On Holiday...

This one is a bit old but I figured I would finish up by posting some of the pictures from my awesome "holiday!"...

My last post. It has been awhile! In the meantime, I have been packing up, saying goodbyes, camping through the Namibian countryside, snapping photos of baby animals, and relaxing at the coast.

I guess I should try to explain why I came back to the US on January 13 instead of staying under African skies. But it was a very difficult decision and it is quite complicated. I based a big part of my decision about staying on the assumption that District Attorney offices were not hiring. The minute I cancelled my ticket, there seemed to be a hiring frenzy among the Colorado DA offices. It was a heart-wrentching decision. But I want to be a DA. So I am back in CO!

I spent most of December trying to pack up work into nice little boxes to prepare for the next volunteer. Testing torches, testing more torches, and preparing for a big road trip holiday all over Namibia!!

The holiday started with a few lazy days on the Kavango river outside of Rundu...I watched the river from the window, I watched the sunset. Then we moved on.

We left for Etosha National Park on Christmas Eve. Etosha was originally 100,000 km sq, but today its about a quarter of that size...still a HUGE park. Its biggest feature is the salt pan, which fills with water seasonally, attracting animals, like lions, leopards, giraffes, wildebeests, elephants, hyenas, and many others. There are plenty of natural watering holes, and some man made watering holes for animals as well. The first day, we spotted 27 giraffes at one watering hole, as well as zebras, wildebeasts, and plenty of different types of antelopes, including wildebeests. The highlight of the day was two lions crossing the road, a female and then a male, and then two hyenas...all on the same road!!

One of the hyenas we saw looked pregnant!! There were even ostridges running through the veld.

We had a few run ins with elephants on our trip. We would drive up and they would stubbornly keep on walking down the road...straight for our vehicle. These elephants are MUCH more tame and used to people than the ones that we usually encounter in the Caprivi (those elephants supposedly still remember the war...they probably also remember all the poaching and conflict with people in the villages!). In any case, I am still pretty freaked out by the giants.

On Chistmas Eve, we walked to the Moringa watering hole at our campsite. The sun set was brilliant orange. A rhino appeared and quietly lapped at the water. Everyone was silent. "Si-lent night," I thought to myself.

After three days of all day driving in the bakkie, watching for wildlife, we emerged into a beautiful part of the Namibian countryside called Damaraland. We found a nice little hotel with a pool, nice bungalos, and DRAFT BEER! (My first in months!! Heaven!) We took all back country roads through rocky, hilly, southwestern-type of landscapes to see various features, like the Vingerklipp (= finger rock in English), and ancient rock at at Twefelfontein...camping all the way, of course.

We also came upon one of my favorite camping spots...ever. And I have seen a whole lotta campsites in my day. Giant boulders at the bottom of a rock-pile-hill, gorgeous views of the valley, and our own personal outdoor shower between boulders. Amazing!!

View from campsite and sunset at campsite.

We ended the trip with a few lazy days at the coast and a drive through Windhoek, the capital, with a stop at Joe's Beer House for more game steak and beers. Then it was back to the Caprivi and through Johannesburg for the 15 hour flight from Joburg to ATL.

Goodbye Namibia! I'm sure I will be back.

Big Sale! Everything must go!

I have been on the move nonstop since my last post.

I returned from Windhoek for a few furious days in Katima in preparation for our big torch sale in Wuparo Conservancy…the moment we have been waiting for my entire few months in Africa!!

One problem: two days before the sale was scheduled to begin, we still didn’t have torches.

Elephant Energy has been promising these guys torches for over a year now, and we have been reassuring them for the past few months that we will, in fact, arrive with the torches for a conservancy sale…soon. (We swear.) But our biggest problem thus far is actually getting the torches to Namibia.

The 800 torches sent on a ship in the Mikes Bikes shipping crate (I’ll explain more about Mike’s Bikes below) were supposed to arrive in September, about the time I stepped off the plane onto African soil. Ship broke down (twice, apparently), and months passed without sight of the torches, so we started to lose faith that they would ever arrive.

So, Doug sent 300 additional torches airfreight on FedEx, set to arrive a week before the sale. We were sure FedEx would deliver, so we set dates for the big torch sale in the village.

