196 Books: Botswana

The Lion Children by Angus, Maisie, and Travers McNiece

Botswana is here:

Here's the very glowing summary:
Emily (16), Travers (10), Angus (9), Maisie (7) and Oakley (1) lived in an idyllic 300-year-old cottage in the Cotswolds. They attended the local school, watched TV and did all the things English middle-class children do. Then, in 1995, their biologist mother seized the opportunity to study lions in Botswana and, in the space of 3 months, changed the family's lives forever. Within 24 hours of landing in Gaborone they were travelling to their new home at Maun in the Okavango Delta, one of the most beautiful wildernesses on earth. Weeks after arriving, the children had made home in an old mission house full of stray dogs and were learning to fetch fresh water, dig a toilet and which creepy crawlies could kill you and which couldn't. Their classroom was an open hut and free days were spent in a Land Rover tracking prides of lions across hundreds of miles of bush. The Lion Children is an extraordinary life-enhancing story about the joy of childhood and living in an environment as different as it can be. But above all it is about the lions, who we get to know through the eyes of the children themselves. This story will capture the public's heart and imagination. It is illustrated with the children's own drawings and photographs taken over the 5 years.

I was less than excited about this book even as I was ordering it. I've been trying to stick to books that are set in the country as well as authored by a native, but I just couldn't get one here. So I felt a little bit cheated, and that may have soured my reading from the get-go. 

So the stories themselves were interesting enough, but I just kept feeling like I would hate these kids if I met them in real life. I'm going to get on my liberal high horse and say the amount of middle-class white privilege seeped through the pages, and that was one of the things I've really been trying to avoid with this reading adventure.

I mean let's look at the entire reason of this book: this mother decided, kind of on a whim, to uproot her family and move to Africa...to an entirely different continent. For a huge number of people on the planet, this wouldn't even be imaginable. So she had this disposable income to move seemingly quickly with what appeared to be no clearcut plan. From what I gathered, it sounded like she just kind of fell into the lion thing. They move to a few different areas, obviously none of which are luxury, but they're still kind of separated from the villagers and, though finances are tight, have no problem getting what they need. 
The kids are vegetarian athiests and eventually get homeschooled, none of which are bad things, but they seem so pretentious about it. Again, this might just be me reading into it with prejudice. At one point the little girl is talking about missing her friends in England and can't understand why they just don't come visit--all they need is money for a ticket, afterall! Granted, she's still pretty young at the time of writing so she may not really appreciate the expense of traveling from England to Botswana, but I rolled my eyes so hard. 

Again, the stories about the animals and living in Botswana were interesting, I just...meh. On the whole I felt like this wasn't the best option for this country. I still feel cheated. 

Um I was a little late in ordering the upcoming country books (also I read a lot more on vacation than I'd expected) and I don't have my next one yet. :( So I've no idea when I'll have another "review" for you guys, but I'll post if/when anything exciting happens! 

Family Vacation

A Tropical Time

I'm not sure if I effectively conveyed how apprehensive and distressed I was to be going on an almost week long vacation with Soldier's entire family. I was almost panicked. 8 adults, 5 children ranging in age from 6 to less than a year, in one house. To top it off, Soldier's family is a lot more extroverted than me. Well, I'm happy to report that I was completely wrong about the whole thing. 

The travel from Juneau always sucks, and this was no exception. Our flight left at 5ish in the morning (9 Florida time) and we arrived at the house around 1:30 the next morning (9:30 Juneau time) so we traveled for 16 hours. That's a lot of hours. Too many hours. 

Ugh. Fucking pause. I have to rant for a moment. A friend of mine has apparently started into a pyramid scheme (though they like to call it mulit-level marketing) for some sort of snake oil (or a "health" drink). She's been bugging me about it for anti-inflammatory to help with my RA, but won't leave me alone. On the one hand I'm not one who's really that into "natural" remedies over medicine, and on the other hand I'm not fucking interested. I hadn't shown any interest and tonight I was thrown into a group text so now these random people have my number. And when I said "thanks but I'm not sure...I'll talk to the rheumatologist!" that wasn't enough; it was "oh no, you need it and look at this chart and watch this video!" 

