For the past three weeks I have been living on the flood plains of the Okavango Delta in Shakawe, Botswana doing volunteer legal work for the Okvanago Trust for Cultural and Development Initiatives (TOCaDI) through a partnership established between Fraser Milner Casgrain, LLP and a Canadian NGO, Uniterra’s Leave for Change Program.
Coming from the 41st floor of First Canadian Place to the first floor of TOCaDI’s vine-covered office was a change of pace, to say the least. One of the few parallels that I can draw between my life in Toronto and that in Shakawe is that I live very close to work in both instances. In Toronto I live a 12-minute walk (in stilettos) from the office, and in Shakawe I’m a two-minute walk (in Birkenstock sandals from which I must first remove the resident lizard who has taken to sleeping in the left shoe!) away. However, in Toronto, I pass by City Hall and no fewer than three Starbucks, while in Shakawe I jump over a tree trunk (crawling with red ants), monitor the path for any snakes and avoid stepping on the mopane worms that look like slinking metal coils basking in the sunshine.
During my time here I’ve come to realize that what would take a couple of hours at the firm can take up to a week in Shakawe, but not for lack of trying. Deals at home can be held up by waiting on title opinions, approval from regulatory bodies and occasionally, restructuring key terms of a transaction. In Shakawe, projects have been delayed by power failures that last for days, elephant damage to structures and vehicles stranded on the side of the road forcing colleagues to hitchhike their way to meetings.
The rainy season means that storms often interfere with the cell phone networks and electricity. When the electricity is off, the water does not work. (You also cannot rely on the water in the shower working at any given time, whether there is power or not. As I write this, I have not had a proper shower in more than a few days!) The rain also turns the roads to the villages here into giant mud puddles of red Kalahari sand, through which not even 4x4s can navigate. Without the ability to communicate by phone, fax or Internet and without the option of visiting clients and beneficiaries in person, work is considerably hampered.
Right now, though, it’s lunch time at the office. Instead of eating at my desk while reading the NY Times or Huff Post, though, lunch at TOCaDI is a one and a half hour affair that everybody takes very seriously. Today I’m looking forward to having bream from the Delta that one of my colleagues caught and cooked for me in order to give me a proper Shakawe lunch before my five-hour bus trip to Maun.
Next time: a look at the complex consultation process here in Shakawe, plus news on my budding career as an IT expert.