Nambia

A typical street in Swakopmund which the guide book says is a town more German than Germany
(having never been to Germany I will have to take their word for it, for now).

Easter weekend in Botswana meant a four day weekend (no work Good Friday or Easter Monday)!  With four free days you just have to take a trip somewhere, right?  Gelane and I decided that we had never seen Namibia and since it borders Botswana it is possible to drive there, thereby requiring very little planning.  The only problem with going to Namibia is that all the fun things to do are on the coast which is 1,500 km from Gaborone!  No problem we had 4 days to make the round-trip ;)  We set off on Thursday evening after I finished with the inpatient wards and began to drive west.  Of course it was raining which that makes people here forget how to drive, (it would be really scary to see them in snow), and everyone was trying to leave the city, so it took us forever to get out of the city limits.  Nevertheless we made it to the small town of Kanye the first night and stayed at the Kanye Ultra-Stop (gas station, store, restaurant, lodge, camping site all in one) getting the last available room.  The next day we set out early and began the 12 hour drive the rest of the way.  About 4 hours later we crossed the border which was rather complicated on the Namibia side because it involved buying a road permit for the car (luckily we had thought to bring South African Rand which are accepted in Namibia, as of course they only take cash and there was no ATM).  Driving through Namibia felt much the same as driving through Bostwana, desert with small green shrubs, but there were at least mountains in the distance (which we don't get to see much).  The capital of Windhoek apparently has some interesting museums and theater but of course everything was closed on Good Friday.  Finally we reached the Namib Desert and the landscape changed to beautiful sand dunes.

There were even signs to remind you that there was sand, (um duh we see it)

We arrived at Swakopmund after dark on Friday night and had luckily called ahead to book a room in one of the few hotels that had space.  Exhausted and hungry we set out to find food, but were disappointed that many of the restaurants were closed.  Nevertheless we finally found a really good fish restaurant with an upstairs section playing live music.  It was a nice dinner, but we could not help being surprised at the lack of nightlife and street life in a tourist town where every hotel was booked. I still don't know where everyone was.
The next morning, after a German style breakfast buffet (more kinds of meat then I have ever seen and a look of shock on the owner's face when we said we did not want bacon with the eggs), we set off for quad biking and sand boarding (the big attractions in the town).

Gelane showing her quad bike who is boss!

After a quick lesson on how to work the bike we set off into the dunes with 4 other women and our guide.  Driving the bike was pretty easy once we got the hang of it.  I felt a bit like a dare devil traveling over uncharted territory (though we were following our guides tracks to minimize the environmental impact and avoid the sudden drop offs).  All the while taking in the gorgeous scenery...

 This was the largest drop off that we rode down in our bikes. It was pretty scary at the top as it was a straight drop and it seemed the bike might topple over.  Here the guide is trying to talk one of the girls (from Germany) into going down it, he was unsuccessful and ended up bringing her down on the back of his bike during which she screamed in his ear the entire time! After bungee jumping it was really a piece of cake ;)

 Then we stopped the bikes for an hour of sand boarding.  Basically you are given a sheet of compressed cardboard which they have rubbed down with some kind of lubricant and then you lie on the board pull up the edge and lift up your feet, get a little push and go flying down the sand dune.  It is great fun though you do get covered in sand by the end and then you have to walk back up the sand dune.   We decided that we could have done it all day if only there was a chair lift or other means of getting back to the top..... 

 We then got back on the bikes and made it to where the ocean meets the dunes which was a wonderful sight.

After a trip back to the hotel for a much needed shower, we spent the afternoon in Walvis Bay a town about 30 km from Swakopmund.  It has an interesting history in that it was part of South Africa (as it was a valuable port city and they did not want to give it back) up until 1994 when they finally gave it over to Namibia.  It used to be that when you wanted to visit the town you actually had to cross a border even though everything for hundreds of KMs was Namibia.  It also provides 90% of South Africa's salt which is collected from the Salt pans (below).  For some reason flamingos really like the salt pans so there are tons of them there.

