Black Mamba's

Did you know a black mamba is not black at all? nope- it's a light grey-brown colour. Apparently they are called 'black mamba's' because of the inky black colour of the inside of their mouths.

Thankfully I haven't had the opportunity to inspect them that closely.

It's Africa's most poisonous snake- the 'dead in 20 min if you get bitten' variety. It's also the fastest snake that can travel up to 14.4 Km/hr and can rise up and strike at 1m.

What has sparked this sudden interest in poisonous snakes for me? Well, our gardener killed a 1.5m long black mamba in our backyard today.

I'm strangely attracted to snakes, but I must admit I'm glad we're rid of this one.

Traffic lights!!

Who woulda thought this ol' town of bicycles and blackouts would ever be counted as worthy of traffic lights?! Well a set has arrived!
The first few days people gathered 'round to watch in awe as the lights changed from green... to orange... to red... to green...
a few days after that the bicycles were starting to get the hang of stopping on red and going on green.
Unfortunately the trucks and minivans who often pass through town doing 100km+ haven't got the hint yet...and the lights go out when there's a black out too, which doesn't help matters!!
I guess all changes take people a while to get used to.

Rural Kenya

Rural Kenya, what a beautiful place! We spent 2 weeks in the western part, Nyanza province past Kisumu near Lake Victoria. The Australian Government DFAT Travel Warnings said:

• "We advise you to exercise a high degree of caution in Kenya at this time due to the high risk of terrorist attack, civil unrest and high crime levels.
• We advise you to reconsider your need to travel to Kisumu in Nyanza province and the Nairobi suburbs of Kibera, Mathare, Kasirani and Eastleigh due to high crime levels.

But I bet they never have any fun on their travels. They've never chatted to real Indonesians and asked them what they thought about the Bali bombings the week after. I'm sure they were miles away from the tsunami too and have never been through a Madagascan military check point with machine guns waving about. You know what? They've probably never even left Australia. Well- best of luck to 'em. Kenya was great. We drove straight past one the hotels where lots of people were killed in the post election violence. We drove through several youth peace marches. Kenya is fine- they don't want the violence either.

So... back to rural Kenya- it really is a beautiful place! Let me show you...

Walking through farms with the late afternoon rain setting in.

A guava flower

A tree full of Weaver bird nests.

Beautiful local kids.

Funky house art. Actually, the houses really fascinated me 'cos they weren't made from bricks or timber- they were constructed with a scaffolding of light timber, then filled in with a mud/cow manure mixture. When that dries it was rendered with a manure/coloured clay mixture- a perfect canvas for all sorts of pictures! I was also really impressed that, unlike the village houses here, almost everyone had a tin roof!

Agriculture was also much more mechanised than anything I have ever seen here, with bullock teams used to pull ploughs and even this tractor!

AND, I heard my first donkey brey- which had me giggling for the next 10 min! I used to play a piece on piano the went 'sweetly sings the donkey at the break of day, if you do not hear him this is what he says...Eeeawww! eeaaaw! Eaw, Eaw Eaaawww!' well- my piano playing didn't come near to the noise these donkeys made. Donkeys are firm proof that God has a sense of humour!
So, contrary to what you are now thinking, I didn't go to Kenya for holiday- it was actually for 'professional development'. Yes, we did do some work!
Every morning we would be woken by the 6am news on the radio. We'd get up, have a lovely brekky of pancakes of donuts, or french toast and hot Kenyan coffee with our hosts and the team for the day, then about 9am we'd set off walking and walk and walk carrying lots of equipment til we stopped for a substantial lunch, then we'd walk and walk again until it got dark or we got rained on- whichever happened first :)

I was accompaying the guy who did the water management plan for the demonstration farm here in Malawi tolearn what I could as he prepared plans for several farming valleys in Kenya. (yes- I know you'll be reading this Prof!).

It really hit me while i watched him work in Kenya that the success the demo farm has been this year actually wasn't cos I put together a good cropping plan and threw money at it- it was because (thanks to the Prof) we had a handle on the fundamental stuff- harnessing the resource of water instead of letting it destroy everything. As we trudged up and down each valley in Kenya, he tried to talk me through what he was doing and seeing- what was driving his decisions- which is when i realised how much hard work it is. Not just the walking and lugging laser levels, but seeing what's really in the landscape and interpreting it correctly.

This planning is essential and fundamental to man living in harmony with his environment. To get the most out of it without destroying it ie-good farming. All the other 'management' stuff we promote in the 'environmental management' field (trust me- Im the author of many an EM Plan) are just bandaid solutions.

This method integrates everything...which has consequences for me....
so back to some photos!

