Many people in Botswana have generously given us their time to make this book as authentic as possible. In particular, Andy Taylor, headmaster of the wonderful Maru-a-Pula school in Gaborone, has been extraordinarily patient with all our questions and requests and invaluable for introducing us to people in the know. Alice Mogwe gave us insights about the Chinese presence in Botswana.
Eileen Pooe helped us with Setswana colloquialisms and found us the funeral song. Dr. Tom Combs helped us with medical issues. Finally, Patti Weber helped us a great deal to understand the role and methods of the CIA.
We were very fortunate to have a variety of readers of drafts of this book giving us input and suggestions and catching errors. Our sincere thanks to Jacques de Spoelberch, our agent, Steve Alessi, Linda Bowles, Pat Cretchley, Pat and Nelson Markley, Steve Robinson, and the Minneapolis writing group—Gary Bush, Sujata Massey, and Heidi Skarie. With all their comments, it is hard to believe that the book still has mistakes. But it probably does, and we take responsibility for any that remain.
We are grateful to our editor, Marcia Markland, for her confidence in Kubu, and also to Carol Rutan for the excellent copyediting of this version of the book.