How I got a chicken

I had two, ten year old boys play chicken with my car today. Not cool. I missed the 1st one by inches and thankfully my friend in the car behind managed to miss the 2nd. I wish I had enough Ciyawo, or presence of mind in the pumping adrenaline to get out and demonstrate /explain to the boys just how hard a car is... I really think they have no idea.

That's a chicken story, but not strictly the chicken story- so let me start....An old man in one of the villages I pass through loves to greet me and chat. I really struggle to understand him- but he is un-phased. Somedays he susses out what time I'll be heading back to Mangochi and what day I'll be returning past his house and catches a lift . After the last such lift, he got out thanking me profusly and said something about a chicken. It was explained to me that he wanted me to wait while he caught a chicken for me...so I explained that I really appreciated the sentiment but couldn't possibly take a chicken off someone- especially in the hungry season. and un-verbalised was the thought that -what on earth would i do with a live chicken anyways?!

I noticed the translation didn't remotely resemble my answer, coming out more along the lines of 'lisiku line' or 'another day' than my 'Im rich, you're poor , Im not accepting your gift ' arrogance. It is arrogance- to think that no one can give me stuff. This last year I've learned to accept the rich gifts of acceptance, friendship, hopsitality and time that people offer me. Gifts that are difficult to reciprocate as a foreigner who can't talk properly and misses most of the cultural cues... but it seems i'm still clinging to the right to be the one that doesn't need any 'stuff' from anyone else...

So today, as I was sitting on the front verandah chatting about farm things, a girl appeared with a chicken, unceremoniously squawking and dangling from its armpits while they tied its legs with grass. A female chicken they announced proudly. I asked what its name was and they said 'chicken' as if I was stupid. 'No- lets give it a proper name kids- what shall we call it?' 'chicken' came the reply. Ok-'chicken' it is. Oldy, but a goody.

Half way down the mountain on a particulary sharp corner I almost jumped out of my seat when 'chicken' objected to the level of cetrifical force. I'd completely forgotten she was there!
So...now the question is, what am I going to do with a live chicken?

Tropical Nasties III- Tunga Penetrans

This post is not for the queezy or the faint hearted. In fact- the thought still makes my stomach churn...but I feel it is part of my role to educate the rest about the joys and dangers of the 'warm heart of Africa'...although I've ben assured my little critter although discovered in Namibia started hitch-hiking from Mozambique. Im still not convinced. I've converted to covered shoes outside regardless of the heat!

So- the Chigoe Flea, Jigger Flea or 'matukenya' as it's called here, lives in sandy soil and needs a plentiful food supply to raise a family, so the female- less than 1 mm long, seeks out a host (me) and burrows under the skin and lays up to 200 eggs in a every increasing sized nest. The give away is the airhole at the top from which the hatched larvae drop out to strat the cycle all over again.

How did I know I had a jigger in my toe? well - I couldn't feel the whole corner of my toe- which I thought was a bit sus...and there was a little cysty thing that was getting bigger each day and little white- what looked like grains of sand (eggs) kept popping out the hole at the top which looked suspiciously like an airhole...
I didn't want to believe it but a guy on the bus caught me looking at my toe and exclaimed- 'oh- you've got a jigger flea!' as If I'd just won the lottery. woohoo

We were on tour in the middle of the Namibian desert at this stage, nearest private hospital several days away...so I opted for a local hospitla in a tiny little town we were passing through the next day. The Doctor was really excited. He'd heard about Jiggers- but never actually seen one...or extracted one. So they applied the 'butcher' method. Rip it open, trawl for survivors.

Pop!

The whole family...

trawling.

By this stage I was really struggling to hold my leg still and was yelling out in pain enough to deter other patients waiting outside from coming in. So they decided to give me anaesthetic. Im not sure what was more painful- the extraction or the 3 deep injections for the anaesthetic?! I grabbed my camera and took pics to distract myself from being sick...

Then she trawled some more just to make sure there were no jiggers left to set up house...and it was all over.

I walked back to the bus and went into shock afew hours later. weak as eh?! :)

they did a good job. no more jiggers.

Namibia in Pics III

Dead Vlei at Soussevlei. Once upon a time there was a big river flowing in this area- until the winds piled up the sands of the Kalahari, cutting of the river and forming the highest dune fields in the world. The air is so hot and dry that the trees trunks have almost petrified. It's hard to get perspective on the sheer size of these Vlei's hidden among the dunes- but me and about 20 other people were inthe Vlei when this photo was taken. We're jsut really, really small.... :)


Koolmanskoop was a diamond mining town opened in the early 1900's. It operated for about 50 years, housing 100 white men and thier families inthe town and 300 Africans in barracks. All the waterwas brought in from Luderitz about 50 km away. It is now a ghost town, but amazing to walk around and hear the echoes of life in the sand-drifted houses.


Koolmanskoop

Koolmanskoop

Enjoying the view of Fish River from the top of the truck

Fish River upstream of the canyon. The other side is South Africa where a heard of goats were enjoying a drink. This is also part of the Diamond 'no go' zone where Namib Diamonds and deBiers (sp?!) et al are quitely making a fortune.

Fish River Canyon is the 2nd biggest Canyon in the world. It was really hard to comprehend the size when standing on the edge- let alone in a photo?!

Enjoying the view of Fish river canyon

The giant's playground

Quiver tree's and aloes at sunset.

When I was a young warthog....

I love warthogs.

A baby seal escaping the mid-day heat under the walk way at Cape Cross- which got it's name from the several tonne rock cross erected at the site by a Portuguese explorer. The real cross is now in a museum somewhere in Portugal and 2 replicas keep the tourists happy.

The seals at Cape Cross - Skeleton Coast. The smell was unbelievable.

True desert. Hundreds of kilometers of nothing was mind boggling. So we decided to stop for a fashion shoot!

The famous 'white lady' painting of Brandburg mountain, which is - of course- neither female nor white...

A Herero woman by her trinket stall. The Herero speak the same language as the Himba, but were influenced by the missionaries long ago.

Rock carvings at Twyflfontein are connected with the ceremonies that used to take place here -and were also used to teach children about the different animals and their tracks.

the 5 'fingers' on the head of the giraffe supposedly represents the 'out of body' man-animal experience of the shamans/witchdoctors, and the elongated legs representing the sensation of rising as they united with the spiritual realm...

The view at Twyflefontein

Namibia in Pics II

One of my favourite things abotu camping is the campfire. Just beautiful on cold desert nights.


never seen one of these in Australia before!

Dead Vlei

Dune 45 at Soussevlei. What a climb!

View from the top of Dune 45. Highest Dunes in the world (up to 360m!) on one of the worlds oldest deserts

A random service station called 'Solitaire' that had a really cool old car wreck collection... and of course German beer

A car accident 50km from anywhere. They were ok- but the car wasn't.

Lunch under a tree. the only tree...

Nama kids

Im back in Malawi. Had a fantastic holiday. More pics to follow shortly, but Im not feeling up to uploading any more tonight. I think Ive got Bilharzia. not sure whats worse- the parasites tracking through my internal organs or the treatment? I'll let you know in the morning :-z more gruesome holiday parasite stories (and extraction photos) to come!

Namibia in Pics I

The open road


A couple of guys playing 'bau'-the big version :)

A Himba woman in traditional clothing.

Wilderbeast- Etosha National Park

Wet Season sunrise- Etosha National Park

A disinterested cheetah- Africat.

Stately giraffes- Etosha National Park

Hehe!