on a totally different note

All you have to do is count the black dots.

Good luck with this.

Rainy season!?!?

That's it the first installment of the rainy season is here..."first installment" is a hopeful description because it could very well be here to stay for months and months and months!!!

I tell you a lot of things are happening (the non bloggable kind) just as we are getting to the point where I have to say (if asked ) whether or not I want to stay longer and the answer is becoming easier and easier to make.

Home soon

I am going straight home after this rotation. I am tired. I need to sleep and read books and take it easy.
Don't start making plans on what I will and/or should do!!!!!! This rotation has been hell !!

Why is it?

So you see this photo? Is your first reaction: "This is wrong. She should not wear this."?

Now think about it. Why shouldn't she? She is presumably comfortable. She presumably wants to.
Why do we think that we always have to dress in something attractive?
Why is there even clothes we consider ok for some ages and not others..actually for some bodies and not others?

Let's face it, we think that people, and women in particular, should only show what is attractive....I say: the hell with that.
We are not visual candies for the world, our bodies are not bait to catch others.

I'm not my body! I'm my brain and my spirit (as in free spirit, not as in ghostly spirit).

See that body in the photo...this is one version of where we are going so get use to it!




Is this better?!? If you answer yes......ask yourself why?

And don't tell me she looks healthier!!!
You know I can dig up fashion shots of women looking like death with their skeleton bodies and their ridiculous make up.

Latest cooking gear

This is my latest purchase. I love it...Now I just have to figure a way to take it home!
I didn't want a new one, so I bought this one from a woman who had two (her second one was even bigger...this is about as small as they come). I paid a little more than what is normal for it because I am white and because it was still little money. I gave her a little over what she was asking to her great surprised. She was asking for the price of a new one. I thought that I should make up for the fact that she would have to go get another one and that if she was going to have to go to the market she should have some money to buy herself something extra...I threw in the deal a kilo of tomatoes...about half of what I had bought at the market that day. She was pretty happy. We kept on asking each other if everything was OK, me because I didn't want to take advantage of her because I have more money than she does, her because the pot isn't new and I was paying more for it than a new one and even more than what she had asked, I think....I can't know what she was thinking but she asked and asked showing the money. I had asked a local how much they cost new before so I knew that I was paying a little extra. Afterwards she asked me not to tell people that she had sold me the pot. It is lot of money to have around and probably not a good idea to advertise it...again I think, but I can't be sure why. So here you are I will never tell you or anybody else who I bought it from.

Ramadan started today

On this rig in Mozambique the only Muslims are the mud loggers (guys who in part work for me). We already talked about it and everything seems to be sorted. It is not going to be easy to sort out the food, but they did bring their own dates and will be given milk to break fast at sundown.
Of course this year it is a little hotter than last year, so a little more difficult, but it is a happy time for them and they are in good spirit.

Tsunami warnings

Some people really like drama!
The company just put us on tsunami warning (at 9"00pm) because of the earthquake in Sumatra...actually they put us on tsunami warning for one of the aftershock, didn't they? Who knows? *shrug*

At 11:10 GMT today a major earthquake hit the west coast of Sumatra. At 17:47 GMT BBC World News was publishing that the first tsunami warning had been lifted off for the first earthquake. For that one they tried to do some evacuation in Kenya. We never heard of it until we saw it in the news. The second one or was it the third or fourth one, none as major, I guess made them realize that nothing had been done around here so they issued a tsunami warning.
Apparently there were four tsunami warnings issued in 24 hours. I guess somebody in the office picked up on one and decided to enforce it.

You know this tsunami warning would work pretty well for those with electricity means of communication and possibly means of transport. But how do you reach the rest?
Around us, in little hamlets or in isolated huts, there are hundreds of people who couldn't be reached. There are no roads, no way to get to them, no way to know where they are. I just know that I "bump" into them as I go for walks, like the day we went to Giogio's village.

Where is time going?

This contract is already nearly over!
In a way it feels like I just got here, but I guess mid February is actually long gone.
With the year broken up in two month blocks (each block is one rotation off and one rotation on) it goes by quickly. Obviously I am counting in number of times I can travel.
At first it was "I will be in southern Africa for nearly a year" and it seemed that the opportunities were plentiful, but reality is I will only have had 5 chances to go travel. The first time I went home directly...The third time I went to Baltimore instead..... So only two trips so far...
I am trying to decide where to go next. Funnily enough before getting here Madagascar was high up on my list but now it just does not appeal. I am thinking some other part of South Africa (the North West), Botswana or maybe Zambia...I'd like to go to Zambia when the Victoria falls have high water volume though...right now they are probably at their lowest.
Funny now the atmosphere is totally different it is as if people had already started to say goodbyes. Mind you in our jobs we say lots of goodbyes so it becomes incredibly easy. But I find I am not quite ready here...I want to do more stuff...see more places..... I want to go back to Namibia, go to Malawi etc etc etc. There is just not enough time!

