I had 5 days to look around and get a feel for the place and think about what it would be like to live and work there. First impressions at the airport were good - you walk from the small plane into the tiny arrivals buildings and immigration is amazingly laid back. I was met by Lalith who took me to the MetCourt Inn hotel where I was glad to get some sleep. I went out with Vanesh, Mike and Thabo in the evening - it was lively and fun. Lalith drove me around Gaborone on Sunday - it is a rather strange place very spread out and you never feel you are in the “city centre”.

 Arup Office Gaborone

  Government Offices

The old city centre mall near the parliament building looks like it used to be the focus, but is now rather dejected, and all the shops have moved out to the 3 or 4 big shopping/entertainment malls on the edge of the city. It is clearly a prosperous place, with none of the broken down cars and shacks that you see in Dar-es-Salaam and elsewhere.

It was nice to get out of Gaborone to visit Molepolole to see the hospital project there. That felt much more like the Africa I know. The whole area is very green after 2 years of drought the reservoir in Gaborone has risen from 23% to 87% or something, and everyone is much relieved. In the past few years, Botswana citizens are rightly given priority when it comes to bidding for jobs, but their lack of experience and resources has caused problems and hopefully the govt is moving towards a more balanced approach.  There are plenty of professional challenges in terms of contractors being very unskilled and having to be told exactly what to do - while in the UK we have the luxury of be able to rely on the experienced contractors pointing out problems before they happen ! All in all it seems like a nice place to work for a couple of years, though difficult to see a long term life there.

“Welcome to my place”

I hope its up & running