The Return to Botswana - 19

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March 17th, 2004 -

Ok, profuse apologies for the face that I've been here for over a month and this is the first time I've gotten around to updating this. I've been incredibly lazy and Krister made the mistake of introducing me to an online forum that I am using as my new way to waste time on the internet. Whee!

So let's go through a quick update:

I lef the US on February 14th, got stuck on an Airbus 340 flying to Joburg - which meant no self-screens to watch movies. Hopefully they'll be returning to the bigger planes before I come home in May. The guy sitting next to me fell asleep on my shoulder almost immediately at take-off - so I got up as fast as possible and made a beeline for a free seat in an emergency exit row. Had the bulkhead (is that the right word to use?) right in front of me, so I couldn't really stretch out, but at least I could put my knees up without worrying about the other passengers.

Arrived in Botswana on Sunday (the 15th) evening. While on the shuttle that was taking me to my 8:30 AirBotswana flight from Joburg to Gabs, some random woman walks up to me and says: "hi Siri!"



Huh?

Took a little while, then I noticed her Houston shirt and realized she must work with Baylor and I met her when I was there interviewing last March. But it was a bizarre couple of moments. Got to the airplane and went to identify my bags so they could put them on the plane... and they weren't there. Some weird regulations involving transferring airlines (SAA to AirBots) and they'd disappeared. I hoped they'd gotten on the earlier flight, as I'd been sitting in the Joburg airport for a ridiculous amount of time. I suppressed the nervous-pit-of-my-stomach feeling and got on the plane.

No bags in Gabs. Shit. Filed all my paperwork and went home to go to bed. The bags arrived about a week and a half/two weeks later... Except the lock had been cut off one of them and a bunch of stuff had been scooped out (I think someone reached in and just grabbed an armful). Mostly gifts I had brought for people here, so pretty god-damned frustrating. I've been dealing with the airline ever since, but can't get them to reimburse me anything (the bag arrived in one piece, I can't prove which airline is responsible, etc. etc. etc.). Not a huge deal (wasn't worth a whole lot.. there were a bunch of 96 cent coloring books) but frustrating.

Anyway, had three roommates when I got in, who left the following Saturday. Nice people to hang out with, though the house was extremely crowded. Actually managed to get right to work when I got here - my IRB approval for the oral history project had come through and I spent some time tracking doctors (and trying to convince them to do a patient flow analysis of the clinic; so far the only response I've gotten is: "If they know we're timing them, they'll be more efficient!" Is this a bad thing?), going to random lectures that I discovered on campus, and tacking up flyers on the UB campus: "volunteers wanted!" I finally found one through the IDCC (Infectious Disease Control Center) which is the adult HIV/AIDS clinic. He's studying for his Masters in social work or something similar, and as a student gets a government stipend for living expenses, and has all his days free (classes are held at night). Not the most responsible guy in the world, but as of yesterday actually showed up at the clinic while there were still patients around, and we sat down and got our first oral history. My project is officially off the ground! I can't begin to convey how exciting this is!

Ok, so that's work. Weekends: I spent the first one lying out in the sun and doing nothing but working on my tan. It was nice to have the house to myself. Second weekend was a big Hash trip down at Sun City. We left on Friday afternoon, though Brian, the guy from the UK who's been driving me to all the Hash functions decided to bring two Batswana chickies to stay at the chalet (six beds) with us. We arrived at Sundown Ranch where we were staying and they pouted - totally disappointed that this wasn't some fancy hotel with TV and AC that Brian would be paying for (yes, he was sleeping with one of them... shudder). I drank way too much on Friday night (started at 5, stopped at about 3) - played around at the pool where we were staying with the Hash until 11, when we were forced to shut off the music. One of the Joburg (maybe Pretoria?) Hashers had amazing equipment; his hash name is "Gadget" and there were major speakers, a smoke machine, blacklight, colored lights, something that sent random patterns on the trees across the pool. Lots of ridiculous music ("Chicky" somethingorother by Tatu, etc.) Then two other girls and I headed over to Sun City to go to the club. Danced until very late, came back and crashed in bed. Next morning got up with the most amazing hangover, and got a ride from the Kalahari Hash master back to Sun City to spend the day at the water park. Rode a few slides (there are six) and spent a lot of time in the wave pool (wheeeee!). Got a ride back to Sundown with a few different people, and went to the lion park with them.

