Bob in Botswana

So that's it, I'm back in the UK, but I had a fantastically productive last couple of days and acheived way more than I would have thought possible when I arrived in Botswana last week.

Wednesday was devoted to training my two expert users (Rati and Losang) we had little choice but to spend a whole day blasting through everything from basic SQL right through to screen design and report writing. To their great credit they stuck with me right through the day despite having very little IT experience (although it turned out late in the day that Rati had done a MySQL course at college, which is more than I've ever done!) Even better, they were really exited by the possiblities for improving their service which the new database will give them. Without doubt they were the most receptive group of end-users that I've ever dealt with and I have great hopes that this won't be a project which will grind to halt a once I've gone.

I went into the office on Thursday expecting to have a long and frustrating battle to install the software on one of their desktop machines. I'd previously written a set of install instructions which ran to 3 full pages, so there was a lot which could go wrong, but everything went absolutely perfectly. I was in the office at 7:30 and by 9:30 the whole thing was installed and tested without a single problem even though I'd broken the cardinal rule of never changing anything on the day before a release. Since I wasn't due to fly out until 18:45 I spent most of the rest of Thursday wandering around Gaborone, taking photos and enjoying the sunshine.

The flights back were a nightmare; among other things I had the honour of having my name called on the tannoy at Heathrow while I was stuck in the queues for the new biometric security tests. Having said that, I made it back on time; although my suitcase didn't arrive until yesterday afternoon.

One of the things I'd been hoping to bring home from Botswana was a definitive memory of Africa. I thought I'd found it the other day when I passed a group of workmen of their way home; one of them began to sing in a deep bass voice and then for a few seconds the others joined in, each singing a different harmony. But I think my definitive memory will be of sitting in Chicken Lickin' restaurant in Main Mall on my last day sharing a meal with my Botswanan colleagues. Koreen, another development worker, was also leaving after a much longer placement and we were both given parting gifts (a traditional basket for me, a huge cake for Koreen). I will remember that meal, the ease with which we sat together and the grace with which the gifts were given for a long time.

So, that's the end of my blog, thank you all for reading. In case anyone would like to see where I've been, I've uploaded some photos below.

I think that this will be my last post from Botswana, I've got a full day of meetings booked tomorrow and then on Thursday I'm coming home. I don't think it wil be the last entry in the blog though - I'll probably post a wrap-up from the UK to summarise how I felt everything went.

The fundamental reason for having any database is to improve your access to information, and the reason why good access to information is vitally important in the department I'm working in was brought home to me the other day. A colleague in the Department of Child Welfare was tipped off that a supposed Place of Safety for abused children was anything but. When she investigated she found that the people who were running it were advertising it as a tourist attraction on the internet. They had a lodge where tourists could stay in the same estate and were running trips to the refuge from there. Further investigation showed that they were also running an illegal day-care centre on the same site. Once the database is in place, and information is disseminated more widely, it will be much harder for other organisations to get away with similar unlicensed activities simply because many more people will know exactly what the NGOs are licensed to do and who to go to if they are exceeding their brief.

Ironically, in the same morning that I was told this story another colleague was proof-reading a code of practice that had been commissioned from some consultants. One of the (many) typos that she read out was that 'young children should be curdled and fondled' to aid their development. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

The big news from Botswana is that it's been raining - not just any old rain but a deluge of Biblical proportions. It rained pretty much solidly from Saturday morning to late on Sunday night; in fact it rained so much that a large proportion of our yard is now inside our house. It's now (I guess) about 17c and cloudy, so everybody but me is wearing two coats and a woolly hat. At least I'm not melting anymore.

The Skillshare people very kindly leant me car for the weekend (a 3-litre Isuzu double-cab, in case anyone's interested) and Koreen, my host at the DSS, put some 'explore Botswana' routes together for me. So I spent Saturday morning driving from Gabs to a place called Kanye (sadly, there is no Kanye West) and calling in at interesting places on the way.

One of the interesting places was a lookout point at the top of what you could only really call a mountain pass (although mountain is overstating it a bit). To cut a long story short, I came to a bit of dirt track which I didn't dare to try even with 4x4; jumped out of the truck to walk the rest of the way (half a mile or so) and, about 10 yards short of the summit, trod on loose stone and sprained my ankle. I managed to hobble back to the car and, determined not to miss out on anything, drove the rest of the way with gritted teeth. There were six inches of water in the roads when I got there, so I gave up and came home. However, on the way back I called in at a game park and got to meet a couple of Cheetahs so it wasn't a complete wash out.

