We promised to post wildlife pictures instead of the daily goats, chickens, cows and donkeys. Well, yesterday we got lucky. We went to Gaborone to take care of some Peace Corps business and then spent the day shopping with a movie thrown in to beat the heat. (Teresa had to replace the two pairs of nice shorts that got bled on in the laundry- sheets and towels are not colorfast here) We saw Bridge of Spies- very good by the way. After the movie we did our grocery shopping then headed to the combi rank to get our combi home to Gabane.

We forgot it was Friday night (rush hour) and for the first time had to stand in line waiting for a combi. We got the third one which means there were 34 people in front of us. While we were waiting, of course we had to have one of our Cool Time Guava icee/popsicle/shaved ice things. We are officially addicted! Will get a picture one of these days. Anyway, we are standing patiently in line with our load of groceries when Teresa looks over to the parking lot and does a double take. There is a baboon sitting very close by. Not sure where she/he (think it was a she as no white mane but what do I know) came from, although they live in the hills just to the east(?) of where we were standing. Juggling sticky hands from the Cool Time and the grocery bags,Teresa managed to get to her phone but not before she had moved farther off- thus the not very good picture (and not enough time to figure out if I have a zoom on the phone). But, it does count as our first wildlife sighting and in the middle of the city. We understand there are also baboons in the Gabane Hills which we can see from our backyard but no visits yet. As the water situation gets more desperate, that might change- even though down lower won’t help the water situation!
(Click to keep enlarging- still not the best but it’s a start…)

A quick word about combis since I referenced them above. Each one holds 15 passengers unless you cram in two more which is what the first combi did so it took 17. The next one took 16 which takes us to 33 and one person in front of us which made 34 ahead of us. This actually worked well for us as we got the primo seats with extra leg room which helped with all our groceries. The very nice person in front of us made sure we got those seats as two people who had not been in line decided they were entitled to get on this combi ahead of about 50+ other people but our hero didn’t let them get “our” seats.

This brings up another cultural observation. The two who went to the head of the line could well have had their place in line saved for them. We don’t think so but it would be hard to tell as you will rarely see a Batswana get visibly angry. Imagine if someone did this in the States! Road rage on steroids. While not getting angry appears to us as passivity, it is actually a much less stressful way to live and perhaps we can all learn from that.

And for those of you following our water woes- we actually had water for 3 straight days. It is off again now but we are reveling in the memory of those hot showers and looking forward to the next ones, whenever they might be.