Discussion: Pics

The pictures of the apartment grounds are beautiful. I also enjoyed the sattelite tour of your run. Looks like parts of Florida, people even have pools! Definately blows my perception of what I thought Gaborone would look like. Thanks!

Right--and isn't that a golf course??

Yes, I was definitely impressed by some of the houses in the surroundings. I was hoping to take a few pictures of the typical streets and houses, but did not yet get a chance. It is very interesting: the houses alternate from relatively poor, rural-type structures to the elaborate villas of the embassies (the German and Nigerian embassies are pretty close by), but seemingly every house, including our apartment building is surrounded by the most scary fencing. On the way to the hospital, I had passed by multiple buildings whose fences were emitting a crackling noise, threatening-to-electricute you at any second, which was far from reassuring to the passerbys. Some of the houses have swimming pools, although, judging by the green swamp-like standing water in the pool at our apartment, they may not be at all maintained or usable. The overall impression that I have from my two days is of a de- centralized but a preplanned city, built on a vast sand-like expanse of land, with a multitude of 1-3 story buildings, each fenced in (I wonder why?), with a well-developed road network consisting of paved major and some minor roads. So far, the closest analogy that I can make is that of a cross between a large Ukrainian village and a small town.

Wow. Looks pretty nice. It sounds a bit like the nicer parts of the Dominican Republic I was at a few years ago, and far above the standards of the bad bits of Africa. I was watching something on Somalia yesterday and I was really hoping you weren't anywhere near there - the white American guy visiting there had hired 30 guards armed with machine guns, in 3 pickup trucks, to keep him safe while he was there, and it looked like it was needed...

I'd guess the fencing is for night-burgarly prevention - sounds like there's some serious income-diversity there, with some of the poorer folks (or their kids) in town possibly tempted by rich properties w/o walls.