March Madness
I should really be in my village getting ready for the three harvests, one DoF visit and first ever dirt sale in RAP history that I have to do in the next two days. But I'm in the boma trying to work up the energy to make the bike ride by home. I'm not that sick. I just have some bacterial infection that makes me tired and dizzy. Incapacitating, yes, but not altogether horrible. So I can't do all the things I need to get done and it isn't so bad that I don't feel guilty for not doing them. Hopefully I can spend the next few hours pushing enough antibiotics and ORS through my body that can bike home.
I was getting home from from Easter vacation yesterday, when I started feeling not fantastic. My bike ride home is 8k long, usually it takes me around 35 mins to get home. Yesterday it took 2 1/2 hours mostly because I would stop to lay in people's lawns on the way. I really wasn't thrilled about the trip back out should I need some medical attention. Then it got worse. I called a commercial farmer who came to pick me up as it was getting dark and stayed with me until I had a place to stay in the boma. I am a very lucky girl to have people around me I can count on. I'm a little wary of starting of home now. I feel not bad, but I haven't eaten anything in since breakfast yesterday and I only really start feeling it when I exert myself. So I'm going to hang out or a few hours, try to eat something and slowly slowly make my way back home. This can't possible go wrong. Mean the while, this gives me a chance to upload some pictures from Christmas.
Maybe during my next gastronomical episode I can put up pictures from Easter. Alexy, Kathy and I went to Siavonga which is on the sandy shores of Lake Kariba. It was much closer to Lusaka than I had thought. I was in an air conditioned room by noon after easy transport. It was pretty fantastic. We met hung out with some interesting guys and I was reminded of how weird white people who live in Africa are after spending some time with a Canadian. Then again, I have been reading Norman Rush. We also bombed royally at the English version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. The 100 kwacha questions were about the minute geographical details of Essex County and British sitcoms of the 70s. Alexy, Kathy and I are all, apparently, sore losers. But we did end up winning at life by eating too much and all getting sweet tans. If that's not worth a million kwacha I don't know what is. All in all it was one of the best vacations I've been on. It was about time too, March had been a long month.
I had 8 harvests planned or March. Each harvest takes a few days of work before and after and then nearby ponds have to monitored to make sure they are ready to buy the fingerling (seed fish) that the harvested ponds produce. So it was a lot of bike riding and trying to get rural Zambians to appreciate deadlines. Thankfully all my farmers are wonderful hardworking people and things went pretty well. We've harvested 4 ponds and stocked a bunch. By April there should be 28 ponds with fish in them and a few under construction. And we are digging a 7k long furrow (man made stream) that is going to supply water to hundreds of people and increase the number of people who can have ponds. The next volunteer is going to have a ton of work.
February wasn't very eventful. I worked a lot and it was the beginning of my bike problems. Since my bike couldn't shift gears or have breaks I decided to take the bike of a volunteer who had left. Then the clutch arm fell off when I was 20k from home. Luckily 8k of that was downhill so I held the arm and coasted down. Later I would learn that I could put the arm back on if I found the right sized rock to screw it back with and it would last for about 5k. Eventually I got a new crank put on, but for some reason it would wind up and stop turning. After pushing my bike around for a few days I discovered that if I peddled backwards more than forwards the crank wouldn't seize up. I can't tell you how much fun that is uphill.
Tony moved to the Congo. That wasn't great. But he is off building hospitals for people who desperately need them and I'm proud of him.
I am going to be Lusaka for a bit of April so I should be able to put up a few more pics and send out some more emails. Love you all and I'll see everyone before Halloween.
I was getting home from from Easter vacation yesterday, when I started feeling not fantastic. My bike ride home is 8k long, usually it takes me around 35 mins to get home. Yesterday it took 2 1/2 hours mostly because I would stop to lay in people's lawns on the way. I really wasn't thrilled about the trip back out should I need some medical attention. Then it got worse. I called a commercial farmer who came to pick me up as it was getting dark and stayed with me until I had a place to stay in the boma. I am a very lucky girl to have people around me I can count on. I'm a little wary of starting of home now. I feel not bad, but I haven't eaten anything in since breakfast yesterday and I only really start feeling it when I exert myself. So I'm going to hang out or a few hours, try to eat something and slowly slowly make my way back home. This can't possible go wrong. Mean the while, this gives me a chance to upload some pictures from Christmas.
Maybe during my next gastronomical episode I can put up pictures from Easter. Alexy, Kathy and I went to Siavonga which is on the sandy shores of Lake Kariba. It was much closer to Lusaka than I had thought. I was in an air conditioned room by noon after easy transport. It was pretty fantastic. We met hung out with some interesting guys and I was reminded of how weird white people who live in Africa are after spending some time with a Canadian. Then again, I have been reading Norman Rush. We also bombed royally at the English version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. The 100 kwacha questions were about the minute geographical details of Essex County and British sitcoms of the 70s. Alexy, Kathy and I are all, apparently, sore losers. But we did end up winning at life by eating too much and all getting sweet tans. If that's not worth a million kwacha I don't know what is. All in all it was one of the best vacations I've been on. It was about time too, March had been a long month.
I had 8 harvests planned or March. Each harvest takes a few days of work before and after and then nearby ponds have to monitored to make sure they are ready to buy the fingerling (seed fish) that the harvested ponds produce. So it was a lot of bike riding and trying to get rural Zambians to appreciate deadlines. Thankfully all my farmers are wonderful hardworking people and things went pretty well. We've harvested 4 ponds and stocked a bunch. By April there should be 28 ponds with fish in them and a few under construction. And we are digging a 7k long furrow (man made stream) that is going to supply water to hundreds of people and increase the number of people who can have ponds. The next volunteer is going to have a ton of work.
February wasn't very eventful. I worked a lot and it was the beginning of my bike problems. Since my bike couldn't shift gears or have breaks I decided to take the bike of a volunteer who had left. Then the clutch arm fell off when I was 20k from home. Luckily 8k of that was downhill so I held the arm and coasted down. Later I would learn that I could put the arm back on if I found the right sized rock to screw it back with and it would last for about 5k. Eventually I got a new crank put on, but for some reason it would wind up and stop turning. After pushing my bike around for a few days I discovered that if I peddled backwards more than forwards the crank wouldn't seize up. I can't tell you how much fun that is uphill.
Tony moved to the Congo. That wasn't great. But he is off building hospitals for people who desperately need them and I'm proud of him.
I am going to be Lusaka for a bit of April so I should be able to put up a few more pics and send out some more emails. Love you all and I'll see everyone before Halloween.
posted by Laura in Zed @ 7:53 AM
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