We didn't just set the date - we made sure (5x over) to advertise the crap our of our sale. We met with the Conservancy officers in the village and set a date for the 4 day torch sale. We met with each village and did demonstrations with the torches, giving away a torch at each area to a lucky villager who remembered a fact from our presentation. We sent out flyers to the villages. We made posters, advertising the sale. Ryan even spoke on the local radio (NBC) to promote our sale, set for Nov 10-14.

We were all ready to go, except for one minor problem: two days before the sale, and STILL no torches!! In true African style, FedEx was delayed, and everything was going wrong.

Ryan and I were sweating, to say the least. We were worried that if we didn’t know show up with the torches, we might be run out of the Caprivi, by (REAL) fire-torch bearing villagers!

Thank our lucky stars…the DAY before we were set to leave for Wuparo Conservancy for the big 4-day sale, 800 torches magically arrived in Divundu, a few hours from Katima. Ryan and I rented a car, met the Mike’s Bikes guys and helped them unpack the big crate…800 torches hidden under 450 bikes. HALLELUJAH!!! It was better than Christmas. After unpacking bikes for a few hours, Ryan and I celebrated with Windhoek Lagers on the river.

At pretty much the last possible minute, we had torches!!! Tons of torches!

Mikes Bikes is a bike shop out of San Francisco, CA. They have a charity program where they help set up bike shops in Africa with local entrepreneurs. They let us stash our 800 torches on their shipping crate, so we helped unpack the crate of bikes. I also traveled with them to Livingstone, to pick up our OTHER shipment (the FedEx shipment), which arrived, in true African fashion, two weeks late - right in the middle of our sale.

http://mikesbikesafrica.blogspot.com/

The torch sale went smashingly! Almost 400 torches sold. The first day of the sale was insane – people arrived at 7:30 am in hoards, bum-rushing me for their torches. I learned how to scream “FORM A LINE!” in Lozi. We probably sold 120 torches in 2 hours. It was insane! The next day was a totally different story: villagers calmly awaiting their turn, approaching me and politely saying, “Good day. May I have a torch, please?”

Ryan said that he drove back through the village in the dark and saw all the huts lit up by the solar torches. An amazing sight!

I had to take off in the middle of the sale to pick up our FedEx shipment of torches from Livingstone, Zambia. Yes, Victoria Falls…again. This time I did the “Devil’s Pool” tour…basically swimming in a natural infinity pool over Victoria Falls! AHHH! Don’t look down! I picked up the 300 torches and quickly made it back in a day or so to meet the customs requirement. Overall, the week was a big success.

Otherwise, things are changing slowly at the Fish Farm. The climate is morphing from hot and dry to hot and humid, with an occasional reprieve of light rain or a cloudy day.

Our “pets” have been evolving as well. When I first arrived, there were plenty of wasps buzzing around at night. Next came the ants – tiny, maddening sugar ants infesting anything they can get into- which was everything: the sugar, of course, the floors, the counters, our laundry, any food they could get into, and even the water heater. Gross.

Now, the cicadas are here. They are by far the worst. The wasps were like large, harmless flies buzzing around our heads, cuddling in the thatched roof at night. The cicadas, on the other hand, scream in unison every night so loud that it hurts my ears when I walk past their tree. They pee on us from trees, the ceiling, and occasionally, from the tops of our mosquito nets. There are plenty of them dead on the floor every morning, which the puppy loves to gobble up. A few days ago, one decided to land on my nose, and stubbornly refused to leave, despite my panicked screams and flailing arms. I wish someone had been there to laugh at me. Luckily, they seem to be on the way out.

The salamanders seem to have moved on, and the small sleepy frogs have been replaced by fat, active, dark ones. No sight of Roscoe for a month, at least. I found one guarding my laptop in my backpack this morning. He happily hopped away when I opened my bag.

Wow - I didn't think that I had a lot to say! That's enough for now. Cheers!

MAL D''AFRIQUE

On Wednesday morning, I received a phone call which caused me to jump on a bus a few hours later from Katima to Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. (More on why below.) Fifteen hours later, I was transported from grass huts and elephants to the luxuries of a Westernized city. I have been told that the income and development information puts rural areas of Namibia at about the level of the DRC (Congo), and Windhoek at about the level of Sweden. A stark contrast.

