Safari Chapter Two: Laroo La Tau

On the day before Christmas Eve, after our successful game viewing at Camp Moremi, we boarded a 6-seat Cessna and flew to Laroo La Tau which is located in Makgadikgadi Pans National Park. Our rooms at Laroo La Tau were totally glass on the Boteti river-facing side (east).



A dozen elephants refreshed themselves in the river which was immediately in front of our decks and we could view them all day. We could even watch the elephants walking by the river while we took our showers. Our schedule at Laroo La Tau was similar to our schedule at Moremi: wake-up at 0530, breakfast at 0600, game drive at 0630, brunch at 1100, rest-time from 1230-1530, tea at 1530, game drive (or boat ride) at 1600, dinner at 1930. During our breaks in the afternoons we could swim, look at all the pictures we took, nap, and then it was time for afternoon tea. After dinner the guide walked us to our rooms because we couldn't be outside alone at night after dark due to the potential for animals to be out after dark. The generator (and thus the electricity) was turned off at 2200 but each guest had an air horn to be used in case of an emergency and there were battery-powered lamps for use when the power was off.



We decided to go to the village near the camp rather than going on an afternoon game drive because we wanted to see the village and this camp offered night drives, which we did not do in Camp Moremi. Lance,our guide, took us in the Land Cruiser to the village. The dirt road was single-lane and it was really bumpy and rustic. We stopped along the way to see the cattle posts- where Batswana stay while they are tending their cattle. The cattle posts were lively because of the Christmas season and people being able to travel from their jobs in the larger towns to their home villages and cattle posts.



On the drive to the village we saw cows, goats, dogs, chickens, and lots of festive people. In the village we finally placed phone calls to our family in Washington. Then we went to the Tuk shop to buy airtime for the cell phone—the Tuk shop was open, but there wasn’t a cashier, so our guide knocked on the door of the house next door and a woman came out in her bath towel and rang up our purchase. The drive around the village was fun and educational. We saw the Kgotla, school, clinic, houses, people, but not many vehicles.



After our trip to the village, we returned to our lodge and dined with our guide and the lodge staff on a lovely dinner including an impressive spread of, among other things crocodile kabobs. Then we departed in the Land Cruiser for our night game drive. On the night drive we saw pearl spotted owlette, giant eagle owl, spring hare, steen bok and a frog. Back at the lodge, we were getting ready for bed when the generator went out and we were left with flashing battery-powered lights and no fan. It was our safari disco night. We got to sleep in time to get a few zz’s before our 0530 wake-up call the next day.

On Christmas Eve day, we boarded the Land Cruiser and drove down to the river where we got into a small boat and motored up the river to a waiting Land Cruiser for our morning game drive. The landscape in the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park was much drier than the terrain at our previous location in Moremi. The wildlife was less abundant but during the drive in the Land Cruiser we got really close to a huge bull elephant as it emerged from the water and then again on our return boat ride when two elephants were wading in the water less than 25 meters from our boat.



Later, the day heated up to 95 degrees, so we lounged around on our deck watching the elephants and zebra for most of the afternoon. Following afternoon tea, we spent the early evening chatting with Changu, one of the hostesses, about travel and life in Botswana and the USA. We reviewed our pictures and spent some time catching up on each others’ lives—since Jessie and Mom hadn’t seen Katie since July.

Dinner was served inside due to thunder and the threat of rain. It was Christmas Eve and we dined with Ben (from Botswana) and George (from Sydney Australia), in addition to the staff. Ben and George went on a night drive but we retired to our room where we all slept together. We heard lions roaring several times during the night and we got up to go to the deck but couldn’t see them.

On Saturday we went on a shorter game drive with Ben and George and it rained. We saw elephants, lots of them, in the water. They were all male because the conditions in that area are too extreme for the females and their young. It was a soggy ride back to the boat landing. Patrick, another camp guide, met us on the east side of the river and took us back to the Lodge where we assembled our bags to go to the airstrip. We were delighted to see Scott in his Santa hat and 6-passenger Cessna. The ride to Camp Okavango was uneventful and we had the opportunity to view much of the Delta from the air.

Safari Chapter One

Long time, no blog! I have been on safari in northern Botswana and Zimbabwe with my family for the holidays and I am just now re-entering the internet zone. We were out in the bush for 12 days traveling to four different safari camps and lodges. For this blog, I am going to describe Camp Moremi, our first camp in the Moremi Wildlife Reserve.



I flew from Gaborone to Maun and then from Maun to the camp (I was the only passenger on my bush plane) where I met my mom and sister after their 60 hours of travel from Seattle via Sao Paulo, Brazil (they were originally routed to fly through London, but Heathrow was closed due to snow).



