Homes
10th march 2007
Homes
I have been in a few of the white people’s homes now. (I have been told that the local black people don’t invite you home - we’ll have to see). Just like home you can buy according to how much money you have and there is opportunity to buy big.
However, I seemed to have noticed a difference between those whites who have permanent jobs here in Botswana and those who are moving around from contract to contract. The white Africans (expats) who are moving from contract to contract all have fixed homes somewhere else (most frequently in South Africa but I have heard of a few with homes in Namibia, but rarely here in Botswana. So their houses here in Francistown are mainly rented. These rented homes come unfurnished so they have mix match of furniture and decoration. Cos they all think of their real home as the place they will stay when they retire; depending on how far they move each time and whether their new employer will pay removal fees they take some stuff with them and they buy new stuff where ever they go and keep their real furniture for when they retire. It seems a sad way to live. Never having you own things around you; always waiting in some sense for life to start. Apparently you can sell your second hand stuff quite easily cos new ex pats are always arriving looking for stuff. George didn’t find any stuff like this when he moved in so everything is new but not really all that nice. Functional and basic rather than the beautiful things we have at home. Unlike South Africa or Zimbabwe Botswana doesn’t have a history of a craft culture (except basket weaving), so there isn’t much choice. A lot of the furniture available is like something your granny would think was old fashioned and imported from South Africa.
The main contract work is the mines (here near Francistown they could be copper, gold, diamonds and nickel). When the husbands move the families have to move too and start again. Their children go to private schools: English speaking schools that mainly follow English system of ASA and A levels. Some even board in South Africa when they reach secondary age. The women generally don’t work cos they would have to move home every few years. One of the people I met said the Afrikaners spend all their time shopping and going to the spa. I am not sure what they buy cos although there are a lot of shops here there doesn’t seem to be much you would want to buy. But it takes all sorts I suppose.
Because there are so few homes with security (high walls and electric fences), the rental price is driven up. Many houses are in complexes so they feel like gated communities (ours is in an ordinary street with black, Asian and one other white family so not all the house are security fenced, but it seems to be safe cos we haven’t been robbed yet at all. Most of the white people I have met have stories of fairly regular robberies). The mines will pay well over the odds to house their ex pat managers and their families. (The workers are housed nearer the mines without families). So rent here is extraordinary high. We pay about £500 a month for this house. You could pay upwards of £1000 here a month so if you have any thoughts of this part of Africa being cheap for white people; think again. It would be cheaper in some parts of Botswana. In Gaborone, the capital city, rent for our house would only be around £300. And way out in rural areas it would be cheaper still because they are fewer jobs. Middle class black people live with this kind of security too. Indeed one of the people in this street has 24 hrs security guard and dog walking the grounds.
Our house does have a pool but it is very small- four strokes and you have got to the other end but heh still fab when you are very hot; a small garden front and back, with three bathrooms and three bedrooms. The kitchen is a good size but not well laid out. The house has the potential to be a lovely but the fixtures are cheap and nasty. I am resisting the urge to spend money on a rented house. Floors and carpets are tacky and old. Tiles are poorly fitted, bathrooms leak. But we were lucky to get it cos there are so few houses for rent cos the mines are doing really well just now. I think it might have been better if George had bought property when he arrived and then sold when we left but it seems a waste to do that now cos he has already been here 10 months. But there are even fewer houses to buy and who knows what the situation for resale would be. One woman bought a house in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, 20 years ago to prepare for her retirement and now it is not even possible for her to go there never mind live in the house. She like most others can’t wait for Mugabe to die so that things might improve. I am never sure what it is safe to ask white expats Zimbabweans about Zim cos some seem to talk of Rhodesia with fondness.
The expats who live here permanently have bought their own homes and they are mostly just gorgeous. Well maintained gardens, bigger pools and lovely situations (labour is cheap I’ll talk about this in another update). We were in one last night and the furniture was fantastic. It all came from Zimbabwe before Zim became so impossible to visit. It is really not recommended that any white visit Zim now. The pieces were large, dark and beautifully finished all individually made. She had lots of lovely wall hangings and little bits and pieces – a real home and not just makeshift one. They were British, in their late 50s and don’t think they will retire here cos of the health care system. They both love it though and feel really appreciative of the lifestyle they have here. They don’t want to go back to Britain and hope they don’t have to for quite a while. Here they can afford a full-time maid and a gardener. They wouldn’t get that at home on a teacher’s salary.
You can’t imagine how many people I have met who say they came over for a two year contract and then decided to live here. A lot of the whites in Botswana have moved here from Zimbabwe cos it is too difficult for them there now. Another big group is the white South Africans who are finding it increasingly difficult to find work in South Africa. There is a policy of black citizens first. This policy has come into Botswana too. They advertise for Motswana (someone form Botswana is called a Motswanan) It is becoming increasingly difficult for whites to find jobs here unless you really have a skill that they don’t have yet. It is right to redress several hundred years of injustice and exploitation but many second or third generation white people feel they are African and feel a deep sense of injustice. They don’t want their children to move to Europe to find work but feel they will have to cos there is nothing for them in Africa. Another side to the picture out here you don’t think about back home. It is a very complicated situation. I don’t really understand the subtleties enough to talk about it. But it is interesting times here. Everyone tells me Botswana is very, very different form the rest of Africa. It is stable, well governed, fairly rich in minerals but the government ploughs it back into the infrastructure here rather than lining some official pockets.
But it is still poor. There are people who are starving. Unemployment is running at 27 percent (compared with over 50 per cent in Zambia). In Francis town Aids is running at 68% which is the highest in Botswana. It is mainly cos of the mines so I am told (more about this later).
