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.