Botswana: My African Adventure: February 2009

Safari, I have learned, is a Swahili word simply meaning "journey" so I suppose I could call my whole time abroad a "safari" in the literal sense but in the modern vernacular the word has taken on a meaning quite different, that being: tourist, almost exclusively white, non-africans, traveling through the African Bush with big expensive cameras taking pictures of animals that they could only otherwise see in zoos in their own countries. By this definition my parents trip to visit me in January and February conforms exactly. Too often, in my opinion, these trip exclude wholly any experience that would truly inform them of more normal day to day life in "Africa." All too often limiting their "cultural experience" to neatly packaged traditional dancers and expensive game dinners that conform nicely to stereotypes held widely in the west about africa. In this respect though, I must say from the outset that my parents are to be admired for bravely defying common practice and spending days of their time seeing Gabarone, Johannesburg and Soweto (albeit the later two being packaged in tours) and changing drastically, I believe, some of their images of "Africa" and expanding their minds without prejudice. But I have probably editorialized too much already so I will now move to the trip.
The days prior to trip, occupying the time after Whitney left and before my parents arrived, could be counted as the least productive of my entire life with no real direction I slept too much and spent the days on the computer so the end of this time was a welcome relief but their arrival was also met with some anxiety. The main issue was a visa concern, that being my student's temporary residence permit had technically expired on 31 December 2008. I had made several trips to the immigration office each time being told different information and that lacked different requirements to extend it. At my wit's end I gave up and decided I would go to jail in the worst scenario and that would make an interesting blog entry (yes this is occasionally how I think.) Alas my anxiety did not stop the hours from passing and eventually I was met with the day of parents arrival. They were flying into to Johannesburg and I was to take the bus from Gaborone to Jo'burg to meet them. Unfortunately only one Intercape bus (Intercape is the best bus company around here and I use them almost exclusively) leaves Gabs per day enroute to Jo'burg at 6am arriving around 1pm, my parents weren't slated to get off the plane until 11:45pm. What I would do in the interim in a city I honestly fear was another point of anxiety. The final point of anxiety for me was that inclement weather in both Detroit and Paris threatened to interrupt my parent's flights so I was unsure as I boarded my bus if my parents would arrive in Jo'burg, if I would be arrested at the border, and if I did make it to South Africa what I would do for the better part of the day. As it turned out the border crossing was smooth, I caught a taxi at the bus station in Jo'burg to the hotel, checked in and took a nap and when my parents were scheduled to arrive at the airport they did and I was there to meet them. The biggest flub of the day was taking a taxi who didn't know where he was going. I think that that event was so little trouble for me demonstrates how much I have learned to manage my situation where I could and, and not loose control emotionally when things didn't go as they were supposed to. Sometimes life throws a curve and we just have to roll with it.

The next day saw us back at the airport to catch a flight to Maun, Botswana the tourism capital of the country. From their we caught a bush plane (A maximum 6 seater plane meant to hop from camp to camp in remote areas) to our first lodge, the Nxamseri Fish Camp in the pan-handle region of the Okavango Delta.

(Nxameseri Fish Camp's sign)

When we arrived we landed on an airstrip with waist deep grass, it was quite an experience.

(These airports were SMALL!)

We were picked up and loaded onto a speed boat and sped to our camp.

(Loading up in our delta transport)

I immediately knew this was not going to be the same type of trip as Whitney and I took. This place was dripping with luxury.

(The front of the Nxameseri Lodge)

We decided to go on a river tour that afternoon. We drove down the river on a small motor boat looking at some of the most incredible birds I have ever seen.

(European Roller)

I said on the first day "I am not exactly an ornithologist" but the birds on this trip in general certainly captured my attention and interest. As we journeyed down the river we saw African Jaccana's, Brown Throated Weavers, Lilac breasted rollers, king fishers, fish eagles, and many more that I couldn't possibly keep track of.

