March on the cake!

Here in Botswana, at the US Mission in Gaborone, we celebrated the 233rd birthday of the Marine Corps on November 14. This is a Marine tradition started in the 1920s and Marines celebrate the birthday of the Corps wherever they are. We have a detachment of Marines at our Embassy and so then, we get to attend the Marine Birthday Ball.

Some photos from this year's Ball:

Gaborone Marine Detachment

March on the Colors!

Guest of Honor, Ambassador Stephen Nolan

March on the Cake!

Cutting the cake with a sword

This year's cake

It's tradition that the oldest Marine in the area gets the 2nd piece of cake -- this guy has been getting that 2nd piece of cake for about 17 years now.

Thom and Debra with 2 of our Marines. We were busy talking and missed the group shots with all the Marines.
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Thanksgiving in Botswana

Yesterday was the first Thanksgiving we have hosted together (side note: today is our 2nd weddding anniversary). We co-hosted the event with our friends Kim and Luke and ended up with 20 people total for dinner. Once we moved all the furniture out of the living room, we had room to set up 2 long tables.

We have the only airconditioned kitchen in the Embassy housing pool, and since the high yesterday was 98F, it made sense that we would host the event. Our first guests showed up an hour early at 3:00 instead of 4:00 but we were on schedule and were happy to have some time to catch up with them while we finished the last minute prep activities.

Dinner turned out quite nice with all of the traditional Thanksgiving foods...some slightly modified because you just can't get the same stuff here (for example, there's not a can of sweet potatoes in the whole country so you use the variation of yam that's closest to the sweet potato that you can get here and add a lot more butter, cinnamon and sugar for flavor)...everyone who came brought a dish and just like Thanksgiving should be, we had way more food than any group of 20 people could ever eat.

Cool side note: we ended up having a true Thanksgiving celebrity at our house. One of our guests was the daughter of the man responsible for the turkey pop up timer. How about that!

Thom making the buttermilk biscuits

The Perfect Pumpkin Pies

Thanksgiving is an American holiday. It's celebrated in Botswana only by Americans. It makes it a little more meaningful when you are the minority celebrating the day here and you know all your friends and family back home are also celebrating the day. That's not to say that an American Thanksgiving is a complete mystery here. About a week before Thanksgiving 7.5 kg Turkeys appeared in a freezer case at one of the bigger name shops and a letter was sent to the American Embassy apprising us of the recent development. There were a lot of questions from local staff just how we prepare a turkey as it is not a food that is normally eaten here and certainly not as a meal that is looked forward to.

Thom's favorite Thanksgiving tradition is to require everyone to say at least one thing that they are thankful for. As we went around the room, we realized just how blessed we are. As we reflect on the day after Thanksgiving, here are some other things for which we are thankful:

• good food and good friends
• being able to stay in touch with friends and family back home through modern technology
• pourable buttermilk (a Thanksgiving miracle!)
• the electricity stayed on the whole evening
• lots of leftovers in our house including 2 leftover dressing balls ("left over" by a combination of luck and sneakiness)
• our fantastic maid Lucy who did all the hard cleaning up on Friday and helped put our house back together again
• the Botswana adventure

Victoria Falls - 2008

October 31 - November 3, we went to Victoria Falls. This was Thom's second trip to the Falls and Debra's first trip. We were traveling with friends from the Washington, DC area: Mandy, Joanne, Sue, and Ruth.

As we may have mentioned before, traveling outside of Botswana is never simple. Victoria Falls is on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe so to see the Falls, you have to go to either Zambia or Zimbabwe. State Department still has a warning to avoid travel to Zimbabwe so we went to Zambia and followed the same route that Thom took in January 2007.

We flew to Kasane (2 hours from Gaborone). We were met by a tour company called Wild Horizons that took us by van to the border (about a 20 minute drive). We filled out our paperwork and cleared immigration at the Botswana border and then drove just a little further to the river -- The Great Zambezi River. At the river we were met by a small speedy boat that took us across the river in about 5 minutes. Then we had to deal with locals trying to sell over- priced trinkets (including a Zimbabwean Billion Dollar Bill) to stupid Americans. After that we had to clear immigration on the Zambia border. And another van took us the rest of the way to our hotel -- about an hour drive.

We stayed in Livingstone, Zambia at the Zambezi Sun. It was a nice hotel but it had too many monkeys. Seriously, we watched one monkey eat all the french fries right off the plate of a guy sitting at a table next to us. And breakfast was quite the show with the waiters also running off the monkeys that were trying to steal everyone's food.

