I'm back in Botswana and I've jumped straight into fieldwork. I've been following 4 troops of mongooses for the last 4 days. In this particular troop there are two individuals that are sick and we are trying to monitor them closely. More to come soon...

I have really been convicted lately about being thankful and joyful. It came up in a discussion on Monday and again last night. Last night, however, I was pointed to a verse that really states something I hadn't considered before:

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Here, Paul is telling us two things that come up often in the New Testament: be joyful and pray often. He follows this with something that really goes back to the story of Job (see Job 1:20 from Tuesday's blog) - being thankful and praising God in all circumstances. But, the thing that really made me think was the final phrase - that this continual prayer and state of thankfulness is God's will for us. I always look at God's will in my life as decisions, as a course of action, as a direction. I never consider that God's will in my life is not so much about what I do, choose, or what happens to me, BUT RATHER a frame of mind. God talks about Himself in terms of 'being' ... the Great I AM etc. Joyfulness, thankfulness and prayer are similarly states of being and not places, occupations and milestones ... the things I have always associated God's will with.

God is not so much interested in where we are, but where our hearts are. This is truly good news, because it means that His love and grace can extend to any person in any physical / worldly situation, from a destitute street urchin to a king. It means that we can stop worrying about where we are in life and start focusing on where our hearts are.

Have a joyful, prayerful and thankful day!

Last weekend was the annual fundraiser for BirdLife - the Big Birding Day / Birding Big Day. The aim was to raise money for research, conservation and avitourism through BirdLife. It is also designed to get people outside and get them looking at our feathered friends. I was very fortunate to join a wonderful group of folks on this 24-hour species count. We were rather more interested in the social aspects of the day, with birding being just a jolly good excuse to get out and about. I've included a trip report and our list for those twitchers who may be interested.

Trip Report - BirdLife Botswana Kasane Branch

With a much-needed cup of coffee under the belt, our first hour and a half yielded almost 50 species in Kazungula. This tally included Meyer's Parrot, Copper Sunbird, Yellow-billed Oxpecker, Hartlaub's Babbler and Orange-breasted Bush-shrike along with many waterbirds. The Kasane Sewerage Works is always very rewarding and as our next stop it offered up teals, ducks, and plenty of waders - Common Sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper, Spotted Redshank, Marsh Sandpiper, Curlew Sandpiper, and Ruff. Around the Rapids we got an almost full compliment of weavers including the Thick-billed Weaver. We also saw Rock Pratincoles at the Rapids and added the Collared and Black-winged Pratincoles at the Seep later in the day. After ticking the Collared Palm-thrush at Mowana Lodge we stopped for lunch with our list at roughly 120 species. Our afternoon cruise on the Chobe River produced some great birds including Black-crowned Night-heron, Long-toed Lapwing, African Snipe and African Marsh-harrier. Our final jaunt into Lesoma Valley produced our first Helmeted Guineafowl - amazingly after 13 hours of birding. We also saw White-backed Vulture and had a truly special sighting of Cape Vulture to round-off the day. We finished with 150 species (not counting the domestic chicken about whose legitimacy the team was divided). One might conclude that adding only 30 species in the afternoon was due to liberal lunchtime libation, but we will stand by our claim that the notable absentees (Crowned Lapwing, Red-billed Quelea etc.) had conspired against us. We have all vowed vengence for next year and until then will continue to lobby for appropriate representation for the lowly chicken.

The protagonists:

Peter, Salome, Skye, Trish, Geoff, Bronwen, Cornelia, Pete.

The antagonists:

