This week in Botswana

We realize we have been neglecting the blog but we haven't managed to get any good photos lately. So this will be a non-illustrated blog. Just words. Non-readers, considered yourselves fairly warned and go no further. For the rest of you...this is what life has been like this week here in Botswana...

Last Saturday as we attempted the grocery shopping at 8:30 in the morning to avoid the end of month shopping stampede, we came to realize that none of the shops had tomatoes for sale. By Monday afternoon when we still could not find any tomatoes in town, we started asking around. What we learned was that due to the complaint of one local farmer re: his inability to sell his tomatoes, the Ministry of Agriculture shut the border to tomato imports. Obviously the Botswana tomato farmer sold all of his crops in about 10 minutes which left the whole country without tomatoes for the week. Yesterday afternoon at the Gaborone Yacht Club, we randomly met some agriculture type people: a farmer from Canada who is into some kind of farming here in Botswana, a man from the Royal Agricultural Society of Scotland who sells all of his wheat to the makers of Gordon's Gin, and 2 guys from Australia here in town to sell their crop management software system to the Canadian. This group theorized that Botswana regulary supplies about 15% of the regular demand for tomatoes and 85% is supplied through imports. And this is what led to the drastic shortage of the week.

More importantly though, tomatoes were back in the shops on Thursday. And now we can go back to full time complaining about what is really bothering us this week. Apparently in an extreme over reaction to the cholera in Zimbabwe, Botswana has begun over-treating the water here. It's terribly safe but tastes terrible. We've had to start using all bottled water for drinking water. This drives Thom crazy but Debra refuses to drink coffee that tastes bad.

When we take a break from the complaining about the hardships of the week, we are thoroughly enjoying a gorgeous weekend. It's a pleasant 80 degrees today with a slight breeze. The sky could not be bluer. The air could not be cleaner. The plants are all still green and blooming from another very good rainy season. Life really isn't all that bad.