(African Jacana)

My favorites were the Jaccannas that could be seen walking on the lily pads because the females move from partner to partner leaving the male bird to raise and care for the young. As we were returning we crossed the territory of a hippo, this made him very angry and he made his feelings known to us by jumping from the water and showing his teeth, cool but a little scary. The meals and rooms at this place were very nice as was every place in fact. The two managers, Tess and Lisa were interesting people. Tess was the first white Batswana I had met and Lisa was a white zimbabwean currently living in the Maun area.

The next day was our day a Tsodilo hills.

(The Museum at Tsodilo)

One of the running jokes of the trip was Mom's inability to pronounce the name Tsodilo (tSW-oh-Dilo). She went through every possible mangling my favorite being Toledo hills. Mom and dad also could also never pronounce Nxamseri because the "Nx" makes a clicking sound but Mom never stopped trying and, as a result, never stopped making me laugh. But I digress. Todilo Hills is four hills in the middle of the very flat northern botswana that show case one of the biggest collections of San(often called Bushmen) rock paintings in the world (that includes San and other people's paintings). The site is a Unesco world heritage site but in typical Botswana fashion it is under publicized and under funded. Recently the San people still living at the site were told that they could no longer use the hills and had to move to a new location, a very controversial and upsetting move by the often insensitive government. A fence and gate was put up but when we got there there was no one guarding it so our driver pushed open the gate and let us in without permission. This semester my Archaeology professor decided to focus mainly on rock paintings and as a result I knew a significant amount about the paintings we saw at Tsodilo hills.

(The most famous painting at Tsodilo)

(The hills were naturally very beautiful as well)

(Dancing Penises)

Our guide showed us the paintings but I did all the talking in telling Mom and Dad what they meant and they significance of each. There are over 4,000 paintings so we only saw a tiny fraction in a couple hour hike but the experience was so vindicating for me. As a historian after my visit to the great Zimbabwe I have been constantly questioning where the history is in Africa. Zimbabwe is an impressive stone walled city in Zimbabwe that is about 800 years old but when compared to things of the same period in China or Europe it is primitive. Since I saw it I have been asking why, since the first humans evolved in Africa, there isn't so much history. A book called Guns, Germs, and Steel, by Jared Diamond began to Explain it but I still wondered what the people were doing. Tsodilo gave me at least the clear understanding. Those painitngs, to me, are as impressive as any Roman ruin or European Castle or Cathedral. Those paintings that are as much as 7,000 years old tell the story of human history.
The next day before we boarded the bush plane to our next camp we had our first Mokoro Trip. A Mokoro is a dug-out canoe, used in the Okavango for transportation. It was the first time I had seen the paddlers sit in a Mokoro. Standing is more typical. After our shirt paddle we packed and boarded our plane saying goodbye to Nxamseri en route to Chobe National Park, particularly the Savute region. We arrived in time for a light lunch, to settle in and still catch the afternoon/evening game drive. Dad had worried prior to the trip that moving so much would mean losing lots of time but we learned time and again that the planes ran so smoothly that we rarely lost any activity at all. After having taken the trip to Kruger with Whitney I honestly expected to seem TONS of game and I suppose in that was Savute was a little disappointing. We saw lots of Elephants; Botswana has the largest population of them in Africa. but otherwise we didn't see any of the other "Big 5." Fortunately my parents are great sports and were excited to see everything we saw. They especially enjoyed the tracking bits even though generally we didn't find whatever we were tracking. Savute had a schedule that included a morning wake up of 5am followed by tea, a game drive, breakfast, a siesta, high tea, a evening game drive, dinner, and generally collapsing of exhaustion. Most lodges used a similar pattern but each lodge had an earlier wake up. Our four game drives at Savute all only resulted in Elephant sitings and then other antelope and things.

(An elephant watering hole at Savute)

(One of our tea breaks with Elephants in the Background)

(Fighting over the water)

Dad was always thrilled to see giraffes and mom even loved seeing the foot prints and dung, in short, they were easy to please. During our Sietsa's there was a beautiful pool that looked over a man made waterhole that allowed us to swim with elephants drinking in the background it was surreal.

