Wha's Occurrin....

Chipata life continues slowly but steadily. The temperature is easily in the mid 30’s, with no breeze and there has been no rain for four days. The heat combined with being at an altitude of 3,600 metres makes the slightest exertion very tiring. Walking slowly has become second nature to me ..as has sitting out on the veranda for breakfast each morning :-)

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Friday saw ANOTHER public holiday, this time for Youth Day. Ordinarily, I would be delighted with so much time off work but with so little time here to make an impact in my job, I found the three day week more frustrating than anything. There was not as much fuss about Youth Day as International Women’s Day either so the day passed without too much excitement.

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It has surprised me quite how quickly I have become accustomed to the sights and sounds of Chipata but I did stop to take the following photo for Carys…

These little girls were walking along, chatting happily amongst themselves as, all the while, they were swinging live hens ...they were, I was informed, taking them home for dinner!

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As my journey to work is quite a distance, VSO have funded a bicycle for me which I bought Thursday. It’s a second-hand jobby but seems to be in good working order. I certainly hope so as I have noticed that there are absolutely no consumer rights here.

One of the internet cafes I use also sells new and reconditioned electrical items; TV’s, radios etc. There are large signs advising customers:

“Check all items are in working order before leaving the shop as afterwards,

NO Refunds
NO Guarantee
NO Warranty”

When you consider the extremly high cost of goods and the very low earnings, this seems particularly harsh!!

I went out for my maiden cycle ride on Saturday …after less than 30 minutes, I almost fainted with heat exhaustion. Fingers crossed, my fitness and acclimatisation will see improvements soon!!

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For me and most of Chipata, the water supply is turned off around 6pm daily. Am quite used to it now and part of the daily routine is to make sure there are filled buckets of water in the loo for flushing! Friday though (and maybe it was because it was a public holiday) saw us without water for half the day too. My delight at having the water back on late afternoon was tempered slightly by the fact that the electricity went off! About three hours was spent with the whole area in darkness. Apart from the fact I couldn’t cook our dinner, it was not without merit; the stars in the sky were absolutely amazing and while myself, Alan & Francis were gazing up in wonder, we saw a shooting star!!! Also, the darkness in our yard meant we could sit out on our veranda, sipping a beer, watching fireflies… Africa is awesome!

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AND FINALLY….

Those unfortunate enough to have holidayed with me previously will know how much I suffer with mosquito bites which often become infected. Therefore I have been very proud of the fact that my strict regime of applying DEET spray before putting a foot outside was paying dividends and, two weeks in, despite there being a veritable swarm of mozzies around me most of the time, not one mosquito bite had I encountered. That was until Thursday when I seem to have suddenly become dish of the day! I was bitten quite badly around my calves which surprised me a little as it happened during the day, while I was wearing trousers. Anyway, the bites quickly became inflamed and my legs swelled up nicely. After two days of applying afterbite cream the pain was lessening and it now looks more like blood clots and bruising (mmm, nice!). I showed the bites to some veteran VSO’s who informed me that they are not mosquito bites (hoorah) but are in fact spider bites (ew!!!) No permanent damage I’m sure but when I get home, if I suddenly start swinging across buildings on fine thread …you’ll know why.