A Notable Discrepancy

A recent report by some international agency listed Botswana as among the countries in the world with the largest income discrepancy between rich and poor. That is something that has been strikely evident to us since we arrived. In Gaborone, you see a lot of Mercedes, BMWs, and Jaguars on the road - definitely more per capita than in someplace like Fort Wayne. But these expensive "status cars" drive right by some incredibly poor looking areas where people clearly struggle to even meet their basic needs. Below is a brief video clip of one of these areas that we took from the car. It goes quickly - you may need to watch it more than once to get the full effect.

There are obviously very rich and very poor people in every city, but for some reason it stands out so much more here. As best we can tell, there are two main reasons for this. First, the money in Botswana is very new relative to some other places. Before Botswana gained independence in the 1960s, it was one of the 10 poorest countries in the world. Then, they found the diamonds. This money has generally been invested well in both people and services. Botswana pays for students to go to college, and sends people to other countries to get advanced degrees. The government provides a lot of other services to its people, and the government itself is also one of the biggest employers in the country. (Actually, I think it is the biggest employer but I am hesitant to assert that since I can not verify it. I need some sort of fact checker for this blog. Hey George, how about it?).

Anyway, this leads to point number two, which is that since the generation of people with money is new, the people with money are not removed and disconnected from those without money. There seem to be big income variations even within families. In Botswana, people generally identify their "home" as the village they were born in. Since Gaborone was built up to be the capital, no one is really "from" Gaborone. People with money in Gaborone still go to their home villages regularly, where the family may still be quite poor. Even in Gaborone itself, the town is not completely segregated between rich and poor areas, with a few exceptions, like the area in the video above. There are not a bunch of suburbs where all the people with money flee too, leaving an abandonded inner city for the poor (although there are signs that this might be coming). So, it seems as though those with and without money interact more regularly, making the income disparity stand out more.

On another point, some of you have asked how you could help support S.O.S. - the orphanage we posted about previously. We actually made a trip out there several weekends ago and while we were there I asked about this. I was told we had to check at the main office in Gaborone, so I will try to find that office and visit soon. When I do, I will post info about how you can donate to them or otherwise support their work.

A Series of Random Events

There is no coherent theme to this post, just a bunch of random things.

Random Topic One: The Weaver Bird.

We have all been fascinated by the range of bird life here. Ted has been doing his best to turn the backyard into a bird sanctuary, and high on his list of things he hoped to attract was a weaver bird. They are very fascinating creatures. We first saw them when we were staying at the Sun Hotel when we first arrived in Gaborone, before we were able to move into our flat. We saw dozens of nests there, which peaked Ted's interest.


Pictured above and below is the Masked Weaver (there are several kinds throughout Africa). They craft these intricate hanging nests, with the opening in the bottom. We still aren't sure how the eggs manage to not fall out. Sometimes they build a new nest hanging from the bottom of the nest from the previous year.

And finally, we succeeded. Below is a weaver bird nest from our own back yard.

Random Topic Two: Thanksgiving.

We have seen virtually no turkey of any kind the entire time we have been here. There is no turkey in any deli section of any grocery, and no turkey on the menu at restaurants. So, we assumed we were not going to be able to have a turkey on Thanksgiving. Then, the Sunday before Thanksgiving we went to the grocery store, and much to our surprise there were two freezers full of whole turkeys. Apparently there are enough American ex-pats here to justify the importing of a truckload of turkeys each November. We bought one, and planned an impromptu Thanksgiving celebration with our familyand my mother; Charles, my Fulbright colleague from California; Julia, another professor from the U.S. who happened to be here for a week doing some research, and Keb, a Motswana professor of political science who is a friend of Charles. We ate at Charles' place because he is here by himself and thus has much more space in his flat. On the menu:

*Turkey (see the photo below)

*Dressing (made by Mom - almost like home except the only sage she could find also had rosemary in it - not too bad)

*Scalloped Potatoes (not mashed because we had nothing to mash with)
*Sweet Potatoes (which are white here, not orange)

*Green Bean Casserole

*Cranberry Relish

*Apple Pie (made by Julia)

**Corn on the cob - This was Ted's contribution. He decided he wanted to buy some corn from the street vendors and grill it and serve for Thanksgiving dinner. He worked on this project most of the afternoon. Depending on who you asked, this was either a huge success (Ted) or an unfortunate failure (everyone else). Something was off. We are not sure what, but it didn't taste like corn on the cob in the traditional sense. Charles suspected maybe the corn the vendor was selling was meant for cattle feed not for human consumption.

