to repeat soon... oh yeah, I'll be flying around the world next week. Anyway.
Our exhausted selves were met at the Capetown station the next day by Katie, my friend from Pomona who'd been studying abroad there for the semester; it was nice to be in the company of someone who knew their way around the city, because after Gaborone, we were all going through major culture shock in the most developed city in Africa. I went home with Katie to the 20-person mansion she'd been living in (stairs? chandeliers? rooms the size of small houses??) while my friends got settled into their hostel. We ate dinner all together, at a restaurant ten times classier than anything I'd set foot in all semester, and we had SUSHI! Hello, Capetown!
During our wonderful week-long vacation, we hit all the major attractions. We took the cable car up Table Mountain, which towers over the whole city, and did some hiking on top. (One area of the mountain, appropriately called Echo Valley, has the best echoing I've ever heard; we spent 20 minutes shouting into the abyss and getting a kick out of the friendly replies.) We took a tour of Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for many years. We took the train to Boulders Beach, which is a gorgeous area on the coast famous for its colony of penguins! Spent quite an enjoyable couple hours climbing on rocks and chasing penguins around the beach. Possibly the most exciting excursion though, which I accompanied Katie on, was cage diving with great white sharks. Yes - SHARKS. So close I could have touched them, if I were stupid enough. Katie and I were driven out to the shark spot (Shark Alley), and then with a few others, rode out in a boat to find the sharks. The crew threw tuna heads and chum (tuna, fish oil, and seawater) over the side of the boat to attract sharks, and then as soon as we saw the first one we pulled on wetsuits and scrambled into the cage hung off the side of the boat. No snorkels or scuba was required, as the cage rose a few feet above the waterline, so we just had to duck under and hold our breath when the captain yelled, "Down!", meaning there was a shark for us to see. Turns out the Atlantic is pretty damn cold, and I was in the cage for an hour and a half - more than twice as long as most other divers, just by coincidence - so I was really more concerned with shivering and swallowing seawater than being attacked. (Only 5 people a year die from sharks, so I assure you, Mom, we were really safe the whole time.) But when we did see sharks, man, were they impressive! It's really an indescribable experience to see a ten-foot-long great white swim directly toward you to snatch some chum directly outside your cage. It was kind of like a reverse zoo, actually, if you think about it. But way cooler. We brought a disposable underwater camera with us, so once Katie finds somewhere to develop it there'll hopefully be some photographic evidence for this adventure!
Ending vacation is never fun, and it sucks times a million when you have to say goodbye to the friends who have been with you for four months through thick and thin. Especially those Colby girls, since it's unclear how or when I'll see them again. But ke botshelo - that's life. We all had an amazing time together, from Manyana to Capetown. Most of them are State-bound now, but I've got one last leg of my trip: I flew back into Joburg today to spend a few days with my cousins - well, second cousins actually, or something like that - who live here and have kept in contact with my family for several years. Just as every one of my Botswana families has been, the Gritzmans have been incredibly gracious in settling me into their home, and we've spent this afternoon planning activities for every day from now til I leave on Friday. Should be a great farewell to Africa - what a time it's been here!
p.s. In case you're living under a rock, or a pile of boulders, the World Cup starts Friday! I may not be a soccer fan in the traditional sense (or the non-traditional one), but nevertheless: Go Bafana Bafana! Ayoba!!!
I took a bus out of Gabs the morning of Friday the 28th, bound for Joburg, where I would meet the others who had flown in - Peo, Lily, Sam, Andrea, and Matt - for the trip down to Capetown. (As you may remember, my original intention was to travel after the program on my own, theoretically to Namibia, but I decided to change my plan to Capetown about the same time the rest of the group came up with the idea of extending their stay. Worked out pretty great, and traveling with friends is always fun.) My bus to Joburg was supposed to arrive at 1, but we broke down by the side of the road and waited 2+ hours for a replacement bus (which was a double decker, for small consolation), so I ended up getting in at 4:30. Lucky we'd had a 4-hr layover to begin with, so it worked out ok. From there, we took a 20-hr bus trip to Capetown, putting my total travel time at 31 hours. Not something I'd like to repeat soon... oh yeah, I'll be flying around the world next week. Anyway.
