Me again!

Wow, have I ever been lame in the posting and emailing. Of course, it’s been the peak of summer here, so nothing’s happened since I got back, since nobody’s been moving around much. The weather is starting to cool off, though, so I have no further excuse for not posting (aside from the increasingly bad internet access, now down to 500 bytes per second).

So here’s what little has happened:

My phone destroyed itself, by choosing to hide in the pockets I had carefully emptied of all other valuables, before I jumped into my swimming pool. It was hot outside.
I now have a better phone, which can use my Canadian account (useful when I go on my next two trips out of Botswana in February and April). It may even be more capable of receiving calls from Canada (011-267-7286-4435), whereas the old one let only a single crackly call through in the first three months of my trip.

My job has deteriorated. I now have the remarkable distinction of being the world’s only IT guy who doesn’t have a computer to work on. Thanks to office politics, Botswanan bureaucracy, and all-round miserable lack of organization, our group failed to get any new computers for the three new people it hired for the new year. Combine that shortfall with the break-in over Christmas that cost us an old but functional laptop, and I end up spending my days either sitting uselessly at the boardroom table, or (when possible) working at home on my own computer. Argh. I’ve been trying to make clear to management that I can’t build their desired database and website with coconuts and silly putty, but I’m not getting anywhere. So be it, I’m putting most of my energy into planning my upcoming trips.

Though poverty (all things are relative) has postponed my intended trip to a small game reserve this weekend, I’ll still be able to afford an ultra-low-budget jaunt into northern Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe in the two weeks straddling February and March. I’ll visit Victoria Falls, visit elephants at a safely inedible distance, and even wrestle crocodiles at a research camp in the swamps of Botswana’s famed Okavango Delta.
Then I’ll finish a few more weeks at Somarelang Tikologo in Gabs, and head to Mozambique at the end of March for some historical tourism, great food, and maybe a bit of lounging on the beach (still not my thing, but worth a shot). I’ll pass through tiny, beautiful, badly-governed Swaziland on my return to Gabs, pick up another stamp on the passport, and get to Gaborone in time to catch my flight if all goes well.

I’ve begun hosting movie nights. Being smallish, hot and pretty new, Gabs is not exactly a cultural hotspot. Actually, some Americans I met in South Africa described Gaborone without hyperbole as “the most soulless city in the entire world”. So we make our own fun. The Gaborone Film Society at nearby Maru-a-pula school is growing in popularity, and themes vary from month to month (from Finnish flicks to Pedro Almodovar to Cuban documentaries). To do my bit to combat the cultural atrophy Gabs inspires, I’ve started weekly showings of none-too-highbrow films that haven’t gotten any exposure in Botswana. Last week’s inaugural session included “Dawn of the Dead” (unrelenting horror in which flesh-eating zombies overrun the world) and “Shaun of the Dead” (joyous British comedy based on the same theme). More madness will follow, dependent on what DVD’s I can find/rent/borrow.

As you can see, things have been a bit slow and the blog has reflected that… but as compensation, you’ll get infuriatingly verbose posts about my upcoming trips, and anything else interesting enough to recount. May something exciting happen soon…