Our First Week in Africa: We Made It Through!

(written 9/8/2012)

It is 6:30 pm and I’m in my pajamas having a glass of wine as I write this entry at the kitchen table. Typical Saturday night in Gaborone! At least so far for us, because this is only our second Saturday here. This has been a tough week for us, mainly due to a lot of issues with our security system the past several days.  With a wicked combination of jetlag and a faulty alarm that was going off at all hours of the night, it was difficult to fully concentrate during my first week at work. However, all the issues seem to have been resolved and things are definitely looking up after two consecutive nights of more than five hours of sleep!
My first week of work went well, and I feel that I got a lot accomplished. We are now connected to the outside world via cell phone, landline, and a vehicle leased from the Embassy which we can use until we can drive our own car in another couple of weeks. These are luxuries which we did not fully appreciate until last weekend, when we did not have them and were stuck at home for the entire three-day Labor Day holida! Anyway, I was pretty busy at the office meeting all my new co-workers and checking in, while Scott was here manning the house to receive all the various maintenance workers who have been coming by all week.

This weekend has been nice so far, we’re getting caught up on sleep and are becoming braver and braver about venturing out to explore Gaborone. We are feeling more comfortable here every day and are realizing that it is quite a pleasant place to live. Surprisingly, there are many more reasonably priced, Western-style amenities available here than there were in Shanghai and it appears that we will be able to find everything we need with no trouble.  This afternoon we went out to lunch, did some shopping, and saw the “new” (for here) Batman movie. I must mention that all of this was accomplished with me driving on the left and not injuring anyone in our car or any pedestrians on the side of the road… which is no small accomplishment!

And… most importantly… we met with a travel agent to plan our first safari! If all goes according to plan, in another couple of weeks we will be visiting Chobe National Game Park up in the northern part of Botswana, and also taking a day trip across the border to Zimbabwe’s Victoria Falls!