 After some shopping Sunday morning we began the long trek back to Botswana.  We spent the night in a small town 100 km from the Botswana border in a very cute bed and breakfast and then Monday made our way back to Gaborone.  All in all a lot of driving, but worth it for the amazing time we had on Saturday.  Plus the drive was quite enjoyable as we listened to podcasts from NPR, chatted, sang along to music and I got a ton of knitting done (when I wasn't driving, of course).  Stay tuned for pictures of the finished projects, they just need to be blocked....

Passover

So this was Passover in Botswana (yes I know it was three weeks ago, sorry I'm a bit behind on the blogging...)  Given that there is really no Jewish community in Botswana, (no synagogues, no chabads, very few Jews), I was not really expecting to get a chance to celebrate the holiday.  Luckily Matt had other plans.  He managed to find a Haggadah online (again what did we do before internet?), printed many copies, and invited all of our friends to his and Premal's house for a seder.  There were 20 people at the seder, only 4 were Jewish, and most everyone else was at their first seder.  To our surprise, there was even matzah in the local supermarket and the visiting cardiologist's wife made matzah ball soup (after a trip to South Africa to get the matzah ball mix).  We had a proper seder with everyone taking turns reading from the Haggadah and much discussion relating history with the present.  We even had two children to find the Afikoman at the end! 

It was a wonderful way to celebrate the holiday, and though I missed being with my family, I was thrilled to have so many people to share Passover with.

I know the last few blogs have been all about fun trips and celebrations, but don't worry, I have also been working ;) The last week of March and first week of April, (in addition to being Passover), were two more weeks on the inpatient wards.  I find the inpatient wards to be the most challenging part of the job here.  I have always been a person more aligned with outpatient medicine and the children on the wards here are often extremely sick (the opposite of outpatients).  I often find myself managing children who belong in an ICU and often the outcome is not good.  

In two weeks there were three deaths on our team, all children less than one year old who came in severely ill.  One had been given traditional medicine and had gone into renal failure and had severe respiratory distress by the time he came to the hospital.  One had severe meningitis, and the other had severe respiratory distress and a VSD (hole in her heart).  All three would probably have benefited from an ICU, where they could have been intubated, given ventilator support, dialysis, etc.  However, that is not really available here, as we only have an adult ICU and they rarely accept pediatric patients.  So we did our best for them on the wards, but unfortunately it was not enough.  It never gets easier to tell a parent there is nothing more you can do for their child (nor should it ever get easier).  Doctors are supposed to be able to make things better and it is hard not to feel defeated when you can't. 

However, for each of the defeats there were a lot more battles which we won.  During those two weeks there were also a number of children with gastroenteritis and bronchiolitis, (both things that I had a lot of experience managing back in the states), who just needed some supportive therapy (IV hydration, oxygen, etc) and TLC and managed to be discharged in a day or two.  Watching the dehydrated and lethargic children become animated and playful and the child with croup who finally improves with nebulized adrenalin and steroids; makes it possible to continue the fight.  

As we say on Passover: "Next year may we all be free." To me this is not just free from slavery, but free from persecution, poverty, unnecessary deaths, war, inadequate health care, etc.  A lofty goal for a year, but I hope with each passing year we will be one step closer!

Safari!!!!

Here we are with our favorite guide, Marks, after a walking safari

At the end of March, My parents and brother came to visit! I met them in Maun (in Northern Botswana) and we flew in a six seater (including the pilot) to several camps in the Okavango Delta. It was hardly camping as the "tents" were complete with beds and bathrooms and more luxurious than many hotels I have stayed in! We saw 160 species of birds (my mother was in heaven and kept track of all of them), elephants, giraffes, cheetahs, lions and their cubs, buffalo (and lions stalking them), warthogs, zebras, hippos, a hyena, rhino and more! We had an amazing time and have thousands of pictures. I have spent many hours trying to sort through the pictures and pick out the best ones so here is a slide show I have created with some of the highlights (since each picture is worth a thousand words, I'll let them tell the story with a few captions ;)