Wandering thru Southern Africa, 1986-87

Gaborone, Botswana, 18 May 1987 I changed my mind about getting a car.  My drinking buddies, David and Gordon, introduced me to an Englishman, Richard George, who had worked with them but was returning to England as his contract in Botswana had expired.  He had a 1978 VW Passat that he was willing to let go of for 500 pula under book value.  A mechanic looked at it and told me it was OK.  So I bought the baby blue bitch for P1450 (US$700), a big mistake as I was to learn a few days later. A spirited student choir participated in the dedication of the new university library.   We had a mid-semester break at the university from 27 September to 5 October.   I attended the dedication of the university’s new library on the 29 th and Botswana’s 20 th Anniversary of Independence festivities the following day.   On 1 October, I took possession of the Passat, did the paperwork for my insurance and registration, threw my camping gear in the car, filled her u...

Gaborone, Botswana One of the best pieces of news I received after starting work at the University of Botswana last month came in the form of a machine – an Apple IIe computer to be exact.   There was an American Fulbright Scholar here in the Environmental Science Department last year and he brought the Apple with him.   He left the computer and an Imagewriter printer when he left.    I also discovered that we have a copy of Applewriter word processing software.   I was elated to find this stuff here as it is the same hardware and software I used for more than two years at my last job.   I’ve been using it to write all my tests and exercises, and it should prove invaluable once I start writing in earnest about my travels again.         At the end of August, I moved into a warden’s flat (counselor’s apartment) in the students’ residential area of the campus.  Fortunately, I don’t have any warden’s duties as the students get quite r...

  9:45AM, Mafekeng, Bophuthatswana (South Africa) train station After arriving back in Johannesburg on August 1, I spent the next two weeks at the Hillcrest Community Farm near the town of Halfway House.    I am spending my Sunday morning enduring an 8½ hour layover in a nothing town about 15 miles from the Botswana border in one of South Africa’s quasi-independent homelands.  Were I up for Las Vegas-style gambling, floor shows, and probably hookers, I could take a cab over to the Mmbatho Sun Hotel, but I’ll forgo vice for the solitude of this train station platform bench.  Tonight I get to Gaborone.  In the morning, I sign my contract with the university and apply for my work permit.  The department chairman informed me yesterday by telephone that I am to be paid the “outlandish sum” of 14,076 pula for my nine months of academic labors.  Although this translates into only US$7000, a pula goes about as far in Botswana as a dollar does in the...

Half Way House, South Africa Dear J.B., This damn Brother typewriter is acting up again although I’ve now figured out how to fix it when in has one of its little spasms.   The Brother service manager in Cape Town explained what was wrong so now I know how to physically abuse it to get it to work.   How long before this little piece of shit totally breaks down is anyone’s guess.   Complicated machines are a real bitch when you can’t just run over to the local repairman and get them fixed.   I seem to have landed the teaching job at the University of Botswana after two months of bureaucratic paperwork.  The only remaining hurdle is getting the university my actual B.A. and M.A. certificates.  Hopefully, this hassle is about over.  By next week, they should receive my Ohio State B.A. diploma that you mailed. And, the nice lady in the graduations department at the University of Montana sent out a notarized certificate saying that I have an M.A., and ...

[Following is a portion of a letter to my friend, Dan Morrissey, who was an anti-apartheid activist in Denver in the 1980s.] Dear Dan, I’d like to react to one of your comments in your recent, much-appreciated letter.  You said that, “The South African government NEEDS to quickly get organized change underway or truly risk losing it all to violent revolution.”  In the event of a violent revolution, I’m not so sure that the South African government would “lose it all”, at least not without years of struggle.  South Africa probably has one of the best-armed conventional military forces in the world.  I get the sense that there are many conservative young white men here who are itching for an opportunity to mow down “kaffirs” [a derogatory term for blacks].  Perhaps a revolution based on random terrorism could ultimately bring down the government.  But before it did so, the government would introduce security measures that would make Pinochet in Chile l...

Dear Dad, Sorry I haven’t written lately.  My little Brother typewriter broke down about three weeks ago just as I was leaving on a trip to East London, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town.  Since then, I’ve been writing semi-readable notes by hand which I send back to Jim Bachman in Colorado for safekeeping while keeping photocopies for myself.  Last week, I came across a Brother Typewriter store in Cape Town and asked if there was anything that could be done to fix it.  Turns out it was a minor problem, and it cost me only $27.00 to get it running again.  This is the first typing I’ve done since getting it back and it seems to work fine.      Thanks very much for you letter of June 21.  It really helps to know that some people back in the States are interested in what I’m doing.  At the same time, tell Wanda that her concerns for my safety are mostly unwarranted – at least for the present.  [Note:  My mother died in 1981 after a...

  The 116 stories currently posted on my Southern Africa blog cover the four months from April through July 1986 – from the time I left Colorado for South Africa up to, but not including, the start of my job as a lecturer in the Environmental Science Department at the University of Botswana.   I still have another 50 or so stories to post which will cover my experiences working in Botswana as well as three more trips to South Africa during school vacations.     I have to pause these postings for a few weeks as I’m getting ready for a 19-day trip to Cuba.  While there, I plan to write and take lots of photos covering Cuban geography, people, and politics as well as my travel experiences, good and bad.  Whether I’ll be able to actually post anything to my “Perspectives of a Wandering Geographer” blog until I get back to Colorado is problematic as I don’t know how functional the internet is in Cuba or whether government censorship will block access to my blo...