A stroll through Government Enclave and Central Business District

Zombie post brought back to life after a few months of abandonment.

This morning I found myself at the bottom end of Main Mall, Gaborone without any wheels (that’s another story) and, since the weather was favourable, decided to walk home.

Gaborone is a relatively young capital city, with almost none of it having been built before the 1960s.  I didn’t take any pictures in Main Mall as it was all a bit grey, in fact everything was a bit grey and a battered phone camera lens gives everything a dodgy soft-focus effect.

Government Enclave was pretty much deserted, except one hawker with a set of scales and an assortment of chest-expanders, I need to go back and see what his unique selling point is.

Parliament Building

Continuing towards the new Central Business District you pass the Ministry of Health and Attorney General’s Chambers.

I then crossed Nelson Mandela Drive and the railway into the New Central Business District, home to more architectural wonders complete and incomplete.  Some of them have been incomplete for years.  I can’t bring myself to comment on the architectural, urban planning and construction achievements… draw your own conclusions.

Eventually you get to the northern end with the High Court and Three Dikgosi (Chiefs) Monument.

Gaborone Central Business District panorama at the eastern end.

There was a wedding group taking pictures at the Three Dikgosi Monument, and having had my eye caught by a BMW in a used car showroom the cars associated with the group caught my eye (mainly for the wrong reasons…).

From CBD I strolled out onto Willie Seboni (a road) and up hill past the Mass Media Complex (Botswana’s equivalent to Broadcasting House), across the Western Bypass and home.

A pleasant stroll through parts of central Gaborone showing that you don’t need to drive everywhere: the slow lane can be just as interesting.

Pastorpreneurs

Seems like there’s a need among “prophets” and “pastors” to “own” business jets in order to better serve their victims congregations. To save me turning to Google for the debunking I’ve decided to keep notes here .

Please don’t be taken in by self-appointed preachers promising wealth, health and happiness: you get that by your own ingenuity.

From one of the articles linked below:

Malawi24 asked a psychologist to interpret what the aim of Bushiri was in making the lies.

“Bushiri is a conman, he pulls all these stunts to impress desperate people. The aim is that when people see that they will be convinced he has the message from God and will give him their money. In the end, his business is just on track,” said the psychologist who opted for anonymity.

Bushiri

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Botswana Price

You would expect that when there is a “special price” sign on the shelf it is the best deal going on, and that is cheaper to buy in bulk.

Shop management use all manner of deceptions to capture our attention and extract more of our money from us, some of which are prohibited in places where consumer protection is taken seriously.

A simple one to start off with, 2 for slightly more than the price of 1:

Single lemons for P4.95, two in a pack for P12.40
Multiplication matters.

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Flowetry Food Farm – pop up things

Every once in a while there comes a Saturday when I am not traveling or doing something ridiculously arduous, this weekend was one of them.  Since it was school holidays I had a house full of offspring we had to find something to do, and one of them had heard about The Food Farm, an event organised by Flowetry Media House.

Flowetry Food Farm event at Three Dikgosi
Flowetry Food Farm event at Three Dikgosi

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