marks her employer. She is in her twenties. Mma Silvia Potokwane: Matron of the orphan farm outside Gaborone. She is a most persuasive woman, in seeking help for her orphans and keeping the place running. Mr JLB Matekoni donates his time and skill to keep water pumps and the vehicles in running condition. He has known her since his childhood, as she was a friend of his mother. Florence Pena: Maid to Mr JLB for many years. She is upset that her employer is engaged to Mma Ramotswe, who calls her out for the dirty state of his house on her first visit there. She plots to get Mma Ramotswe arrested for having a gun in her home, which plot turns on her, so that she is arrested for having a gun in her own house. Motholeli: Twelve-year-old girl now living at the orphan farm. Her mother died when she was 7, of snake bite. The custom of her people was to bury a newborn still nursing with the mother, if the mother died for any reason. Motholeli recovered her brother from the shallow grave and headed for the road, where a kind couple picked her up. She and the baby were in hospital, as Motholeli had tuberculosis and the boy needed care. Recovered from the worst of it, a woman at the hospital takes the two of them home. She has a recurrence of TB that leaves her unable to walk, and she uses a wheelchair. When that family must relocate for the husband's job, she and her young brother are placed at the orphan farm, a few months before the story starts. Puso: Five years younger brother of Motholeli. He is a lively boy, well-behaved like his sister, who has been caring for him since his birth. He and his sister are of the Basarwa people of Gaborone, hunter-gatherers who live in the bush. Andrea Curtin: American widow, age 55, who lived in Gaborone ten to twelve years earlier with her husband and son. The son disappeared in Botswana after she and her husband returned to the US. Her husband died a few years earlier, and she seeks resolution of the fate of her son, asking Precious Ramotswe to help her. Michael Curtin: Son of American client of Mma Ramotswe, who arrived in Gaborone with his parents just after completing high school. He put off college for a