Week 13

 Marg: It’s really good living in this gated compound.  The idea of living in close proximity with over 200 other units of people/families is quite daunting at first, but the houses are so spacious and it’s all so quiet and orderly. As long as everyone keeps to the rules, which they generally do, it has turned out to be an enjoyable place to live. The houses are laid out in a broadly oval arrangement, with the central area landscaped and it’s a joy to see in this dry and barren land.  In the mornings before Andy goes to work we can go for a pleasant, brisk walk around, admiring the beautiful flowers and still-green grass, varying our route into figures of eight sometimes.  That’s at 7.15 am.  Then in the evenings (in the dark but with lampposts around) we can walk again in safety and security for as long as we have time for.

With 4 guards on every shift, one of them patrolling unobtrusively around the compound every hour throughout the 24 hour period, clocking into 10 electronic reporting points, it’s easy to feel safe and secure. Having double electric fences surrounding the whole plot also helps.  After the hassles we had with failing security gates and false alarms from electric fences at our previous abode it was an easy choice to pay a little extra to leave all that frustration and uncertainty behind.

The highlight of this week has been the start of a sort of Keep Fit class on the compound, for some of the women who walk round the houses regularly and get a bit bored with the same old route and routine day after day. Feeling rather bored myself with a lone exercise routine a few times a week I thought of inviting some of the walking women to join me in a structured session at the compound ‘Club-house’   The second session was Thursday morning, and now some of the ladies are asking if their husbands could have a class (apparently it is the men-folk themselves who are asking).

Andy: The focus has definitely been on aircraft maintenance this week, with several major projects getting completed and new ones beginning.  Due to unexpected additional work being needed on our main medevac aircraft, we are temporarily unable to respond to any calls from the Ministry of Health. This probably means another dent in this months revenue (and a welcome boost for the another operator who will be happy to take any such flights).

Our quota of pilots will be back to full strength next week following home-leaves and holidays, so we have to hope that all of the aircraft will also be reporting fit for duty very soon.

Week 11

Marg:  The weather has been doing some strange things in the past week or two.  When everyone was claiming winter was over, suddenly we had several mornings of distinctly chilly 7’s and 8’s (degrees) on the thermometer, and the air conditioning unit was pressed into service as a heater.  The sun always shines, of course, so doesn’t feature in weather descriptions as we know them in the UK.  Then a couple of days ago we woke to 18 deg warmth in the morning air warning us of a really hot day ahead.  And so it has continued.  Some people are walking around under umbrellas, and many more sun hats and improvised head coverings are evident.  Rain of some meagre sort is expected in October so gardens are being made ready by the keen vegetable growers, and I have just planted out a dozen tomato plants.  I don’t expect them all to survive, hence the number of plants.

For those interested in birds we have identified quite a few local specialities since being here – pigeons and doves, rollers, two types of wagtail, blue waxbills, hoopoes, plovers, mousebirds, emerald coloured starlings, and different types of sparrow (including the usual garden ones we see at home.) Having one of the few trees on the compound just outside our house gives us an advantage in pursuing this interest. Southern Africa requires a completely different set of bird books, and in many cases the names are familiar but the birds claiming them are very different – in most cases much more flamboyant and colourful. Not being tourist types we don’t have a camera permanently slung round our neck so often miss the chance to take a picture.  You’ll just have to believe us.

A variety styles of child care can be observed among the fellow-residents of our compound, most of whom appear to be expats from around the globe, here on short term contracts much like ourselves.  At the play area today there was a little 2 or 3 year old with his mother, attempting to take his ‘scoot along’ bicycle up the steps and down the slide. Naturally she tried to stop him, but seemed to give in rather easily I thought. He was just poised at the top of the slide when I went over and told him ‘no!’ which did stop him in his tracks, possibly averting a nasty impact between himself and something hard and injurious to his well-being. I felt rather guilty for interfering, but as the friend who was with me pointed out, in the culture of this family the father is probably the only one who gets listened to – plus passing grandmothers evidently.

Andy:  Life at the airport has been quieter than usual lately, as we have had nearly two weeks without any calls for medevac flights. We do check the phones periodically during such times, to make sure they are still working, but there seemed to be no logical reason for this lengthy interruption to what is usually a steady average of 4 flights per week.  Of course it’s a good thing if no-one is seriously ill or injured, but it’s expensive for us to be standing by too long with no work at this end of the country.

Fortunately for our cash-flow and our pilots’ sanity we received a call yesterday to transfer a mother with childbirth problems from Maun to the superior medical facility in Francistown, a smooth hour’s flight in our King Air as opposed to many uncomfortable hours by road.