Play Money and Other Interesting Things....

The currency in Botswana is almost like 'play money'. The currency is called pula (pronounced pooh-la). From Wikipedia: "Pula literally means "rain" in Setswana because rain is very scarce in Botswana - home to much of the Kalahari Desert - and therefore valuable. Pula also means "blessing" as rain is considered a blessing. Thebe means "shield"."

For comparison - the US dollar is like the pula, and US cents are like the thebe (pronounced teh-bee). 100 thebe is equal to 1 pula. (Note: the value of the US dollar is not equal to 1 pula...more on that below.)


The coins - pictured here, from left to right, are 5 thebe, 10 thebe, 25 thebe and 50 thebe. There is not a 1 thebe. So, if you make a purchase that comes to thebe not divisible by 5, you just round the total purchase up or down to the next 5. (I recently made a purchase that came to P20.83, (note the P, instead of a $) - since I was paying in cash, the total I paid was P20.85. (Note: the 10 thebe is about the size of a US dime.)



These coins are pula. From left to right:
1 pula, 2 pula and 5 pula. Again, these are like 'dollars' in the US. Note the differences in the coins? Makes them easier to distinguish. The 1 pula and 2 pula are similar in size and shape, but the 1 pula is a thicker coin (can't show you that in the picture). Until I got a 'feel' for the coins, I was always pulling out my reading glasses at the checkout to see what I had!!!...or, sweet R would help me.





These are the paper pula. Denominations come in 10 pula, 20 pula, 50 pula and 100 pula. The bills are not the same size, 10 pula being the smallest, then becoming slightly larger with each denomination. The colorings are also different. The different sizes of bills is a great help to those who have impaired vision. I do not know who the men are on the bills. Past presidents and leaders, I'm sure. I'll have to research that. (Note: the bills are roughly the same size as US bills.)

This is a link (to get a better view than what I could take with my camera) of both the front and backs of the coins.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Botswana_2006_circulating_coins.jpg

Now for a little lesson in conversion rates. It changes DAILY. Most of the time the conversion rate hovers around 7.70. In English - 1 US dollar is equal to about P7.70. A week or so ago the rate was over P8...up to around P8.09. Today the conversion rate was $1.00=P7.70. When the girls and I are out shopping, we also have a math lesson, too!! We typically figure on dividing 8 in to what ever the price is, to get an idea as to whether we are 'getting a good deal' or not. Products that are imported from the US are, of course, very expensive...namely clothes and such (brand names like Levi's, Nike, Polo...even cosmetics (Clinique, Estee Lauder, Lancome). There are some food items that are imported from the US. (Most food items are from South Africa.) Just the other day I saw a box of Cheez-It snack crackers (imported from the US), selling for around P50, which would be around $6 for the box. Expensive! No, I didn't buy them. One store here, the Superspar (a grocery store) is starting to carry items from the US. Up and down the aisles they have small banners next to the items announcing they are imported from the US. One such item was 'Bush's Baked Beans'. I paid P18 for a large can...which was only a couple of dollars in the US. Not bad. A sidenote here....baked beans here are not at all like the US. Here, they have tomato sauce (like ketchup) as the base, not brown sugar. We tried them, and didn't like them. A couple of other staple items for cost comparison: 2 litre milk is P14 which is roughly $1.80 for a half-gallon of milk. Bread here is mostly fresh baked in the store's bakery...you won't find an aisle of different brands of bread. Thus, choices are limited. Also, since it is fresh baked, you don't have all those preservatives - which means bread spoils quickly, unless you eat it up quickly, or keep it in the fridge (which is what we do). A loaf of bread sells for about P5.25, which is less than $1.

Some of the terminology here - which is interesting - causes me to have to think a bit!
Bridges are called 'fly aways'...because when driving over a bridge that has a peak, you look as though you are 'flying away'.
Take out food is called 'take away'. And if you have leftovers at a restaurant, you get a 'take away', not a 'to go' box.
Trash cans are called 'dust bins'.
Ketchup is called tomato sauce.
Which...you won't find actual tomato sauce for making spaghetti sauce, etc....you will find tomato paste, however.
Ground beef is called mince.
Beef for making beef stew is called goulash.
Remember the days of 'lay aways' for items you wanted to buy..but didn't have enough money for...and you didn't want to charge it...so you put the item(s) on lay-away (and paid on the item each week until it was paid for)? They have that here, only it is called 'lay-by'.
French fries are called chips.
No fast food places here!!!!! At least, not US type fast food places. A burger from Wendy's, Burger King, McDonald's or the ultimate....Char-Grill!!!! would really be good about now. The hamburgers served here are served with this 'interesting' sauce...and the burgers are seasoned with some unusual tasting seasonings. So, for hamburgers, I make them at home.
The only fast food place familiar to the US is Kentucky Fried Chicken. And, it is really good! I'm not a big fan of fried chicken (though I ate it a lot growing up and loved it), but the KFC chicken here is good. Mashed potatoes are not an available side item. Have to make those myself. Side items here are cole slaw (which is good), beans, chips (french fries).