The water level at Victoria Falls is at it's lowest right now. The rainy season stopped around April and we've only had a few showers since the beginning of October. So the water was very low at the Falls.

OK...it wasn't quite that low. We saw a lot more canyon than what you see most of the year, but there was still a lot of water a little further down closer to Zimbabwe than where we were.

For a comparison of the Falls at high water level, refer to Thom's blog entry from 2007: http://hotswana.blogspot.com/2007/04/victoria-falls-part2-wow.html

More photos of our adventures at Vic Falls can be viewed at shutterfly: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AbtWzhs0bt3tw

And now our ending sunset photo, sunset on the Zambezi River:

Zanzibar

So we went to Zanzibar for the Columbus Day weekend. Sounds exotic, doesn't it? We met up with CDC friends who are currently working in Zambia, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania.

It is not easy to get most places from Botswana. Zanzibar did not prove to be an exception. We left Gaborone on a 10:00 flight Friday morning and arrived at the hotel a little after 10:00 pm that night (there's a 1 hour time difference between Botswana and Tanzania). We flew from Gaborone to Johannesburg. There was a 1 hour delay posted for our flight (the airline desk said, "it's always late"). We ended up spending an extra 90 minutes in the airport before the flight was ready to go. It was about a 3 hour flight to Dar es Salaam (Tanzania). Everyone going to Zanzibar and Kilimanjaro was told to stay on the plane. Then after everyone else got off, we were taken to a very little plane. And then it was about a 20 minute flight to Zanzibar. We managed to clear immigration and customs without any problems and we had transport waiting for us. And then it was over an hour drive to our hotel.

And it was not an easy drive. For over half of the drive, we were on a very narrow, very dark road. And it's a common practice that people sit along the side of the road because it's "cooler" than sitting on the ground. The very last 10 minutes of drive was through a little village, dirt roads, badly rutted, very dark. It was a little hard to believe that we were actually going to a beach hotel.

But we finally arrived at the Z (Zed) Hotel (http://www.thezhotel.com/hotel.htm). The hotel was quite nice and right on the beach. The water was beautiful. The weather was fabulous -- hot and steamy. The hotel was very accommodating even arranging for babsitters to watch the kids so the grown ups could have dinners together. And there were a lot of kids (8 between the ages of 1 and 8). The only serious complaint about the hotel was they served instant coffee for breakfast (darn British influence). Not at all acceptable. Fortunately there was a coffee shop just outside the hotel grounds.

Thom and his friend Brad were able to book an afternoon dive trip and had a really good time. Diving from a wooden dhow was an interesting experience for Thom.

Although not highly developed on this part of the island, there is an abundance of "salesmen" all up and down the beach trying to persuade you check out shops for sarongs and "art". Walking on the beach was not a relaxing experience at all. But the sunsets were spectacular.

Monday we had to return to Gaborone and the trip home was just as bad as the trip getting there. We had to leave the hotel at 6:30 am only to get to the airport and find out that the flight was delayed for an hour (the hotel had tried to call several times the day before to confirm the flight and could not get through). The gate area was very crowded and not air conditioned. There was no coffee. Tortuously ironically the duty free shop sold Tanzanian coffee beans. Debra considered buying some to chew on but managed to resist the urge and survived on coke. The flight left 90 minutes later than scheduled which meant we were late getting to Johannesburg and just barely caught our flight to Gaborone. Our luggage finally caught up with us on Wednedsay. We were cranky for a few days.

Many, many more photos of Zanzibar can be viewed at Shutterfly: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AbtWzhs0bt3lQ&emid=sharshar&linkid=link5

Sun City

For the Labor Day holiday weekend, we took a little trip to Sun City, South Africa). Located just across the border, it's a fairly easy 3 hour drive from Gaborone. It's very much like Las Vegas or Disney (without people dressed in animal costumes, although one large baboon we saw could have been a person dressed in a baboon suit).

We were quite fortunate to be able to stay at the Palace of the Lost City which has a made up legend, fabulous customer service, and totally over the top motif. Bascially, Sun City was built in a vast wasteland (similar to Vegas, really) so it is really incredible what is there.

Entrance to The Palace:

The Crystal Court (main restaurant in The Palace):

Debra was somewhat concerned about the brush fires on the trip to Sun City and burning the hill just behind the hotel.

