Francistown and beyond

Over the weekend, I went camping. One of my favorite activities ever!
I first headed up to Francistown (the second most populous "metropolis" in Botswana) and we drove from there to Nata Bird Sanctuary.

There wern't any birds around (except for the occasional francolins on the ground and a single pelican) but the sunset was neverthless beautiful.

The salt pans were filled with water due to recent heavy rains.

On the way back, we dropped by Sowa to visit some friends. We drove together to the Sowa Pan to see the "beach" as well as the 1000 year old baobab.

The detour to Sowa delayed our trip back to Ftown & we had to drive in the dark for a stretch of the road (our hearts racing in case of a head-on accident with people, cows, goats, etc). But that didn't stop us from occasionaly stopping to enjoy the beautiful sunset lingering in the tree branches beyond the dusty road.

Maputo, Mozambique

Over the holiday weekend, I went to visit Maputo with Sheika. We stayed at Pestana Rovuma and had an amazing view of the Indian ocean and the sunset from our veranda. It was sad however to look at dilapidated buildings that seemed like a reminder of the recent war.

For our first meal in Maputo, Sheika and I headed to Feira Popular. It had a small fairground with bumper cars, big wheel, merry-go-round, and a video games arcade. We ate at a Portuguese restaurant. I thought the highlight of the meal was Laurentina, a great tasting local beer.

After dinner, we headed to Africa Bar. There was a local band playing Brazillian samba music.

The next day, we sat out early to walk around town. Our first stop was the beautiful cathedral next to our hotel.

At a local park, we encountered a statue of Samora Machel, the former military commander, socialist, and president of Mozambique.

We had some delicious pastry (every pastry had a ton of coconut flavor) and drinks at the Continental, an old cafe & landmark. Many men were leisurely enjoying a beef sandwich and cafe while getting their car washed on the nearby sidewalk and their shoes shined right in the cafe. One of the men talked to us about how it was difficult to go anywhere or to feel safe just few years ago due to the war but that now things are much better.

Then we headed to the local market. We wanted to buy some cashews and take a look around.

The market place was very vibrant with commotion and the bright colors of the spices and fresh produce.

They were selling all kinds of fish and seafood also.

Later on, we rented a "havana" (a motorcycle with two attached seats in the back) to drive around town. The guide pointed out a curious house made entirely of metal. But he didn't know anymore about the house than that factoid. Hmm...

In the middle of the tour, Shieka noticed that we were almost out of gas. So we had to pull in for a refill. I would've not been able to drive through the streets of Maputo (everyone speeding, people and cars everywhere, my lack of sense of direction) but I did daydream a bit that I was driving the cute little machine.

Together at last!

One of the highlights of the weekend was meeting new people. Dez is a South African lawyer who works for the Parliament. Here's us having a blast in the Havana Club.

The cars and the roads were often in bad shape, even within city center, so it was only a matter of time before one of our taxis got a flat. The driver expertly patched it up and we were on our way in no time.

All in all, a relaxing weekend filled with amazing seafood. Something to write home about.

Funny signs by the road

I'm all for second chances but if I hired jailbirds for my security company, I wouldn't advertise it...

I can't think of a single sassy thing to say about this sign...

Oh... I get it. There is "camel" in Camela!

No one likes curved trees...

Alient abductions a-plenty here...

Which one do I think is the mother of all signs? I think that's the important question...

Khama Rhino Santuary

Over the weekend, we went to the Khama Rhino Santuary in Serowe (the village of rain and water per Bessie Head, a great author) to celebrate Beca's b-day. Sir Seretse Khama is from the area and was a patron of this santuary. As we were having lunch, a black rhino came to the pool to drink some chlorinated water.

Our 2-D friend Stan got a picture with the rhino.

Once we finished our lunch, we retired to the comfort of our rustic chalet.

There was no electricity (rustic, you see) so we sat outside to play cards.

Next morning, we went on a short game drive where we spotted leopard prints everywhere.

Literacy in the bush is rather surprising given that these giraffes know how to spell "H."