Breathe. Okay. So giving the benefit of the doubt, my friend might really be thinking of my best interest and want to help, and she is in the medical field. But I just don't want it. And it shouldn't matter how great she thinks it is; if I say no that should be it. Why is it with autoimmune so many people turn into "experts"? I don't know how many times I've been told I just need to change my diet or add something or subtract something and even when I say I'm not interested it keeps going until I'm pissed. And as outspoken as I am here, I'm quite a bit of a coward in real life. So when I get pissed and rude, it takes a lot. It's fine...it's fine. I guess if it keeps going I'll have to find some way to be kind but assertive. Oof. 

Aaand back. We got to the house in Florida very late, and we were both pretty exhausted. Well, I was...I think Soldier was. The house was dark and all the women and children were asleep and, shortly after we arrived, the men came stumbling down the street from the bar. So we had a few drinks with them and went off to the apartment for some sleep. I think that was one of the reasons it was so great (on my end): there was a carriage house that they generously gave to Soldier and I. Which meant no crying babies in the middle of the night, no kids waking us up early, and some space to ourselves. The space was the big thing...I didn't have to worry about my stuff being all over, I could get away for a few minutes when I needed it, and Soldier and I could have time to ourselves. 

Day one (Sunday) was spent on the beach and in the pool. All the kids are so fantastic; they pick right back up and remember us and just want to play with us. I love it! 

Monday the guys went fishing, one of the sis in laws (and one of the kdis) came shopping with me, and mom in law and the other sis in law took most of the kids to the zoo. Shopping was a pretty short trip and we spent the rest of the afternoon reading out by the pool. Glorious! 

Tuesday we went to a state park. There was a little nature walk where we saw an osprey, a great horned owl, and an armadillo! I was very excited. Later that day Soldier and I got to meet up with a good friend of mine who was on a work trip in the area. We had dinner and drinks and it was such a good time. I'm so glad we happened to be in the same area at the same time!

Wednesday was another low key day, as far as I can remember. Pool and beach and one of Soldier's good friends came down that evening. One thing really cracked me up: we were down at the beach and I made sure to bring my phone and turn the sound up in case Friend needed to contact us. He had to drive a few hours from the airport and when the flight landed I got a text that said (roughly) "Since we're the responsible ones, I wanted to let you know I'll be there around 8." I laughed so hard, knowing that he knew I'd be the one to be worrying about it. 

Thursday was the best. We went kayaking through some mangrove...forests? I don't know what they're called. Mangrove..things. It started out in kind of a bay area and then went into almost a tunnel, then open, then really tunnel. We cut the trip short (I think we went about 3 hours total) but it was amazing! Although I kept hitting myself in the face in the tunnel; it was really narrow and when I tried to paddle I'd get hung up on the overhang. Also I was last in the group because I like to be Mother Hen so I can see and know where everyone is, so between those issues I lagged behind. We didn't see as much wildlife as I would have expected, I guess because of the time of year, but we did see stingrays just before the adventure ended. Oh! And there was a sea turtle on the side of the road while driving out. I get real excited seeing exotic creatures. Don't judge me. We got back and sat by the pool for the night. I should mention this crazy thing...I was sitting and put my feet on Soldier's lap. Dr. Dad in Law noticed this bone on my foot that kind of sticks up that apparently isn't supposed to. So he started pushing and pulling and all sorts of messing with my feet. He told me to stand up and it felt completely different...it was like my arches had been gone and reappeared. It was super weird, but pretty cool. Like, really cool. 

So, that's kind of a glossing over of the trip but a fair enough overview. It was full of family, and sun, and sand, and booze, and food, and talk, and laughter, and love. This isn't the first time I've been glad to be wrong and I'm sure it won't be the last. And, credit where credit is due, Soldier was great. I was worried that he'd get around the boys and spend the whole time drinking and being rambunctious and just being kind of an insensitive ass. But he was cognizant of me and my needs and was compiant when he was rather drunk. 

Soldier is pretty great. I know I keep saying it, and things aren't perfect all the time, but he's pretty great in general. And I'm glad that the trip went so well. For now, I'm still peeling from all my sun time...and quite happy about it!