That's about all for now. We expect to start getting some of our 'stuff from home' this week. We can hardly wait! Our own pillows to sleep on!

I still need to take some pictures of and tell you about (or attempt to describe) the traffic circles here, which, of course, go to the left. Those are interesting!!! So far, I've made it through them OK...the key is to be in the correct lane...or you get honked at!

Tea Parties & 'Fall' Cleaning

How's that for a title? Not feeling very creative today, but wanted to post a couple of pics just the same.

We are getting in to a really good routine. We've been here for 8 weeks now. The time has flown by for us.....before you know it, the 24 months will be up, and we'll be back home and pick up where we left off!

This first pic is of the girls with their Webkinz buds having a tea party out on the patio. The patio furniture had been delivered a couple of days earlier, and the girls were begging for a tea party out on the patio. One of the highlights was using the cart (shown in the foreground with the blue tray). They though that was too cool! We look forward to having many tea parties, having school and just relaxing out on the patio. This week, however, we have not been able to enjoy the patio. The patio ceiling caved in due to a roof leak and frequent rains. Don't worry, no one was injured...it was a slow caving in. The workers will hopefully be finished in a few more days.

The other two pics are for my dear friends back at home who know that we have a housekeeper...to let you know I don't just sit around, watch TV and eat bon bons all day! HA!
For those to whom this is new 'news'...yes, we are blessed to have a wonderful housekeeper. The culture, and expectatation here, is to have a housekeeper....to support the local Botswana people. Our housekeeper is a gem and we are truly thankful for her...she is always so joyful, whistling a tune or humming a song, and she always has a warm smile for us. Plus, she is teaching us a bit of the Setswana language. We honestly don't have enough work around here to keep her busy full-time, so when she has finished with the daily tasks, she finds work to keep herself busy --- like washing the windows! She does not let her hands go idle. She would do anything I ask her to do...which leads to the pics of the girls and me. The story.....the kitchen floor is tiled, and the grooves for the grout runs deep in some places...too deep to be reached by just a mop.
Thus, to thoroughly clean the grout, a good ol' scrubbing was needed. The girls and I took this on as a weekend project. (I wouldn't dream of asking our housekeeper to do such a task.) The girls were glad to help - they took turns scrubbing and vacuuming up the water with the ShopVac. The project was a great success...the floor/grout is clean and we're glad the task is behind us.









Another quick blurb about the uncreative title....since we are in the southern hemisphere, we will soon be celebrating our first day of fall as our family and friends in the US celebrate spring. I, personally, am looking forward to the cooler temps. We're still in the 80s during the day, and getting to the upper 60s at night. It's funny for us.....we're still tooling around in shorts and flops, while some of the locals...to whom 60s are cold....are wearing sweaters and even winter coats. Reminds me of being back home in NC, and having our friends from NY or other northern states still wearing short-sleeved shirts while the locals were sweaters. due to the 50s or so temps.

I'll try to be a bit more creative and interesting in my next post. Bottom line - we're doing well, healthy, thankful to be settling in here, and thankful for the technology available at our fingertips to keep us in touch with our loved ones.

Laughter: The Same in Any Language

We are so blessed to have a wonderful gardener, and these are two of his precious children. Their names in English mean 'Thankful' (the girl) - and 'Shepherd' (the boy). We call them by their 'English meaning' names - since that is the way their father introduced them to us. We learned how to pronounce their given names, but I don't know how to spell them yet. That will be for another post. Even though Thankful and Shepherd speak very little English - except for 'hello', 'good-bye' and 'thank you' (which their father taught them), the kids would all laugh and laugh when they played together for hours at a time. Thankful and Shepherd are precious children...always smiling their beautiful smiles - always joyful. I am thankful that laughter is the same in any language...and that our precious children have so much fun playing together.

