Another one off the list....

I went on my first safari last night. For about $30 USD we were given a guided tour and dinner at the local wildlife area known as Mokolodi (http://www.mokolodi.com/). We had about 10 of us and I took about 200 pictures. I would say I got about 20 really good ones. (Radd eat your heart out, I have pictures of birds I don't think you've ever seen).

We were luck to come across the Mother White Rhino and her 6 month old baby (could have fooled me it was 1/2 her size!). We also got to go pet the Cheetah. I have some pictures but you will have to wait until I get my computer.

Dinner was a Braai (aka BBQ) of Chicken, Sausage, Kebob, and an assortmant of salads and local dishes. Plus they had a very nicely stocked bar. All in all it was good.

So I know have another crossed of my list of things to do before I die. I need to start adding more things to the list so please make suggestions...

Living la vida loca

Someone asked me about my everyday life. Well here it goes...

I have AC in the house. In every room actually. Each room as a remote control. We only use it in the living room and bedroom. Sometimes in the kitchen. They are needed here no matter what day it is. It neat to have a remote to change the temp up or down. I used the timer feature yesterday in the living room. It came on 20 minutes before I got home and was nice and cool.

The houses are made of concrete and there is tile everywhere! We do have some carpets int he bedrooms and dinning room (but we don't use that room). I have a couple of runners in the hallways on top of the marble tile. I guess its easy to clean then carpet.


TV is below par here. We have a satellite dish and it broadcasts English stations out of South Africa. There are a lot if movie channels (about 5) about 25 sports channels, 1 series channel (knigh rider, NYPD Blue, some soaps, even queer eye!) 1 CNN Internationl, BBC, SKyNews (UK) Discovery, Travel, Fashion, MTV, VH1 (all out of UK). The shows are about 3 years old compared to the US.
And normally they don't show many commercials either. So programs will last about 20 minutes and another one will start. Sometimes they will start movies at 6:20 or something like that. Really weird.

The things I could do if I had some money and could buy a few satellites! I would be king of the airwaves!

You know you are not in the USA, but people are pretty nice so far. I have only had one person ask me for money. Claimed his car was broken. Lots of dust/dirt not many sidewalks, and people walk everwhere.

Anyone with a little money has a concrete fence around their property and those with more money have electric fences on top of that wall (such as me). I have bars on all doors, and windows. Also we have an alarm system in the house, a rent-a-cop force that comes by every hour (but are worthless in my opinion) and I have a 3 phones (one house phone and 2 mobiles)and a radio (walkie-talkie type) that I can use. I think its over kill, but as history has shown us you don't need them till you need them.

Oh and the fun part is we driver on the left hand side of the road. I am over getting into the car and reaching to the left for the seatbelt (its on the right). And I still turn to the right (instead of the left) when backing up. The gas, break, and clutch pedals are the same though.
Don't know what gas cost yet because I haven't bought any.

Something smells fishy

Ok this is now the 3rd time I will be attempting to post an update. I have to do it at work because I don't have a computer at home yet. (Soon though, maybe by Thursday). The first two times something has prevented me from sending it, like the network goes down or the satellite etc...

I went to the Marine Corp Ball on Saturday. Its a big deal for most Embassies. I enjoyed it actually. They had a good ceremony and the place was nice. It was at a local golf course and outside. The problem with that was it kept on trying to drizzle all night on us. Before we had dinner the staff if lighting speed moved all the tables under the patio and we continued the festivities there.

Theresa left for a conference in Zambia (just to the north of Botswana) on Sunday. It’s about a 3-hour plan ride from here. She said she is enjoying it. Now she gets to see how much "fun" conferences are.

I did get my first haircut here. I wish I had a picture of it (I will next time). The assistant washed my hair for 15 minutes. Then I went to the stylist. He pulls out this HUGE Fro-pick and went to town on my hair. Best hair cut I have had in a long time. It cost me about 65 Pula (about $14) not bad considering I was paying $20 in Bozeman & Washington D.C.

Theresa and I went shopping at the local grocery store and got some BBQ chicken (it was pre-marinated). We brought it home and cooked it up a few days later. I cut into the juicy tender meat and raised it to my mouth. With my mouth salivating I proceeded to place the tasty morsel into my mouth. I stop short, just millimeters away. Something wasn't right.

Indeed something was right, my senses were going into a frenzy. I smelled the chicken, but did not smell chicken at all. I smelled FISH! At that moment, time slowed down.... I slowly turned my head to Theresa and saw here chewing the chicken... noooooooooooo dooooooonnnnn'tttttttt...... (ok work with me here on the "theater of the mind thing").

Theresa spit it out and said it tastes like fish. And here I have been saying my whole life "it tastes like Chicken!!!"

We proceeded to through it away and went out to dinner to a place called the Bull & Bush. Its a local steak house and for the two of us with drinks it costed about $16. And the steak was better then anything in the USA.

Thats it for now.. Questions? Comments? Use the link below..

No fanfare or parade

I have arrived. There was no fanfare or parade in my honor when I arrived. Not that I was expecting any, but it would have been nice. The airport was actually smaller then the one in Bozeman, MT where I use to live. The only planes that I saw when I cam in where propeller planes.

I am now living in Gaborone, Botswana (promounced Haborne, but referred to as Gabs). After 7 months in Washington DC area and a rather mild summer there, I have come to southern Africa for another summer.

A friend started his blogg an I thought what the heck. It will be better then sending out a long email to everyone and clogging up their inbox. Not to mention I average about 41kps for an internet connection. (that's slower then most dialups!)

There are two things that strike me different or I was expecting before I got here.
1. There is a lot of dust. Not much grass and lots of dirt paths. For the most part there are not many sidewalks. Which brings me to part 2
2. About 50% of the people walk all over the place. Mostly on the side of the road or in the middle of your lane. When they see a car come, they usually get out of the way.

Since I have to drive on the left hand side of the road it has taken some time to get use to. I still turn and look over the wrong shoulder when backing up, and remembering to look left, right, left is always fun!! But as long as there are cars on the road I can do just fine. Mostly because I follow them.

The average temp is about 85-95 now. And summer goes into full swing about Dec-Jan time frame.

Most interesting thing I have eaten so far is a wrap with potato salad in it. Oh and don't go ordering anything with out asking how spicy it is. I went to lunch the other day and almost died because of the "medium" spice!

The locals are friendly and generally seem fine. They were interested in who won the Election in the US mostly because of the funding and research that is done on HIV.

Botswana has about 1.2-1.5 million people. It's the size of Texas and about 40% of the people are HIV positive. There are huge campains out there to help people, drive awareness of it, and research cures for it.

Theresa is working for BOTUSA which is a joint venture of the Botswanian Government and the US CDC. She works as an applications developer.

Hopefully my Airbags will get here soon, and my household effects (with my power tools) will get here mid Decemeber.