Monday, May 22: We started the day early to accomplish some necessary business before leaving on a four-hour drive east to Nata, the village where Jeff lived from 1989 through most of 1994. In order to remain in Botswana longer than the thirty days allowed tourists, we must obtain employment and residence permits. We tried unsuccessfully to begin the application process before we left the U.S., then decided that our presence in the country might ease the process.

We also needed to arrange for vehicle insurance with a Botswana company, since our bakkie was purchased and registered in the Republic of South Africa, but will be used primarily in Botswana. As we will want to pay insurance premiums using Jeff's salary, which is paid in Botswana's currency, the pula, we wanted a bank account in Maun (as noted in an earlier post, Shakawe has no banks).

Our first task was an attempt to open a checking account with a famous international bank which shall go unnamed, because our experience as potential customers was disastrous; however, one of our friends living in Botswana refers to it as "Bonkley's."

Next, we obtained the forms to apply for employment and residence permits. As might be expected with documents designed by and for government use in any country, the forms are lengthy, imprecise and seem designed to elicit arcane and unimportant information. One of the documents requires a doctor's certification that, to put it politely, we are of "sound minds." We will visit a doctor's office on our return drive through Maun next Monday, and fill out the forms after we return to Shakawe.

Fortunately, later in the morning we enjoyed a wonderful experience while applying for a checking account at a different bank, Stanbic. The attitude toward customer service at Stanbic was outstanding, a radical departure from the indifference bordering on hostility that was shown to us earlier. Feeling much more positive about the general bureaucracy, we left for Nata at 1 p.m.