Some New Experiences

We have done and tried several new things since we have been here. Here is a sampling of my experiences.

1. Driving on the opposite side of the road. So far, this has been easier than expected. The first few days I continually chanted "keep myself in the middle" the entire time I was driving, and it has worked. My brain seems to have been able to make the shift. However, retraining my brain to look the opposite way when crossing the street has not been as easy. I simply can not get it. This may be what gets me killed.

2. Going to a U.S. Embassy. I had to go for my required security briefing. Of course, when one goes to an Embassy, which is completely locked down and heavily guarded with a combination of Marines, BDF (Botswana Defense Force), and private security guards, if one expects to get inside, one should have some I.D. For those of you who know me at all, this may come as no shock at all... but I go there with no I.D. whatsoever - expecting just to be let in because I had an appointment, I guess. Not surprisingly, this did not go well. After many questions and much fuss and embarrassment, Naomi, the publice affairs officer responsible for Fulbrights (and my new favorite person) managed to pull several strings and they allowed me in, but not without me being scolded sternly by all the different security types listed above.

3. Having a security briefing. This was interesting, not so much for the info I got, but for the process. They have a security officer who is in charge of keeping the Ambassador advised of security issues. This guy was nice enough, but sort of a tough guy as you would imagine. They rotate them around from country to country every 3 years, so that they do not stay in one place to long and "go native". This seems counter-intuitive to me. If you really want to understand the security issues in a country, I would think you would really want to develop relationships with people on the ground. Knowing people well and how they think would seem to me to give you the best info. If you are locked down inside a fortress and shuffled around every few years, I am not sure how you ever develop such relationships. Ok, I am going to stop there on this one, as I feel a long and unnecessary rant about all the other foreign policy screw-ups we have made in the past 8 years coming on...

4. Riding a Combi. These are like little mini-busses that look like they should hold about 6 people, but carry about 12-15 at any given time. They are everywhere, and there are several routes they run, but there are no published maps of such routes - you just kinda' figure it out. I took one downtown to the Embassy because I was pretty sure they were not going to just let me pull up into their parking lot (of course, while thinking through this, the whole I.D. issue never came up for me...). I got advice about which combi to get on, so I went for it. For 3 pula (less than 50 cents) you can ride them as far as you want to. They are quite crowded as I mentioned, and if you are in back and need to get out, everybody in front of you has to get out to let you get out, everyone climbs back in, and the route continues. As an uninformed outsider, this all seemed superchaotic and scary, but I must say it was just the opposite. Quite orderly and cooperative actually. The most unorderly thing that happened was when I got back on one to come home from the briefing, a woman carrying a live chicken got in with me. The chicken never made a sound, and nobody else seemed to pay any attention, so I just went with it. Flexibility and open-mindedness are the name of the game for survival around here.

In other news, Ted has registered for a class that will be taught by another Fulbright who is a civil engineering professor. After a couple of weeks of full-time-daddyhood, I think this will be very good for him.