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!

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...

because is A good project

I was greeted with an amusing and horrifying, yet somehow gratifying site this morning.

Our farm manager has done some 'house art'. I found it amusing that someone would actually write that. Horrifying that its permanent...but gratifying that it's in response (I suspect) to all the hard work we've been doing at the farm.

Today didn't disappoint. Moving 11 tonne of manure was hard work- and that was just in the morning! they were heading back after lunch to get some river sand. Unfortunately I had an afternoon meeting..

So, ever wondered what 11 tonne on manure looks like?! Here's my day in pictures...

First it all had to be shovelled into sacks, which took 2 days. Then the guys stacked it all up ready to load into the truck.

50kg bags of manure- on their heads. Most of the time they would pick them up and swing them onto their heads themselves...then RUN!!! But one of the guys is alot smaller and less muscled than the rest (an orphan), so instead of letting him do light duties- they just helped load him up!

Running to the stockpile. I calculated that each worker has carried 9 tonne each in the last 2 days- carrying the bags to the loading area, then loading and unloading the truck.

Several miracles happened today- firstly they managed to fit what I calculated to be about 11 tonne on a 7 tonne truck. Then the truck made it all the way up the bicycle farm track without getting stuck! It was SO exciting having a truck on the track that all the village kids came running all the way up to the farm to see what was happening- then pitched in!

Yup- thats 10 kids carrying a 50kg sack for the fun of it. OH&S would have a fit.

Snapshot US elections

'Obama!'
I stopped. 'Obama! Yes we can!' I replied with a raised fist and a teasing grin. The market fish sellers cheered and the mango seller grinned and launched into a monologue about Obama and America. My language hasn't got to politics yet. After registering my blank expression he returned to business 'Mango ten kwacha ten kwacha'.

I love cross cultural connection, however brief -but sometimes it is on the most random topics!Some events, for better or worse, have massive ramifications. All the way to Mangochi markets? i wonder.
time will tell.

Snapshot

Mangochi's one monument - the bell tower is looking quite speccy at the moment - and isn't costing half as much as Perths bell tower! :-P The sudden onset of flambuoyant tree blooms has brightened the whole town up a lot!

The farm managers brother died last night. bad headache at 6pm, dead by 10pm, buried by 10am. There is no soft focus lens on life here. its raw. it hurts. Three days of mourning, then back to farm work on Thursday. Life goes on. it has to.

Conquering the blues...

...with a weekend road trip!

Cape Maclear is only an hour away- Im wondering why I haven't discovered it before!

holiday blues

Here starteth my whinge:
I think the worst thing about being single and living away from 'home' is holidays and weekends...as in- what do you do with them?
I relished the solitude of weekends for the first 6 months...but now Im just bored.
Then I remembered that I have all these holidays to use and started thinking 'great- where'll I go?' only to realise that the excitement of 'travelling through Africa' has worn off somewhat now that I live here... and if Im bored with weekends- whats my headspace going to be after 3 weeks solo?!
The only place that really interests me is Ille de Mozambique which is 2.5 days away by public minivans and train (and they speak Portuguese not English which sucks when you're lost) OR 1.5 days drive on remote, civil war torn roads...again- neither of which look appealing if you're going solo.
POOR ME!!!!
There endeth my whinge. thank you for reading.
There is a storm brewing. It rained at the farm but hasn't rained down here yet. thunder. cool :)
Im going to go back to reading my 'Lonely Planet' guide for inspiration. wish me luck.

Rain!

I was going to write about the joy of finishing budgets and proposals...or about shovelling 7 tonnes of cow manure today, or maybe even about lunch with 'the crew' at a 'resteraunt' in the market place next to a 'cinema' playing C grade videos so loudly we all had to lip read...

But all of todays events paled into insignificance when it started to RAIN.
yup, huge drops falling from the sky, crashing into the parched earth causing mini craters and puffs of dust like miniature red waves...it looked as though the ground was moving.
The children...half naked, running and dancing along the roadside, muddy rivulets streaming down their pot bellies, faces tilted and arms outstretched to the skies in celebration.
The wet season is coming...