It's rare that wildlife pose perfectly like this... such a beautiful shot!

Baby donkey! If only Shanti had been there, she'd have crowed...

The Botswana trifacta: goats, donkeys, and cow (I think there's a cow behind the mound of gravel...)

Flat Stan's Setswana vocab list

English - Setswana

Hello - Dumela
My name is Stanely. - Leina lame ke Stanley.
What is your name? - Leina la gago ke mang?
Cat - Katse
Dog - Ntsa
See you tomorrow - Ketta go bona kamosol
School - Sekole
Teacher - Morutabana
Friend - Tsala
Flower - Sethunya
Tree - Setlhare
Elephant - Tlou
Giraffe - Thutlwa
Thank you - Ke a leboga
Zebra - Pitse ya naga
Doll - Mpopi

Boy (Stanley) About Town

Over the weekend, we were all resting from the week of labor when it occured to us that Stanley would be leaving us soon to return for a show & tell back in his Jamaica Plain school. So we took him out to see some more sights in and out of Gabs.
Here is Stanley visiting Botswana Birdlife store/office. This answers the age-old question: how many doctors does it take to do a child's Flat Stanley project? (A: two & a med student to shoot the behind the scenes photos)

Stanley was walking to buy some mangos from the street vendors when he got very thirsty. So he stopped to buy a 2 pula 50 thebe ice cream from the ice cream bicycle.

Stanley also had to buy some groceries. Here he is at Super Spar supermarket, hanging with children his age. Maybe it takes more than two doctors to do the Flat Stanley project: it takes a village!

Flat Stanley also had the honor of running into the American Ambassador to Botswana at the local mall. Ambassador Canavan put her arms around Flat Stanley and he thought she was a really nice lady!

Balanced diet in Gabs

I certainly hope that everyone in Gabs is including food as a part of their balanced diet...

Birthday celebration

A lunch with friends from work for my bday. Thanks to Nate, Sandy, Sarah, Thabo, Raabya, Busiwe for coming out! The entire waitstaff at Apache Spur came out to sing an energetic bday song!

My friends took my out to celebrate my birthday. The service was slow and the food was less than terrific... But it was wonderful nonethless!

One of the most awesome gifts I've ever received was this coupon (written on a quilt!) redeemable for a quilt of my own design at the local craft center! Flat Stanley looks mighty happy there too.

Stanley in Madikwe

Over the weekend, we took our new housemate, Flat Stanley, down to Madikwe. Madikwe is a game reserve in South Africa near the South Africa-Botswana border.
We kicked off our morning game drive with a beautiful sunrise.

Here's our awesome safari guide, Piet, who kept referring to Flat Stanley as "the flat man." As nice as Piet was, he crushed both my & Stanley's aspirations of becoming a safari guide.

warning: inside jokes coming up

Beca took a picture of Stanley at the driver's seat & Piet said "oh that'd be great. seeing the flat man trying to be a safari guide. imagine that! you wouldn't get anywhere even after 3 hrs!" Some pondered whether Piet may be a dimentionalist...

I inquired whether a keen sense of direction is absolutely necessary to be a safari guide (seeing as how you have to drive in the bush without road signs) and Piet said "absolutely."

Elephant x-ing

Wildebeest: legend has it that wildebeest (often called the ugliest animal in the region) was the last animal to be created by the almighty creator and so the creator had no choice but to use spare parts... The face of a horse, the backside of a cow and ribs of some other animal (it's hard to hear the details of a story in the back of a Land Rover with the engine running).

Kudu. I keep hoping the next animal with the white stripes turned out to be eland but still havn't seen a single eland in the wild... Elands have interesting behavior during early development. Well I'll have to settle for the ones I've seen in the zoos for now...

Giraffes: some male giraffe bonding time

Warthog mom & baby

Starlings

Hornbill

Lilac breasted roller: Botswana's national bird and one of the few birds I can confidently name from afar

A huge insect that kept ramming into people's faces as we drove along on the safari