This is the fire line on the hill at night:

This is the hill the next day:

Thom was not so worrried and believes it is just the local practice of clearing the underbrush every year. Fortunately Thom was not entirely wrong about this and we were not burned down in the hotel or worse yet, made to evacuate in the middle of the night.

Another hazard of the hotel would be the monkeys. We saw only a few but the warning signs are quite worrisome.

Sign going from the hotel to the pool:

Sign on the bedroom balacony door:

Click here for more photos of our Sun City excursion.

Best Vacation Ever

In July we spent 3 weeks in the fabulous Florida Keys. Because it is still winter here in Botswana, we were looking for a hot, steamy destination and the Keys did not disappoint. Temperatures averaged in the 90s with about 150% relative humidity. Night time temps were in the 80s.

For those who don't know, the Florida Keys are ~120-mile series of islands joined by 42 bridges including Key Largo, Islamorada, Marathon, and Key West (but also many lesser known islands such as Big Pine Key, Pigeon Key, Cudjoe Key, and No Name Key). The bridges were first built in the early 20th century for the Overseas Railroad (a project some call Flagler's Folly). The plan was to eventually build the railroad to Cuba but a Category 5 hurricane in 1935 put an end to the railroad. The railroad bridges were converted to highway bridges and in the 1980s, many new bridges were built alongside the old bridges, which are mostly used as fishing bridges now.

We made it to the Keys in time for the Key Largo 4th of July parade. It is one of the best small town parades. The kids get more candy at this parade than they do at Halloween. For the rest of the 4th we had hot dogs with Deb's sister and her family (who live in Islamorada) and watched the fireworks from the neighbor's dock.

Key West is the best known of the Florida Keys. We made 2 trips down to Key West. Ernest Hemingway is one of the best known historical residents of Key West. We happened to be in Key West for the annual Hemingway Look Alike contest (http://www.eitb24.com/noticia/en/B24_105894).

Although the Mallory Square Dock Sunset Celebration is the most recommended way to watch the sun set we opted for a sunset cruise on the Sebago catamaran (http://www.keywestsebago.com/sunset.php). We had a lovely 2 hour cruise complete with a couple of dolphins frolicking along side the boat.

Thom used the opportunity of being in the Keys to get his open water dive certification from the Florida Keys Dive Center (commonly known as Flakey's around town): http://www.floridakeysdivectr.com/

He completed 10 dives during the 3 weeks we spent in the Keys. He made his last 2 dives with Chris, Deb's brother-in-law and they dove on a wreck called the "Eagle" which sits in about 100 feet of water.

We also ate a lot of fabulous food on this vacation. Sure there was a lot of Key Lime Pie but we also had amazingly good fish (mahi mahi, yellow tail snapper, grouper, etc.) -- which basically just jumps out of the water and on to your plate. We highly recommend the Island Fish Company in Marathon (http://www.islandfishco.com/), Snapper's in Tavernier, and the Island Grill in Islamorada (http://www.keysislandgrill.com/). About the only time we weren't eating fish we were at Chad's in Tavernier having some of the best sandwiches ever.

We spent so much time doing stuff and relaxing that we kept forgetting to take pictures. Here are a couple from the trip:

Thom on the dive boat with his dive equipment

The view from our favorite restaurant, the Island Fish Company in Marathon

Chobe National Park

The weekend of June 13-15, we met up with Thom's sister Kristen and her partner (in crime) Greg in Chobe.

Chobe is a very large game park in Northern Botswana, a 2 hour flight from Gaborone. It is best known for it's extremely large elephant population.

We stayed at the Chobe Game Lodge in the game park overlooking the Chobe River:

We did see a lot of elephants...

But we also had a very cool experience with some giraffes...

Then the Cape buffalo came down to the river to drink and the giraffes and buffalo were just hanging around together.

For many more pictures particularly of giraffes and elephants, you can view our photos on Shutterfly: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AbtWzhs0bt3ew&emid=sharshar&linkid=link5

Thom's Dad Comes to Africa!

Lately it seems that work has got in the way of our blogging. Most of March through the first week of April Debra was tied up with the review of the clinical trial she works for here in Botswana (if you are interested in learning more about some of the work we do here in Botswana, see CDC's web site: http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/resources/qa/prep.htm). Thom has been involved with several activities but the move of CDC headquarters offices here in Gaborone has kept him overly busy the last few weeks. The move is scheduled for May 30 so hopefully it will be behind us soon.