Snapshot

I was admiring a police pick-up today- thinking it was in pretty good nick for a car in these parts... then I noticed it didn't have a windscreen.
eh- windscreens? who needs em!

The RAC

So...once upon a time there were HEAPS of contract workers at the farm and it was the weekend, so there were HEAPS of kids around too... so the whitey decided that since everyone had been working so hard for so long that some music would cheer the place up a bit. There was no radio in sight so the whitey decided to use her car as a giant stereo.


Well, with african rasta blasting out across the landscape, the kids flocked to the car to dance and perform to their reflections in the paint work, while the mothers paused to watch and smile. The young men even heartily joined in singing - busting some moves with their hoes (the other kind)


It was one of those perfect moments really, where everyone is smiling and life is good.



Eventually the music stopped- which didn't surprise the whitey cos her MP3 player was low on battery. She explained with a smile that the battery was flat and continued measuring out contour marker ridges. Little did she know the truth of her words.


An hour later the 6 workers who jovially piled into the car to catch a lift home were sadly disappointed. After working 6am-11am, they found themselves pushing a car uphill along a bike track in the heat of the day. We tried roll starting it 5 times and eventually decided to push it the km back to the gravel road. 15 kids joined in for the fun.


The whitey was frustrated. It was Sunday. She was 45 min drive from help. The flat battery was her own fault. She called her dad :) her dad gave great advice but unfortunately was about 12 hours drive away, so the young men from the local village wandered out to show off their manly car fixing abilities. It was the village spectacle. At one stage a guy sat in the drivers seat pumpinng the clutch saying we needed to get fuel through the lines. The same guy wanted to take all the spark plugs off. Thankfully we didn't have the right tools.


Then a battery appeared from somewhere and they connected the terminals using a knife, a pair of plyers, a piece off the jack and a scrap piece of metal. That managed to get enough power to get the starter motor ticking, so they went off in search of wire and returned with some copper wire from a radio. Two hours after the problem was first discovered it was collectively decided that it was time to start pushing again. This time the bonnet was open with the new battery perched on top of the engine. This time a guy ran along side holding the wires to the terminals. This time the car car roared to life. The village cheered. The kids wooped. The 'mechanics' asked for money. Money paid and arguements settled, the workers once again jumped in the car. Fanta? the whitey asked. Applause. Minutes later everyone was sitting in the shade drinking cold fanta and munching on peanuts, the car quietly idling nearby. 'no more music' the whitey said with a smirk.

Life

Its Saturday 1 pm. I had a much needed sleep in this morning (8.30am) but then the day started. I went to help a friend take some bags of cement to her home so she can render it- which then involved filling up with fuel, discovering a puncture, getting the tyre changed, during which time the farm manager left a missed call on my phone...but I had also run out of credit so i went off to buy some more units from the corner store and called him. 'We have 20 contract workers today!' he exclaimed. He'll need more money. We'll need to make sure all the contour marker ridges are measured out and dug so the new workers dig the ridges at the correct angle...I said I'd be there by 3pm. Meanwhile my friend gave me more money to purchase the remaining bags of cement- which I brought and loaded up, then stopped in at the markets to get some fruit- bananas and mangoes. the mangoes (ive got one stickying up my left hand right now!) are still pretty green and sour- but mango all the same! I was home by 12, ready for some breakfast. I'll leave at 2.15pm drop the bags of cement off on my way to the farm and spend the cooler afternoon marking out contours with an 'A frame', wooden pegs and a hoe, wondering how my Saturday got reduced to 2 hrs and 15 min...

Things are coming along really well at the farm though. 25 workers- 5 labourers and 20 contract workers for the next week means there is hope of egetting everythign done before the rains come. We've had a lot of trouble getting enough people to work- even after I figured out there was a boycott over pay which we managed to sort out. If there is meant to be 5, there will ususally bye 2 or 3. If we've got 10 lined up- we'll get 7. "Too many funerals' the farm manager said one day. 'Everyday there is a funeral! - its not good. ' I asked if the people were dying suddenly from malaria or accidents - or had they been sick a long time? They've all been sick a long time. AIDS. don't let the thought creep into your head that its not a big problem. It affects EVERY aspect of life here.