Our exhausted selves were met at the Capetown station the next day by Katie, my friend from Pomona who'd been studying abroad there for the semester; it was nice to be in the company of someone who knew their way around the city, because after Gaborone, we were all going through major culture shock in the most developed city in Africa. I went home with Katie to the 20-person mansion she'd been living in (stairs? chandeliers? rooms the size of small houses??) while my friends got settled into their hostel. We ate dinner all together, at a restaurant ten times classier than anything I'd set foot in all semester, and we had SUSHI! Hello, Capetown!
During our wonderful week-long vacation, we hit all the major attractions. We took the cable car up Table Mountain, which towers over the whole city, and did some hiking on top. (One area of the mountain, appropriately called Echo Valley, has the best echoing I've ever heard; we spent 20 minutes shouting into the abyss and getting a kick out of the friendly replies.) We took a tour of Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for many years. We took the train to Boulders Beach, which is a gorgeous area on the coast famous for its colony of penguins! Spent quite an enjoyable couple hours climbing on rocks and chasing penguins around the beach. Possibly the most exciting excursion though, which I accompanied Katie on, was cage diving with great white sharks. Yes - SHARKS. So close I could have touched them, if I were stupid enough. Katie and I were driven out to the shark spot (Shark Alley), and then with a few others, rode out in a boat to find the sharks. The crew threw tuna heads and chum (tuna, fish oil, and seawater) over the side of the boat to attract sharks, and then as soon as we saw the first one we pulled on wetsuits and scrambled into the cage hung off the side of the boat. No snorkels or scuba was required, as the cage rose a few feet above the waterline, so we just had to duck under and hold our breath when the captain yelled, "Down!", meaning there was a shark for us to see. Turns out the Atlantic is pretty damn cold, and I was in the cage for an hour and a half - more than twice as long as most other divers, just by coincidence - so I was really more concerned with shivering and swallowing seawater than being attacked. (Only 5 people a year die from sharks, so I assure you, Mom, we were really safe the whole time.) But when we did see sharks, man, were they impressive! It's really an indescribable experience to see a ten-foot-long great white swim directly toward you to snatch some chum directly outside your cage. It was kind of like a reverse zoo, actually, if you think about it. But way cooler. We brought a disposable underwater camera with us, so once Katie finds somewhere to develop it there'll hopefully be some photographic evidence for this adventure!
Ending vacation is never fun, and it sucks times a million when you have to say goodbye to the friends who have been with you for four months through thick and thin. Especially those Colby girls, since it's unclear how or when I'll see them again. But ke botshelo - that's life. We all had an amazing time together, from Manyana to Capetown. Most of them are State-bound now, but I've got one last leg of my trip: I flew back into Joburg today to spend a few days with my cousins - well, second cousins actually, or something like that - who live here and have kept in contact with my family for several years. Just as every one of my Botswana families has been, the Gritzmans have been incredibly gracious in settling me into their home, and we've spent this afternoon planning activities for every day from now til I leave on Friday. Should be a great farewell to Africa - what a time it's been here!
p.s. In case you're living under a rock, or a pile of boulders, the World Cup starts Friday! I may not be a soccer fan in the traditional sense (or the non-traditional one), but nevertheless: Go Bafana Bafana! Ayoba!!!
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Doing it savanna-style
I really can't believe I forgot this part on my last post - I was way too distracted, given I wrote it just as we were meeting our former teacher at a restaurant to say goodbye. But this event was so good it merits its own post, before I start up with my Capetown news. Because... on that last day of our safari in the Okavango, along with everything else, we saw another pair of lions, a male with a magnificent two-colored mane and a female. And as we watched them for several minutes, the guy got up, bit his girl on the neck, and mounted her. Yup. They had sex right in front of us. Surely a high point of the entire semester...
(In case you're wondering, mating lions do it for seven days straight, every 30 minutes, without eating all week. Now that's a rigorous schedule. And yes, we got pictures and video.)
(In case you're wondering, mating lions do it for seven days straight, every 30 minutes, without eating all week. Now that's a rigorous schedule. And yes, we got pictures and video.)