????

I'm really blogging a lot these days. I am not sure why.
It is especially weird since I don't feel like talking to anybody and have been pretty quiet on all other fronts. *shrug*

The Save River

Today I went to the Save River (pronounced sa-vey). I had never seen it before.
Just like the Limpopo of northern South Africa it is very sandy but unlike the Limpopo which is the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe where I saw it and asa result is guarded and has fences and military roads along it, the Save is easily accessible.
Here is one of the road sign along the Limpopo River.


Here in Mozambique there is a small town, Villa Franca de Save,where the main road crosses the Save River. I paid the toll to cross the bridge (10 metacals, the equivalent of just under 40 cents US) even though I just went across, parked, walked back and forth on the bridge and turn the truck around to go back.
Below the bridge the locals were washing clothes and farther away some kids looked like they were fishing with a small net.
I love the local sarongs (called "capolanas" in Portuguese).

Today I bought two.

The witch-hunt goes on

One of the secondary news on the BBC News world /Africa site this morning is this. I want to post it because since it took place in South Africa I am not sure that it will make it to the news on other continents.

Two South African women have been burned to death after a group of students accused them of bewitching their high school with evil spirits.

Msaba Zungu and Thabitha Thusi, both 60, were seized from their homes near Manguzi in KwaZulu-Natal province. Msaba Students and adults dragged them to a sports field where they were doused with petrol and set alight on Sunday. Manhlenga High School pupils accused the women of being witches after they began to suffer strange crying fits. Investigators said Ms Zungu died at the scene and Ms Thusi succumbed to her burns injuries on Monday. Police captain Jabulani Mdletshe told the BBC News website: "On 17 August, the students at the mixed high school began to cry randomly and they did not know why. "The students held a couple of meetings and allegedly decided the problem was these two women were witches who had cast a bad muthi (spell) on the school. At 8pm on Sunday, some students and community members allegedly took the women from their homes to a football field and set them on fire.

I'll admit I am shocked by this. First reaction was "what a terrible way to die", then on further reflection I am left with the aftertaste of "Why is is always women who are blamed? Why in so many cultures women are/were burnt as witches?".
Have you ever heard of a man being burnt alive for being a wizard? (wizard is the masculine of witches, isn't?)

eating green "fake lemons"

Remember how a few months back I posted this picture of a "fake lemon" which is really a very small "thing" growing on vines.
Today I met those two girls along the road as they were picking something. I went to have a look and it turns out that they were picking "fake lemons", but green before they even look like lemon. When I asked why they said it was to eat.
See, they are the same thing. They eat the leaves and the green "fruits"

Isn't she beautiful?
You will have noticed the state of their clothes....... The kids are pretty much all like this around here. In town (Vilanculos) they are dressed better. But in the more isolated places like around here this is the way most of them are. Though this morning the little kid's orange shirt looked nearly new...well, not new, but it had no holes! It was in very good shape.

the advantage of digital cameras

I went for a short walk today and met three of our neighbor kids on the road. The were carrying various old empty pop cans back home and other goodies. I didn't have a thing with me to give them so I took their picture so they could look at it on the digital display afterward. They were thrilled. That really made them laugh.
The guy in the middle was so happy with his idea of putting his arms up in the air. He really liked the result.

I've brought some small toys with me to Mozambique this time. I really wished I had some in my pocket...the new thing to put on the list of things to never leave home without: small toys!

The naughty birds of southern Africa

I took this photo in South Africa on my trip to Limpopo, but they remind me of Namibia.....everything reminds me of Namibia right now. But it just happened that I admired a beautiful hand woven tapestry with those birds on it. The girl at the store was telling me that she grew up in a small village in Namibia and that birds like this were around and they were very "naughty" birds...to use her words.

Elephants in the wild

Here is an example. I had forgotten this photo. I really like it. I was surprised at how much nicer elephants look when just walking around in the wild.

new screen saver

Yesterday I installed a Google screen saver that goes through my photos (any file I choose) and displays them on my laptop as a screen saver. I am rediscovering my photos. I was surprised at how many I actually really like.
Don't be surprised if I start posting old photos. Here is one in the African wild life road sign series.
I remember, when I saw this one I thought it was a "cute" thing to do for tourists, but it turned out that it wasn't at all. I ended up staying at a B&B just down the road...across the river that I could not see from that point ...and as I was sipping on my morning coffee sitting in the dewy morning grass all alone I saw a hippo mother and baby swimming up river a few meters in front of me.

I worry about you

Your new obsession with lichen is starting to be a concern!

