The Flight

March 3

Have finally arrived at Gaberones the capital of Botswana after a gruelling trip. The Air Canada plane was scheduled to leave at 10:00 but because of the storm we did not leave until 3:15 in the morning. I might have dozed for 3 hours. Fortunately my connecting flight did not leave until the evening. Then it was a 10 hour jaunt to Johannesburg on which 2 of the passengers collapsed and had to be revived with oxygen. A note to those who complain about our national airline, the seats on Lufthansa are even more crowded and uncomfortable than those of Air Canada. When I disembarked in Johannesburg, the first thing I was offered after I cleared customs was a massage. I declined.

The flight to Gaberones is 35 minutes and, thankfully, Tom was waiting and I didn’t need to worry about travel arrangements any more! We spent the night in the home of a friend of Tom’s, Ma Lelobo, who is a professor of English at the University of Botswana. Like many of the elite in the country she acquired her masters and doctorates at Universities in England, Germany and the US. Her first thesis was on James Baldwin and her present work is on the early African writers of the area. Tom met her through their shared interest in the writer Bessie Head whom both knew and about whom more later. We had dinner at the Bush and Bull, a large thatched roofed restaurant which reflects part of the new affluence this country has experienced. I slept until 12:30 the next afternoon.