Meanwhile, we did manage to squeeze in a little fun and were very happy that Thom's father (Tom I) could pay us a visit in April. Debra was back in DC for training during most of the time that Tom I was here so Thom II took Tom I to Madikwe for a manly safari adventure.

The manly men stayed at Jaci's Tree Lodge (http://www.madikwe.com/tree_lodge.htm) which happens to have a resident mongoose family (how cool is that!).

More photos of the lodge:

Jaci's Tree Lodge also has a small watering hole with a blind. The highlight of our trip occurred right there at the Lodge watering hole when a giraffe wandered in for a drink. The entire encounter took over 45 minutes as the Giraffe was very cautious and was not thrilled that we were there. Strangely, when we finally started talking the giraffe relaxed and finally got into position to drink.

Of course, a trip to Botswana would not be complete without stopping in to visit the cheetahs at Mokolodi.

The Wild Dogs at Madikwe

On our trip to Madikwe at the end of February we had a very cool experience. We mentioned to our guide, Pule, that Thom really wanted to see the wild dogs. When we were at Madikwe last May we saw a few wild dogs in the boma that were about to be released to integrate with the packs in the park but it wasn't quite the same as seeing the dogs out and about in the wild.

The wild dogs are very special. They are the most endangered predator in the world. They are also known as the "painted dogs" and have never been successfully domesticated. They hunt for fun as as well a food and most game parks can't handle having many if any of the animals. Madikwe has a few small packs that are constantly on the move which makes them very difficult to site. We know because we have driven many, many miles all over the park looking for those dogs.

On this game drive, our guide Pule headed off for where the dogs had been spotted the morning before. We drove quite a while and then on one narrow road, we came across another safari vehicle heading in the opposite direction. They assured us that nothing had been seen from the direction they had come. But Pule persisted feeling confident that the dogs would be close since they had fed well that morning and the day had been too hot for them to want to roam about.

About 2 minutes after we left the other vehicle, Pule spotted some ears sticking up about 500 feet off road. We took off in the direction of the ears and came up on the pack just hanging out. They were a little disturbed at first by our presence but the heat soon convinced them that they should settle back down and continue their rest. This gave us an amazing opportunity to observe the pack very closely for about 20 minutes.

our first glimpse of the dogs:

the dogs settling down under a shady tree:

just hanging out with the dogs:

see how close Thom is to the dogs:

To see many, many more photos of the wild dogs and other things that we saw on this trip to Madikwe, you can view our photos at Shutterfly: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AbtWzhs0bt3WQ&emid=sharshar&linkid=link5

The Elephant Who Came to Breakfast

Thom's mother Kathie came for a visit at the end of February. We took her to Madikwe for a night and stayed at Buffalo Ridge Safari Lodge (http://buffaloridgesafari.com/). It's one of the community lodges in Madikwe, managed and staffed by a local community. When we arrived, the manager told us that we were having crocodile ribs for lunch. We immediately thought of Fred Flinstone and his big rack of ribs on top of the car. Thom was really looking forward to tackling such ribs. Lunch turned out to be quite nice even though the entree was crocodile WRAPS -- not ribs. Grilled croc meat, asparagus, cucumber, tomato, too many carrots served in a tortilla wrap.

Anyway, this blog is actually about the Friday morning game drive. When we stopped for morning coffee, our guide noticed that there was an elephant far in the distance coming our way. He told us that although he wouldn't have stopped if he had seen the elephant before stopping, we should be able to finish coffee before the elephant got to us if he continued on the path it seemed he was taking. So we had coffee and hot chocolate while we watched the elephant come closer and closer.

When our guide noticed that the elephant was traveling much faster than it had appeared and not veering from the "road", he quickly packed up the coffee stuff and told us to get in the truck...NOW.

We, of course, obeyed immediately. As our guide mentioned, we really did not want to become famous for being trampled by an elephant on an early morning game drive. Our guide positioned the vehicle so that we could get out of the way of the elephant no matter which direction he decided to take and we had to do a bit of manuevering as the elephant approached. It turned out that the elephant was very cranky. Evidently he had struck out on the elephant club scene the night before and was still looking for "a date".

The cranky elephant did pass by without bothering us and we went on our way to enjoy the rest of our game drive.

If you have a lot of extra time and want to see more of our photos from this adventure in Madikwe, you can view our photos at shutterfly: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AbtWzhs0bt3WQ&emid=sharshar&linkid=link5