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Lions of the Okavango
Wow, what an amazing safari we had last week into the Delta. Actually, it was a lot of ups and downs, but totally worth it. It's the most beautiful place I remember seeing ever, with the water and lilies and clouds and reeds. A brief recap:
Lowlight: Our safari almost never got going. We'd met our guide the night before, and he promised to call us when he would pick us up the next morning, around 9 or 10. 10 o'clock came and went, and we finally tried calling him, only to find the entire cell network was down, and no communication possible. We eventually went out to the main road in the wild hope he'd be driving by, and waited there for awhile. I then ran back to my apt to grab something I forgot, and what do I see passing by but a safari truck! Somehow, some way, our guide (Ike) had found where I lived, so only an hour late, we hit the road.
Highlight: Just after entering Moremi Game Reserve, we went straight on our afternoon game drive, and came upon an entire PRIDE OF LIONS. They were laying a ways off the road, but Ike, being awesome, just veered off the beaten track and drove right up to them, and they watched us nonchalantly from 5 feet away. Ridiculous welcome to the park.
Lowlight: We'd been driving out of camp for about 5 mins just after sunrise the next morning when our truck hit a deep patch of mud (the entire park is basically flooded) and instantly sunk. It tilted so much we had to struggle not to fall out. When Ike's attempts to get the truck free failed, three of us had to walk through the park to the nearest gate to find help to tow us out, leaving the other three alone with the truck. I was terrified we'd be stranded all day (that can happen if vehicles don't go by), but luckily we got ourself out within an hour.
Highlight: The following morning, as we were on our way out, we detoured around on another brief game drive, and just as the sun came up found the pride of lions again! We stayed with them for almost an hour, in a beautiful sunrise photoshoot. When we finally left, we then found, from a distance, six cheetahs out in the Delta. An unbelievable ending to our final safari.
Anyhow, it is now unbelievably my last day in Botswana. Too many thoughts to put into words. Tomorrow the adventure continues, with a 2-day bus trip to Capetown!!!
Monday, May 17, 2010
Home Stretch!
I'll have to be brief here, since I'm back to paying for internet in a cafe, but I wanted to update everyone on the last few weeks of my independent study. I went on a couple more trips into the bush: first was a weekend trip to the Chili Project run by the Dept., which cultivates chili peppers (Tabasco kind) to distribute to farmers to protect their fields from elephants. Each of the 3 days I was there we harvested the peppers for 3 hours in the morning, and then... did nothing for the rest of the day. I read a lot, and listened to a lot of Setswana conversations. Worthwhile, I guess, to see the home base of this important project (chilis are considered the only semi-effective means to keep elephants away from crops), but not the most exciting of times.
Then, last Thursday, I joined up with the Parks division for a 5-day trip to Moremi Game Reserve, the prime wildlife-viewing park in the Okavango Delta. I stayed with Banele, a pretty cool 30-some-year old guy who is head of staff for the park's South gate, in the staff housing which has no electricity or phone reception. I didn't get to see much in the way of animals while I was there - mostly baboons who played around the gates, some impala, and a couple hippos at the river - but I did get to accompany the staff to pull a tourist's truck out of the mud and fix a bridge. Most of the time, though, I was stuck in the office along with most of the staff, because there are virtually ZERO vehicles available to the park staff. There are supposed to be 2 or 3, but they're generally broken, in Maun, or out of fuel. It's a ridiculous situation, which I'll be writing to the Botswana government about (along with many other management problems) when I get home.
In between all this I've been working on some reports, since the end of the semester is next week. Crazy, to be almost done studying abroad, and so close to leaving Botswana.
Yesterday was a very happy day, as 4 of my friends from the program who have been in Gabs came up to visit. it was the first time I've seen any of them in 5 weeks, and boy was I in need of some English-speaking American company! Mma Moruti is out of town for the week, so they crashed at my flat (shh... don't tell), and tomorrow we're going back to Moremi, on a real safari this time! Yay, finally I get to relax and have some fun. Then, on Thursday-ish, it's back to Gabs to wrap things up!