Windhoek is dry and hilly like northern Arizona. And clean - apparently ranked the second cleanest city in the world! Sterile, quiet, and slightly boring. But I was shocked at the mansions in the surrounding hills. The fabulous housing developments look like Southern California style white stucco houses with pretty flower and tree lined roads. I found myself sipping African wine at a wine bar on a posh veranda, looking at the city lights; eating skewers of zebra, kudu, ostrich and croc, washed down with wheat beer at Joe's Beer House; attending Oktoberfest - beer, brats, and a live band; Chinese, Portuguese, Italian, and German restaurants; AND streusel and cafe lattes. Be still my heart. It was a nice break from living among the pets in the bush. But this isn't Africa. I can't help but feel that I am cheating.

There is a downside to the development: petty theft is rampant here. I think pretty much everyone has at least one mugging or pickpocket story. Luckily, it's not violent like in South Africa...yet. There are signs at the hostel: "TRY THE WINDHOEK SPECIAL: Walk around with a purse in town and be robbed at knife-point!" I have my own story already: I was walking on the block with the American Embassy, and found myself alone on the street with three teenaged-looking Namibian boys. They came towards me, asking for money, and one started to go for my purse. I screamed "NOOO!" in the scariest voice I have ever heard come from my little body. They stared at me, looking bored. "We can shoot you," one said lazily. I could see from their tight clothes that there was no way they had a gun. I glared at them and walked away, muttering "MOTHERF$&*RS." A pretty poor attempt on their part, if I do say so myself. I would never hesitate to hand over my cash if I ever thought I was in danger or if they were serious. But these guys were just seeing if I would just hand it over. No one even touched me. Little turds!

I also went by the Royal Palace in Windhoek - a huge mansion complex on a hill. Pretty incredible. A little too "Versailles" for my tastes. I wonder how many people could have running water or electricity for the cost of that building...

Another character that I feel compelled to include is Helen, an Australian-turned-Caprivan woman, who has lived in Katima for quite some time. I won't be able to do justice to Helen as a character, but I will share a few tidbits. She invited us over for amazing Lebanese food, recounted all of the people she wished would "F*ck off and die!" and causally threw out racial slurs from time to time. She explained why she had to give up on moving back to Australia after only a few months: "Those people are so incredibly boring!!" She exclaimed. "They live their lives like soap on a box, sitting on the shelf of a supermarket in neat stacks." She couldn't live without the chaos, the excitement, the danger of Africa - so she had to return. "A nice place to visit, but I could never live there,"she concluded. Helen may be crazy, but she sees us from the outside in.

Helen is probably suffering from something known as the Mal d'Afrique. I found this description of it on the Open Africa website:

“If you are already in Africa, or intending visiting here, be aware that you have succumbed to a condition for which there is no cure.

This is nothing new. It has puzzled many people for many centuries. Some of them were great explorers (Livingstone), others famous physicians (Albert Schweitzer) and philosophers (Carl Jung). Way back in ancient times it had already been identified and given a name, yet to this day it has defied description. That is to say, nobody has ever been able to be precise about exactly what it is.

The symptoms are extraordinary. Your life will never be the same again. Those of us born here inherit the condition involuntarily. There is no escape, no known remedy. Others who come here, with few exceptions cannot resist the infection…

This something is the mystique of Africa and the malady to which you have succumbed is what was called mal d'Afrika by the Latins many centuries ago. These days the French call it mal d'Afrique.”

http://www.openafrica.org/page/about

Don't worry - I don't think I've been afflicted with a "grand mal" - This is not my favorite place I have ever lived. It's hot. The food is not that great. I can't run hike bike or SKI. The people seem suspicious of one another. But there is something about this place that gets under your skin. Something I can't put my finger on. I find myself very happy here without knowing why. Ernest Hemingway once said, "I never knew of a morning in Africa when I woke that I was not happy "

On that note - I am not coming home for awhile. Haha! It's crazy, I know. It's not all worked out yet, but I have tentatively accepted a 6 month position with the Legal Assistance Center of Namibia. The Legal Assistance Center was instrumental in Namibia's fight against apartheid, imposed by South Africa. South Africa even tried to shut it down ten years ago! http://www.nytimes.com/1989/08/20/world/namibian-legal-aid-center-fighting-for-survival.html

Since Namibia only gained independence less than 20 years ago, there is little precedent, and sot eh LAC is trying to build important precedent for many issues.

