Rain!

The center with the rain/thunder cloud behind, moving in!

Soooo I was going to write this blog yesterday morning about it actually being cloudy in Kasane, but I’m glad I held off cause sure enough, the clouds ended up turning into rain!!! There have only been clouds in the sky two days since I’ve been here so far, so it was pretty exciting to even have clouds, then they started building and looking more like rain clouds. Apparently this is how it usually occurs in rainy season, but according to some long-time residents it has NEVER rained in August before. Usually the rains don’t come until the end of October or November, with maybe a random early rain in September. It didn’t come down too hard in Kasane, but apparently there were pretty heavy downpours in Kazungula. It was quite exciting but just a teaser for the rainy season!  Not sure why, but it made it feel more home-y, guess it just reminded me of the humid summers back home. The air feels so much thicker now, I’m sure it’s nothing, but compared to the dryness I’ve become accustomed too, this humidity is suffocating! Even the plants have been fooled, this morning all the trees and bushes had a hopeful green glint and I smelled something blooming. Hopefully it doesn’t throw them off too much, cause I can see how it might be a problem to make everything think that the rainy season is starting when there are really two more months of dry dry heat. We’ll see! Weather everywhere seems to be going crazy….. but needless to say, I’m sure it will dry back up soon enough and we will be back to our hot hot summer!

Punkin

     So I found some pumpkin at Spar (grocery store) last week and since it was so cheap I decided to give it a whirl. I found an idea online of cooking it with tomatoes, onions, and garlic, then adding pasta to make a type of pasta salad. I decided to put a bit of my own spin on it with what I had… figuring out that you really have to work with what you have here because the grocery store will get in shipments of things then run out of it and you never know when there will be more! I realized that I couldn’t even cut into the huge quarter of a pumpkin I had (pretty much the same idea as from home, but green on the outside) so had to boil it down in a huge pot of water. While that was going I decided to cook the tomatoes, broccoli, and chicken in a dish in the oven. I used what little spices I have (garlic, parsley, oregano, salt, pepper…) but it still tasted like something was missing. I cooked some spaghetti (unfortunately the only pasta I had) and finally added the pumpkin. That probably would have tasted better if it had been cooked in the spices as well, but the final product turned out alright, not very pretty, but tasted decent. And now I have heaps of pumpkin mush to use….. I’m thinking pumpkin cookies later this week!

P.S. Puppy had to find another home - apparently rules at Kubu are a bit more strict than I thought! In the end, I think it's for the better, seeing as dogs 1) Cost money I'd rather not spend 2) Bring dirt into my tiny carpeted home without a vacuum and 3) make traveling by bicycle difficult. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted!

Puppy....

   Well it happened. I’ve been saying this whole time how impossible it is to not have a dog here, and one kind of fell into my lap last night. Matt phoned and said he found a puppy in a gutter/drainage ditch in front of the restaurant he works at. He brought it to bible study and I figured that I would bring it to the center so we could get it fixed up. She is an absolute flea-bag, crawling with fleas even after I gave her a bath in special shampoo. Just a mess. But pretty durn cute….

Not sure what will happen yet, I think I will hold on to her for a couple days to get her cleaned up, but I am technically not allowed to have dogs at my home in Kubu. It should be fine while she’s little, but another lady that lives on the property is very protective of the many bushbuck that we have around the lodge, and doesn’t want any other dogs around (it’s especially difficult without a fenced in yard…). So we will see how things turn out. At the very least I have a little puppy to look after for a few days!

Laundry Day

     Today was laundry day. Seeing as I don’t have a washing machine, this means I get to do it by hand! It would be possible for me to pay someone to do it, but I figure I usually have time and I might as well just do it myself. This might change after a little while, but for now, it’s not too bad! The worst part is how dried out my hands get afterwards.

     So, for those not familiar with the process, you put your ‘load’ of clothes into a wash bucket with soap, let them soak for a little while, then scrub them together and dunk them in the rinse bucket, wring them out really well, then hang them on the line. That whole process generally takes two-ish hours depending on much there is. They don’t take long to dry these days because of how dry it is outside, but during the rainy season it will be much harder to get them to dry. Today I had a problem with ants climbing on my line. They are attracted to water during the dry season so proceeded to climb all over my clothes while they were drying. Had to be extra careful to shake them out so I wouldn’t end up with ants in my pants next time I wore them!

    Maybe tmi, but hand washing still reminds me of our trip to Ghana when we had to do laundry by hand while up in the north. Chip helped me since I hadn’t done it before, so he washed and I rinsed. We had combined the small amounts of laundry we both had to do, which happened to include some of my undies. I can’t help but think that someone who is willing to hand-wash your underwear is a keeper! :-P

Stir Fry

   On Monday night (sorry for the late posting...), Carrie came over and we cooked dinner together. There was leftover oriental chicken from Sunday so we warmed that up and stir-fried some veggies and cooked some rice. Luckily very simple, but very delicious!! I’m counting it as a ‘real’ meal. After we ate we watched The Guardian on my makeshift couch/bed I’ve managed to pull together on the floor. Great movie, I highly recommend it. Great food, too! 

Spring is in the Air!

                Well, I think my blog posts are getting fewer as I get into a routine with work (and busier) and get used to life here. Things become slightly less novel, or seem less worth-sharing the longer I’m here, so feel free to ask me to talk about something if you’re interested. Last week I was able to bike in every morning and home almost every afternoon. It is so nice to have a little more independence with transportation, but it also means that people taking me home at night have to haul my bike everywhere too! It gets really frustrating having to be a burden on people with cars, but it is also a good way to get a feel for the challenges that most people that live here face every day, and most don’t even have friends with cars. 

                On Saturday I had the opportunity to house sit for a couple that has a beautiful home on the river. It is by far my favorite house here and I got to spend the afternoon and night there enjoying the beautiful view, internet, and a bit of the Olympics on the cable tv. Oh, and don’t forget the five dogs! It was a nice evening but I’m still debating whether it was worth being woke up every two hours during the night by the dogs. I think I prefer the comfort of my own home, but it was nice to be able to have a video Skype with the better internet connection. Apparently there have also been some break-ins along the river recently and this morning at the center we are dealing with a break-in. Luckily not too much was stolen but it is still quite frustrating as we can’t touch anything until the police can finish the report. It's holding up the ever-growing amounts of lab work we have to get finished before Dr. Alexander and the kids leave on Friday. It will be sad to see them go, I think the center will get much quieter (perhaps boring) in their absence. 

                The weather is turning slightly warmer. Reminds me of spring, although the mornings can still be quite chilly, it gets pretty warm during the day and it is reaching May/June-ish temps from home. I think winter is pretty much over with! These warmer, pretty days just lift your mood so much! Although at the back of my mind, I’m still very excited for the rainy season…..

          Last week we said bye to the sable that had been raised here at the center for the past year and a half or so. The wildlife department came to transport him into the park to be released. Below is a picture of Kennedy with Sabie just before he left. Kennedy is one of the workers that helps to take care of the animals and is responsible for feeding them every day, so he was especially sad to see his friend go. Good luck in the real world, Sabie!