Using the laser level in 'tiger country'. Nah not really- but the guys were in there for a few hours hacking a path- which the cows promptly decided to utilise!

2 members of the 'agricultural committee' taking a breather.

Hi guys-
sorry for the lack of posts! Life's been busy and now... Im in Kenya for the next few weeks.
SO- watch this space late April for my Kenya report!
xoxo

Hospitals and Reality Checks

I had a lovely morning at the village. Lots of kids, chatting, de-stringing pumpkin leaves, chatting, de-kernalling maize, eating together, chatting :)

I had driven to the village cos my bike had 2 flat tyres that I couldn't be bothered fixing given the heat. I left to come home a bit after 12 and one of my friends caught a lift to take some of the food we had just prepared into the District hospital where her friend had been with her sick baby all week.

A kilometer down the road we came across a strange sight. 3 men pushing a bicycle with a cane chair strapped to the small rack on the back with 2 women following behind loaded with provisions. It took me a moment to see the woman slumped in the chair and realise this was an ambulance. I pulled over. Was she alive or dead? I tend to stop functioning around dead bodies and the RAV isn't exactly a great hearce substitute. At least the canopied ute's and Troop carrier (utilised here for friends funerals) have a bit of space between the body and the driver... I was already out of the car, greeting the ladies, opening all the doors and moving stuff out the way. The woman was alive- but very out of it. Malaria? I asked. yes. They all squished in. I closed all the doors, cranked the airconditioner and drove swiftly, breathing a quite prayer of thanks. She had a chance at survival now. They were 11 km from the hospital. It was 30degrees in the shade. If the woman hadn't died of cerebral malaria on the way there she probably would have died from dehydration.

10 min later we pulled up at the hospital. The front entrance was a puddle with bricks for stepping stones thanks to the heavy rains the last few days. We walked in and helped ourselves to a wheel chair into which the woman was unceremoniously manouvered, her feet still in the car. They pulled the chair back and I lunged to catch her legs. Too late. Thud onto the ground. She grimmaced with pain. No 'deluxe model' foot rests here. My last sight of her was slumped in the wheel chair being pushed through the puddle with one of the ladies walking awkwardly in front carrying her legs. It was de-humanising. I felt insulted at the system.

I parked the car and my friend and I continued on our original mission- visiting a sick baby. We quickly found the room, waded through the ladies and found a patch of floor to sit on. We then greeted everyone in the room and the chatter resumed while I held the sick baby who seemed to be on the mend. The crowdedness shocked me. There were about 2o women in the room and 10 babies - (mostly prems) that I could spot. The facilities were 3 steel cots, 2 bedside tables and 2 plastic covered matressess on the floor. The room was the size of a bedroom. I quietly asked my friend whether all these women slept here? 'no' she responded- just the ones with babies- the rest sleep in the kitchen. Again I felt insulted at the system.

In some ways, living here has really desensetised me to some aspects of poverty. It's a coping mechanism. But some days I just get incensed. A little kid that lives near the farm died this week from malnutrition - lack of protein. Her little body swelled up horribly.
I T 'S N O T R I G H T !!!!!
There is something terribly wrong when one third of the world live in almost obscene wealth, thinking it's our right?! Demanding not just the necessities of life, but comfort and entertainment and a new car or another tv
Meanwhile ....meanwhile the rest fight for survival. And fight they do.

African Money Issues

Recently some of us whities have been having chats about money. You see- being the hungry season and all, the number of people we don't know knocking on the gate hoping for some assistance and the frequency of people we do know asking for 'loans' has significantly increased...and it's frustrating feeling like an ATM.

So the questions of how do I respond? and who am I obligated to? and for how much? are all pretty pertinent at the moment.

I decided one day to bring up the topic with my friend Mama J and the farm manager on the way to work. They both have incomes and are also on the giving end of the social security system here. How do they respond? Well, they give to their families, relatives and if someone is really in need. I asked how they ascertained 'real need' and they answered that you look to see whether they are able to work, or find out if they have parents who can help them and if not- then you help.

