Botswana Time

Well it didn’t take long to get re-introduced to “Botswana time”.

Right on time at 10:50 a.m. Thursday our South African Express Dash 8 landed at Sir Seretse Khama International Airport and taxied up to within 40 metres of the arrival’s doorway.  It was short walk across the concrete apron and into the arrival’s hall.

Inside we had to fill in a landing card and pass through immigration.  A process that took all of 10 minutes since there was about 14 of us in the line.

Just pass the immigration kiosk was the carousel with all about 7 bags going around.  Lo and behold there were are 4 checked bags and they were quickly loaded onto a trolley and we headed out through the sliding glass doors into the main hall of the airport.

Time to see Binnie for the first time in 5 weeks except she was nowhere to be seen!

Being a large hall with very people inside it was clear we were not missing her.

Gordon asked what we should do, and I said we would head to the drop off/pick up area in front of the terminal.  Out we went and stood in the shade of the building’s overhang.  Again, no sign on Binnie.

Across the road from the drop off area was a little parkette with trees and concrete benches in the shade of the trees.  We wandered over there and parked ourselves on the bench.  Probably 30°C out but pleasant in the shade.

For being an “international” airport, it is not a very busy place and every few minutes another car would come along and drop someone off and drive away.

After about 25 minute a couple of taxi drivers came over and asked if we wanted a lift into town (e.g.  City Centre).   I declined since that was not going to solve anything since, we had no idea where Binnie was and no back up plan to meet up. 

Finally, just before noon, (e.g. 1 hour late) Binnie drove up and we wheeled the trolley over to the drop off area and loaded the trunk and jumped in.

Apparently, she had decided to run a couple of errands before picking us up and each stop didn’t go as expected.  Thus, she got to the airport when she got to the airport.  No harm, no foul.

Thus, not one hour on the ground in Botswana and one was reacquainted with the notion that things may not go as scheduled and you just have to go with the flow.  No need to worry about it or get stressed since things will get done in their own time.

Next up “Botswana time” at the Omang office.