flying

I've been meaning to post this all week now, but of course the internet hasnt been working...anyways, I returned to Maun last friday from interviews in the village of Phuduhudu (a historically bushman community, quite different from the others) to find that I had received an invitation to go flying!! My friend Paul, a currently unemployed pilot, has access to a Bushbaby (a microlight plane, super super small made of basically fabric and that fits the pilot and just one passenger)and takes it flying over the delta and the pans a few times a week. I joined him on a Sunday morning flight which was honestly one of the coolest things i have done so far here. We left the Maun airstrip (take-off was a little scary!) and flew straight over the delta, spotting elephants drinking at water holes, hippos bathing in pools, a herd of buffalo, letshwee ( a type of buck) and several types of birds. Along with the wildlife, it was just incredible to see the delta from such a different perspective--winding channels and lush green grass interspersed with drier shrub/bush landscape. And the eles looked so small! We opened up the little doors of the plane and the wind rushed in, cooling the rather hot stuffy little plane. Along with being refreshing, that added a whole new level of exhiliration to the experience--nothing between me and the Okavango Delta except for what felt like a large amount of sky! After landing briefly at one of the camps in the Delta, we continued on to the Makgadikgadi area, which was especially neat for me, since I've been driving around there so much. We followed the Boteti riverbed, past Mopipi village, and managed to find Meno a Kwena camp! We flew right over it, really low, and I was even able to point out my little tent to Paul! After 4 hours of flying, we headed back to Maun, just in time, as rain clouds were fast approaching. Definitely didn't want to be stuck in a tiny little microlight in the storms they have here...but we ended up safe and sound at the river lodge (where else of course?) for a late lunch and a lightning show in the evening. I just hope I get invited to go flying again!!

Happy New Years!

Well, its been a while, huh? That might have to do with the fact that my office here believes taking full advantage of the holidays and closing down for as looong as possible, leaving me without email access to you all. But I'm back in the office now, after a lovely Christmas celebrated "Botswana" style. After finishing up my interviews in the bush along the Boteti river, I arrived back into town on Christmas Eve day, very tired (probably due to the fact that the night before 5 lions had decided to show up and lurk around our campsite, making for a very exciting but sleepless evening) and very frantic to do some last minute Christmas shopping for some of the friends that I have made here in town. Miraculously, despite Maun looking like its population had tripled in size,I managed to pick up a few gifts and some bottles of wine for the families I would be spending Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with. Christmas Eve for me was at the McNutts house--I helped cook a big dinner of roast lamb, roasted veggies, potatoes--and prawn cocktail to start. Yum. Despite the threat of stormy weather, we sat outside with white tablecloths flapping in the wind and candles blowing out right and left. But there was enough wine to go around that the ominous clouds didnt bother anyone too much,and I think everyone thoroughly enjoyed the evening. I particularly enjoyed it, mainly because of the company--there is a large ex-pat community here, and everyone seems to have such interesting stories to tell, about their upbringing (often in other colonized countries, indonesia for example), their experiences in various parts of Africa during the end of the colonial period, and the paths that led them to Botswana. After "Twas the Night before Christmas" was read, the kids went to bed, and the adults slowly trickled home, so that Santa could finish up his work in the Southern Hemisphere.
The next morning, after watching Madison and Wilder rip open their stockings (which was actually really fun, since its been a while since either Kash or I have down that), I left the McNutts house in a wake of remote-control toys and ninja turtles (who can believe they are still popular?!) and headed over to Jayne's to spend Christmas Day with her and her family. I got to open presents for a second round--this time, the presents were under a decorated paw-paw tree that had been dug up from the yard--no fir trees around here! We had a yummy lunch of roast chicken, gammon, stuffing, veggies, and of course Christmas pudding for dessert! While I was sad not to be having my normal Christmas dinner at home, I was glad at least that I hadn't missed out on a good British Christmas pudding. :-) Lunch was followed by a dip in the pool because Christmas here in Botswana is HOT! definitely never done that before, and as Jayne and were lounging by the pool in our new sarongs that her aunt had brought back for us from Keyna, it was pretty hard to imagine that everyone at home was bundled up and anticipating perhaps snow, or at least a cold drizzle.
So yeah, that was my first African Christmas experience, and I really had a good one. I hope everyone else had a great Christmas, Hannukah, and New Years as well--as people say here, compliments to the new year to you all!