History of the LAC: http://www.lac.org.na/about/history.html

The LAC called me on Wednesday and asked if I could be in Windhoek the next day, to interview with them for a six month position, advising the conservancies about their rights. The job would be a joint venture between WWF and the LAC. They want someone to stay in Katima and advise the conservancies about their rights. This would include reviewing the enabling act/constitutions of the Conservancies with them, and holding workshops on legal issues and maybe governance. They are thinking about a 6 mo position for me there, but first I have to commit and then the LAC will have to negotiate many things with WWF, so the details are not all worked out. But it sounds...really amazing. Considering the legal job market in Colorado, I will happily do an intnl/environmental/rights based project in Africa!! I know I will miss Christmas. And I will miss all of you. And the snow. I already do.

I told someone recently that I feel that when I have these adventures and twists and turns, I feel like I am really living. I feel like I am really alive. I don't think I want a life like this forever. But for now, I will happily go along for the ride.

Life around Katima...

So I have just been working and living here in Katima recently, but life here is always interesting.

Where am I? I know there are still some of you out there, wondering, where in the heck is Namibia? Well here it is. Katima Mulilo is in the guitar-top looking part that juts into the middle of Africa - the Caprivi Strip. It’s surrounded by national parks and it has the highest concentration of elephants in the world. The last of the great herds. Sweet.

What am I doing? (besides writing blogs and almost killing myself): It’s not just about solar, but a big part of it is access to energy. Most people in the villages surrounding this area don’t have access to electricity, so they rely mostly on candles for lighting in their mud huts and fires for cooking, heating and boiling water. We are also here to strengthen the conservancy system in the Caprivi. The conservancies were created after independence (from South Africa) to embrace community based conservation and democratize discriminatory aspects of conservation legislation. How it works in practice is the conservancies get money from lodges, which pays for the salaries of the conservancy leader and the rest of the money can go to a community project, or, as is more often the case, to a small cash distribution. The communities feel that – like most African governance – the benefits are going to a lucky few, and not to the communities.

Below - Sobbe conservancy office, and Sobbe focus group...

We did a focus group in the community where there was already a conservancy sale last week. The overwhelming message was: We love the torches! We want more torches! Now we don’t have to use candles in the home, which is bad for our lungs, we can see snakes, and we can scare away elephants. When are you coming back for more? When are you bringing us more products? Pretty cool.

We are doing another sale in another conservancy when the torches come in at the end of the month.

Here is some EE propaganda for your viewing pleasure. It's pretty sweet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_PehXS1KJk

What is it like there? Katima isn’t the prettiest town you have ever seen, but it’s got most things you need. We have two fantastic grocery stores, which is a lot like a western grocery store, with a much more limited selection (esp meat, fresh produce, etc). We have three whole restaurants in town – one serves chicken, one serves steak, and one is only open for breakfast and lunch. Otherwise, shops in town are a few gas stations and “Chinese shops,” which might have any random assortment of items. Oh, there is also a market with (great smelling) fish and some locally grown items, mostly tomatoes and onions and a few peanuts. The nice part is being surrounded by the rivers and the bush: we are surrounded by the Namibian national parks, and we’re only a few hours from Livingstone, Zambia (Vic Falls!) and a few hours from Chobe National Park in Botswana.

There are tons of great characters in town, including Henk, who swore to be the local croc hunter, and Lise, who has been living in the bush for two months tagging hyenas…for her own pleasure!

What can you do for fun? My weekends have been filled with pleasant quiet days at the Fish Farm, wandering among the horses, goats, chickens, dogs…down to the river and canopy birds, in the bush under many birds, and various excursions nearby and in the bush.

One weekend, we went kayaking on the Zambezi River. We stopped for a bit at a sand bank that made the funniest squeaking noise when you jump on it. Kayaking here is a bit sketchy…because of the hippos more than the crocs. They are quite territorial and have no problem turning over a kayak and chomping someone in half. There aren’t many hippos on the Zambezi where we kayaked… so I am told. (My friend Erica, who is working for WWF in Zambia, on the Zambezi.)

