Blogs from Gaborone, 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

M – After we left Vic Falls we took a couple of days to drive down through Botswana back to the border with South Africa. As I mentioned in an earlier block on the Okavango Panhandle, having already had a great Mokoro trip into the Delta from its North West corner we planned to avoid the touristy Maun and were able to make good time going south by avoiding the 300km detour westward that most tourists who visit the Delta from Maun have to make. The road from Kasane to the South through Francistown is a little pot holed but compared to some of the gravel roads in Namibia it was bliss! What did cause a little stress though were the Food Checkpoints! Just like the Red Line in Namibia, Botswana has Police/Agricultural checkpoints to prevent ... read more

Just 2 days after the wonderful wedding, 17 of us set off in 4 cars on a 5 hour drive to Botswana and Mashatu Game Reserve where we were to spend almost 5 days of the most unforgettable experiences we have had in our lives. It was so difficult restricting the number of photographs as we went on 8 game drives and saw all the game Mashatu had to offer. A typical day began with a wake up call from the ranger outside our tent at 5.30am, followed by a light breakfast then into one of 3 open Toyota Landcruisers with a guide/driver and a spotter high in the back. Each drive was about 3 1/2 hours with a short break for tea in the morning and sundowners in the evening. After the morning drive we ... read more