Homes
I have been in a few of the white people’s homes now. (I have been told that the local black people don’t invite you home - we’ll have to see). Just like home you can buy according to how much money you have and there is opportunity to buy big.
However, I seemed to have noticed a difference between those whites who have permanent jobs here in Botswana and those who are moving around from contract to contract. The white Africans (expats) who are moving from contract to contract all have fixed homes somewhere else (most frequently in South Africa but I have heard of a few with homes in Namibia, but rarely here in Botswana. So their houses here in Francistown are mainly rented. These rented homes come unfurnished so they have mix match of furniture and decoration. Cos they all think of their real home as the place they will stay when they retire; depending on how far they move each time and whether their new employer will pay removal fees they take some stuff with them and they buy new stuff where ever they go and keep their real furniture for when they retire. It seems a sad way to live. Never having you own things around you; always waiting in some sense for life to start. Apparently you can sell your second hand stuff quite easily cos new ex pats are always arriving looking for stuff. George didn’t find any stuff like this when he moved in so everything is new but not really all that nice. Functional and basic rather than the beautiful things we have at home. Unlike South Africa or Zimbabwe Botswana doesn’t have a history of a craft culture (except basket weaving), so there isn’t much choice. A lot of the furniture available is like something your granny would think was old fashioned and imported from South Africa.
The main contract work is the mines (here near Francistown they could be copper, gold, diamonds and nickel). When the husbands move the families have to move too and start again. Their children go to private schools: English speaking schools that mainly follow English system of ASA and A levels. Some even board in South Africa when they reach secondary age. The women generally don’t work cos they would have to move home every few years. One of the people I met said the Afrikaners spend all their time shopping and going to the spa. I am not sure what they buy cos although there are a lot of shops here there doesn’t seem to be much you would want to buy. But it takes all sorts I suppose.
Because there are so few homes with security (high walls and electric fences), the rental price is driven up. Many houses are in complexes so they feel like gated communities (ours is in an ordinary street with black, Asian and one other white family so not all the house are security fenced, but it seems to be safe cos we haven’t been robbed yet at all. Most of the white people I have met have stories of fairly regular robberies). The mines will pay well over the odds to house their ex pat managers and their families. (The workers are housed nearer the mines without families). So rent here is extraordinary high. We pay about £500 a month for this house. You could pay upwards of £1000 here a month so if you have any thoughts of this part of Africa being cheap for white people; think again. It would be cheaper in some parts of Botswana. In Gaborone, the capital city, rent for our house would only be around £300. And way out in rural areas it would be cheaper still because they are fewer jobs. Middle class black people live with this kind of security too. Indeed one of the people in this street has 24 hrs security guard and dog walking the grounds.
Our house does have a pool but it is very small- four strokes and you have got to the other end but heh still fab when you are very hot; a small garden front and back, with three bathrooms and three bedrooms. The kitchen is a good size but not well laid out. The house has the potential to be a lovely but the fixtures are cheap and nasty. I am resisting the urge to spend money on a rented house. Floors and carpets are tacky and old. Tiles are poorly fitted, bathrooms leak. But we were lucky to get it cos there are so few houses for rent cos the mines are doing really well just now. I think it might have been better if George had bought property when he arrived and then sold when we left but it seems a waste to do that now cos he has already been here 10 months. But there are even fewer houses to buy and who knows what the situation for resale would be. One woman bought a house in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, 20 years ago to prepare for her retirement and now it is not even possible for her to go there never mind live in the house. She like most others can’t wait for Mugabe to die so that things might improve. I am never sure what it is safe to ask white expats Zimbabweans about Zim cos some seem to talk of Rhodesia with fondness.
The expats who live here permanently have bought their own homes and they are mostly just gorgeous. Well maintained gardens, bigger pools and lovely situations (labour is cheap I’ll talk about this in another update). We were in one last night and the furniture was fantastic. It all came from Zimbabwe before Zim became so impossible to visit. It is really not recommended that any white visit Zim now. The pieces were large, dark and beautifully finished all individually made. She had lots of lovely wall hangings and little bits and pieces – a real home and not just makeshift one. They were British, in their late 50s and don’t think they will retire here cos of the health care system. They both love it though and feel really appreciative of the lifestyle they have here. They don’t want to go back to Britain and hope they don’t have to for quite a while. Here they can afford a full-time maid and a gardener. They wouldn’t get that at home on a teacher’s salary.
You can’t imagine how many people I have met who say they came over for a two year contract and then decided to live here. A lot of the whites in Botswana have moved here from Zimbabwe cos it is too difficult for them there now. Another big group is the white South Africans who are finding it increasingly difficult to find work in South Africa. There is a policy of black citizens first. This policy has come into Botswana too. They advertise for Motswana (someone form Botswana is called a Motswanan) It is becoming increasingly difficult for whites to find jobs here unless you really have a skill that they don’t have yet. It is right to redress several hundred years of injustice and exploitation but many second or third generation white people feel they are African and feel a deep sense of injustice. They don’t want their children to move to Europe to find work but feel they will have to cos there is nothing for them in Africa. Another side to the picture out here you don’t think about back home. It is a very complicated situation. I don’t really understand the subtleties enough to talk about it. But it is interesting times here. Everyone tells me Botswana is very, very different form the rest of Africa. It is stable, well governed, fairly rich in minerals but the government ploughs it back into the infrastructure here rather than lining some official pockets.
But it is still poor. There are people who are starving. Unemployment is running at 27 percent (compared with over 50 per cent in Zambia). In Francis town Aids is running at 68% which is the highest in Botswana. It is mainly cos of the mines so I am told (more about this later).
posted by George Herd at 7:15 PM
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