Mama J said that even though she doesn't give materially to everyone- she always recieves people and at least listens to their story even if she can't help. She reminded us of the part in the Bible where at the final judgement Jesus welcomes the righteous and says:

'Come, you who have the blessing of my Father, into the kingdom made ready for you before the world was:
For I was in need of food, and you gave it to me:
I was in need of drink, and you gave it to me:
was wandering, and you took me in;
I had no clothing, and you gave it to me:
when I was ill, or in prison, you came to me.
and the righteous respond and say 'Lord, when did we see you in need of food, and give it to you? or in need of drink, and give it to you? And when did we see you wandering, and take you in? or without clothing, and give it to you? And when did we see you ill, or in prison, and come to you?'
And Jesus answers them ' Truly I say to you, Because you did it to the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'

Well, feeling very encouraged, with all the answers worked out, we pulled up at the farm, got out of the car and were greeted by a lady mumbling insitantly about my chitenje (cloth wrap). I only had the one I was wearing with me and I wasn't about to give it to her. She had burn scars all down one side of her face and was wearing a 'national disibilities day' chitenje herself. Then she started saying something about money. We all recoiled. The others told her in no uncertain terms to go away and I left them to it...well, actually I only got about 3 steps before my hipocrisy slapped me in the face and made me turn around. I said to the others- 'stop! this is our test- are we really going to send her away with nothing AND treat her with disrespect?!'

Someone said something about her always asking for things and never being satisfied. Meanwhile she was getting quite agitated and talking loudly and incomprehensibly. The workers were jeering at her. The other two stood silently. I prayed.

'What about we offer her some work? she can come and harvest beans with us, then I'll pay her.' The farm manager offered an emphatic 'No', and that was the end of my ideas, so I suggested we start work (sending off the workers), said a respectful goodbye and followed them. Fail

A few minutes later she showed up again and quietly started harvesting beans with us. We all worked together. She seemed to enjoy the company. After an hour or so the farm manager finally greeted her and asked her name. Then she started talking with Mama J and said she wasn't working for money. She wanted to say thank you to her friend (pointing at me) who had given her the chitenje at the Natioanl Disibilities Day held a few months earlier in the area. A colleague of mine had organised it all and this lady had got us mixed up (apparently all whities look the same). I suddenly felt really bad aboout the whole misunderstanding at the car. I said that I would pass on her thanks to my colleague but that I was a different white person who worked on this farm. She looked really bewildered so I introduced my self.

When the harvesting was finished she said good bye and I paid her a small amount and she left. 'Now your friend will come back looking for you every day' the farm manger said reproachfully. 'That's ok' I thought. I pray that she left not only with a little cash, but also the gift of acceptance.

You know what I realise more and more every day here? My 'true colours' are ugly. Giving freely, sticking up for and identifying with the poor, the disabled, the needy, the dirty, the hungry and desperate- are not my instinctive reactions. Theoreticising it and walking away is my first instinct. Love feels un-natural. Just as the pharisees asked Jesus 'who is my neighbour?' I see that often the reason I ask questions about who to give to isn't so I can be more generous- but rather less generous. These 'African money issues' are actually MY money issues.

beauty

So much to write about...but for now I jsut want to give you a glimpse of the amazing green everywhere and the stunning clouds. I'm so blessed to be able to witness this beauty

Tropical Nasties IV- Crocs

Forgot to tell you, two people have been taken by crocs this past week in Karonga, an 18yr old boy at Beach Chamber Motel (where we had dinner Sunday night!) and a Somalian refugee man bathing at Club Marina! The Sangilo owner's dog was taken by a croc a couple of months ago - are they targeting muzungu (foreigner) hangouts!! Forget the bilharzia, we need to watch out for the big fellas!

Love Mum

wow

amazing fact: only 6% of malawians have access to electricity. i shall never complain about a blackout again... although.... we've had more than our fair share the past few weeks!

It's the music that we feel..

This country has a sound track. Sometimes it's rural- children playing, women singing, bicycle bells, birds, goats, chickens squawking being chased from the maize drying in the sun...

But then there's the tunes and grooves. These people have rythm man. Even the farm workers manage to bust a few moves while they're digging, or slashing the weeds. No music? no problem. they sing.

SO I've been trying to figure out ways of sharing this town's fave tunes with you legally. Not so simple it turns out - as most of the bands aren't online and neither is their music. Its hard to believe when you hear tracks from the same CD every day for a year that it hasn't hit the internet... but when you realsie that 95% of this district hasn't seen a computer let alone the internet, I guess it's not so surprising.

I did find one of my favourites. 'Addicted' by 'The Third'. Ok- their Zambian- but its a good tune -check it out
http://www.musicvideos.the-real-africa.com/zambia/the_third_addicted.html

These guys - 'The Black Missionaries' are HUGE here. Several of the band members have passed away in the past few years- but the band is still going strong with their 7th Album all over the radio and due to be released next month. Unfortunately there's not alot of their stuff on the 'net and the music videos, well- distract somewhat from the music. But I've put in the links to what I found so you can get a feel for the style- even if it's not the song currently blaring from my neighbours sound system.

http://www.musicvideos.the-real-africa.com/malawi/black_missionaries_africa.html

http://www.malawianmp3.com/black-missionaries/cat_20.html

enjoy!

