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.
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