May The Blog Be with You

Susan introduced me to the Number One Ladies Detective Agency in 2003...Mma Ramotswe is a wise, detective who solves domestic mysteries like missing cattle and errant husbands in the country of Botswana. I firmly believe that Mma Ramotswe channels my grandmother - she is wise, warm, simple, and loving. Ironically, every time I miss Coorg, a book with a Botswanan protagonist can make me feel better!

And then a few years after I began reading the series, my brother and his family moved to Botswana - who would have thunk! As enthusiastic my brother is, he drove around Gaborone and took photos of places that Mma Ramotswe lives around - Kgale Hills, Grand Palm Hotel, Princess Marina Hospital (where my brother's wife worked!). Not sure if my beloved Book Club members saw these photos...

BBC or HBO then filmed a few episodes of the book into a TV show. That was it- I was hooked. I now had direct access to my grandmother! Sounds like a seance, I know. But my grandmother (like everyone's) really loved me the best! So that's how the love affair with Botswana started.

And almost a decade after Botswana registered in my consciousness, I briefly visited the country. The first thing to strike me is the blueness of the sky. Now, those of us frm Denver have immense pride in the blue skies of Colorado - Botswana is just as spectacular! Wide expanse of land, still waters of the Chobe and Okavango rising up to meet the blue skies. The people are calm, Vinay says sluggish, but I am going with content and calm.

More pictures, if you are interested.

Camping is kinda fun...sitting outside my tent, looking out at the delta, a calmness crept in to my brain; that no decision we can make is ever a wrong decision. Every decision is a blessed one.

Victoria Falls: Feeling like a 14 year old at a celebrity sighting, texting my girlfriends repeatedly with "OMG!" But seriously, OMG! Got to be the world's most thunderous falls. Many millions of gallons just competing to fall over the edge. And it's not just one falls-- it's multiple falls. My camera lens couldn't even take in one shot of the whole falls. I wanted to jump and down and say OMG. Actually, I did jump up and down and say OMG at least 19 times.

There is nothing much to do in the town of Vic Falls- the Water that Thunders seems to predominate ones conscience. You hear the falls from quite a distance away, you can see the mist from the thundering water rise above the trees, and often you can feel the spray against your skin. And the constant water in the air, makes for pretty rainbows in unexpected places.

Was a 10 minute stroll from the hotel to the falls...along the way, enterprising young men tried to tell me everything from carved water hogs to raincoats. And when I showed no interest they changed their tack, and asked if I would trade my shoes for some beads! My ordinary shoes seemed to be quite the hit- even the flight attendant on Air Botswana commented on my shoes.

Zimbabwe is so poor that they have completed given up on their currency - sorta like Vietnam- where a bottle of water can cost 1,00,000 Zim $ or 2 USD. Which makes it sad and pathetic that the town of Vic Falls has a casino-- and it's all empty! Not a soul, not one.

Some additional pictures of the falls, with my wide angle lens and fancy panorama shooting ability!

And here's a remarkable thought: Vic Falls is a wonder of nature - not quite as accessible as the Grand Canyon or even cities like Paris, or London, or Zurich. You feel almost intrepid standing at the edge with no railing, nothing, and staring down at the boiling water. And that very spot my brother has stood. And then my father and my mother. And now me. How rare is it for a whole family to travel in each others steps!

Am driving downtown to visit SAB World of Beer. Like taking the Coors tour in Golden. Idiot GPS tells me to turn right, which happens to be the wrong way down a one-way! And idiot me actually turns. Cars honking, people angrily waving their hands, and that's when I notice that it's only black people. No white ones, no brown ones. 

This is not the first time I have wrongly turned. Happened once in Chicago and the angry people were white and were black. And in India, where there are only brown people, you expect to see only brown people. But in SA where there are 3+ definite shades, it's shocking to see only one! How does a nation so effectively mark out stretches of neighborhood where the colors dont bleed over...

So, now I am driving back to the zhooosh (meaning posh, in Afrikaans) neighborhood, and I start noticing that for a city, Sandton, a suburb of Joburg (aka Africa's richest square mile), seems to have the highest concentration of Mercedes and BMW than an average city. Think Cherry Creek in Denver-- even there you wouldnt see as many. I cannot think of a single city that I have been to that has these many. Not even Zurich! So there is some truth to when South Africans are quick to point out that South Africa is not Africa!

Now, here's where I feel that I am in africa...woke up to find my bed crawling with 10s if tiny, tiny ants. And the bathtub regularly has at least two spiders, and the floor has some icky looking "silver fish" crawling around, and there typically are half a dozen dead bugs outside the garden door.

And I leave you with South Africa's version of Don'ts - on the door of a post office.