Ten Hours in Botswana

We woke early this morning, broke our fast, and headed to the JoBerg International Airport. There we caught a prop plane to Gaborone, Botswana. From the air Gaborone does not look so much like a city – more like some buildings and roads mistakenly placed in what is otherwise godforsaken wasteland covered in scrubby foliage (see pic of “airport”). Botswana is sparsely populated – only 1.7 million people in the whole country. And soon it will probably be even more sparsely populated because approximately 680,000 of these people have HIV or AIDS. Yep. That was not a typo. Forty percent. This is not the place to open a singles bar. Or visit one.

Despite these grim statistics (or perhaps because of them?) the school visit was very productive. These kids are pumped about attending university in the USA. After the visit the school’s counselor took us to a couple of shopping locations. I never should have gotten out of the bus. At the first stop I bought all kinds of knick-knacks for people back home – which I now have to lug across the rest of the continent. At the second stop I found a café, bought a beverage, and read my book. The best way to resist temptation is to avoid it.


Fake wildlife outside the airport

Then it was back to the airport for the return flight. The employees there must have thought us eccentric pop-in tourists. As we are preparing to take off there is of course a thunderstorm moving in. This city has been in the middle of a very long drought. Just my luck it breaks now. I hate turbulence.

Re-entering Joberg a funny thing happened. Planes were backed up because of a thunderstorm there as well. The airport bus that transported us from the plane mistakenly took us to the domestic terminal instead of the international due to some glitch. Therefore, no customs procedures. It being after 9pm, many in the group wanted to just go back to the hotel – it was the airline’s mistake, right? However, I pointed out that when leaving South Africa tomorrow, the officials might find it disturbing that we had no re-entry stamp, and that could cause problems. After some bickering, we all trudged to the international terminal to fix things. Good thing we did. It would have been a 3,000 Rand fine if we had not. I am right again. Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah. Really, I didn’t gloat or say “I told you so” but all my travel-mates owe me beer.

S.A.

Going from school to school...

On the first official day of the tour we had two school visits and one visit/fair. So, a full day. Bright kids all round. White South Africans, black South Africans, and third country national from many different countries. We drove all over the Cape transferring between the schools and going to lunch at a winery. This is a beautiful region, and the local climate varies drastically as one moves from side to side of the massive Table Mount which dominates the skyline. Overall it is much cooler and wetter than I had imagined, but welcome.


The Cape

Once back at the hotel I decided to take a walk south and east along the coast of the Cape with a rep from Vancouver, Damara. We strode through several waterfront suburbs and wandered into a gathering of the area’s Muslim population at a park. It might have been the end of Ramadan, but I’m not sure. I’m having a hard time keeping up with my own calendar, let alone others’. Overall a good little trek that took us about two and a half hours down and back. Glad I took it – now I feel as if I’ve gotten to know Cape Town a bit, outside the touristy developed part of the waterfront I saw earlier. Too bad we didn’t have more time here to explore. I’ll have to come back.


Table Mountain from the hotel

The next day it was a very early wake-up: 5 am. Then we were off to the airport and Johannesburg, or Joburg for short. We had to be dressed for work, as we did not even stop at the hotel before conducting our school visits and college fair. The school where we held the fair was actually in the middle of hosting a men’s and women’s soccer tournament, so we were able to speak to students from several countries we are not able to visit on this tour.


South of Cape Town

Finally, at around 5:30 pm, we checked into our hotel – the Michaelangelo on Mandela Square. Very posh. Lots of shopping and restaurants directly connected, so no need to brave JoBurg proper, which we have all been warned can be dicey. I had some great Thai on the square.

The city itself is much more American feeling than I’d expected. Reminds me a good bit of Austin, Texas – a medium sized city set amongst green, rolling hills. So far I have not at all felt like I am in Africa, culturally or meteorologically. The weather has been much too pleasant. That might change tomorrow when we go to Botswana.