Diary Entry: 13 Nov 2010

...at the Okavango River Lodge...I've been able to comingle and cavort with all sorts of people. ... I will talk about 4 of them. (1) Barman at ORL - Leo. 23 yo guy who is surprisingly well traveled for a Botswanan (he admits his countrymen don't get out much). He's completed high school, but doesn't know what he wants to do with his life, and lived at his sister's house for a while not doing anything. Then a friend invited his dad to Mauritius to work there, and he volunteered to take his dad's place, so he could get out of Bots...the family friends were sure enough surprised when he arrived instead of his dad! (apparently the letter describing the substitution was still in the mail...) He spent 1.5 years there working as a barman, then returned to Bots, moved to his mother's homtown (Maun) and began working here. He's studing for the driver's license exam because he wants to be a mobile safari driver next. I was impressed by his (relative) wanderlust, and dedication to career advancement -- which I actually haven't seen much of here. (2) Marlene, from Ohio -- a ~71 yo white woman, originally from the Deep South, who has spent her life traveling. All 48 contiguous states by 40 yo, then all of them again with her 2 cats and mobile home over 12 years before deciding to take the show abroad. She's retired (I never got her former profession) and has blocked off 5 months for "Southern Africa." She has no real itinerary, and backpacks everywhere, staying in youth (!) hostels. It's quite impressive but I do have to say she was one of the more annoying Americans I met -- extremely cheap, always complaining how expensive everything is, trying to haggle everything and get things for free while not spending much, and basically expecting everyone to drop what they're doing for her. Which they do, by the way...she told me a story of how she was taking a bus into Mozambique, refused to pay the visa fee, hitchhiked to a gas station at the border, where she met a nice local friendly woman who took her home, fed her, and arranged for a backdoor visa traveling through a neighboring African country -- all for free. Which is great/cool/impressive (especially for a 71 yo!) but she was more expectant than appreciative of this type of service... (3) EmDee, my tour guide on the 2 d/overnight mokoro/camping trip. He's 28, but had been in a mokoro since age 8, and has 2 families -- wife and 2 kids in a far away village in the Central Kalahari, and girlfriend+kid here in Maun. He just built a house here inthe Delta -- mud + sticks, with empty beer/cola cans to mimic bricks. I felt bad for him because he had a cold ("flu" he called it) but took us on the tour anyway -- I guess he couldn't really afford to take a "sick day" :(. He never finished school, and learned English purely through tourists, but he actually paid someone to teach him to read/write Setswanan, whichi I found extremely impressive. He also had a good heart -- shared his food with others, always tried to see if he could help with anything. He had really ratty hiking boots, and even rattier socks, which were more hole and sock! I gave him my socks as a present, but in retrospect wished I gave him a larger tip :( (4) Brendan -- a 70ish ultraconservative British aviator who was a Yankophile but had a lot to talk about re: USA (specialty = ~1830-1882). He told me about flying bush planes (and the undiscovered benefits of owning a Cessna); flying helicopters in LA (and celebrity sex scandals that occurred *in* his choppers); a detailed description of the play-by-play events at the gunfight at the OK Corral; and expositions on "Why Africa [as a continent] will fail." Did I mention he's conservative (though married to a very nice GP, Claire, who may not share *all* his views)? He believes "AIDS" is more "environmental" than a real biologic disease. He has a whole theory backed by "three well done Canadian studies" about needing "lifestyle," "constitutional," and "exposure" -- all 3 mind you, not just 1 or 2 -- in order to get HIV or develop AIDS. I had to politely change the discourse ASAP! He was rather witty, very well read, and very entertaining to listen to though some things made me cringe...