touch down

We flew over the Kalahari today- who woulda thought I'd ever do that?! from the air it looked like the nullabor- trees dotted on the baked red earth, melting into a shimmery blue haze that blended into the clear blue sky... beautiful.

It was really weird landing though- there was desert tinged in green from the recent rains on one side and mountains on the other. No sign of inhabitants or houses let alone a capital city and the next thing we're landing and all around was green grass and stunted trees. It felt eerily like coming into Albany airport and i started wondering if i was in the right place- what on earth is this country going to be like if they put their international flights down in the middle of nowhere! Not a single house or sign of infrastructure...except for a great big international airport terminal and a couple of south african Airline planes sitting incongruosly on the tarmac. I stepped out of the cold plane into the sunny warm breeze. From the ground level the horizon was nothing but a mirage shimmer. the sky was so-big.... i grinned from ear to ear. yup- im in the right place

Moz in Pics

Mozambique is cool...

I like the vibe and I like the concept of sleeping with a doona. mmm. I'd forgotten how well you can sleep when it drops below 30 deg and you're not sweating all night. When there's no glaring security lights or guards boots crunching the gravel outside your window at 12, and 2am and 4am...then the good 'ol knocking off goss session at 5am... yeah, ive slept well here.
The language course has been good too. Very technical - with heaps of unavoidable grammar jargon, but great value. After 5 months of daily language lessons and ongoing weekly ones and already operating in the language at a very crude level, its exciting to finally have so much of it explained. did you know there are about 140 ways of saying 'this, that, these and those'? Only one word for love/like though :)
Bread... Moz has great bread, which my stomach hasn't really appreciated, but my taste buds have. Salad sandwiches for lunch! what a treat.
So, the vibe...is a lot more relaxed and casual than mangochi. Not quite as traditional dress wise (ie I saw a mini skirt and almost went into shock the other day!) plus alot more people seem to speak Portuguese here than English in Mangochi. Better education system?! People are really friendly. I got bewildered at the ATM the other day trying to convert the meticals to USD to AUD to figure out how much to withdraw and when the session timed out, 6 people crammed into the booth with me to help! hehe
well my computer time is up so I'll have to tell you all about border crossings and how stunningly beautiful it is here another time...
bye!

Holidays Reds (opposite of blues?!)

If I don't post over the next month or so it's not cos Im slack (like usual)- its cos I FINALLY got a cool holiday plan :)
Next week I'll be in Mozambique doing an intensive language course, then Im off to Namibia for a 2 week camping adventure tour, then a week in Joburg doing boring stuff, then... catch up with my folks in Lilongwe adn be back 'hone around the 10th of january. See you then? watch this space for Namibia pics :)

Catch Up

Where do I start?! Its been such a chaotic few weeks with more adventures on the horizon. SO once again, I've turned to my photos to jog my memories, and help give you a 'visual' on the action :)

A few weeks ago the organisation I work for ran a permaculture training course for 12 schools in the district. My understanding is that it's somehow connected to World Health Organisation and all the school feeding programme signs that have popped up all over the district recently.

There's been a fair bit of discussion about whether feeding kids at school is a good or a bad thing - lets just say that in some cases there are unintended consequences such as parents stopping feeding their kids at home now that food is terribly scarce... BUT the idea of the permaculture is that the schools can have school gardens that will teach the kids good skills and supplement the maize porridge they are recieving with a something more nutritious.

A major part of the permaculture course is promoting a varied diet contiaing the 6 food groups each day, so the lunches were always a source of great amusement and/or complaint! Unfortunately the training was all in Chichewa, so i did my bit ferrying people morning and afternoon and after a few days discovered it was much more fun helping the cooks preparing food under the tree outside.

My language helper really appreciated the opportunity to learn about a different kind of farming and was teaching her extended family all that she had learnt at the end of each day. They are planning on getting a garden started inthe next few weeks.

RAIN. oh boy did it rain, and overflowed the rain gauge so all I know is it was 100mm +. I am very happy to report that the drain we've been building for months coped very well and only breached in one place. That was actually quite gratifying (in an egocentric way) because it was a portion of the drain I had asked to be widened and the workers basically boycotted and told me it would be fine. huh! the design plans never lie!

Anyways, I was concerned about the bit of damage we got from the river where the drain breached, but the farm manager wasn't worried at all- in fact he was grinning from ear to ear when he told me that if it had rained like that last year (without the drain), all the ridges would have washed away and we would have had to start all over again!

the drain has even attracted some unusual wildlife!

The other great thing that happened is that the money came through for the farm operating costs, so we were actually able to buy seeds. We've got maize. We're a real farm now.

The photo below is about $3000 in the highest currency available. Just imagine a wholecash economy with $5 as the highest currency. crazy huh?

The rain also brings the bugs. One day as i was driving to the farm, I noticed groups of kids clutching a cup in one hand and twig in the other squatting by the sides of the road collecting something. The car was kicking up little clouds of something that looked like chaff. Curiosity finally got the better of me adn I pulled over to see what all the fuss was about. The white clouds were piles of insect wings adn the kids were collecting.... flying ants.

They are a real delicacy here and a great source of priotein, so when offered, I quickly popped one in my mouth before I had time to be grossed out. not bad. not great either.

Unfortunately we haven't had great follow up rains, so the crops are just popping up and everyone is holding their breath to see what happens next. Its been a really late season. Thankfully the farm gets more rain up on the plateau than down here in town. We get heaps of thunder and lightning along the lake shore- even taking out our internet- but it never amounts to much.

I 've been LOVING the cloud formations and the clear air that lets you see for miles... I know photos really don't do it any justice- but here's a shot.

One final thing to write about- I got invited to a 5 yr old birthday party last week and it was SO MUCH FUN!!! made me realise just how much aI miss having a social life. The swimming pool madness was finished off with a glorious braii (BBQ) with *sob* LAMB chops...

I was in heaven and really enjoyed just hanging out and chatting and watching the guys paly pool until late in the night- well, 9pm I think it was- but thats late for me nowdays.

Well, thats the summary of the last few weeks- and the internets just gone off so im hoping I don't lose it all. sigh. one of the reasons I don't blog as often as i should. cross fingers....3 hrs later ...please...