(The amazing pool at Savute)

When our time at Savute ended we boarded yet another bush plane to Delta camp just across a small channel from Chief's Island and Moremi Game reserve in the Okavango Delta. This was the nicest accommodation we stayed in my opinion. I got to stay in a tree house that had a full bath and an incredible view it was amazing.

(My incredible tree house)

For some reason Dad's travel agent always arranged a private room for me even though often I would have been able to fit in the same room as my parents, but I'm not complaining. Delta camp was also where i began to be surprised to see that so much of the staff, even the management of the lodges was black. As bad as it sounds it surprised me to see black Batswana in positions of management and I began to learn that this was more typical in Botswana than South Africa. Delta camp and Mapula Camp had no White staff at all. I had suggested to Dad that our Safari would be more interesting if we did different sort of safaris. He took the advice. We did game drives at Savute, Mokoro Trips and Game walks at Delta Camp, Bush plane trips over the delta and even a segway safari in Livingstone at Victoria Falls.

(Mokoros)

When we woke up at Delta camp we had tea and boarded a mokoro across the channel.

(Us in one of our Mokoros)

We unloaded and walked through the african Bush of Moremi game reserve. On a walking safari we learned you pay a lot more attention to trees, birds, foot prints and dung. We learned a lot this way such as what a sausage tree is, about elephants eating palm nuts but only digesting the outer few centimeters and all about different animal foot prints. These walks got us close to zebras and giraffes. Our guide, Matudi, had a very scientific brain. He gave us more information than we could handle generally. On our last game walk at Delta camp our guides tracked a lion for some time. As they thought they were getting close they made us be quiet and guided us in. The two guides were communicating with hand signals that the three of us did not understand. All of a sudden we heard a roar and saw a lions face about 20 feet from us.

(The lion on the walking tour)

As we walked around the thicket we learned he had just killed a warthog. At first Mom, Dad, and I feared that there maybe more lions nearby sneaking up on us, but fortunately this guy was a young male all on his own. It was an amazing experience. At another time we took a long Mokoro trip to a nearby island where much of the staff at the Delta Camp lives. It was cool for mom and dad to see a very traditional village but I tried to stress to them that this is not "typical."

(The Batswana use cans to reinforce their houses)

(A traditional village near Delta Camp)

We saw some women weaving baskets and Mom and Dad bought some. As it turns out they are incredible souvenir buyers (they bought a lot of stuff!). Eventually we had to pack up and move to our last Okavango Delta Camp: Mapula Camp. Yet again the lodging was bordering on excessive with a huge bathroom, deck, and outdoor shower (complete with scorpion) all for myself. Mapula offered game drives but unfortunately they were not terribly exciting. They were quite long and on one we saw nothing of real interest. We saw a large herd of elephants and got too close, resulting in the whole herd charging us aggressively. At one point the matriarch charged us and with no way out, we were forced to drive straight at her, fortunately she backed down at our bluff. On the last day we managed to see a single female lion and because we were in a private concession (that is a privately owned game reserve as opposed to a state owned park) we followed it off road for quite a long time. The manager at Mapula Camp, Bonte, was very interesting and shared some some tidbits with me that explained some of things I had learned or noticed since I had been here. For example, she said that the Batswana tend to be indifferent in that they will not neccesarily open their arms, homes and hearts to every passing tourists and that helped to explain why I had never been invited to anyone's home. After Mapula camp we flew to Kasane and from their were bused to the border where we had to cross a river into Zambia. We learned that at that junction four countries meet: Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Botswana. All went as planned and we arrived at our hotel in Livingstone with ease. Over the next few days we explored the falls. It was amazing how different the experience was only one month later.

(The beautiful falls)

Walking around the falls in December there was no mist, in January it was like walking through a perpetual torrential down pour it was crazy, but beautiful. We were also quite pleased to learn that in Livingstone, it being "civilization" as compared to our previous camps that did not have electricity, we were able to watch the inauguration of President Obama. It was nice to watch the figurative sun rise over our nation while the sun set in Zambia. The following day mom and I hiked to the bottom of Vic Falls to a place called the boiling pot. When we came back to the top Dad had arranged for the three of us to take a tour of the area around the falls on segways. Most of the animals we saw were pretty much tame. We walked within about two feet of a live zebra.

