Lunch Time

A large percentage of businesses in Botswana retain the traditional British lunch hour closing which is massive pain in the butt.   When you are in Gaborone running around on errands you must be mindful that it is quite likely that one or more of the businesses you want to visit will close from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. or from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. or some other version of an hour off for lunch.

So, if you want to do business during that hour you are totally out of luck and must wait for the business to re-open and possibly for the individual you want to talk to, to return to work.  That is never 100% certainty as many of us never return from lunch promptly at the end of one hour!

It also must be acknowledged that the newer malls around Gaborone are like malls all over the world and maximize their opening hours. Consequently, they stay open through the lunch hour and often well into the early evening.

Power Shedding

One of, if not the biggest frustration living in Botswana is for the tendency for the power to simply cut off at random times and for random lengths of time.  There is never any warning, as far as I can tell and like I say it is totally random.  Mid-morning; afternoon; early evening; late evening; over night.

I think the basic problem is simple; the demand for electricity in southern Africa has shot up through the roof while the ability to produce power has dragged way behind.  Moreover, there seems to be a huge systematic management and oversight issue in the South African Power Authority.

Botswana has limited capacity to produce electricity and for some reason has not jumped on to solar energy in a big way.  For that matter you don’t see much solar energy in new houses.  It seems like a crazy oversight.

So, what invariably happens, and I gather it gets worse in the winter months when a lot of electrical space heaters get switched on, is that power must be rationed or shared.  Power shedding or brownout or the equivalent.  Not an accident, not a transmission problem such as down wired.  Simply no electricity to be used.

No electricity during the daylight hours is a relatively minor convenience compared to after 7 p.m. when it is dark out.  No lights; not much to do.

Interesting enough my laptop and our portable Wi-Fi router are battery operated.  Therefore, the power can go off and if I have kept the laptop charged up, along with the router, I can work away on the computer and on the internet without a bother.  It just becomes a case of learning to keep your equipment charged up.

The other way to adapt is to have a dual gas/electrical stove.  If there is power, you can cook with electricity.  If the power happens to go out.  Turn on the gas (propane) burners and carry on!  Hot tea anytime you want it.

Free Wi-fi??

Possibly apart from the large hotels I have come to learn that in Botswana free wi-fi is an oxymoron.  Free wi-fi means no wi-fi!

Several times I have been in Gaborone and decided to stop at a restaurant for lunch or a coffee shop for coffee and a snack and while there tried to use their advertised free wi-fi to check email during the mid-day.

Each time I have tried it has been an exercise in total frustration!

Speeds must down at the rate of the good old dial-up service which ultimately means your connection gets dropped.  Alternatively, 2 or 3 times at each session the connection gets broken and you must log in again.  Thus, I have concluded until I can get a recommendation from a friend or relative about a good location for internet access in Gaborone, I’m not going to even try anymore.