Memories: Year 1, Photos, Part 1

I've already given you a recap of my first year in Botswana in words, but I thought I should also give everyone a photo recap. Here is a collabe of my first three months of work in Botswana. I know, Prince William, children and wild animals are considered work. Tough life I lead, eh?

I spent my first three months working at the Botswana Predator Conservation Trust, primarily with its social development program, Coaching for Conservation, which teaches children about the wildlife and wild animals using football skills and drills. Last year was particularly exciting as we hosted an exhibition of our program for Prince William! After a month of tireless preparation, I fell deathly ill with a stomach parasite and missed the whole event!!! I was devastated. Fortunately, coworkers and friends provided me with photos. It doesn't ease the pain but it's nice to know my hard work paid off. The day was a fantastic success and maybe, just maybe, William will come back with his new bride.

*Side note: Prince Harry is constantly in Maun. Seriously, I'm always hearing, "oh, Harry's back in town." I've only ever seen him once but it's still pretty cool. He's treated like a local here and he's not considered a celebrity sighting. Anyhow, we also organize a weeklong Coaching for Conservation camp where over four days, we host 700 primary school children at the Maun Sports Stadium. It was a lot of work and a logistical nightmare but we pulled it off!

Working for a conservation organization has its perks, especially when your bosses own a research camp on the outskirts of the Okavango Delta. I was lucky enough to visit Wild Dog Research Camp more than once and witness the beauty and sheer size of open pans and floodplains of the Botswana bush. While I accompanied some of the researchers in the field, I was lucky enough to see up close and personal a leopard (pictured above. His name is Charles), lions, elephants, a wild dog den full of newborn pups and loads of other amazing animals. The great thing about going on a game drive with researchers is that they are tracking collared animals so unlike a regular safari, we could pinpoint the exact location of the animals we wanted to see and find them. It is truly amazing.

I hope you enjoyed my little recap. More photos of the following three months are coming up soon!

Emilie

Hockey Night in Maun and New Hockey Vocabulary

I'm back in Maun after spending the last few months in D'Kar and going home to Canada for my brother's wedding. (An update on life, work, home, Botswana will soon follow but today's topic is of utmost importance!).

My return to Maun has been a homecoming of sorts. I've been reunited with my friends, Blair, Jude and Willis (my Botswana family) and my first job. Also back in Maun is my Canadian friend Kyle. Last year, Kyle and I worked together at the Botswana Predator Conservation Trust and helped plan a major event attended by Prince William! Well, he's back again and I couldn't be happier.

Kyle and I are house sitting a cavernous house on the river in the Tsanakona Ward of Maun which is a bit out of town. Although the house is big and beautiful, it is definitely lacking in character, charm...and warmth. Most of the light bulbs are burnt out and those that work seem to be permanently dimmed. The kitchen is huge with a big island in the middle of it but it lacks pots, pans and most basic cooking necessities and worst of all the house is FREEZING! Kyle and I bundle up in socks, sweaters, even tuques to try to stay warm. It's usually a losing battle.

On the upside, the house has a big screen tv and DSTV (the Botswana equivalent of a satellite tv). Since I moved to Botswana, I've yet to have a tv. I tend to read a lot or watch downloaded movies on my laptop. But the beauty of DSTV in June is STANLEY CUP FINALS LIVE ON ESPN!!!! That's right folks, in the middle of the desert, in sub-Saharan Africa, I, Emilie Tobin, am watching the Stanley Cup Finals. Live.

It doesn't matter to me that I must get up (or stay up) until 2 a.m. to begin watching the game and suffer through little sleep. It even doesn't matter that I'm watching the game on an American network, although it has taught me some new hockey terms. Listening to NBC play-by-play commentator, Mike ‘Doc’ Emrick and hockey analyst Eddie Olczyk comment on the game and offer their analysis is like listening to a really aggravating comedy show. Some of their one-liners are classics, while other times, they display a complete lack of insight into the game of hockey, that it's hard to believe one of them actually played in the NHL.

Here are some of my favourite lines of the night:

• By far the best new hockey term is "knifing the puck." Doc uses this expression often (actually he uses it constantly) throughout the game so it's difficult to pinpoint what exactly he's talking about, but from what I've deciphered, "knifing" is when players are battling for the puck on boards and a player pokes the puck out to his teammate. 
• Doc's second favourite line is "punching the puck." To be honest, he tends to use this line for a variety of plays so I'm not quite sure what the heck he's trying to explain. 
• Timmy Thomas. His name is Tim Thomas so why do all NBC announcers call him Timmy? It's kind of effeminate don't you think? 
• The Alex Burrows biting incident. Yes, he bit Patrice Bergeron AFTER Bergeron shoved his glove in Burrows mouth. I understand that it is a suspendable offense, but what I don't understand is why Doc kept talking about it instead of doing the play-by-play? TimMY Thomas stops Jannick Hansen on a breakaway halfway through the third and Doc and Eddie still bring up the biting incident. Get over it and let Brendan Shannahan deal with it. 

Despite these little annoyances, I am so happy to be watching live Stanley Cup Finals all the way from Botswana.

Go Canucks Go!!!!!