The next day we boarded a plane headed back to our initial launching point, Jo'burg. We spent one night at the Metcourt, the same hotel we had stayed at upon my parents arrival in South Africa, and had dinner at a place called "Tribes." That night Dad and I had Warthog, Impala, Kudu, and Ostrich and Mom had simply Ostrich. An interesting, although not all together "traditional" or typical, taste of the continent. The next day we rented our car and were headed toward Blyde River Canyon. The drive through the mountains is beautiful. Neither Mom or Dad had expected South Africa to be so Mountainous or richly vegetated, I hadn't known myself until my trip with Whitney. We arrived that evening but I was beginning to feel the earliest signs of sickness. I assumed it was hunger pains so we went to a nearby fast food place, Wimpy, to grab a snack to tide us over until dinner. The meal didn't help. That night I was as sick as I have been in a very long time. Mom had had some stomach issues earlier in the week but according to her nothing as bad as what I had. By the next morning I had begun to recover but was still not feeling myself. Our lodge in Blyde River Canyon was actually a full cottage for the three of us that was beautiful but unfortunately all I could do was complain about the strong smell of wood in the place. The lodge also had a tame Impala that hung around the place named Marla. We went over to the Blyde River Dam and took a boat tour. We saw hippos and a crocodile but the real star of the trip was the amazing natural scenery surrounding the dam. After that we headed to lunch at a nice little local sunday brunch place and then off to the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Center. The center began as a cheetah project but presently serves many endangered species including cheetahs, wild dogs, black maned lions (not actually a species but are quite rare), carical and servals. It was an awesome experience as we never saw any of these animals in the wild. After our time at the nature center we went to a nice pizza place for dinner.

(Cheetahs and the Wild Dogs at the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Center)

The following day we got up, packed, loaded the car, and headed to our next lodge, Africa on Foot. We met our guides at a pub near the private reserve and they took us from there to the lodge. Africa on Foot, or Ross Camp, was a quaint little camp but it was very hot, and our rooms had no air conditioning. The inescapable heat contributed to Mom and I both feeling ill yet again but both of us recovered quickly. Africa on Foot understandably organizes there days around game walks in contrast to the game drives at most other game parks. We had done walking safaris before though at Delta camp but we did learn even more such as that special hornets inject acacia thorns with steroid so they grow to huge size before laying eggs inside. Overall Africa on foot animal-wise was not our best lodge but the people; our two guides Courtney and Daniel and the manager Cecilia; were incredibly interesting and shed a lot of insight on the thinking of white Africans including on their thoughts about Zimbabwe, Courtney and Daniel’s home country. They also talked a lot about Rugby and Cricket and explained the color divide even in sport in South Africa, saying that soccer tends to be a black sport where as cricket and rugby are whiter sports.
Following our time at Africa on Foot we loaded up the car and moved to our final safari lodge, Arathusa in the Sabi sands, another private reserve on the border with Kruger like Africa on the Foot. This meant mainly that we could drive off road to get closer to the animals than would have been possible in the Kruger Park. Like allof the lodges Arathusa’s staff, meals, and lodges were remarkable. The large watering hole in front of the dining room was nice, just like Savute. Arathusa was unique in their emphasis on guest interaction, the fact that there were other guests influenced this but also they encouraged us to interact by putting us all together at meals and introducing everyone in the game drive vehicles. As a result we met some nice people but it was not my favorite because sometimes after a long day, wake up was at 4:45 am, I just didn’t want to be sociable. The more important thing about Arathusa was the animals. Arathusa finally completed our big five seeing a Rhino and Leopard on our first day, and then we saw the whole big five in one game drive including a herd of buffalo, tiny baby elephants, four male lions together in a near confrontation with a male leopard, and two leopards mating. Arathusa was amazing!

