We admire and love the writing of Lisa Carver. Her magazine Rollerderby inspired us in our youth, and her career since has been one we’ve followed with delight and enjoyment. We’re even happy to have had her write a few things for us in the past! Her latest book is entitled No Land’s Man, and it is a travelogue of her time in Botswana, paired with her experience in her new hometown of Paris. It’s a fascinating, enjoyable, and highly readable book, and we recommend it highly. We were happy to sit down with Lisa and ask her a few questions about her book.
Before you made the decision to go there, what attracted you to Botswana?
I have been attracted to Africa since I was a little girl and I have no idea why. I’m not attracted to India and I have no idea why not. As soon as my youngest child left the house, I bought a ticket to Botswana, because I read that they treat their animals the best there, and that seemed as good a reason as any.
Your tale could have been “white American in a black country” and present your experiences through that lens. Yet it doesn’t seem to be the case. Is it because of any cynicism and distancing from the concept of being an American that you can see the country in a more open and objective way?
I don’t understand exactly? I WAS a white American in a black country. I did pay some attention to it, of course, but there was so much going on that was a lot more interesting. Like eating fried worms, or monkeys breaking into my house, stealing my food, catching the fish in the fish pond and eating them, and then yelling at me for yelling at them about it!
As for the question, i went through a phase of reading travel lit of olden times, and it all seemed to be, “look at what these noble savages are doing, it’s not like back home, etc.” and a lot of travel comes from that point of view, which i despise because it puts the writer in blinders of Western culture. I didn’t get that from your book. If anything, your natural curiosity abut your surroundings really shone through, which made for an exciting and enjoyable read.
Oh thank you! Yes, supremacy is really gross. It’s like eating potatoes every day of your life and then you go to Japan and think there’s something foul about them that they’re not eating potatoes, and you won’t even try the sushi!
Animals are lurking throughout your story. What was it like for you to be in their territory, and how did it make you feel to be surrounded by foreign wildlife?
The first time I would see, say, warthogs trotting along the dirt sidewalks next to me, or a baboon just hanging out by the gate, of course I was surprised. But after a while it’s just like when we see dogs and cats and seagulls in America.
One thing I noticed about your tale is the presence of religion. How did experiencing both Western religion through the Botswana lens affect your perception of faith, especially with the blending of native religious customs?
I started going to Catholic Church a few years ago, but I haven’t gone through catechism yet or been baptized, so I can’t take the Eucharist, which is the best part. I want to take the body of Christ in me! I still go up to be blessed, but I cross arms over my heart to show no Eucharist for me, and it always makes me feel a little embarrassed and a little abandoned. In Botswana, the Father still wanted me to have that flesh of Christ. He didn’t care if I hadn’t memorized a bunch of stuff. He assumed my heart good, and deserving of another good heart being One with it. By blending of indigenous customs, do you mean how people would hoot and trill and play traditional instruments during the singing parts of church, and birds would swoop in the open doors and join in? That just felt the way it ought to be. I went to more extreme Evangelical hours-long services too because it was the church of my best friend there, and I thought it was very cool for the passion of the Prophet as they called him, but it’s not for me. They’re not down with the homosexuals. I was intrigued by some outdoors traditional African unchurch churches worshipping the gods of nature, but no one invited me and I didn’t want to just bust in on them.
Botswana is, as I take it from your narrative, the least pretentious place on earth. Yet you then go to Paris, perhaps the most pretentious place on earth. Coming from Botswana as you did, did you experience a culture shock, even though you’ve lived there before?
So in Paris, I was definitely getting no Eucharist without catechism and baptism. And now I was addicted! So I signed up for adult catechism, and I had to go to an interview with two ladies, and they asked me all these questions in French that I felt I answered sincerely and satisfactorily, but they decided my French wasn’t good enough for them to be sure I really understood what I was being asked and what I was answering. Botswana ONLY cares about what’s inside you, and whatever it is is good enough, and France ONLY cares about HOW you are, and whatever it is is not good enough. I wouldn’t call it culture SHOCK. I accept each place, person, thing, idea, for what it is; I don’t compare. So I don’t think I could be shocked by anything. I deliberately chose Paris though when my Botswana Visa ran out, because it has the two things I missed that Bots does not: opera and twisted romance.
What are you up to now?
I’m living in Pittsburgh for two months getting a breather from my twisted French romance and starting a new book. I just got back from an hour in an isolation tank and hoo boy! I’m not going to tell you about it in case you’ve never done it, I don’t want to spoil the surprise. Pittsburgh is pretty wild. They’ll try anything twice.
Purchase Lisa Carver’s No Land’s Man: Pig Roast Publishing
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