So- my Farm report:

- We've finished the farm plan and decided what to plant where- now we're working on sourcing the seeds and fertiliser etc

- The water management drain is 75% finished and the extra contract workers means the 5 labourers will be available to work on it solidly over the next few days...miracle!

- I've found a local farmer who has about 15 tonne of cow manure he's happy to have cleared away for free?! and a sympathetic local farmer who's willing to let us use his 7 tonne truck at fuel cost price...another miracle. i know I found chicken poo- but it's too strong withount months of composting and we haven't got time. Ive moved it to next years 'to do' list.

- I've been sourcing all sorts of tree seedlings to plant at the first rains while we're waiting to have resources and time to set up our own nursery. Those materials are slowly coming together too, but we should have about 100 fruit trees and 200 woodlot trees ready to plant in the next few weeks. yay!

- our training facility? it fell down. I don't really want to talk about it. lets call it a cultural learning experiance for me-and leave it at that! :-z

- I've also been told there is a donation that I can acces for the farm - so ive been busy not only dreaming big, but researching prices and the best way to go about getting things done and putting together a proposal and budget for the next 12 months...

So yeah- Ive been busy, along with continued language learning and still not feeling 100% after the virus/infection I had last week. Ive also been staying overnight sometimes - housesuitting a friends house near the farm which is awesome to save driving...but there's no internet!!!! waaaa :-) so im getting lots of work done- but feeling very disconnected from the outside world. well- my weekend ends in 10 min. better pack my overnight bag.

til next time

twenty tonnes of chicken poo...

The highlight of the week was...
thats right- chicken poo. more precisely finding someone who can supply me with twenty tonnes of it! "but i don't have any boys to spare- you'll have to bring your own, and they'll need gumboots. That pit is pretty deep" ... after a slight cringe I was stoked. Now I just gotta organise the finances and the truck and the shovels and convince the MEN to pick it up- or maybe next year :)

Other than that, this week has been pretty frustrating. Feeling unwell Monday, trip to the doctor Tuesday and an overnight in Blantyre due to not feeling well enough to take on the 2.5hr drive home solo. Wednesday...got home in the morning and spent the afternoon sleeping. Thursday went out to the farm, attended a staff meeting, sourced manure, got home and slept 2.5 hrs heavily before dragging myself up to make dinner.

Today...we've agreed the antibiotics aren't working, my 'annoying health issue' seems to have become a throat infection of some description and im not up to driving. SO, someone will drive me to the doctors again tomorrow. yay. The good news is that this time the doctors visit will be combined with catching up with my mum who's in Lilongwe for the weekend (Yay!). bad news is that Lilongwe is 4hrs drive rather than 2.5hrs. oh well.

The farm...is progressing painfully slowly. The rains are coming SOON and there is so much to do! how to prioritise? As always, we'll do our best.

A visit to the doctor

Often living here doesn't feel difficult. We still eat, cook, sleep, work... but tonight I found myself packing for a doctors visit tomorrow- and it suddenly struck me as odd. I've never packed an overnight bag for a routine doctors visit before...
its ok- it's not an emergency. im not dying- I'd just like a quick visit to the doctor to get a niggling health issue checked. Easy, right? call in the morning, make an appointment, show up, wait an hour, see the doctor, go home.
Not so Malawi.
Because I refuse to attend the local hospital (which services almost a million people and probably wouldn't look at me anyway cos I don't look sick) I have to get up at 5 am, leave for the nearest city at 5.30am (less people and animalian traffic on the road), drive for 2.5hrs, then I have 2 options- walk into emergency at one of the private hospitals, or take a ticket at the doctors and wait for my number to be called. See the doctor, then I can go home.
Unless...I'm given a prescription to fill, in which case I'll probably spendthe next few hours trying to locate a chemist that has the prescribed medicine in stock... and then do our grocery shopping and then drive 2.5 hrs home again. OR
Even worse- I might need tests- which means either way I'll end up in the emergency department of a private hospital and invariably stay the night whilst waiting for test results. Last time I went to the doctor I had to talk him out of sending me to South Africa for the day!
Sometimes life here conspires to be difficult, but thank God for access to health care I say