Ok, obviously it is a joke.
But it is so weird to be blogging like this not knowing who reads this and what you people are really interested in. I can go on and on about lichen or anything else for that matter and not know if people are even remotely interested in the stuff. I have to admit that in a way I don't really care. It must what it is like to make scrap books - stick together "pretty things" as they come along. In a way it is something mix of:
- One way mirror me being on the side that cannot see the others, you being on the side that cannot say a thing to me since I have the comment ability turned off.
- Weird art project (i put things I like together in a way that appeals to me)
- Communicating...because ultimately I could do this in a spot that is not visible to anybody but myself
- journal...when I look at old posts it reminds me of what I was doing on a given day, the mood I was in etc...but don't kid yourself into thinking that I am forgetting people may be reading this.
- Archiving...I put things here sometimes just because I want to be able to find them again easily.
...and more.

Blogging Is a weird thing....but so is lichen!...and both can look nice!

Oooooooh! Look at this pretty lichen!

And suddenly you realize that you ARE interested in lichens!

Iivable?

Putting a couple of things together:
1.The list of most livable cities in the world seen in a friend's blog, and
2.The list I just started for myself of what is happening (roughly) in all of the 52 countries in Africa to keep track of how easy it would be to travel in them alone.

First I found mentions of Angola (I made it to the second country in alphabetical order befre getting sidetracked) being Africa's first oil producer and "one of the world poorest country". So I tried to find the list of poorest countries in order (I have read somewhere that Mozambique also makes it to that list). So far haven't been able to find that list. Well, I found the list of the top 50 poorest countries but in alphabetical order. I moved on to "livable" countries. Here is one of the results that Factmonster in turn got from Human Development Report, 2006, United Nations .

“Least Livable” Countries, 2006
1.	Niger	16.	Tanzania
2.	Sierra Leone	17.	Angola
3.	Mali	18.	Guinea
4.	Burkina Faso	19.	Nigeria
5.	Guinea-Bissau	20.	Rwanda
6.	Central African Republic	21.	Eritrea
7.	Chad	22.	Senegal
8.	Ethiopia	23.	Gambia
9.	Burundi	24.	Haiti
10.	Mozambique	25.	Mauritania
11.	Congo, Dem. Rep. of the	26.	Kenya
12.	Malawi	27.	Zimbabwe
13.	Zambia	28.	Yemen
14.	Côte d'Ivoire	29.	Lesotho
15.	Benin	30.	Djibout

The first non-African country in Haiti at number 24!!! Then you have Yemen at number 28 and that's it!

I see that Malawi is number 12...I guess I should check why since I want to go there...but on the other hand Mozambique is number 10, so......

Go and check out: hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/statistics/, check the 2006 HDI Ranking on the right hand side of the page..each country is a link that tells you a lot more.

New Namibia botany experts or photo aficionado?

To whom ever reads this: You guys are going to be Namibia botany experts!!!
Remember at the top of the blog there is a disclaimer warning to read on at your own risks.

Mind you, you are probably just looking at the pictures. *shrug*


Here is one nice one for you:
This one is totally out of the blue and I am just putting here here for the shear joy of posting a good looking photo. It got it off BBC World News site last year on the first day of Ramadan. The women in the picture are Somalian...In a way it is not totally off since we are getting pretty close to Ramadan and I knew it. I just looked it up, this year it starts at sunset on September 12th and ends October 12th.

More about Euphorbia damarana

Here some more interesting information and one more photo I got off: http://www.rhino-trust.org.na/html/body_dbde.html

“Euporbia damarana is often browsed by rhino, kudu, springbok and gemsbok for hours at a time. This plant is highly poisonous to humans and can cause blindness if the milk enters the eye. Extracts of Euphorbia species` chemical contents are used in the medical profession to combat certain types of cancer.”

And and found the abstract of the article from The Journal Of Arid Environments mentioned in the BBC news article. Here it it:
==============

Title: Mysterious circles in the Namib Desert: review of hypotheses on their origin

Authors: M. W. van Rooyen, G. K. Theron , N. van Rooyen , W. J. Jankowitz and W. S. Matthews

"Circular, slightly concave depressions, devoid of vegetation and often surrounded by a fringe of tall grasses occur in a broken belt in the pro-Namib zone of the west coast of southern Africa. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the origin of these so-called fairy circles. The most important of these relate to areas of localized radioactivity; termite activity; or allelopathic compounds released by dead Euphorbia damarana plants [Webster says that allelopathy means "the suppression of growth of one plant species by another due to the release of toxic substances"] . No evidence of increased radioactivity could be detected in soil samples collected from these sites. Although termites occur at these localities no evidence was found to link termite activity directly to the formation of barren patches. Bioassays conducted on soil collected from the centre of the barren patch clearly demonstrated an inhibition of plant growth, while soil collected from the edge of the barren patch had a stimulatory effect on plant growth. No indication of growth inhibition was found in soil collected beneath E. damarana plants. At this stage none of the proposed hypotheses can satisfactorily explain the origin of the fairy circles."

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But here you are, at least they are innocent of this crime. And just in case this is were you can find it (the areas in red). Well now you know where I was.