Gaborone

From the Deloitte family, Richard and I are being sent to Botswana, although Richard will be staying in Gaborone for his assignment with a different local organization.  We took the same connection flight from London to Johannesburg, then the same flight to Gaborone.

At the Johannesburg airport, we had a 9-hour layover.  Richard got a hotel room to get some sleep.  I took a shuttle to the Emperors Palace and treated myself to a massage and facial.

The Emperors Palace in Johannesburg:

Chilli from the Gaborone WUSC office picked us up from the airport and got us settled into a hotel last night.  Today is the official orientation day.  Chilli got copies of our documents, took us to get the local currency (Pula), and went shopping for the correct converter.  Both Richard and I showed up with the same type of converters that do not work for the local outlets.  It threw me in a bit of a loop looking for one that would work with my Mac’s three-prong plug.  Anyway, all is well at the end as we found what we needed.  Then we had a quick visit with the Gaborone Deloitte office before lunch.  We met Claire who is originally from the UK.  We visited the museum in the afternoon to get some background on the natural history of the country.

Deloitte Gaborone office:

The temperature was quite cool in the early mornings and late evenings, hovering around 9 or 10 Celsius.   The afternoons are quite warm at about 26 or 27 Celsius.

The interesting thing I found here is that the sun is extremely bright.  On a sunny and cloudless day in Vancouver, I may have to squint a little or wear sunglasses.  Here, I could barely keep my eyes open without sunglasses.  I wonder if this has anything to do with the angle at which the sun hits the earth.  Perhaps the sun hits Gaborone more directly than it hits Vancouver.  It is wonderfully blinding!  Solar energy is often harvested to heat water.  Solar panels are fairly commonly found on roofs of homes.

Solar panel on a rooftop:

View from my hotel room in Gaborone:

We have dinner plans with another volunteer who has been here for a number of months now.  Then I am finally flying out to Maun tomorrow morning.  I will write more once I get settled in at my accommodation in Maun.