8 Little Grebe
55 White-breasted Cormorant
58 Reed Cormorant
60 African Darter
62 Grey Heron
65 Purple Heron
66 Great Egret
67 Little Egret
71 Cattle Egret
72 Squacco Heron
74 Green-backed Heron
76 Black-crowned Night-Heron
81 Hamerkop
87 African Openbill
89 Marabou Stork
90 Yellow-billed Stork
91 African Sacred Ibis
94 Hadeda Ibis
99 White-faced Duck
102 Egyptian Goose
107 Hottentot Teal
108 Red-billed Teal
116 Spur-winged Goose
122 Cape Vulture
123 White-backed Vulture
126.1 Yellow-billed Kite
142 Brown Snake-Eagle
143 Black-chested Snake-Eagle
145 Western Banded Snake-Eagle
148 African Fish-Eagle
161 Gabar Goshawk
165 African Marsh-Harrier
189 Crested Francolin
194 Red-billed Francolin
199 Swainson's Spurfowl
203 Helmeted Guineafowl
213 Black Crake
240 African Jacana
245 Common Ringed Plover
248 Kittlitz's Plover
249 Three-banded Plover
258 Blacksmith Lapwing
260 African Wattled Lapwing
261 Long-toed Lapwing
264 Common Sandpiper
266 Wood Sandpiper
267 Spotted Redshank
269 Marsh Sandpiper
272 Curlew Sandpiper
284 Ruff
286 African Snipe
295 Black-winged Stilt
298 Water Thick-knee
304 Collared Pratincole
305 Black-winged Pratincole
306 Rock Pratincole
338 Whiskered Tern
339 White-winged Tern
348 Rock Dove
352 Red-eyed Dove
353 African Mourning Dove
354 Cape Turtle-Dove
355 Laughing Dove
358 Emerald-spotted Wood-Dove
364 Meyer's Parrot
373 Grey Go-away-bird
381 Levaillant's Cuckoo
382 Jacobin Cuckoo
386 Diderick Cuckoo
391.1 White-browed Coucal
398 Pearl-spotted Owlet
421 African Palm-Swift
426 Red-faced Mousebird
428 Pied Kingfisher
429 Giant Kingfisher
431 Malachite Kingfisher
433 Woodland Kingfisher
435 Brown-hooded Kingfisher
440 Blue-cheeked Bee-eater
441 Southern Carmine Bee-eater
443 White-fronted Bee-eater
444 Little Bee-eater
447 Lilac-breasted Roller
450 Broad-billed Roller
452 Green Wood-hoopoe
457 African Grey Hornbill
458 Red-billed Hornbill
463 Southern Ground-Hornbill
464 Black-collared Barbet
473 Crested Barbet
474 Greater Honeyguide
518 Barn Swallow
520 White-throated Swallow
522 Wire-tailed Swallow
523 Pearl-breasted Swallow
524 Red-breasted Swallow
527 Lesser Striped Swallow
534 Banded Martin
541 Fork-tailed Drongo
548 Pied Crow
560 Arrow-marked Babbler
562 Hartlaub's Babbler
568 Dark-capped Bulbul
569 Terrestrial Brownbul
574 Yellow-bellied Greenbul
596 African Stonechat
599 White-browed Robin-Chat
603 Collared Palm-Thrush
613 White-browed Scrub-Robin
620 Common Whitethroat
648 Yellow-breasted Apalis
657.1 Grey-backed Camaroptera
683 Tawny-flanked Prinia
689 Spotted Flycatcher
695 Marico Flycatcher
710 African Paradise-Flycatcher
711 African Pied Wagtail
718 Plain-backed Pipit
731 Lesser Grey Shrike
733 Red-backed Shrike
735 Magpie Shrike
737 Tropical Boubou
738 Swamp Boubou
740 Black-backed Puffback
748 Orange-breasted Bush-Shrike
760 Wattled Starling
761 Violet-backed Starling
762 Burchell's Starling
764 Cape Glossy Starling
765 Greater Blue-eared Starling
771 Yellow-billed Oxpecker
778 Copper Sunbird
793 Collared Sunbird
798 Red-billed Buffalo-Weaver
799 White-browed Sparrow-Weaver
804 Southern Grey-headed Sparrow
807 Thick-billed Weaver
811 Village Weaver
814 Southern Masked-Weaver
815 Lesser Masked-Weaver
816 Golden Weaver
818 Southern Brown-throated weaver
829 White-winged Widowbird
834 Green-winged Pytilia
841 Jameson's Firefinch
842 Red-billed Firefinch
844 Blue Waxbill
861 Shaft-tailed Whydah
867 Village Indigobird
870 Black-throated Canary

Many places around the world are known by their iconic architecture, art, or other inanimate objects. I'm learning that while this part of Botswana has many physical features which endear it to the hearts of tourists and residents, perhaps its icons are actually the people living here. I've harped on about the wildlife here. Last night was no exception. Outside a lonely little homestead in a valley which is not formally protected, somewhere between 100 and 200 elephants and about 50 buffalo trundled out of the bush throughout the night towards the little pan of water about 50m from us. I suppose this is special and profound in a world in which natural heritage is being lost. However, I couldn't help thinking the whole night that this type of heritage is relatively easy to conserve. Animals, buildings, landscapes, manuscripts etc can be protected to some degree. What steps are we taking to preserve oral tradition and our social heritage?

At a party last night in Leshomo Valley I got to see a little portion of the spectrum of colourful people to be found here. Perhaps it is the same everywhere - people make the place. Somehow, this place is magnified by the stories of the people, more so than elsewhere. One of the most interesting stories that I've heard of so far is of a man who ran the Kazungula Ferry during its heyday as the "freedom ferry". I'll save this for a later date, because the story of the freedom ferry has a profound bearing on the socio-economic landscape we find here today. Suffice it to say that this gentleman ran the ferry under what I can only imagine was great duress, ferrying political refugees between Zambia and Botswana on a 700m border with two politically hostile (and militant) countries on either side.