But, Thankful and Shepherd went back to their home country recently. Their father is trying to get them back in to school there - since that is where they are from. It is so sad for the father, mother and older sister to be here in one country, while their 2 precious family members are in another country. Thankful and Shepherd will be staying with cousins and other family members. The father and mother are doing what is best for their 2 children, even if it means being a part for some time. We were assured by the father he will bring them back from time to time. We look forward to seeing them again soon.

Mokolodi Game Reserve

We went on our first 'safari' on Saturday. The location is called the Mokolodi Game Reserve, and is only about 30 minutes from where we live. It was awesome. The reserve area is HUGE. I don't know how many acres it covers...I guess I could actually look that up and provide an accurate report for you...but that makes too much sense! We went at 7:30 in the morning...while the animals were still active, and before it got too hot. The morning was overcast, so it was perfect for animals to be out. B was actually counting the numbers of animals we saw...not the species...and lost count after about 45. The numerous impalas did her in. She decided to just enjoy viewing God's creatures, and to stop counting them! Good call. The tour lasted for 2 hours. We were in the back of a truck...which had stadium-style seating installed in the bed of the truck. There were 3 rows of bench seats, covered by a canopy. There were 8 of us on the trip. Four NC Guardsmen were here last week for a conference, and this was their last day in Gabs before heading back. We were glad to share the safari with them. The one species of animal we didn't see were giraffes! You'd think they would be easy to spot...but we didn't see the first one. Everything is still so green here (as you can see in the pics) so spotting animals is difficult. The best time to go on safari is around April or May (our fall).

The first pic above is of 2 female elephants with their handler. The handler is from India. The amazing thing is he verbally instructed the elephants to move closer to us...so we could see them more easily. And the elephants immediately obeyed his instruction. (Oh, if I would only obey the Lord's instructions so quickly!) The elephants were about 20 feet from us. BTW, we never got out of the safari truck. That is a 'no no'. When animals see the vehicle, we're told they don't really notice the people...unless we were to get out. We did stand up to get better pictures, views and such, but didn't get out. Besides, the elephants are used to being around people...since they each have a handler. The elephants were amazing to watch....the power in their trunks. Another thing we learned....if you look at the shape of the elephant's ear...it is shaped like the African continent...which is an indicator it is from Africa, and not Asia. Cool how God made them that way.

Here is a short video clip of the elephants eating...stretching to get some tasty leaves.

This is a pic of the girls with our guide and driver. His name is Kaesa (pronounced kay-sa). He was extremely friendly, and very knowledgeable about the animals. Even while he was focused on driving through the sometime 'rough' terrain, he spotted animals before we did!





The landscape of the reserve was so beautiful!!! Lush green and rolling hills.

Even though the cheetahs were behind an extremely large fenced in area --- this guy was curious and came out to greet us. He is one of the 2 male cheetahs there at the reserve...and they're brothers. The cheetah was so close to us....about 7-10 feet away, that we could hear him purr!!!
















The male ostrich shown here (with the black colored body) was the very first animal we saw. He was so tall!!!! I managed to get this pic while his head was up....because he kept ducking his head down behind the bush.

This is the female ostrich (notice how she is lighter in color....that's how you tell the male from the female). She was at another part of the reserve, they were no where close. She just sat on the ground the entire time, but did turn her head to look at us once. We thought she might be sitting on an egg or something. Then again, maybe she was just resting!

The wart hogs were so ugly that they were cute!!! Especially the little baby warthog!

The zebras were probably my most favorite animal to see...in addition to the cheetah. Just as no two people have the same fingerprints... no two zebras have the same stripe patterns. God is amazing.

At one point we saw 5 or 6 zebras together...as we approached, they went the other way.







These are just a few of the many, many groups of impalas we saw. The male impalas have the antlers. They were graceful and lean creatures. We're told the only predator that can catch them is the cheetah....which is probably why the cheetah was behind a fenced area. You think?























The two male impalas facing one another are fighting....knocking their antlers together. I wish I had videod them in action. The sound was amazing. OK, I've got to check my thesaurus and come up with another word for amazing. I'll do that another time. Anyway, you get the idea that the sights and sounds of the antlers clashing was pretty incredible.

For my next post, I'll tell you about a couple of the friends the girls have made...of course there will be pics!