Wandering thru Southern Africa, 1986-87

5:00 PM, U.B. Environmental Science computer room   A couple days ago, I finished grading the last of my final examinations and turned them over to the external examiner from the University of Lesotho’s Geography Department for evaluation.  External examiners are a very formal feature of university examinations here – I think it’s borrowed from the British.  Essentially, a professor from another university evaluates final exam papers to verify that they have been fairly graded.  He or she doesn’t know the individual students and is, therefore, presumed to be impartial.  Another feature is the use of “invigilators”, faculty members who walk around the examination room to ensure that no one is cheating.  There are two invigilators per exam which enables them to take bathroom, etc. breaks one at a time which is helpful given that the exams last three hours.  I invigilated several exams in our Environmental Science Department recently – not exactly stimu...

10:50 AM, just north of Serule on the Francistown-Gaborone Highway It was around 12 hours ago last night when I finally found our campsite.   My night navigation exercise with a compass was somewhat of a flop.   I strayed off course a couple times which was just enough to cause me to walk a couple hundred meters east of the van on the way back.   After 20 minutes of walking and no van, I knew I’d blown it.   So I made for the shore of the dry lake which I could detect as a faint black band a few hundred meters in front of me.   At least I was reasonably sure of the direction in which I had strayed, so I turned left (west) at the shore line.   It was not getting chilly and the prospect of spending the night out in the elements without a sleeping bag or warm clothes did not appeal.   After another 10 minutes, I ran into the track where we dropped down from the bank.   From there it was easy.   I turned left (west) and followed the tracks out ...

2:20 PM, roaring south on the Kasane-Nati highway at 120 kph.   Hugh piloting; Will – shotgun; Jonathan  –  rear gunner. There are numerous good stories here in Botswana, but they aren’t world-shattering events.   There probably wouldn’t be all that many world-shattering events anywhere if everyone in the world were as laid-back and peaceful as the Batswana.   I’m sure I’ve missed a number of good stories here in Botswana, but I can only write so much of it down anyway. We just had lunch – a bit of a challenge when you realize you’ve stopped in the middle of an ant colony.  This afternoon we’re bound for Sowa Pan, one of the two Rhode Island-sized dry lake beds in northern Botswana.  Collectively they are called the Makgadikgadi Pans.  The lake beds date from a geologic epoch not so long ago when the climate was more humid in the area of southern Angola, the original source of their water.  In recent times, hardly any water flows into the...

12:30 PM, Serondela Campground, Chobe National Park, Northern Botswana It’s a pleasant autumn day (sunny, breezy, and about 80°F), a good day for doing nothing more productive than sitting on one’s arse.   I’m here with my friend Hugh, from the photographic society, and his six-year-old son, Jonathan.   After leaving Gaborone at 6:45 AM on Friday, we arrived here that evening.    Most of Saturday and Sunday were spent driving around the park looking for game to shoot (with our cameras that is).   We quickly developed a useful photographic technique.   Hugh’s Toyota Hiace van has a sunroof.   So one of us drives while the other stands up right behind the front seats with one’s head sticking out of the sunroof, providing a moving, 360° view of photo opportunities.          We have seen dozens of elephants so far including a herd of at least 25 of the big, grey guys and gals that hang out not far from here.   In the af...

9:30 PM, Serondela Campground in Chobe National Park, northern Botswana Hugh and I are sitting around our campfire next to the Chobe River after dinner and a bottle of wine.   We are being serenaded by the howls and growls of wild African beasties out there in the dark night.   Six-year-old Jonathan is asleep.   Hugh and I engage in the following fruitless exchange. Will:   What message would you like to send to America, Hugh? Hugh:   Dear Mr. [Amerigo] Vespucci……. Will:   What do you think that Americans should do about South Africa? Hugh:   There is nothing Americans can do about South Africa.   There is plenty you can do about America! Sunset over the Chobe River.  View from Botswana toward Namibia's Caprivi Strip. Look, Will, you can’t be serious at a time like this.  You get me drunk on red wine, and you expect me to be serious.  I’m a very cautious person.  I’m a Namibian.  I’ve looked at the whole coloni...

UB Environmental Science Computer Room, 2:20 PM   Since arriving in southern Africa more than a year ago, I’ve had two very short-lived, meaningless affairs with white women, one in South Africa and one in Botswana.  The other night, I picked up a young Motswana woman in the bar at the President Hotel in Gaborone.  We went back to my flat for maybe 20 minutes of lust (“safe” sex, by the way).  It was hardly worth the effort.  Nothing against her personally – she seemed like a nice person.  But there was nothing there.  She didn’t ask for money but I gave her some anyway. Now that I got that out of the way, I can return to the life of a monk – hanging out in the library, drinking beer with friends, and lifting weights at the gym.     Prostitution was considered a problem in Gaborone but I never felt intimidated by the “good-time girls”.  I found them fun to talk or flirt with even if I didn’t want to do monkey business with the...

Saturday, 18 April 1987:   Visa Problems & Partying with Students   7:00 PM, UB Environmental Science Computer Room South African Visa Hassles :  Today is the 212 th Anniversary of Paul Revere’s Ride but Massachusetts is a long way from here so I’ll focus on my current situation regarding further travel to South Africa and my application for a two-year teaching contract at the University of Botswana.  The latter is still tied up in the university selection committee.  I should know something in a week or two – maybe.  With regard to South Africa, my original visa has expired and the agency that issues visas is giving me a royal run around.  It seems that SATOUR (the South African Tourist Board) is not endorsing my visa renewal.  So the Department of Internal Affairs wants all kinds of details about my proposed travels, the papers I’m writing for, the people and organizations I will be contacting, the nature of my job in Botswana, etc....