In the land of Parmalat

I guess now the blog can officially start as I am now living in Gaborone (which seems to have at least three different pronunciations, all commonly used: "Habaron" with long o, "Gaborone" with long e, and "Gaboron" without the e.)

Here are the numbers: 29 hours in transit, three flights (first two on time, third definitively on Africa time), five onboard movies, three crying babies surrounding me, 20 minute ride from the airport, 96 pounds of luggage arriving safely, ten hours of sleep last night plus a nap today, and five cold showers. All of it was worth it now that I am here with Russ. We have been talking nonstop about here and there, this and that, getting caught up on all the things that escaped our sometimes hurried phone conversations over the past month.

We´ve been out and about too. We walked over to the Game City mall, about a 20 minute walk from the house along a dusty road. It´s a little bit cooler, but not air conditioned. One would have thought it was end of the month - payday for the amount of people shopping. There is quite a selection of stores, more to offer than we had in Windhoek and certainly more than the Berkshire Mall. For those of you who remember, Mr. Price, Edgar´s, Spar, Shoprite, Pep, Fochini, Game, Nando´s are a few favorites among several more South African based businesses. The dollar is slipping but hopefully will even out soon.

From there we walked to the school in the heat of the day. It´s a lovely campus and they were hosting a farmers market where we bought some gorgeous leaf lettuce and peas. We also had some samoosas and cool drinks (sadly pop in the bottle is a thing of the past here) and took some time to sit in the shade.The people at the market were a combination of parents and people from the community.

A few priorities: finding a car to buy, securing internet, and yes buying a bathmat and garbage can. It´s funny how basic household items can make a difference but we´ve already started up a list of things like that.

Russ made a nice curry tonight. Generally, the juice is good and we have Greek yogurt. But I had forgotten about the boxed milk. Oh Parmalat (sigh). That is pretty much all I´ve eaten today so I´ll get back to you on the rest.

Not sure what and when our internet situation will be like.We are on the good graces of some neighbors Raphael and Rosemary. Other neighbors Terez and Nazi made me feel very welcome last night with some delicious Punjabi chai.