Last weekend, I was invited to go on a fishing trip with Wouter and his friends, Johan and Johan. When in Rome…The trip started with no less than two breaks in the 100K journey to the Kwandu River…for beer. The resort in Mudumu National Park was beautiful – small cabins over the water. They taught me how to braii (bbq), fish, and that I can't keep up beer for beer with Afrikaans. We did see some ellies right next to the river and a strange bat hanging from the ceiling!! There were dudes, sausages, and more dudes...total Afrikaans sausage fest :)

Kwandu River, ellie, Wouter with his big catch of the day

We had a little going away party for my friend Dan, who moved from the Fish Farm to work at a resort on the river. There is a nice little dock, called “the deck,” right over the Zambezi River, where it’s nice to have sundowners. There was probably a few too many of us on the old structure, and at one point, the whole thing started to tip pretty seriously towards the water. We all screamed and ran to the other side...it made for an exciting night out on the river.

I have started to meet people in town, which is nice. I attended a "kitten party" - dress up party for GIRLS ONLY! at a bar, which was a fantastic idea. I also spent a Sunday drinking beer and eating poike, Afrikaans style delicious stew. Lakka!! (Good!)

Unfortunately, I have been met with an uncommon amount of racism, almost all white on black. I thought about sharing some of the shocking things I have heard, but I decided that these things don't need to be repeated. It goes both ways though - the founding father of Namibia recently encouraged people to find Englishmen, and beat them up...with hammers. http://allafrica.com/stories/200909211118.html

Favorite frog story of the week: I noticed a frog hanging out on the toilet. Cool, whatever. Next thing I hear is a PLOP! …Mr. Froggie decided to go for a swim in the toilet bowl! A bit later Ryan went into the bathroom and started laughing pretty hard when he saw the little guy in his personal pool. He warned me to think before I flush.

Torches are set to arrive Nov 5...then it's conservancy sale time!! It's going to be crazy until then.

Victoria Falls, the mighty Zambezi, village dancing

Whew what a fantastic week! I think the pictures can mostly speak for themselves.

It started with a bit of worry: I had to go to Zambia for a few days for meetings and, apparently, benadryll is illegal in Zambia. Yeah, that's right. Totally illegal. Why? Who knows. For me, this is a big problem. If you have ever spent time with me, you probably know about my many fun food allergies. Although I don't usually don’t consider them a big deal, I don't feel comfortable travelling without my trusty benadryll. Unfortunately, a few unwitting American tourists entered Zambia with benadryll, and are currently being held in prison. When I contacted the US Embassy in Zambia, I was strongly advised NOT to bring any benadryll into Zambia… “If you do enter the country with Benadryl there is a very real risk that you will be detained and imprisoned on drugs charges.” the ambassador wrote me.

Deciding that Zambian jail might be better than ending up dead from an allergic reaction, I decided to put the benadryll in my bra for the border crossing. Tomorrow, I’ll either be at Vic Falls or in Zambian jail, I thought. Luckily, the informal border crossing between Namibia and Zambia was no big deal. YES! My first drug smuggling was a major success!

Arrived in Livingstone at 9:45, and at 10, I jumped on a bus to Victoria Falls and immediately met two lovely American women working for an international nonprofit called Population Services International and a German and Austrian med student, both volunteering in Zambia for the summer. Vic Falls was pretty but really dry. It’s the dry season here and so the water flow is not nearly as spectacular as other times of year. I watched them bungee (yup, still would not enjoy it one bit) and then we hiked down to the waterfront to see the canyon in the late afternoon sun. It was hot and the Euros jumped in the water to cool off…we soon followed, dress and all. So fun. Past baboon and zebras fro a sundowner at the Royal Livingstone – martinis and the red African sun setting on the Zambezi. Fantastic day.

Because my meeting wasn’t until late in the afternoon the next day, I decided to do a half day whitewater rafting trip with Max and Marcus, the Austrian and German medical students. On our raft, we met more friends to add to the crew: James, another medical student from the UK, and Ben, an Australian working in a mine in Zambia. We hopped on the river past the falls, and quickly realized that most of the ten rapids on that stretch of the river were Class 5. Is this a beginner course? Because we all were. Off we went. Three big rapids – horray!

