Out of Africa

I am in Johannesburg but I feel like I am out of Africa, already. After two weeks of conducting key interviews with various government officials, members of Parliament, environmental consultants and other stakeholders involved in the Makgadikgadi fence issue in Gaborone, Botswana's capital, I'm now visiting my friend Jayne in Jo'burg before Daniel arrives and we head off on our 3 week holiday together.

Gaborone was a shock enough with its government embassies, fancy cars, and shopping malls, but it is a city that has just emerged out of the bush, and the signs are still there--pot-holed roads, tin-roofed tuck shops, scrubby acacia trees and the dusty red earth. Here on the other hand, I feel thoroughly out of place, in some alter-ego city of Los Angeles, maybe. A mud-splattered dented old Land Rover gets funny looks from city folk in their zippy Golfs and BMWs, as does a girl exclaiming over the all the different types of espresso drinks available at a local swish cafe. Its a huge city, with 8 lane highways and sprawling shopping complexes, but I must say I feel cramped in. Going to a shopping mall with Jayne was a very surreal experience and its funny to think that in just 6 months I could have become so distanced from this concrete jungle world that I should know so well, after 22 years of it. I keep thinking about the contrast between here and up around Maun, and how once upon a time you would have been able to get a sense of the lay of the land here too, the geography of this place, before big roads and buildings masked the natural terrain. I am sure it sounds naive, but I don't think I had ever thought before to really visualize the original landscape of surburban San Mateo, or to imagine what cities like San Francisco and New York must have looked like a few hundred years ago. No San Franciso resident is unaware of its steep hills, and the ever-present fog makes it hard to forget you're by the ocean, but how often do you consciously stop to think about what it would have all really looked like, if say, things had been turned around and Yosemite made a city, and the Bay Area kept undeveloped? Its a strange thing to think about, I think. Not good or bad, just a new perspective.

It is however, wonderful to see Jayne and her family and to have a break from heat (well no that last part is not totally true because I'm freezing here!), and to re-live all our fun times in Maun together. She prevented me from buying a very expensive piece of luggage (as good friends should do) and is taking me to get a haircut tomorrow--the first one in almost 6 months!
Expect more updates to come...perhaps a joint one from Daniel and I on the beach in Mozambique!