8-13 January 1987: Getting Back in the Groove in Gaborone

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 through the university grounds and surrounding area which terrorizes the campus stray cat population.  

I’m having to work harder this semester.  We were supposed to get a professor from the Netherlands to teach 3^rd and 4^th year quantitative methods but the university administration has buggered up his immigration paperwork.  So I get to teach his classes until he hopefully arrives.  Another professor has temporarily taken over my North American geography course.  This situation might change in a few weeks or it might last the entire semester (final exams start in April).  In a way, I don’t mind because I’m learning some valuable mathematical skills that might help me get a job someday.

Curious locals crowd around our university bus in the town of Molepolole where we stop for snacks and cold drinks during a field trip.  The students are gathering data to be used in the advanced quantitative methods class that I’m temporarily teaching.

My trip to the Cape Town area last month wasn’t too bad but would have been much better had I had one or more good friends along.  I didn’t have any romantic adventures in the Cape and spent too much time alone.  Carol, the U.S. Foreign Service Officer, with whom I started a little romance before leaving for Cape Town, hasn’t arrived back yet from her Christmas holiday.  I figure there is about a 50-50 chance she’ll dump me right away when she does get back here.  She was to have arrived in Cape Town a few days before I left, but she never called me or left a message at my hotel.  I have this suspicion that she’s involved with an American guy working in Pretoria that she casually mentioned and may have gone to Cape Town with him. 

I keep saying that celibacy is driving me bonkers but I continue to survive.  Furthermore, if I go back to the U.S. after this job ends, I’ll probably have another identity crisis.  Things could be worse:  I could have AIDS like my friend Barry Kohn in Philadelphia who is slowly dying; I could be a Ronald Reagan-supporter; I could be stuck in Ohio (where I went to high school and college) with a wife, kiddies, and a dead-end job; I could be a citizen of South Africa; I could still be working at my previous soul-destroying, editorial job in Denver.  As Brian sang while hanging on the cross (“The Life of Brian”), “Look on the bright side of life.” 

I may be living only a dozen miles as the fish eagle flies from the South African border, but Botswana feels like a world removed from that depressing country.  I have the privilege of working in Africa’s most democratic, economically prosperous, and rapidly-developing black nation.  Political dissent is tolerated – as far as I know there are no political prisoners.  The Batswana (Botswana people) are very laid back, friendly folks who are becoming rapidly Westernized and middle class, at least in urban areas like Gaborone.  This is a very non-racist society.  The Batswana seem very accepting of foreign white workers as long as they are friendly, patient, and courteous.  There are about 10,000 white citizens in this nation of 1,000,000 including two white members of parliament.

The flag of Botswana.  The blue stands for pula (rain or water), the arid country’s most precious commodity.  The large black stripe and small white stripes symbolize the racial diversity of the country.  Those white stripes made me feel very welcome!  Image source:  Wikipedia

When Bechuanaland Protectorate became independent from Great Britain 20 years ago, the new nation called Botswana was one of the world’s poorest.  There were only a handful of local people with university degrees, almost no paved roads, and serious nutritional problems.  Following the development of the diamond mines shortly after independence, Botswana rapidly became one of the world’s leading diamond producers.  Some 500 students a year are now graduating from this university in addition to all those graduating from the polytechnic and business institutes, teacher training colleges, and students receiving degrees from overseas.  The U.S. Peace Corps has 200 volunteers in the country.  Most of them teach in the secondary schools.  There are also large numbers of teachers and technical people from Great Britain, Canada, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Australia, etc.  I just hope that the problems next door don’t poison the future here.  Unfortunately, Botswana is almost totally dependent on South Africa for consumer goods.    

A 1 pula banknote.  Top:  The first President of Botswana, Seretse Khama, played an important role in Botswana’s rapid economic and social progress and its strong commitment to democracy following independence in 1966.  Bottom: The back of the 1 pula bill focuses on the importance of the cattle industry in Botswana.