No matter where you live or what you do, every place and job comes with advantages and disadvantages. Everybody has their own preferences and what's important to them. We are all individually responsible for making our lives happen and living our dreams.
The red dot is where our house is located
Life in this part of the world is a life of extremes in my opinion, it can be a life in paradise or the oposite. Some basic things what we were used to can be a struggle like water, fuel, electricity, wifi, food, ... Before I never had any gratitude for these things, I took everything for granted. Now we have learned the hard way that you can do without. I read in the newspapers that there is no electricity in a city in Europe for some hours and the whole country is complaining or when a train departs 2 minutes to early in Japan the whole government has to apologies. It's all about what you are used too. But the more you have the less you see what you have.
Let me talk about the basic needs. Electricity, the longest we have been without is 5 days in a row, I don't have to tell you what it does with your freezer. One could buy a generator but for now we refuse to, we always make a plan. That's how it goes here, for everything which is not working out we just make a plan. Water, we are sorted, we have a borehole. Maun can be days without water, especially with the drought we had these last 2 years. Now the river is flowing again through Maun so you would think that is sorted but no it isn't. Wifi, slow but working and wildly expensive. Botswana is in the top 5 worldwide of costly wifi connections. The heat, I love it and I can cope very well with it. I now struggle with the cold. Winter can be freezing cold for us, sometimes just 22 degrees during the day and 3 at night. I realize coming from Belgium this sound ridiculous but your body adapts quickly. I remember last year we had a friend over and he was sleeping straight underneath the aircon and we were sleeping under a feather duvet. Food, easy, you cook with what you find, the good thing is you never need a shopping list, you buy what is there.
But, it is what it is, my reality is that we live in paradise. Hippos are living in front of our house and snorting throughout the night. We wake up with the sound of the fish eagles patrolling their territory. We have elephants walking over our driveway. The sun shines every day. Our community is one of respect and friendliness. Life in the fast lane doesn’t exist here, only the now lane. No traffic jams, we call 5 cars in front of us busy traffic. Our relationships with friends and family were never so intens or close. We learn every day about nature and humanity.
Daily we walk the floodplain with our two beautiful dogs (Monster - named after the cookymonster, always fighting for food when he was a puppy - and Spotty - as she is spotted and a diva). Every time I walk over the same pathway I realize how fortunate I am to live here and I'm proud that we made it happen. Our garden is the Okavango Delta, probably the most pristine wildlife area in the world and it's 45 minutes drive from our house.
The question we are asked the most is; "Will you stay there?" ... Who knows what the future brings and we live in the now ... who would have imagined 2020 being what it is so far.
More than ever we live our dreams.
