Blogs from South-East, Botswana, Africa

African Diary 2016 Thursday, February 1, 2016 Saturday, January 30 was a strenuous day. At 3:30 AM I had to get up in Burgdorf at Ilsabe’s. The cab picked me up at 4 and I was at the Hannover Airport by 4:30 AM, 90 minutes before departure of a KLM flight to Amsterdam. The check in with a business class ticket was a breeze, I felt privileged and grateful for Nicky that he made me take this step. Also Martin and Ilsabe are supportive of me spending their inheritance. We landed in Amsterdam in stormy weather around 7 AM and I had three hours to kill. The way to the lounge was long and even this early the stores were already busy. I had a cup of coffee in a comfortable chair. A few minutes after ... read more

Dumêlarra (greetings in Setswana) and welcome to Botswana! Besides the semi-arid climate, parts of Gaborone, Botswana's small capital city, could be Western European in terms of its development. It’s a unique place in Africa and a big part of the academic motivation for traveling here. Botswana had been an extremely poor country prior to the discovery of diamonds (3rdpoorest country in the world at the time of their independence), but has since sustained high GDP growth rates for more than 30 years and is one of the wealthiest countries in Africa. Within economic development research, there is a well-known pattern that resource rich countries have generally struggled to utilize this wealth to develop the country, often getting funneled to few powerful individuals and often leading to extreme inequality, instability and conflict. The notable exceptions to this ... read more

Today was our last seminar, on women's health rights. We then made a last trip to a craft store (and I again had seswaa and sorghum, but tried the spicy morogo with peanuts instead). We tried to visit Gaborone Dam, but it appears that now there is an admission fee that can't be paid on site, so we bagged it. Tonight is our farewell dinner, in theory to be attended by some of our speakers and program managers. And maybe the chief, so on again with the skirt. One participant has already left; one leaves before the crack of dawn tomorrow, and a few are staying for awhile. If I weren't headed straight home, I'd fly to Maun and drive out from there with the anthropologist, who is going to try to locate people (or their ... read more

Yesterday morning we visited the Botswana-Baylor Children's Clinical Centre of Excellence. I was very impressed with their research, programs for HIV+ children and adolescents, and other services. I'd like to get a field placement set up there. It looks like an excellent place to be helpful, learn, and participate in community service. I've been pleased to find that my HIV knowledge is reasonably up to date and the reading I've done to prepare for the trip was sufficiently extensive and accurate. Because this is an interest of mine, I was able to answer some questions about mother-to-child transmission for a medical doctor in our delegation who has previously answered some of mine. I asked our presenter at Batswana-Baylor some questions and, contrary to a small but strident set of unpleasant and racist reviews of Tinderbox on ... read more

The bird count for today is still pending due to collegial disputes about raptors and sunbirds. I am in my nerd element here as one colleague checks to see whether hummingbird leks differ from insect leks, another asks a biomedical ethics question, and another wonders whether the two words "mosaic" come from a common root. Today's lecture was on sociocultural factors in the spread of HIV in Botswana. I was familiar with most of the content, but it's wonderful to have my impressions confirmed by local experts. The speaker also raised issues about how HIV affects development in Botswana, which is important to consider as well. In the afternoon, we first ate a traditional Setswana lunch. I had seswaa, which is pounded meat (I presume beef) with sorghum and greens (vegetable tops?) cooked with tomatoes and ... read more