Wandering thru Southern Africa, 1986-87

UB Environmental Science Computer Room A new position has opened up here for a physical geographer (two-year contract) and the department chair says he’ll recommend me for the job if I want it.  He thinks I work hard and get along well here.  I’m torn but will probably accept if the position is, in fact, offered to me.  The biggest drawing card is that I only have to be here teaching seven months out of the year.  Other bennies would likely include one round-trip ticket to Colorado per year, four weeks of paid annual vacation, free housing (nicer than my current little campus apartment), and a tax-free bonus of about 8 to 10 thousand pula if I stick it out for the two-year duration of the contract.  It’s a great opportunity professionally as three years here would greatly enhance my future prospects for university teaching jobs elsewhere in developing countries or consulting work in Africa. My Batswana students continue to amuse me especially the boisterous ...

University of Botswana Environmental Science computer room. For the past few days I’ve been reading a book by South African novelist, Andre Brink, titled A Dry White Season .   It’s the story of Ben Du Toit, a 50ish Afrikaner and secondary school history and geography teacher in a Johannesburg suburb who is married with three kids.   As the back cover of the book explains, “Ben Du Toit is an ordinary, decent, harmless man, unremarkable in every way – until his sense of justice is outraged by the death of a man he has known.”   Ben’s friend, Gordon, is black and a janitor at the school.   Ben is helping Gordon’s oldest son, Jonathan, pay for his education until the young man becomes radicalized during the Soweto uprising of 1976.   Jonathan is detained by the police and eventually dies in custody.   Gordon starts conducting his own investigation of the circumstances surrounding his son’s death.   Then he too is taken by the police and eventually dies,...

A letter to my ex- in San Diego, California Genie Dear, I received the latest cassette tapes you recorded for me.   I haven’t had a chance to listen to them yet but one you sent several months ago has become my favorite:   “GPR Live” (with Dave Grusin’s big band) on one side and Lee Ritenour’s “Earth Run” on the other.   I’ve listened to that tape so much during my December trip to South Africa that it’s become a permanent memory of that bittersweet experience.   When I hear it now (especially when going for early morning runs), I’m back in the white VW Golf that I rented in Cape Town cruising along South Africa’s southern coast looking for photo ops…or passing herds of sheep and vineyards with the Langeberge Mountains in the background…or walking along deserted sandy beaches at sunrise…or watching Indian Ocean waves crashing against cliffs…or remembering the ever-present loneliness…or reliving the horror of my two old cameras slipping off my shoulders and into s...

In a letter to my ex-wife, Genie, I beg her to send me several boxes of Celestial Seasonings herbal tea that I can use to make decaf ice tea.  I’m nearly out of the stuff and ice tea has become a high priority with summer temperatures here in Gaborone now climbing into the 90s.  I’ve been averaging about a quart of ice tea per day.  Fortunately, I have ice trays and the freezing compartment in my little refrigerator works well.   Thanks to the heat, I’m not moving very fast these days.   I now have a big electric fan in my apartment.   It helps drown out the student noise, meowing cats, and barking dogs at night if I keep it a couple feet from my bed.   My favorite place to hang out has become the computer room in the Environmental Science Department where I write.   It has air conditioning!   The only pleasant time of the day is between 5 and 6 AM when it becomes light but the sun isn’t up yet.   That’s when I go for my morning run th...