Our lodging at Camp Moremi consisted of tents on raised platforms with separate tents for the bathrooms. The camp was comfortable and rustic at the same time. We went on game drives every morning and late afternoon in Land Cruisers driven by Botswanan guides who were expert animal trackers. We were so fortunate to see a lot of different animals and birds. Among the animals we saw were zebra, impala, giraffe, hippo, warthog, water bok, reed buck, bush bok, crocodile, banded mongoose, hyena, elephant, kudu, red leschwe, and jackal. The rarest animals we saw were leopard, lion, and cheetah! We were there during the season when a lot of babies were being born and we saw baby monkeys, baboons, impala, elephants, and hippos, which we really loved. It was fun to sit in our Land Cruiser and observe the mothers and babies interacting.



We also went on a boat safari on the waters of the Okavango Delta and saw an amazing variety of birds, such as stork, eagles, and doves, two kinds of frogs, more crocodiles, and aquatic plants like lilies, reeds, and papyrus. Our boat guide pulled up some bull-rush roots from the bottom of the river for us to eat.

Many people who were planning to travel to Botswana for the holidays got caught in the winter weather in Europe and, as a result, most of our game drives and cruises were private. The guides and staff at camp were delightful and they ate all meals with us. After dinner we sat around the camp fire. The weather at Camp Moremi was hot and slightly humid.

Stay tuned for chapter two: LaRoo La Tau where we watched elephants from our river-front deck.

Christmas Potpourri

School is out for the summer holidays (BTW it's summer here) and people are gearing up for the festive season. The normal bumper to bumper traffic from 0645-0745 and 1630-1830 has been replaced by bumper to bumper lines leading into the retail establishments of the 'big city' (Gaborone). I am eagerly anticipating the arrival of my sister and mom who will spend Christmas with me here in Africa!

This first picture is of a painted fabric table runner (that I am using as a decorative hanging) that was gifted to me by the women in my Bible study. Isn't it beautiful?



Here is a picture of the post-office where I receive my mail.



These are the birds that are enjoying a lay-over on their journey north in our pool. This is not a natural migration. One of my housemates has a delivery service and he recently has been doing business with poultry farmers... or something like that. Let's just say I haven't been spending much time in or near the pool recently.



This is the Christmas tree at my house!

The fruits of the Spirit

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. There is no law against these things! (Galatians 5:22-23 New Living Translation)

A wise person once advised me to be very cautious about praying, "God, please produce the fruit of the Spirit within me." This person suggested that I may not really WANT God to teach me, for example, patience.

I thought this was very sage advice, but I have prayed this prayer anyway... and God is definitely teaching me patience. He has evidently selected a few individuals and circumstances to be my primary lessons, but on the whole, I can say that living and working in Botswana has been somewhat of an immersion program in this area. You may have heard of language immersion programs where you go live in, say, South America and learn Spanish, but you likely have not heard of a patience immersion program. That is what I am enrolled in- a patience immersion program. I am learning to wait on the Lord- as well as my fellow man.

Thankfully, this immersion program is also helping me develop the other fruits of the Spirit- love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. May God bless each of us with opportunities to develop each of these fruits.

Bokamoso Private Hospital

Last week I visited the Labor, Delivery, Recovery & Postpartum (LDRP) unit at Bokamoso Private Hospital (not as a patient, don't worry). I met one of the nurses who works on the unit through a friend at church and she generously offered to show me the unit. I had read about the hospital in the newspaper because it is apparently a very ambitious venture for Botswana and it has had its share of financial and technological challenges. Let me just say, that I was impressed.

As you can see from the pictures, the patient rooms are beautiful and well-equipped. I had read in the newspaper that the hospital was 'the first paper-less hospital in Botswana.' However, it sounded like the integration of technology has been difficult and this 'paper-less-ness' isn't quite true.

Regardless, Bokamoso is a beautiful facility and the nurses I met seemed very professional and dedicated to their work.

Mochudi Clinic

Here are two pictures of the Botswana Harvard Partnership clinic on the campus of the Deborah Retief Memorial Hospital in Mochudi. We use the clinic to see patients who are participating in any one of several research projects. Obviously, I cannot take pictures of the important work with patients and participants that goes on at the clinic. But, hopefully you can get an idea of where we work.

Mail call, mail call!

Sending and receiving mail is a funny thing here in Botswana- or at least it seems so to me. Botswana Post, the official national postal service, does not provide home delivery. So, if you want to have a place to receive mail, you either rent a postal box or depend on your place of work to receive your mail at a corporate postal bag (pictured above).

I receive mail at the postal bag that my office has. This bag has to be picked up at a post office that is quite a ways off the beaten path of Gaborone Central. The Botswana-Harvard drivers only retrieve it a couple times per week. Our bag is apparently only for envelopes. If a package has arrived addressed to me, the bag will contain a slip that can be redeemed for the package. However, we don't find out that there is a package slip until the bag has been unlocked and opened-- back at the office. This means that the package won't be picked up until the NEXT time a driver goes to the post office, which can add days to the amount of time it takes to receive a package.

On average, it has taken letters 10 days to get here from the USA and packages 30 days. I mailed my Christmas cards on Monday, so hopefully they will arrive soon. If you are interested in stamps of Botswana, I posted some pictures under an entry called "Botswana Philatelic Society" in August.