Peculiarities of Living in Botswana

A perfect Sunday evening sunset...

Random Blackouts

We lost power at some point last night, which, has been a rather usual situation. (In the time I’ve been here, we’ve experienced about half a dozen to a dozen blackouts). The house we live in does not have central air, it has a water cooling system, which kind of cools the house a bit, but is in no way like having air conditioning! I purchased a fan to keep my bedroom cool, so that was my only indication that we had lost power in the middle of the night. I think what woke me was a little bird outside my window who was trying to get in!

Anyway- by 6am, the power was still out. Luckily on my “workout” schedule, I had already planned to go for a swim this morning, which was nice, because when there’s no power in the house, there’s no water (pump doesn’t run!). My housemates went to the gym as usual, probably thinking that they could get showers there – no such luck, the power was out at the gym also! Luckily, power came back on just in time for breakfast!

You know how this story ends right? We get to work at our regular time and – sure enough, the power goes out! I have less than an hour of time left on my laptop battery. And as I write this, there is no internet connectivity (hope it comes back soon!).

"Oh you know, just taking the family out for a
Sunday afternoon shop at the grocery store"

Road Traffic Accidents

So before you start to worry – I am fine. My colleagues are all fine. We are ok!

On Monday this week, we were involved in an RTA as they are referred to here in Gaborone. We were literally moments away from the office when we heard a big crash behind us, followed by us being hit.It was quite a hard impact, but luckily we are fine and there was only minimal damage to the car. The entire experience was more a shock to our system than anything. And the follow up process in dealing with the local authorities was something that is still on-going two days later.

You know how at home you ensure everyone is ok, then start taking down information for everyone involved, then go on your way to file the paperwork? Not here. Here the police arrive, talk to everyone, take notes and try and understand what happened. Then you go to the police station, wait for everyone involved to get there, then you all take your vehicles to another location to get a thorough check. (The accident happened at about 830am, by the time the vehicle inspection was complete it was about 1230pm). Next you go back to the police station to “hash out” with everyone involved what exactly happened. Then the police officers take time to deliberate and finally, return to read the verdict to everyone. By the time all the paperwork was signed it was about 3:30pm.

We were not at fault. We were hit by a car who was hit by a car who was trying to change lanes…That made a truck, who was trying to evade colliding with the lane changing car, to hit another car and end up in oncoming traffic! We were very lucky no one was hurt!

We are the white car in front of the blue Ford. The red car is the one that caused the RTA by trying to change lanes.

Life in Transit...

It’s almost 11pm in Doha.
Just where is Doha you ask? In the state of Qatar.
Where?
Admittedly I had no idea where Doha was either, until I learned I had a 7 hour layover here. Doha is the capital city of the State of Qatar, a sovereign Arab state, located in between Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, a tiny offshoot of land attached to Saudi Arabia.

landing in Doha

As some of you know, I am here because I’m headed to Africa on a work assignment…(more on that next time),  for now, here’s a little bit of life in transit…
My colleague and I are flying Qatar Airways for our two long-haul flights. Montreal to Doha and then Doha to Johannesburg. And long flights they are – the first was over 10,000km to Doha and from here we flight another 6500km! We left home on Wednesday evening and we will arrive at our final destination on Friday afternoon!

Flying business class is a complete luxury, especially on QA. The seats are very roomy, tons of leg room (not that I need it) and service extraordinaire. The flight attendant assigned to us “Shri” was absolutely sweet and literally tended to our every need. We were welcomed with champagne, had two huge meals (with white table cloths!), and Shri even offered to make our beds for us! It was luxury…wait - did I mention the seats vibrated? They were massage chairs too!

Instructions on how to operate your seat!

 

The business class cabin not even close to being full

Once in Doha, we realized we had SO much time, we decided to explore. Getting visas on the spot is a piece of cake (at least for Canadians it was), approximately $20 USD, a look into their camera and our passports were stamped! Once outside of the terminal we negotiated with a taxi driver to take us for a ride all over the city. We got to see the new and the old and a whole lot of construction. Google “Qatar” and learn that it is an absolute monarchy ruled by the Al Thani family. Qatar was a British protectorate until 1971 and has the world’s third largest natural gas reserves…AND as we saw with all the high end shopping malls, Qatar is the world’s richest country per capita! There’s a lot of money in Qatar. Doha is the capital city and will be home to the 2022 FIFA World Cup (there are ads EVERYWHERE already!).

"New Doha" skyline

Doha Museum

Hanging out at the “Premium Terminal” – no seriously, they have an airport terminal dedicated to their First and Business Class passengers! (my kinda airport!) There is a ton of food here, two buffets, a deli counter and dessert and drink stations sprinkled throughout. So far I’ve managed to only have one meal of foods including: seafood thermador, butter chicken, mulligatawny soup, and a delicious dessert of chocolate mousse and baklava.

  

There are lounge-y type chairs and tables but no beds…There are, however, showers with L’Occitane products! And this is just on the Business Class side! Apparently there is a spa for the first class passengers…maybe next time! :) Apparently the duty free is pretty good here, but I’ve yet to check that out (I know…that’s SO not me!). I still have another hour or so before boarding for our next flight.
This is just the beginning of what I’m sure will be an experience of a lifetime…stay tuned and enjoy it with me!