Yes, I have now officially petted lions! And had my hand chewed on by them. It was a little depressing - I don't think they're well taken care of, but they're definitely cute. The smallest we saw were 3 months (still a lot larger than a full grown cat) and they were fast asleep in the heat of the day. One of these chewed on my hand (caught ahold of my ring too, it took a while to dislodge him... They have strong jaws!). The oldest was 8 months, probably about 40 kgs (88 pounds) and bigger than Sita (our dog). He was fast asleep and didn't move when we petted him. Really neat though.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures because I had left my camera in the trunk of Brian's car, and he was off somewhere with his chickies. Description will have to do. The rest of the weekend: we ran Saturday evening, came back and had our circles and drinks. I actually stayed sober to make up for the previous night - though it is really entertaining being the only sober person among a bunch of drunks. Some real nice people from the Durban/Pretoria/Joburg/Maputo/Kampala (and Kalahari) hashes. Yes, there were that many. Probably about 65 people in all. Liver run the next morning took us through every thorn bush and mud puddle in the entire fucking country - the Durban hashers are absolutely insane. But it was fun nonetheless (in fact, potentially because!).

Got back to Gabs Sunday afternoon, curled up in bed and went to sleep. Had the house all to myself for the rest of that week as well (boooring) and while I went to see a few movies with Wonder, I did very little else (I have now seen Scary Movie 2 or 3 or whatever it is, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, which greatly improved my opinion of Enrique Iglesias and is one of Johnny Depp's best roles ever!, and 21 Grams). I also got a gym membership so I can now use the pool at the hotel across the street whenever I want.

Dr. Kline and Sue (the MPH from the Baylor program in Uganda) both came into town on that Saturday, and my two new roommates came on Sunday (Rahul and Tarun). The beginning of the week was pretty stressful for having the boss around - Dr. Kline's expectations are pretty high. Everyone dressed up a whole lot more than usual. When he left things faded back to normal. Oh, except that on Monday the Hash had it's AGP ("Annual General Pissup") where we vote in new committee members to be responsible for random Hash issues. I've got my first elected position! Hash Haberdash... basically, I'm in charge of clothes. So I'm putting up pics of some of our t-shirts here and I'll bring them home to you if you let me know if you're interested. Cost is P25 (5 or 6 dollars).

Rahul and Tarun are definitely fun roommates, though only here for two weeks (they're leaving this coming Saturday). Rahul has actually taken over the cooking job from me, which is a great relief. Well, also a bit frustrating, but it's always good to learn new things, right? I also met this random Colby graduate who works for a small company that makes hematology equipment. He's in town for a few weeks setting up the equipment at the Harvard lab.

We (roommates and Don, the Colby grad) went back to Mokolodi on Saturday - I saw baby giraffes and went back to see the loves of my life (the cheetahs). There were a lot of young around, and it looks like a totally different place in this season. Really neat. Saturday evening we did absolutely nothing - just sat around and watched TV. Sunday was volleyball, and I made a total fool of myself but enjoyed it thoroughly (there was someone who was worse than me!!!). Stayed up late that night playing Scrabble.. I managed to get more than double the score of R&T - I like being better at something than doctors! ;P

Did my first oral history yesterday (Tuesday) which was exciting, and my second one with a woman who speaks very good English this morning. They’re going fairly quickly because I haven’t gotten back into the skills of getting someone to just keep talking. But I’ve already gotten some interesting information (like the woman who was here yesterday with her granddaughter, who has been diagnosed for a while, had no clue what HIV is. Sigh.
.

SA Funeral Home This was a funeral home we saw on the way to Sun City in SA... The name just struck me as a little bizarre.
View of the hospital This is looking out my office window in mid-February. Very nice weather outside, and there's actually grass!.
Kids at the clinic Some of the little boys and girls I was playing with a few days after I arrived. The coloring books and stickers that did make it through were definitely a big hit.
Warthogs at Mokolodi Baby warthogs running around... They're actually surprisingly cute. Not when they're grown-up though.
Wildebeest These guys kept snorting at us. "We're trying to be intimidating here, god dammit!"
Rhino: Up Close and Personal 'Nuff said.
Hornbill Remember the Lion King? These guys are really neat looking - apparently they mate for life and when laying eggs the female gets in a hole and lets the male plug up the entrance, leaving a small hole through which he can feed her. Then she tears out all her feathers. It's not good to be a woman in that species.
Mommy and babies Baby giraffes are the cutest things on the face of the earth...
Daddy! After seeing the mother walk past, we were pretty shocked at how much bigger daddy was.
Duma's got a rough tongue Prrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Group photo! From left to right: Rahul, Tarun, Don, me.