Then, last Thursday, I joined up with the Parks division for a 5-day trip to Moremi Game Reserve, the prime wildlife-viewing park in the Okavango Delta. I stayed with Banele, a pretty cool 30-some-year old guy who is head of staff for the park's South gate, in the staff housing which has no electricity or phone reception. I didn't get to see much in the way of animals while I was there - mostly baboons who played around the gates, some impala, and a couple hippos at the river - but I did get to accompany the staff to pull a tourist's truck out of the mud and fix a bridge. Most of the time, though, I was stuck in the office along with most of the staff, because there are virtually ZERO vehicles available to the park staff. There are supposed to be 2 or 3, but they're generally broken, in Maun, or out of fuel. It's a ridiculous situation, which I'll be writing to the Botswana government about (along with many other management problems) when I get home.
In between all this I've been working on some reports, since the end of the semester is next week. Crazy, to be almost done studying abroad, and so close to leaving Botswana.
Yesterday was a very happy day, as 4 of my friends from the program who have been in Gabs came up to visit. it was the first time I've seen any of them in 5 weeks, and boy was I in need of some English-speaking American company! Mma Moruti is out of town for the week, so they crashed at my flat (shh... don't tell), and tomorrow we're going back to Moremi, on a real safari this time! Yay, finally I get to relax and have some fun. Then, on Thursday-ish, it's back to Gabs to wrap things up!
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
In the Bush
I know it's been a while since my last post, but the reason for that should be clear from this entry. Also due to the fact that I can't get free internet anymore (except in rare cases like now, when I'm monopolizing the computer at work to "enter data").
So let me back up. Two weeks ago Saturday, on the tenth, I bade farewell to the wonderful city of Gaborone with all its restaurants and malls and wi-fi, and to my wonderful friends there, and to my wonderful family, and got on the public bus for a ten-hour ride to Maun to begin my Directed Independent Study Project (DISP). Actually, I wasn't alone on the trip up; my sister Banyana from Tlokweng came with me to visit her uncle in Maun for a couple weeks (that will be important later).
It had been arranged that I would stay in Maun with a woman who's a family friend of the Modumedisi family (who hosted me in Tlokweng), Mma Ntshadi Moruti. (I'm not real clear on how to pronounce her first name, but I think it's something like nchah-chee.) She's in her thirties and lives alone, in a nice flat on the edge of town that serves as employee housing for the Maun Technical College, where she works. It's far from town and my work, but otherwise it's a pretty sweet deal; I get my own room with 2 beds and an exercise bike, there's a nice tv, and I can cook for myself (provided I buy food, since her pickings are pretty slim).
On Sunday, the day after I got in, Mma Moruti went on a work-related trip to Gabs for four days, so I quickly found myself living alone in a new town. I wasn't completely isolated though - Mma Moruti had arranged for her neighbor/coworker Mmusi to show me around Maun and take me to work in the mornings, so I was covered ok, and I enjoyed being able to work on my own schedule (and menu) at home.
The next day, Monday, I began my internship with the Maun Department of Wildlife. I first met with the director, who apparently had been sent the original research proposal I'd written for the study abroad app about human-elephant conflict, so he attached me to the Problem Animal Control (PAC) division. Basically what happens in the PAC office is that people (mostly farmers from nearby villages) come in to report damage to their crops, fences, or livestock from wild animals (usually elephants, or lions killing livestock). My first day on the job, I learned how to take these reports - challenging when there's a language barrier involved. I also helped to weigh and measure the entire ivory stockpile (about 40 tusks) held in pretty intense security here.
The next couple days were more of the same, and since reporters come in irregularly the office did start to get boring. My boredom finally evaporated on that Thursday, when a head officer came in to ask me if I'd like to accompany him on a call to investigate a problem hippo, which had been raiding veggie crops. I went with him in the morning to scope out the situation, but since the hippo only came out of the pond at night, we had to come back then to try to shoot it. (I know, it sounds awful, but I've been assured that the officers here use fatal measures only as a last resort. This particular hippo had evidently been reported before, and refused to be scared off.) We went back at 6pm, posted ourselves by the pond in the truck, and waited. And waited. Four hours later, no sign of the hippo, and so, tired and cold, we had to give up for the night and head back.