**Watermelon (also Ted's contribution - from the same street vendor. Ted wants to say that he redeemed himself with the watermelon. It did not get eaten on Thanksgiving because we were too full, but when we did eat it, it tasted just fine.)

Random Topic Three: Belated Halloween and other Care Packages

They do not celebrate Halloween in Botswana, so that evening we went to see High School Musical 3 at the theater instead. We just didn't mention it much, and the kids didn't seem too disappointed. However, when Ted returned from his trip back to the States in November, thanks to the thoughtfulness of his colleague Gina, he came bearing three pumpkins FULL of halloween candy. The kids were thrilled (Thanks, Gina). It actually worked out well. All of the sugar rush, none of the hassle of costumes and the whole trick-or-treating thing.

Thanks also to everyone else who sent gifts and treats for the kids back with Ted, and/or have sent care packages. They have all been a welcome touch of home: Alice, Abbey (and the entire PDS department), Debbie and the Kennedys, the 2402 Nitzas, Aunt Heidi and the Cripe family, and Grandma Kathy.

Random Topic Four: Caterpillar in Botswana (Will, this is for you).

The city spent the past couple of months re-paving the road next to our house (the one between our house and Choppies and the old prison). Ted and the kids had fun watching all the big machinery - although much of the work was also done by hand with pick and shovel - I have no idea how they managed to do that in the intense heat and sun on the blacktop. The pictures below are of the big machines. My brother Will is a long-time Caterpillar employee who was - well - let's just say less than thrilled with the idea of me taking his nieces and nephew to live in Africa. See Will, this place can't be that bad...

Hope Trivia

A quick guessing game: Before you scroll down any further, can you guess what is depicted in the photo below?
a. Ted's new blue sledgehammer that has toes
b. An ancient Tswana artifact we found in the back yard
c. Hope's broken leg
(now scroll down)




If you guessed (c), you are correct. I got a call a week ago from the school nurse that Hope had fallen from the jungle gym and bruised her leg, asking permission to give her Tylenol. By the time we got there to pick her up, she would not put any weight on the leg, but there was still no actual bruise to be seen. By the next morning she was still in a great deal of pain, but still no bruise. We took her to the doctor who ordered an x-ray. We were told there was no fracture and she would be walking on it by the end of the weekend. Five long days (three of which we had sent Hope to school encouraging her to try to walk on it) and five almost sleepless nights later (because she would continually wake up in pain), we called the doctor back. He sent us to an orthopedic specialist who examined Hope's leg, looked at the EXACT same x-ray, and said "Of course it's broken" and pointed to the spot on the x-ray that we were told was a blood vessel the first time. He immediately put her in a full leg cast for six weeks. She picked the blue color herself - see below. Thank goodness the pain is nearly gone, as you can tell by the smile on her face. However, her frustration with the limitations of the cast is high. I have to say she has been an absolute trooper given that she went almost a week on a broken leg without the cast. She went back to school today for the first time with the cast and did well, but was thoroughly exhausted when she got home, and slept the rest of the afternoon. School is out for the year on Friday, so fortunately most of the six weeks will take place over Christmas break.


Despite the major diagnostic error, we have been very impressed with the medical system here through this process. We called, got an appointment the same day, waited in the waiting room for about 5 minutes, and the doctor himself came to call us back to the exam room. He later sent a text message to my phone asking how she was. When I called back after she was not getting any better, the receptionist said the doctor wasn't in so I should just call him on his cell phone. I think I responded by saying something like "Are you serious?". And, I should add that for the WHOLE experience, office visits to two different doctors, x-rays, putting on the cast, buying crutches and pain meds, and everything else, cost us a total of around 300 dollars. I have no idea what the right answer is to the health care situation in the States, but the simplicity and low cost of the experience here suggests to me there has to be a better way to do it.