Rapid 4 was a different story. Our guide warned us that rafts often flip on this one –and sure enough, we turned right over. I found myself under the raft. This is okay, I thought – and I remembered that they told us to find the water pocket under the raft and make our way out. I found the air, but then couldn’t get out from underneath. Great. The raft started flapping and my air pocket disappeared. Between my desperate gasps and the waves splashing, water started to enter my lungs. The current suddenly pulled me under deep and - luckily for me -

popped me back up immediately. It felt like a long time but it was probably about ten seconds or less. Because the water in my lungs, my first breath was more like a half gasp. Wheez, cough cough. Wheeze, cough cough. Marcus and I looked at each other with big eyes – WHAT THE F#%K WAS THAT! But no time to recover. On to rapid number 5….and the next 5 class 5 rapids. The mighty Zambezi definitely brought me the closest to death I have ever been.

But I wasn’t the only one – most of the people on my raft had a similar experience, though I don’t know if anyone had the same trouble breathing after the experience like I did. Soon we were able to enjoy ourselves a bit and laugh at ourselves. Like James, who lost his pants while he was flailing around in the white water. He said that he felt his pants come off, and (read in a Brittish accent) decided that if he was going to die, it wasn’t going to be without his trousers. He grabbed them and before he came out of the water, he handed them to our guide. Good one!

We flipped again on rapid 7, but this time, it was no big deal. We all held on to the side – experts. All in all, flipping was a very sobering experience, but I was able to enjoy it again by the end.

The meeting went really well – I met a nonprofit from…Denver, CO! which is very experienced in rural supply chain and marketing, but their work is with water products for rural farmers, not energy. Very interesting. How do you create markets in rural areas where no markets exist?

Naturally, that night, we had to celebrate making it out of the river alive with a night out and dancing.

Another strange experience in Zambia was meeting two different people that were in Livingstone related to two different deaths from car crashes. Apparently the roads are particularly treacherous there, between drunk drivers and truckers who drive all night without sleep. One was there for a funeral, the other, for a court date.

When I finally made it back to Katima Mulilo, I jumped into dinner with Erica and the WWF people. One Afrikaans man, from Zimbabwe, but working in Namibia, started telling me about his experience with Apartheid. It only ended 15-20 years ago, and racism and bigotry are still quite rampant here. “First they told us apartheid was right, now they tell us apartheid is wrong,” he said. “Twenty years ago, it would have been illegal for him (he pointed at the black African man sitting with us at the table) to sit here with us. Twenty years ago, it would have been illegal for her (he pointed at a woman sitting at our table) to be married to her husband, a black African man. It’s an interesting time – things are changing so quickly.”

BAD NEWS! My beloved pet, Roscoe the frog on my light switch, has gone missing. He left us one night and left only a poop to remember him by. Luckily, there are plenty of other frogs in the house. But I miss him every time I look at my light switch!

Sunday, we attended a cultural festival in Chinchimane. Chief Mamili of the Mafwe tribe showed up in his full leopard print – apparently that doesn’t happen every day!

There was a bit too much groveling and too little dancing for my tastes, but it was a feast of colors, textures, movement, and beautiful African harmonies. I’ll leave this one to the pictures.

Another week, another elephant

So I had the chance to go on another safari with my friend Jessica, so I took off on a Friday. We took an early cab into Botswana and tried to hitch a ride at the border. Ryan swore that as two blond girls we would have no trouble hitching, and sure enough, before we walked out of the Botswana immigration office, an Africaans trucker offered us a ride into Botswana. We got in early and got a spot at a nice resort right outside of Chobe National Park. It's a good deal - you can enjoy the amazing pool and facilities for $10 a night to camp. We decided that we should do an evening game drive, an early morning game drive, and a boat cruise to maximize wildlife-viewing.

Friday we hung out at the pool for a bit and then went on the evening game drive with a couple of Americans and a couple of South Africans. We did get to see tons of elephants (again) - playing with each other in the mud (cute!), a mother milking a child (aww), one rubbing his big ole butt on a tree (hahah), wartogs kneeling to eat their food (pumba is the swahili name for warthog!

they are so funny - becoming one of my favorites), tons of birds, including an endangered kori bustard, zebras, a bunch of giraffes (which I hadn't seen yet!), including one which got stuck on the wrong side of a pack of elephants and had to find his way to the other side, tons of baboons on the road including some babies, and at the end....a cheetah running through the bushes (although it was too dark for a photo).