It was a rather anticlimactic first trip out, but I didn't have to wait long for my next trip - this time a real outing, camping and all. I left that Friday with 2 officers to attend to PAC reports of fence damage caused by elephants. The officers were going into the bush for 3+ weeks, but they kindly allowed me to come for a more reasonable 3-day period. During that time, we camped at two game farms that had been busted up by elephants (though unfortunately we didn't see any game to speak of, elephant or otherwise) and also attended one field farm. The process consisted of measuring the broken length of fence, counting the busted poles, and spray painting them to show we'd already counted them (that was my job). Once all this info is processed, the landowners will be compensated by the Dept. for 50% of the cost of the damage.
For me, the most interesting part of that trip was meeting the owner of one of the game ranches. He was white and in his forties, but had been born in this area of Bots and spoke fluent Setswana. I realized almost instantly that he was not someone to take any BS, and he had views about wildlife conservation that I'd only seen expressed as counterpoints in books. To sum it up, when I said that I really wanted to see the animals on his game ranch, he replied, "Come with me, I'll show you how to fucking kill those animals." Did I mention his ranch is for safari hunting only? Needless to say, I disliked him right off the bat, but I was also curious how he could be so nonchalant about shooting lions, elephants, and wild dogs that came through his fence, so I talked to him (or, rather, listened to him) some more. As it turned out, he did have some valid points - the predators come in and eat the game animals that he's paid richly for, and though the government will compensate for livestock losses, they won't compensate for game. Apparently some species of antelope are more common on game ranches than they are in the wild, so he does a conservation service too. And he does tolerate some predators on his land, just as long as they're in balance with the numbers of prey animals. I was really interested by the dynamics of all of this, and I'm currently trying to figure out how to condense all these political and ecological aspects into a question I can research more for thesis next fall. (Just in case anyone's interested.)
Anywho, I returned from that first trip into the bush last Monday, had one blessed night in my bed at home, and the next day went out again - this time with a team assessing elephant crop damage. We camped in a rural village 30km out of Maun, in the backyard of the Agricultural Demonstrator there, who was working with us to measure the fields for compensation purposes. On this trip we got through 8-10 fields a day, sacrificing lunch to work from 7:30 to around 3. I did get some free food out of it - maize, groundnuts, and sweetreed (kinda like sugarcane, you chew the stalk to get sugary juice out of it, it's all the rage with locals) - but otherwise I was actually pretty bored the whole time, because there was nothing for me to do. Ah, well, it was only another 3-day trip for me. My last night, however, was pretty miserable: the weather changed, bringing ferociuos thunder storms and floods of rain, and rained all night into my tent without a rain fly. It kind of put a damper on my gung-ho-ness for camping anymore.
One more much-needed night at home, and then I left again early Saturday - not for work this time, but on a weekend trip to Ghanzi (a village 4 hrs south in the Kalahari desert) with Banyana and her uncle. It was nice to have some time to chill with Banyana and not be doing work stuff for a change, but the weather, thundering and raining, was distinctly un-desert-like. The uncle took us for a game drive in one of the private game parks there, but not much to see through the rain.
I came back yesterday, and now I'm waiting to see where my internship will take me next. Also meeting with a prof at UB Maun who does conservation research this afternoon, so that should be interesting. Whew... I think that about catches me up to date. To those of you who managed to read this whole thing, bye for now, hope everything is well, and I'll update again (more briefly) as my six-week DISP continues. Go siame!
So let me back up. Two weeks ago Saturday, on the tenth, I bade farewell to the wonderful city of Gaborone with all its restaurants and malls and wi-fi, and to my wonderful friends there, and to my wonderful family, and got on the public bus for a ten-hour ride to Maun to begin my Directed Independent Study Project (DISP). Actually, I wasn't alone on the trip up; my sister Banyana from Tlokweng came with me to visit her uncle in Maun for a couple weeks (that will be important later).
It had been arranged that I would stay in Maun with a woman who's a family friend of the Modumedisi family (who hosted me in Tlokweng), Mma Ntshadi Moruti. (I'm not real clear on how to pronounce her first name, but I think it's something like nchah-chee.) She's in her thirties and lives alone, in a nice flat on the edge of town that serves as employee housing for the Maun Technical College, where she works. It's far from town and my work, but otherwise it's a pretty sweet deal; I get my own room with 2 beds and an exercise bike, there's a nice tv, and I can cook for myself (provided I buy food, since her pickings are pretty slim).
