Gaborone - Post Report Question and Answers
What is the relative size of the expatriate community? How would you describe overall morale among expatriates?
There's not a lot of overlap between the small local expat community and the embassy community, but people are mostly friendly. - Aug 2024
There is a small expat community that is as insular as the host population. Morale is low because there are few social activities to enjoy. The locals tend to stick to themselves as well. - Dec 2023
Morale was not good but it really should have been better. The city is fairly boring but the regional trips are spectacular. Work at the Embassy was fairly quiet and boring. There was a medium sized expat community and about 70 or so Americans at Post. - Jul 2019
The U.S. Embassy has about 70-75 direct-hire Americans. Morale was not very high while I was there. Poor management at the embassy had a lot to do with that, so these factors could change quickly with new leadership. The Health Unit situation really dragged people down because it was an issue that should have been easy for management to resolve. The lack of a resolution appeared to demonstrated a lack of concern for the welfare of the community, in my opinion.
Unreliable home Internet was a local reality that certainly contributed to frustration and low morale. Hopefully local infrastructure improvements will resolve this issue soon. I heard there were issues with the schools that also draining, but I don't know first-hand about these problems. - Apr 2017
Small but intimate. That is a nice thing about Botswana - we all seem to know each other. - Jul 2016
Relatively small, relatively dispersed (hard to meet non-Americans), and morale varies WIDELY. If you find a group that has some common interests (fitness, running, book club, etc.), you can be quite content here. - Mar 2015
Low. - Oct 2014
The expat community seems to be a decent size; however, all of them tend to do their own thing. There are expats here working with the diamond mining operations, diplomatic, etc. I tended to socialize with the American diplomatic community as well as Batswana friends. There were few instances of diplomats being invited to other diplomatic events, but not so common. It is probably because there is a decent amount for people to do in the city, everyone finds their own little niches. Morale seems to be high however when I was there. - Nov 2013
Large but shrinking; word is the government of Botswana is making it more difficult for expats to renew or receive permits and licenses to work here. - Jul 2013
Large - lots of South Africans but diverse. - Apr 2013
The expat community is small in terms of raw numbers, but fairly large percentage wise. You will regularly run into the same people that seem to live life like you do. There are at least a dozen embassies here, as well as numerous expat workers with development NGOs (mostly working on HIV/AIDS issues). - Jun 2010