(Animals at Arathusa)

After Arathusa we drove for twelve hours to Gaborone, Botswana. I was excited to show my parents around my stomping grounds, so to speak, for the last six months. I had organized a room in a nearby bed and breakfast. The Lolwappa lodge was not on par with the previous accomdation, they didn’t serve breakfast and didn’t even manage to provide Mom and Dad with two towels. Fortunately, Mom and Dad are humble people and did not mind down grading a little. While in Gaborone I enjoyed showing Mom and Dad around my favorite places like Embassy; my favorite restaurant in Gaborone, an Indian place, mom confirmed she does not enjoy Indian food; Linga Longa; Main Mall and Riverwalk. On Sunday it was slightly rainy but it did not dampen us. We went to Main Mall to see if the souvenir sellers were open, they weren’t, and then headed to the Museum. We had a good time looking at the archaeology, history, and wildlife of Botswana for a while. That evening was the Superbowl but because it started at 1am we didn't stay up to watch it, thank goodness for Tivo. On Monday we went to Mokolodi Game Reserve where I had been on a cultural weekend back in August. We went specifically for the cheetah experience, where we petted cheetahs, but also took a game drive.

(Leopard Tortoise at Mokolodi)

It was not the most impressive game drive but the cheetahs were awesome. Petting them was surreal.

(Petting a cheetah at Mokolodi)

It struck me that, while I knew cheetahs could purr, that petting them made them purr, and when a cheetah purrs….it’s obvious. After the cheetahs we headed back to town and were glad to find the souvenir sellers present. We also found downtown in a relative uproar, the city center was surrounded by armed riot police and security personnel kept us from getting too close to parliament. We learned, by asking a news person, that the students were protesting an issue about their allowances. Later we actually saw students marching around and singing. There was no incident but the Botswana Police Force was prepared, just in case. I learned later that there had been massive demonstrations on campus that had turned violent resulting in damages to facilities that led to closure of campus. Allowances, to me, have always been baffling. The United States is a nation obsessed with capitalism and being raised in that culture left me constantly baffled at why, student’s who did not pay for university would protest their government “allowance” being too low. In my mind student’s are not paid, but these student’s felt entitled to this money enough to protest it being insufficient. It also seemed to me that paying students and providing them with free education removes some of the incentive to perform well in school, creating a “why try” mentality. After all, in school everything is free and you get paid on top of it, why graduate? However, some of my European friends, especially those from the Nordic countries, which tend to be more socially socialistic, disagreed with this assertion. After our time in Gaborone we headed back to Jo’burg.

After a shorter six hour drive we arrived in Jo’burg. On my parent’s final day in Africa we were picked up by a tour guide named Vivian and transported to the Apartheid museum. Vivian had been an academic before moving into tourism. He brought interesting contrast to the views and opinions of different white Africans. Vivian was a typical academic, meaning he tended to be very liberal and willing to speak his mind on every issue. It was really nice especially as he had direct experience in apartheid era South Africa. He gave a thorough tour through the apartheid museum giving unique insight. The museum blew my mind honestly. As it turns out, I knew nearly nothing about apartheid. The things in the museum were remarkable. The apartheid was horrible and disgusting and recent. It did not end until 1994, in my lifetime! And to think of the progress in only fifteen years the country has reinvented itself, amazing. After the museum we headed to Soweto. The city really looked, to me, like a pretty typical African city. Many stands selling fruit, and curios but to see the place where the demonstration hit its climax really brought it home. I continuously had flash backs to the American civil rights movement, which didn’t surprise me, and to bloody Sunday in Ireland, which did surprise, but the video footage of the violent demonstrations we saw reminded me of news footage of Bosnia or Somalia or Israel, which surprised me even more.

(Twin towers of Soweto)

(Soweto Monument)

That evening my parents caught their flight home and the next day I returned to Botswana to await my own departure, days later.
Love to all,
Tommy

Botswana: My African Adventure

Thursday, February 12, 2009

The Last Days

Monday, February 9, 2009

Lessons in South African

Safari Superbowl

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