On Sunday, the day after I got in, Mma Moruti went on a work-related trip to Gabs for four days, so I quickly found myself living alone in a new town. I wasn't completely isolated though - Mma Moruti had arranged for her neighbor/coworker Mmusi to show me around Maun and take me to work in the mornings, so I was covered ok, and I enjoyed being able to work on my own schedule (and menu) at home.
The next day, Monday, I began my internship with the Maun Department of Wildlife. I first met with the director, who apparently had been sent the original research proposal I'd written for the study abroad app about human-elephant conflict, so he attached me to the Problem Animal Control (PAC) division. Basically what happens in the PAC office is that people (mostly farmers from nearby villages) come in to report damage to their crops, fences, or livestock from wild animals (usually elephants, or lions killing livestock). My first day on the job, I learned how to take these reports - challenging when there's a language barrier involved. I also helped to weigh and measure the entire ivory stockpile (about 40 tusks) held in pretty intense security here.
The next couple days were more of the same, and since reporters come in irregularly the office did start to get boring. My boredom finally evaporated on that Thursday, when a head officer came in to ask me if I'd like to accompany him on a call to investigate a problem hippo, which had been raiding veggie crops. I went with him in the morning to scope out the situation, but since the hippo only came out of the pond at night, we had to come back then to try to shoot it. (I know, it sounds awful, but I've been assured that the officers here use fatal measures only as a last resort. This particular hippo had evidently been reported before, and refused to be scared off.) We went back at 6pm, posted ourselves by the pond in the truck, and waited. And waited. Four hours later, no sign of the hippo, and so, tired and cold, we had to give up for the night and head back.
It was a rather anticlimactic first trip out, but I didn't have to wait long for my next trip - this time a real outing, camping and all. I left that Friday with 2 officers to attend to PAC reports of fence damage caused by elephants. The officers were going into the bush for 3+ weeks, but they kindly allowed me to come for a more reasonable 3-day period. During that time, we camped at two game farms that had been busted up by elephants (though unfortunately we didn't see any game to speak of, elephant or otherwise) and also attended one field farm. The process consisted of measuring the broken length of fence, counting the busted poles, and spray painting them to show we'd already counted them (that was my job). Once all this info is processed, the landowners will be compensated by the Dept. for 50% of the cost of the damage.
For me, the most interesting part of that trip was meeting the owner of one of the game ranches. He was white and in his forties, but had been born in this area of Bots and spoke fluent Setswana. I realized almost instantly that he was not someone to take any BS, and he had views about wildlife conservation that I'd only seen expressed as counterpoints in books. To sum it up, when I said that I really wanted to see the animals on his game ranch, he replied, "Come with me, I'll show you how to fucking kill those animals." Did I mention his ranch is for safari hunting only? Needless to say, I disliked him right off the bat, but I was also curious how he could be so nonchalant about shooting lions, elephants, and wild dogs that came through his fence, so I talked to him (or, rather, listened to him) some more. As it turned out, he did have some valid points - the predators come in and eat the game animals that he's paid richly for, and though the government will compensate for livestock losses, they won't compensate for game. Apparently some species of antelope are more common on game ranches than they are in the wild, so he does a conservation service too. And he does tolerate some predators on his land, just as long as they're in balance with the numbers of prey animals. I was really interested by the dynamics of all of this, and I'm currently trying to figure out how to condense all these political and ecological aspects into a question I can research more for thesis next fall. (Just in case anyone's interested.)
Anywho, I returned from that first trip into the bush last Monday, had one blessed night in my bed at home, and the next day went out again - this time with a team assessing elephant crop damage. We camped in a rural village 30km out of Maun, in the backyard of the Agricultural Demonstrator there, who was working with us to measure the fields for compensation purposes. On this trip we got through 8-10 fields a day, sacrificing lunch to work from 7:30 to around 3. I did get some free food out of it - maize, groundnuts, and sweetreed (kinda like sugarcane, you chew the stalk to get sugary juice out of it, it's all the rage with locals) - but otherwise I was actually pretty bored the whole time, because there was nothing for me to do. Ah, well, it was only another 3-day trip for me. My last night, however, was pretty miserable: the weather changed, bringing ferociuos thunder storms and floods of rain, and rained all night into my tent without a rain fly. It kind of put a damper on my gung-ho-ness for camping anymore.