Embroidery

I started embroidering today. never imagined myself embroidering in DDA (deepest darkest africa) but here I am, embroidering a turtle- well- its a super old Madagascan tortoise - but I'm sure that won't be evident by the time I'm finished.

Why? well, a few weeks back we had some visitors from Australia and one of them asked- 'what are your hobbies?' and my housemate helpfully replied that I 'play that colourful block game', to which i retorted that I play scrabble as well as tetris and then frantically tried to think of something cool and un-facebook related that I do to un-wind...

I drew a blank. I also bake bread, cakes and cookies and tend my veggie patch- but we've got a weevil infestation at the moment, not to mention the shopping list is out-doing the pantry and the last lot of seeds I planted were out of date and haven't germinated. None of which fits the 'cool' category I'm sure.

It's really important to find a way to unwind here. A way to switch off the sickness, hunger, funerals, domestic violence, sense of fatalism that pervades everything. Some nights I go to sleep wondering whether donor funded community development is really the best way forward? and if not- what do I suggest to replace it? what are the implications for my life - am I willing to put my life where my mouth is and commit to this place - or any other- long term? etc etc etc So I think it's understandable that if the power and the internet is on - I drop colourful shapes to make lines until I'm within millimeters of sleep...

So, 15 months in and I still don't have a 'hobby' ( I don't mean a brain numb-er- i mean something constructive I enjoy doing). I came back from holidays with a new camera and a sketch pad with great hopes of being artistic... but i just had a look at the pics i took this week and it's not very encouraging. below is a sneak peak:

Some disease or nutrient deficiency in the kidney bean crop


The drain being overworked - and underpaid no doubt.

Two lovely gentlemen adjusting the brakes on the bike I was riding so I could acttually stop on downhills if i wanted to.


Ooh- she's taken a photo of a pretty flower! nope- it's 'witch weed' disasterous for maixe as it grows around the base of the plant sucking nutrients straight form the root system. pretty though don't ya think?

The truth is, I've got more photos of soil profiles, sick plants and the water drain than anything else. Maybe I'm so 1 dimensional that my job IS my hobbie? I suspect that's not healthy.

SO, although I'm a little dubious, I'm giving embroidery a shot- but I would really like some ideas on what else I could try out. It'd have to be something I could do here- and by myself or learn off the internet. What do YOU do to chill out and enjoy yourself?

Thought for the Day

Here's an interesting quote from a book I've been reading lately. What do you think?

' All the evils of the world come not because our desires for happiness are too strong, but because they are so weak that we settle for fleeting pleasures that do not satisy our deepest soul, but in the end destroy them. The root of all evil is that we are the kind of people who settle for the love of money instead of the love of God. '

Desiring God, by John Piper

Chicken lost in Translation

So I managed to keep track of Chicken up to the point where we took her out of the boot and put her in the shade under the water tank.

I was actually quite sick the day I was given Chicken. Coming down with another nasty African flu, so I had a chat to the gardner about Chicken- that she was a gift and she wasn't fat enough to eat but maybe we could build a house for her in the garden? Then I went to bed.

I woke up around several hours later around 5pm feeling pretty terrible but being responsible for my new pet, I called a neighbour to see if Chicken could stay in their chicken coup (sp?!) til we got a home built for her and headed out with a handful of maize, oats and rice to see if she was peckish ... and she was gone! I wandered around in a post-nap haze half heartedly looking for her for until one of the night guards came and asked what I was searching for. 'A chicken?' I answered with some bewilderment, chastising myself for losing my first African pet in 2 hrs flat. 'Oh, he responded - 'the gardener left with a chicken tied to his bicycle'. Yes, it was still alive.

This was about the point where I wondered whether I have in fact learnt any Ciyawo whatsoever in the past year. Maybe he thought the gift was for him? Maybe he thinks I'm incompetent enough to leave the chicken under the water tank all weekend and he took it home out of mercy to the chicken? My only consolation was that we'd both agreed Chicken wasn't fat enough to eat yet... but it IS hungry season, and if he'd misunderstood the rest...

This morning our garderner came back from his weekend without Chicken. I procrastinated about asking him what happened. I've discovered out here that I'll do just about anything to avoid confrontation and I couldn't really demand her back if she was already eaten could I?!

So, mid morning, after prepping myself with Ciyawo words from the dictionary, I plucked up the courage and went out to ask the question. It went a bit like this:
'Good morning, how are you etc Actually I'm a a bit confused, do you know where my chicken is?'
He almost burst out laughing. I actually didn't understand most of his answer til I was back in reach of my dictionary- but I got the gist. He took Chicken home because there was no where for her to live here. 'So you didn't eat her?' I asked - just to confirm. nope- she's too skinny.

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