Oy. Where to start.

As a writer, I plunge into a beginning knowing full well that I can’t really write it until after the end. The first beginning is a temporary beginning, and who cares about that? That’s easy.

I think I need to take that approach for my Africa Journal beginning, or I may never get started.

We left Maryland on Wednesday, November 26th. After 15+ hours in the plane, we arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa, on November 27, and Maun, Botswana, on November 28. This is Day 6 in Maun. Compared to Alaska, day is night and night is day, literally and figuratively. Maun is 11 hours ahead of Alaska.

The initial plunge into a foreign place and culture is overwhelming. Every little sight and detail registers as different and noteworthy. Trying to record and share that is impossible. Heck, I can’t wrap my own head around it. Hence the difficulty in getting started with a journal.

So I’m just going to start, believing I can come back and re-do the beginning in the end. This is a blog, so that’s not really true, but I won’t tell if you won’t.

Dumela

So . . . dumela (say “doo-MAY-la”). That’s Setswana for “hello.” English and Setswana are the languages of Botswana. We are so lucky everyone speaks English, even if it seems heavily accented to us. I was expecting more of a British English, but my ear insists the English here sounds more Australian, German, and Jamaican. Go figure. Still, it’s English, and speaking a common language, even imperfectly, is a huge comfort and help.

Africa Wildlife

Naturally, one of the big attractions of Africa is the wildlife. It’s what put Africa on my mental map as a kid. I don’t know about you, but when I think of African wildlife, I think of elephants, giraffes, lions, hippos, all sorts of antelope, leopards, cheetahs, gorillas, etc. Those animals aren’t in Maun proper, but we’ve been entertained with wildlife nonetheless: birds.

Beautiful, colorful birds. There are some drab brown ones, too, but we ignore them.

Red-billed spurfowl sitting on a fence.

Here’s the list so far (of course I’m keeping a list):

• Red-billed spurfowl
• Crested barbet
• Blue waxbill
• Red-billed fire finch
• African openbill
• Dark-capped bulbul
• African golden weaver
• Swamp boubou
• Barn owl
• African pygmy goose (Which looks like a duck, if you ask me. Which begs the question: What’s the difference between geese and ducks? Hmm, Scott Thomas?)


Meve’s starling. Look at that blue/purple color!

• African jacana
• Gray heron
• African green pigeon
• Southern red-billed hornbill
• African paradise flycatcher
• White-faced whistling duck
• Golden-tailed woodpecker
• Pied kingfisher
• Cape turtledove
• Laughing dove
• White-browed robin-chat
• Cape glossy starling
• Meve’s starling
• African hoopoe
• Squacco heron
• Namaqua dove
• Blacksmith lapwing
• Purple heron
• Arrow-marked babbler
• Hartlaub’s babbler
• Black-faced babbler
• Yellow-billed egret
• Red-eyed dove
• White-backed duck
• Woodland kingfisher

Blue waxbill

My favorites, so far, have been the Woodland kingfisher (bright turquoise), the African hoopoe (orange, stripey, way-cool crest), and the paradise flycatcher (you’ll see). We don’t (yet) have pictures of the first two, but we see the paradise flycatchers regularly and have some pics of them.

Male African Paradise Flycatcher

The male has an orange back, a ridiculously long orange tail, and a turquoise bill.

Female African Paradise Flycatcher

The drab female is a beautiful orange on her back and tail.

Paradise flycatcher after a dip in the pool.

Every day, the flycatchers visit the pool for a quick dip. They dive into and out of the water lickety-split, shake off on a branch, take another dip, shake, and maybe, if it’s one of those days, they’ll have a third dunk.

Other birds bathe in a water feature under shady trees near the feeders. So far, the flycatchers are the only ones to use the pool. I figure it’s because his tail won’t fit in the smaller bird bath. They also couldn’t fly in and out so quickly and easily. I’m a little surprised we haven’t seen more animals in the pool.

And that’s that. The Africa Journal is started. Nope, I’m not re-writing the beginning.