The Capital City of Botswana

There is always more to learn.  Fortunately.  My younger one had a friend over tonight.  Earlier, when I asked her where this friend was from she couldn’t quite recall.  “It’s a country in Africa that begins with an “S.”   “Ahh.  Somalia?  Senegal?  Swaziland?  Is she from the Sudan?”  “I think it’s Swaziland.”  “Really?  O.K.” 

I checked in on them in the T.V. room later, while they were screaming, killing ghouls on the Play Station’s “Blood Borne” and offered them a bowl of chips and salsa.  My daughter ducked out and asked if her friend could stay over night.  “Sure.  Hey, did you remember to ask where she’s from?”  “Oh yeah, Botswana.”  “Oh, cool.  O.K.   No ‘S’ then?”  “No.  No ‘S’.”  "Got it."

My wife called us all out to dinner a few hours later.  Before I made my way over I opened up Google Maps. I had to.  I can name the capitals of most African countries, but damn if I know the capital city of Botswana.  Be honest now, how many you knew it was ‘Gaborone’?  I pondered this as I headed out to dinner: what did I know about Botswana?  I know of its fabled wildlife.  I know where it is located geographically and that this must mean there is a strong South African influence.  But as far as music, cuisine, luminaries, history, government, I was, unfortunately, coming up rather short on this quick trot along to the kitchen. 

So, I asked.  Fortunately, and wonderfully this particular young friend was a confident and articulate young lady and after butchering the pronunciation of “Goborone,” I learned as much as I could, from someone who’d grown up in the U.K. and Switzerland about this remarkably large country that she hailed from, set there above South Africa.  And as always happens I became fiendishly curious about the place the more we talked and began scheming as to how I could one day make my way there to Goborone.

Friday, 02/23/18