Gabs!

Traffic lights, sky scrapers, and hills--all things I haven't seen for months--Gaborone! I took a short visit to the capital city of Botswana, which involved an 11 hour bus ride each way. The journey was long and tiring, but overall not so bad. On the way there, I did not once leave the

vehicle, and obviously by the time I arrived was in dire need of a bathroom. On the way back, I was a little more comfortable with the system and made better use of the occasional rest stop. The busses were clean and comfortable, and the driving was quite safe. It was easy to buy

snacks and water out the window at the multiple stops along the way. I met some friendly characters on the bus, including a man in the Botswana Defense Force who was traveling to Gaborone to play in a chess tournament; and a lady police officer from Serowe. They were nice to talk to, and the police woman even taught me the correct way to eat the roasted corn I see everywhere in Botswana. Though we mostly by-passed the Kalahari desert, the bus ride still afforded the oppurtunity to watch the landscape change from the dry, sandy Mophane forest vegetation, through the flat salt pans area, to the slightly hilly and clayey landscape of southern Botswana. But most importantly, this journey was a good way for me to experience solo public bus travel, as I plan to do more of it around Southern Africa. I think it is simply a matter of getting used to being in a bus for so long, managing my belongs better, and taking shorter bus rides when possible.

Gaborone was slightly dissapointing. Which is kind of what I expected, because whenever I told anyone in Maun I was going to Gabs for no real reason other than to see the city, they all bluntly asked: "why?!". And now I see: the city is so spread out, in drab malls, and not very picturesque. Gaborone was designated as the capital in 1964, and designed to hold around 20,000 people. Now it is one of the fastest growing cities in the region and holds around 250,000 people. As a result is kind of sprawling, with no real city center. I found it hard to get a feel for how to navigate in the city. In the end, I just asked lots of questions and took combis around--white mini busses that are much cheaper than taxis, but drive erratically and are ususally packed. This was a little intimidating to do at first, but at this point I have gotten used to being out of my comfort zone. And I certainly have no qualms with asking folks questions, and most people are very helpful, especially when I (attempt to) talk to them in Setswana.

There were two highlights to my trip. The first thing I did, after finding a place to stay and recovering from the bus ride, was to look for a book store. This is secretly the real reason I came to Gabs. Yes, it might sound slightly pathetic, to travel all this way for something so mundane. But Maun does not have a real bookstore, and I felt in desperate need for some new reading material. It got to the point I was honestly fantasizing about the chain bookshop back home: crisp paperbacks, the new book smell, cover designs, their weight in my hands, or as I fall asleep with them on my chest. Living in the bush for so long has apparently made me a little bit crazy. Eventually I found my bookstore--just like the kind at an airport, not too big or special--but to me it was paradise.

I also went to the Botswana National Museum & Art Gallery. The museum was nothing remarkable. But I liked the art gallery a lot. Though there was some oddly intersperced art by high school students, there was also a lot of really rich wood-cuts, silkscreens, sculptures, photographs and paintings. The theme of most of them was Break the Silence, where artists found creative ways to comment about the Aids crisis. I really liked the displays because it addressed the pandemic from all different angles: safe sex, having one partner, condoms, testing and counselling centers, the staggering loss of population. The art was all tremendously powerful and weighty. Even the more amatuer pieces affected me more than 90% of what I've seen at other art galleries, anywhere else in the world.

Anyway, I have now left Mankwe. We had a big party before I left, which was very nice, and true to my fashion, I baked a cake. It is sad to leave, though I am ready to move on. In less than a week I will be traveling to the town of Kasane, and from there Victoria Falls, and onwards to either Namibia or Zambia.

This morning I saw ...

lion tracks next to my tent, and honey badger tracks around the kitchen. Yesterday I saw a hyena taunting an elephant. The day before it was a large leopard tortoise slowly meandering across camp. This is what I love about where I live. It is just simply wild. Even the insect life is intense: termite mounds the size of cars, deadly scorpions, humungous millipedes, sun spiders that are about the size of a tangerine (excluding the legs) that race around at night. I can't leave a book or a shoe or a hat outside for more than a day without a wasp building a nest in it.

We have been feasting for days on a kudu--a kind of large antelope that lives near water. The folks found it on their way to get water from the local village; it had been recently killed by hyenas, and after they chased them away, they loaded up the carcass. I spent the night watching my friends skin and butcher the carcass with skill and efficeincy I hadn't realized they possessed. We cooked it over an open fire and ate it with maize meal. Everyone is so happy to have this abundance of free food. It is like a festival, and we have spent the past two days just eating, napping, singing and dancing. Today we made 'seswa', which is a traditional dish where the meat is beaten until it is very tender and tasty. Folks have also been cutting the meat into small strips, salting it and hanging it from the clothes lines in their houses to make jerky.

I have been learning to take it slow. Besides the fact that there is not a whole lot to do here (other than occupy myself with the books and chess set I brought, and avoid the sun), it is part of the way of life here. Just sitting and avoiding the sun. I have learned to walk slowly. I used to pride myself in my ability to speed walk, around campus or around town. But now I have learned that it is so much better to walk slow, as slowly as possible. When I go into town and I go to the grocery store, I slip back into my American pace and start speeding around, and then I realize every one is walking at about half my pace and I have to slow down in order to not stick out like a sore thumb. I have learned to spend a whole day doing what I could have done in about an hour in America. When I wake up in the morning, I spend about half an hour listening to the birds. I can spend a leisurely hour clipping my toenails. A lot of my time is spend just sitting and thinking, and listening to people speak Setswana, which despite all my effort, I still can't understand. Most of the time this is really nice, this slow pace. But sometimes I get antsy and bored and I really miss life back home: being in touch with the news, listening to music, having things I have to do, even using the computer and sometimes I even miss air-conditioning. I certainly miss my friends and being able to have more than just a simple conversation in English. But I know that this is really special, to be able to spend so much time in a place like this, and that I will return to all the modern day comforts and conveniences that I am used to and take forgranted, and then I will miss Botswana.

Anyway, I have decided that at the end of February I am going to leave Mankwe and do some traveling around southern Africa. I hope to go to Victoria Falls, Kasane and Gaborone, and even venture into Namibia. I will be traveling alone to msot of these places and probably by the local bus systems. Then I will return to my cousins in South Africa and see what happens from there. If all goes well and I find navigating by bus manageable, I might proceed the same way up the eastern side of the continent and end up in Nairobi.