One more much-needed night at home, and then I left again early Saturday - not for work this time, but on a weekend trip to Ghanzi (a village 4 hrs south in the Kalahari desert) with Banyana and her uncle. It was nice to have some time to chill with Banyana and not be doing work stuff for a change, but the weather, thundering and raining, was distinctly un-desert-like. The uncle took us for a game drive in one of the private game parks there, but not much to see through the rain.
I came back yesterday, and now I'm waiting to see where my internship will take me next. Also meeting with a prof at UB Maun who does conservation research this afternoon, so that should be interesting. Whew... I think that about catches me up to date. To those of you who managed to read this whole thing, bye for now, hope everything is well, and I'll update again (more briefly) as my six-week DISP continues. Go siame!
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Gaaaabs
We've had quite the week here. It's really not school at all, we go on some field trip each day to take a tour or here a lecture and that's it. No one here's complaining, though - the wireless in the office is finally working, so for the first time we've got reliable and regular internet access. And now that it's finally sunny again today, we can use the pool out back!
Last Thursday before the Easter holidays started we had quite an intense field trip, to the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) in Lobatse. That's the slaughterhouse that produces the majority of beef for the country, as well as exporting a lot to Europe. We went in, got dressed up head-to-toe in sterile white uniforms, and got a full tour of the slaughterhouse. I haven't seen Food Inc., but from what I hear I may have seen the real-life version. Sooo nauseating and graphic (WARNING, you might want to skip ahead to the next paragraph) - we saw the entire process in action, from the kill floor where they stun the cows (though some apparently weren't stunned enough to stop kicking and mooing), hoist them up by the back leg, and slit their throats, all the way through the process of hacking the meat off the carcasses and gouging the eyes and brains out of the skull, to loading the meat in boxes into the freezer. Quite the experience. Definitely nothing you could ever do in America - and they let me take pictures (which I haven't had the stomach to look at yet) of the whole operation.
Friday and Monday we had off for Easter. On Saturday, some of us went to Lion Park, an amusement/water park about a half hour outside of Gabs, in coordination with the first sunbreak of the weekend. There was a huuuge water slide and wave pool and those swings that make you fly around in a circle... so much fun. Then on Sunday, after a fun (not so much) morning at church for Easter, we got together for a quesadilla fiesta. (Mexican food has been an eternal quest for a lot of the group this trip.) Everyone stresses here how it isn't safe to walk outside after dark, even in a group, so three of us had to wait for my parents to come drive us. Unbeknownst to me, though, they'd gone out to a braai, and didn't come to take us home til after midnight - far past all our bedtimes here.
During our last day off on Monday, Peo (Heather) and I took a bus into Manyana to visit our first host families. It was so weird to be back in the village we'd lived in for a month... all the rain had made the scenery a lot greener than I remembered, but otherwise everything felt familiar. While Peo went to play with her adorable five-year old sister/best friend Tshiamiso, I went back to the Mangope house to say hi. As it turned out, my entire family was home: Mme and Rre, and my bros Labo and Mogolodi. It was great to see them all again! Mme had just made samp and stew for lunch, so I ate my fill, and also feasted on maize and watermelon that they'd harvested from the lands. I stayed and talked and watched soccer with them for a few hours, but Peo and I had to leave in order to catch a khombi home before dark.
This week so far has been more of the same, field trips and eating out and hanging out at the mall. Passover ended on Tuesday (I actually tried to stick to the basics, i.e. not eating bread, so my sister and I experimented in baking matzah at home), and Wednesday Peo insisted we go to a coffee house at Riverwalk to get the most heavenly chocolate cake in the world. Totally worth it. This was after we'd found what may be the only pad thai in Gabs.
Tonight we're having a slumber party at the office (which is actually our program director's old house), so we can leave eeearly tomorrow to go to the Jwaneng Diamond Mine. Should be fun, even though I somehow doubt they give out free samples. And then.... this weekend I'm leaving the group, heading out on my own to Maun (near the Okavango Delta) for independent study. Everyone else is doing research or internships in Gabs, so it'll be sad to leave, but they're already talking about coming up to visit one week so we can go on safari together. I'll be in Maun for six weeks. It's not finalized what I'll be doing there, but as of today I've gotten two offers: I can intern with the Bots Dept of Wildlife, and/or I can do field research with a prof at UB Maun who I think is doing work in conservation, land use, and tourism. Gonna call him today to find out more.