The craziest part of that game drive, though, was an American dude on our safari jeep. First of all, he had a big old saloon style musache - wax and all. He wasn't very friendly, and then he kept being totally obnoxious - he would randomly start singing, or blabbing on inappropiately about how he wanted to shoot the animals while they were around (I have no problem with hunters but you have to be quiet as to not distirb the wildlife!)...he also bragged about his connections to Rush Limbaugh and his "piss on the Koran party"...more than once. Ugly ugly American.

I decided that this guy was someone I should get to know. "So, what do you do?" I asked. He looked at me for a second. "I'm a gun man. I like to shoot things. I like to shoot animals. I like to shoot people." I tried not to look suprised. Did he want to shoot me? "Yeah I'm wierd. I was in Nam. I loved shooting those gooks out of the plane." Wow.

(Did I mention the buffet? SO MANY KINDS OF CHEESE YUM!)

We were warned not to camp too close to the river because the crocs and the hippos have come up there - apparently one tourist was eaten by a croc while washing his dishes in the river a few years ago at our campsite! Since then they have put up little fences. And luckily for me - I was in a tent with an expert on the matter: my friend Jessica is studying human-wildlife confict in the region.

We woke up at 5 am the next morning for our 6 am game drive...and there was a LOT of noise coming from the bushes next to our campsite, which bordered the National Park. It sounded like a very noisy hippo in the bushes next to a tent of two other Americans, which was next to us. I was a little freaked out by all the noise and how close they were...and then Jessica said, "That's not a hippo - look at those tusks!" In the light, we could see two big white tusks in the bushes, right above the other American's tent!! The elephant moved into the light, in a clearing right next to the bush - just a thin metal fence between our tents and the massive animal. I was ready to get out of there as soon as possible. We were kind of worried about our friends but we didn't want to make too much noise and alarm the elephant. (We tracked them down later and they were ok :)

The morning game drive was also a sucess: buffalos scratching themselves on trees, tons of

baboons, and then the cats: a few lionesses, and three cubs in tow. They marked a tree and walked through all of the safari jeeps, unaffected. Another lioness in the grass, refusing to acklnowledge the jeeps surrounding her. Three hyenas, one knawing on something. Tons of impala, young males locking horns.

Another afternoon at the pool, with a view of the river and elephants in the distance.

Then it was off to our river cruise - lots of hippos, a croc face off, a baby croc, tons of birds, a baby hippo flapping his gums - on a boat with a Norweigan man working on the oil industry in Somolia..crazy!

This week of work was good. We found out that the 800 torches which never showed up in Namibia will arrive on the coast in mid October. But we aren't relying on those and we'll do a sale of the torches in October sometime. Hopefully. I am looking into the other products and microfinance issues as well.

I did have a pretty bad night on Friday. After a huge ordeal to get out of the Fish Farm Compound, we finally got a key and got out. I was trying to open the (electrified) gate for Jessica to drive in, although I had never had to lock or unlock the gate before. I blacked out. I found myself backing away from the fence feeling very stunned and freaked out. I turned around slowly and looked at Jessica. "I think I was electrocuted." She told me to get in the car and told me, "I thought you were joking because I saw your body convulsing and twitching like in a movie." Great. There are no doctors who work on the weekends here (unless its a pretty serious emergency) and the owner of the Fish Farm promised me that they've all been shocked before and it's not a big deal. I guess we'll see...

Big news for next week: I have a meeting in Livingstone, Zambia, which means...I get to see Victoria Falls on Tuesday! Awesome. I am also pretty excited about this meeting. A international development nonprofit based out of Denver has this amazing rural marketing strategy which could be a big help for our solar product distribution. How do you create a market in rural areas?

Fish Farm major photoshoot. Kitchen, my bedrom, front door.

I love this place.

...........Fish Farm PETS! Roscoe, the frog who lived on my lightswitch. HE WENT MISSING THIS MORNING!!! :( In his place is a poop!! Zulu, communal dog. Crazy horses. Lizards in the bathroom.