Friday, May 19: We navigated through the Immigration andCustoms offices at Namibia-Botswana Border with the help of a friendly South African chap trying to bring a boat into the country. We had Namibian dollars and U.S. dollars in our possession, but no pula, the currency of Botswana, to pay the required road tax. (When we entered Namibia from the Republic of South Africa both South African rand and Namibian dollars were accepted.) Hearing our discussion with the customs personnel, who refused both types of dollars, the erstwhile mariner stood the 80 pula for us and said we could buy a beer for him the next time we saw him. We haven't yet seen him, but stranger things have happened in our lives; we may very well run into him in Maryville, Missouri sometime.

Once over the border Shakawe is only a 20-minute drive. We soon reached the TOCaDI (Trust for the Okavango Cultural and Development Initiative) complex, where we will live and Jeff will work for the next two years. Our house, which is provided as part of Jeff's contract, is located on the western end of a multi-building complex. There is a large office building several steps away from the house, maintenance and kitchen buildings, a conference room in its own structure, and two or three smaller office buildings, all located on the perimeter of a square. The middle of the square contains cultivated grass, flowers, bushes and trees, rare in Shakawe, which has an abundance of scrubby desert bushes and sand. Jeff's office space is in the largest of the buildings. A wire fence encloses the entire compound, with a tall reed fence dividing our house from the business buildings.

Our front yard overlooks a marshy area that leads to the Okavango River, part of the Okavango Delta system. Besides many types of land and water birds, we regularly see a type of small mongoose in the yard, and hippos live out in the marsh. We hear them more often than see them, but they occasionally surface so that they are in plain view during the day. Outside the fence and next to the house is a small grassy area leading down to the marsh; there is a daily parade of horses, cows, donkeys and goats in and out of the little pasture. Animals here are "free range", and wander around everywhere in town.

We stayed in Shakawe on Friday and Saturday to meet with Jeff's future colleagues and supervisor, examine the house, and unload some of our belongings. It was a great relief to partially unload after traveling with everything we brought for a two-year stay packed into the back seat and bed of the bakkie. Early Sunday morning we left for Maun, the nearest relatively large city, where we would begin the application process for residence and employment permits. Maun is a four-hour drive southeast of Shakawe.