But this little bottleneck in African transport was not restricted to people only. Before diamonds, Botswana was largely a beef producing nation. One of the major trade routes was from Ngamiland (to the west of the country, and including the Okavango Delta area) through Kazungula and into Zambia. So it was that one of the revelers from last night drove such cattle in his youth. The trip would take several months and would end with swimming the cattle across the Zambezi River. Incredible.

One of the people here for whom I have developed a healthy respect is a gentleman who grew up in the area and has similar pioneering stories. Now he is a very grounded person, and one of the backbones of the community. He is extremely deft at catching snakes, and yesterday before the braai he caught a black mamba in town in somebody's garden. While most people would turn to a shotgun he prefers to catch the snakes and then educate people about them. So it was that I watched dumbstruck as he held this deadly snake by the head to show onlookers the black mouth (from whence the common name comes). I learned that the neurotoxic venom of the black mamba shuts down the muscles of the diaphragm, making it impossible to breathe. The great news is that anti-venom is available and is effective. A victim of a back mamba bite just has to be kept breathing on the way to the treatment ... so if you are ever in a position to help such a victim, keep doing artificial respiration for them once they stop breathing. My friend reminds me a little of Curly from the movie 'City Slickers' - wiry old guy, tough as nails, but with a great big heart inside. He will also be a part of Kasane which will be etched in my memory when I leave.

Truly, each one of us has an amazing story to tell. But, at the end, it won't matter so much WHAT we did, but rather WHO we were in each situation. God made this abundantly clear by introducing Himself in terms of His character: Yahweh ... the Great I AM. How different this is from our current norm of defining ourselves vocationally.

Be blessed, and add to local flavour!

To cap off a great Saturday last week, I was invited to join the Meteorological Services for their post-fundraising celebrations - on a game drive into the Chobe National Park (see last week's blog). Now, I've been here for a month, but have yet to have the opportunity of going into the park. It is definitely 4-wheel drive entry only. Much of Botswana is sandy. This is one of the reasons that a great river system (the Okavango) can disappear into the earth without ever reaching the sea, thus forming the world's largest inland delta.

Up here, the Kalahari sands are also prolific and they make driving a challenge. To make matters worse, this area also has black cotton soils which become impassable for 2-wheel drive vehicles when it rains. Hence the saying - never send a boy to do a man's job...

Unfortunately we did not go in this vehicle, but in an ever-trusty Land Cruiser. What was great about the trip was that the Met Services are allowed into the park for free - they have weather stations there and are allowed in for research. So - the funds from the game drive tickets went back into the orphan's Christmas collection. The other major bonus is that a lot of the guides who become worn-out from guiding end up driving for the Met Services. So, we had one of their employees as our guide, a chap with pretty intimate knowledge of the area.

It was a fantastic drive. I was very impressed with the tiny bit of the park which we saw - the drive along the Chobe River to Serondela. There were many elephants, buffalo, hippos, a few crocs and plenty of kudu and impala. The birdlife was quite astounding. I saw the highest concentration of African openbills I have ever seen. It appears that they spend the day in the Chobe floodplain and then roost at night at a place affectionately known to the locals as the "Rapids" (but more on that in another blog). I even think I caught a glimpse of the elusive pel's fishing owl! Unfortunately as the only birder in the group, there was no chance of stopping for a better look in the hunt for big furry stuff. Such is life.

If I have to be honest, it was probably just a giant/Verreaux's eagle-owl, but the hope of seeing the pel's will keep my bins up to my eyes while I'm here. Actually, when we stopped for sundowners it was a great opportunity to help a few folks with an activity which is not common among the local Batswana people. This is the Met Services director using a pair of binoculars for the first time! It would be incredible to get a supply of old binoculars from tour companies, binocular manufacturers and through private donations, for the express purpose of introducing young Batswana children to birding and close scrutiny of the environment which seems to go hand in hand with the activity. I shall dwell on that ...

For those planning a trip to this area, Chobe National Park offers something incredible to visitors. This is a dry place, especially from June to October. The Chobe and Linyanti River system offers almost the only respite for animals and birds in this area, so large concentrations of game come down to the river on a daily basis. If you're interested in Big Five, Big Feathers, or just Big Vistas, this is a fine place for you.

What makes this a truly special place for a safari is that you can do it by road, by boat, or both. For the birdwatchers the boat cruises offer the best way of seeing the park's avian residents. Boat cruises are also great for the big stuff, BUT as our guide pointed out - you can't chase after a lion (etc.) in a boat. The solution must then be to do a boat cruise into the park, then hop out at White Sands (magical spot by the way) and climb into a vehicle which is waiting for you with a cold beverage and bowl of snacks. I shall definitely dwell on that one ...

And I almost forgot to mention ... on the way out we saw a pride of about 10 lionesses and cubs, as well as bat eared foxes (which were eminently more interesting than the lions!).