fritzvd

Thursday last I arrived in Gaborone, Botswana after a 7 hour busride through an extraordinary landscape, with shrubs, small trees and yellowish grass as far as the eye can see. A bouquet of dryland vegetation and rock formations passed us by. Beauty is something that is embedded into our wonderful planet earth.

Gaborone or Gabz is quite a new city. Don’t expect old architecture like you see in Windhoek or Cape Town. Instead there are some malls. Of which the main mall is part of the older city centre, hence more fun to walk around in. It is actually only by name a mall, it’s more a shopping boulevard, like you find in Amsterdam, only with a very thick African touch.

After a week or so staying with the Namibian Deputy High Commissioner, I can say that I could not have found more hospitable people to stay with. I have my own room and can borrow the car or ask for a ride whenever. Did not expect such luxury.

The professor I was planning to meet on Monday was surprised to find me in Botswana so soon, when I called him on Friday. He expected me to be here in July. All is well, he stated: “you are here now, so let’s not waste time.”

As far as my research is concerned, half of what I planned to do is going to be in vain. The Mopipi village area, is an area where people have already decided on an alternative energy source. They would like to use biogas. That basically means I have to re-write most of my proposal and change my research to find out what degradation processes might change due to a change to biogas.

Now I have to get back to work.

“But I am talking too much. It’s because I chatter that I do nothing. Or perhaps it is that I chatter because I do nothing.” – Dostoevsky

Ga pula is Setswana for: no rain. It's very dry here.