So, I guess that's it for me in Gabs. It's been a great couple weeks here, I've gotten to spend more time with some of the others and bonded nicely, which only makes it harder to leave. Still, I'm super excited to get out and see more of the country, and of course spend more time with the animals around there. ;-)
Last Thursday before the Easter holidays started we had quite an intense field trip, to the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) in Lobatse. That's the slaughterhouse that produces the majority of beef for the country, as well as exporting a lot to Europe. We went in, got dressed up head-to-toe in sterile white uniforms, and got a full tour of the slaughterhouse. I haven't seen Food Inc., but from what I hear I may have seen the real-life version. Sooo nauseating and graphic (WARNING, you might want to skip ahead to the next paragraph) - we saw the entire process in action, from the kill floor where they stun the cows (though some apparently weren't stunned enough to stop kicking and mooing), hoist them up by the back leg, and slit their throats, all the way through the process of hacking the meat off the carcasses and gouging the eyes and brains out of the skull, to loading the meat in boxes into the freezer. Quite the experience. Definitely nothing you could ever do in America - and they let me take pictures (which I haven't had the stomach to look at yet) of the whole operation.
Friday and Monday we had off for Easter. On Saturday, some of us went to Lion Park, an amusement/water park about a half hour outside of Gabs, in coordination with the first sunbreak of the weekend. There was a huuuge water slide and wave pool and those swings that make you fly around in a circle... so much fun. Then on Sunday, after a fun (not so much) morning at church for Easter, we got together for a quesadilla fiesta. (Mexican food has been an eternal quest for a lot of the group this trip.) Everyone stresses here how it isn't safe to walk outside after dark, even in a group, so three of us had to wait for my parents to come drive us. Unbeknownst to me, though, they'd gone out to a braai, and didn't come to take us home til after midnight - far past all our bedtimes here.
During our last day off on Monday, Peo (Heather) and I took a bus into Manyana to visit our first host families. It was so weird to be back in the village we'd lived in for a month... all the rain had made the scenery a lot greener than I remembered, but otherwise everything felt familiar. While Peo went to play with her adorable five-year old sister/best friend Tshiamiso, I went back to the Mangope house to say hi. As it turned out, my entire family was home: Mme and Rre, and my bros Labo and Mogolodi. It was great to see them all again! Mme had just made samp and stew for lunch, so I ate my fill, and also feasted on maize and watermelon that they'd harvested from the lands. I stayed and talked and watched soccer with them for a few hours, but Peo and I had to leave in order to catch a khombi home before dark.
This week so far has been more of the same, field trips and eating out and hanging out at the mall. Passover ended on Tuesday (I actually tried to stick to the basics, i.e. not eating bread, so my sister and I experimented in baking matzah at home), and Wednesday Peo insisted we go to a coffee house at Riverwalk to get the most heavenly chocolate cake in the world. Totally worth it. This was after we'd found what may be the only pad thai in Gabs.
Tonight we're having a slumber party at the office (which is actually our program director's old house), so we can leave eeearly tomorrow to go to the Jwaneng Diamond Mine. Should be fun, even though I somehow doubt they give out free samples. And then.... this weekend I'm leaving the group, heading out on my own to Maun (near the Okavango Delta) for independent study. Everyone else is doing research or internships in Gabs, so it'll be sad to leave, but they're already talking about coming up to visit one week so we can go on safari together. I'll be in Maun for six weeks. It's not finalized what I'll be doing there, but as of today I've gotten two offers: I can intern with the Bots Dept of Wildlife, and/or I can do field research with a prof at UB Maun who I think is doing work in conservation, land use, and tourism. Gonna call him today to find out more.
So, I guess that's it for me in Gabs. It's been a great couple weeks here, I've gotten to spend more time with some of the others and bonded nicely, which only makes it harder to leave. Still, I'm super excited to get out and see more of the country, and of course spend more time with the animals around there. ;-)
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