On Sunday the weather was even worse so I put in 12 hours at the IT coalface and got the interface finished. Which was pretty cool.

Just got back from a meeting with my end users, there are a few changes that they'd like to see but overall they're very happy, if a bit scared of the full day's training I'm planning for Wednesday...

Some funny Botswanan signs:

Ja-Bana funerals - free collections!!! (their exclamation marks.)
Slow but sure glazers
Reading of newspapers is forbidden (in a fruit shop)

I'd been advised that on Friday and Monday mornings the department I'm working in has a get-together with motivational speaking and prayers in Setswana. This sort of this is usually wasted on me, even in English, so I thought I'd duck out of it by turning up 5 minutes late. Unfortunately, that back-fired on me because the meetings are held in the lobby...

Anyway, I stood (sheepishly) through about 15 minutes of impassioned discussion the only two words of which I understood were 'English media' and then the Lord's prayer, in Setswana. It turned out that they were talking about the need to keep drugs out of their children's schools although quite what our media have to do with that I'm not sure.

BK, one of the Skillshare staff here, and I were talking about the AIDS crisis here and she told me how cultural issues were the biggest barrier to getting the epidemic under control. This came home to me quite forcibly today when I noticed that although loo rolls can't be left unguarded the free condoms in the toilet are apparently untouched.

Thanks to all of you who've left comments; especially those of you I don't know. It's good to know that people are reading this.

Well, finally got into the DSS office today. Your standard issue Botswanan seems to be a really nice guy (or, more often, gal) and these were no exception. However, since protocol demands that you get introduced to everybody, there are an awful lot of 'em.

Some funny things:

Botswanan names are really difficult to remember so often you're given a translation to call people by. In the DSS, Sit and Think share an office. Also, everybody gets issued with their own personal toilet roll because the ones in the toilet keep getting pinched; so I'm now the proud possessor of a Botswana Gov't issue loo roll (medium soft).

Not so funny:

In my meetings this morning it quickly became apparent that the work I've previously done, while it fits the requirement, won't be user friendly enough. I've undertaken to try and cobble a front end together (hopefully in Access) and retreated to Skillshare's offices to get some internet time. Ho hum.

I'm feeling pretty fried.

The flight was gruelling; the first leg (from Leeds to Heathrow) was delayed leaving and delayed landing due to the high winds so I had to dash across the airport to get my flight to Johannesburg. I was the last of the last of the stragglers.

For some reason I couldn't check my bag through to Gaborone from Leeds so I had to do South African Immigration, which took ages, only to discover that they'd lost my suitcase (in fact they'd lost a whole container full of suitcases). So I was stuck at the carousel for an hour, desperate to get my flight but not desperate to arrive in Botswana without any clothes!

The suitcase arrived just as I was about to give up so I raced through my second airport in 12 hours only to discover that the South African airways desk was completely clogged up with Brazilians deliberately trying to take extra baggage to Sao Paulo. Then I had to do security again, and emigrate from South Africa!

On arriving at Botswana they wouldn't let me in.

Not kidding.

I had to put a Botswanan address on the immigration form and, of course, I didn't know one. So I got given a red ticket (everybody else got green) and I got sent to see another official who decided that I seemed OK and could come in after all.

Since then things have been fine, I've been looked after really well by the Skillshare people. I've been taken out to lunch and had the gen on what's going on in Gaborone. Tomorrow I'll be starting my placement.

So tomorrow I'm off and with one day to go I'm suddenly feeling exited. I've been to Africa before, but that was on a fully escorted safari in Kenya and I think this will be a very different trip. I've always lived by the maxim 'never volunteer for anything' so people who know me well were very surprised when I volunteered for this but it's a good feeling to use your skills for something that might make a difference.

On the down side, I've got a stinking cold, the weather's horrible and I've eaten something that disagreed with me but, hey, tomorrow I'm going to Africa and that can't be bad!

It's now one week until my departure date and my passport, the cause of much stress over the last couple of weeks, has finally been renewed. To my great relief, I'm all set to go.

For the last few weeks I've been working alternate evenings at home to get the database ready before I go. It's pretty much there, so I'm hoping that I'll be able to spend the majority of my time in Botswana training a couple of nominated people in how to use it and writing some reports.

Tomorrow I'm going to raid Boots to lay in some insurance against Botswana Belly and other tropical diseases!