Star-lings

This week was amazing - birdwise. I spotted a violet backed starling, so beautiful it should be synthetic and unnatural. I mean the colors are so perfectly glossy they should have been mixed in a lab somewhere.

I keep hearing what I think are lapwings by the rocks that form the edge of the lake, am not sure though for even though its common to find lapwings by water, I think this body of water is a bit too deep for them, having said that I haven't seen anything so will file this one under "unknown" for a while.

Oh and weaver nests! I saw dozens of them on my way to the baobab, they were hidden in the reeds hanging over water, above them were skeleton leafless branches holding up 3 or 4 cormorants and a darter. They were keenly eyeing the fishermen who were casting nests nearby. I doubt they have the dexterity and determination of the eagles though (they hang around fishermen so they can steal their catch.)

One of my favorite things to do at night (since I long gave up tv) is to look at the stars. On a slow day I only get to see 1 or 2 shooting stars and I always see Scorpion, Venus the planet, sometimes I see Orion and the Southern Cross as well. Unknowingly (since I don't know how to plot them yet) I also see Taurus, Aquarius and virgo. You don't notice time when you are star gazing and the coolest thing is the sky is ever moving, sometimes you notice a star that is moving unnaturally fast and in a seemingly wrong direction, that's a satelite. A friend of mine brought her iphone which had a stars app. we had some good fun plotting and identifying constellations with it. If I get an iphone I definitely want that app. What you do is you just point to the heavens or even the ground and it will identify the stars, planets and constellations that are on the spot you are pointing at, magnifying everything like a huge telescope. What it also does is reveal the shooting stars you can't see with your naked eye..its quite something seeing hundreds of stars shooting down at the same time.

Nkwichi Staff-hard at work!

Oscar was wondering if we actually get any work done here on squeaky sand land so I thought I would share a few candid pics of our hardworking staff!

Here are Maaike and Joseph planning their next village visit!



Or could they be smiling about how the current football tournament scores?? You decide:



And Odin doing accounts (he always has this face when he is doing our barbills)


Vincent prepping for dinner




and this is our volunteer Kristina



Her main jobs are:

entertaining us at meal times
uploading music onto ipods
giving pedicures
updating our facebook statuses
helping Vincent carry firewood

all this she does when she has returned from digging at the farm and overseeing various craft projects in the villages! We love volunteers!

I would love to have uploaded a photo of me hard at work, but I am never able to use hard and work in the same sentence! I can usually be found sitting behind my computer working on my blog or emailing strangers who I will soon meet and become friends with or on the beach having sundowners and being very opinionated about life and what it's all about or entertaining guests with anecdotes of life in China. I can hardly call that work!

Take last week for example which was a blast! I hung out with my 2 new best friends Lily and George. We walked to the Baobab tree and took turns spotting birds. Then we timed ourselves racing around the baobab tree, Odin was there too but his time was not the best. That night we played "duck duck goose" on the beach which was hilarious because Jaime (our Portuguese waiter) kept translating everything into portuguese so "duck duck goose" became "ganso do pato do pato." Jaime is so strong and fast he won every time. Then the next day we were all swimming and playing "shark" which should have been "croc" that was fun and refreshing too for the water felt soo cool and refreshing against the hot sun. When lily left she gave me this picture of a...



I am hoping its a puppy and not in fact a likeness of me! We miss you Lily and George! Thanks for making us enjoy playing like kids again!

Emma's Peach

Emma took this amazing photo and called it her "peach." Sometimes we get so focused on seeing the big things, we want to see the Lions, Leopards and Elephants we miss out on the more special, hard to see things. It's a bit more like life isn't it? We get so focused on the BIG picture and the small things that matter, that make the difference pass us by. I'd like my life to count for the small things, would like to learn from ants who only see and experience a small part of their large and essential life. And I hope I have enough patience and passion to do what I can in that moment knowing that I am part of a bigger plan/operation. Thanks Emma!

(Ps. I am dedicating: Everything will be alright-The Killers to you!)

Sunset

This is the most magical time of the day at Nkwichi

The sky becomes

a kaleidoscope of color changing every 5 minutes like a chameleon having mood swings. It affects the water which turns dark and illuminated by reds and pinks and yellows. It even reflects on the white sand that absorbs the color of the sun. At this time; the bush gets louder as monkeys, baboons and thousands of birds settle in for the night. Sometimes you can see a few female monkeys carrying their young ones like pouch bags scrambling to collect one last meal of berries before the sun disappears.

the fire is lit and cold gin and tonics are served, everybody talks about their day, their lives back home and how they want to change the world. Peanuts are passed around along with delicious canapes.


The water looks calm and the fishermen float past

homeward bound with tonight's dinner still writhing and gasping for its last breath. The waves gently slapping against the rocks are constant and in the distance you can make the thin dark outline of a heron contemplating on a rock. And suddenly its really dark, like a dark cloak has enveloped us except it has many holes that allow in bits of twinkling light, the stars, which appear one at first signaling the beginning of yet another night in paradise then suddenly; millions twinkling and making shapes that tell stories that have been past on for hundreds of years, shapes that guide us and give clues of our future.


There is no moon tonight but I can make out a dozen or so dark shadows moving swiftly towards the glowing fire. Its the choir that has walked 45 minutes to come and sing for us and dance with us. They will sing spiritual songs praising God and pledging their chaste allegiance to him, but their bodies are misbehaving gyrating and swaying to the music, enticing. The fire is getting hotter and the dances become more complicated more involved until one or two break away from the group indulging in some freestyle dancing. Then I can't sit still and am getting dizzy from nodding so hard so I get up and join the frenzied movements, soon everyone is on their feet, clapping, moving dancing around the fire. Its clear we all went to different dance classes. The music stops too soon, the guests have to eat and the choir must return, so everyone disperses and I am still sitting by the fire my heart still beating a rythmn, my feet won't stop moving and the fire is mesmerising...in the words of my current favorite singer "...its just too much"

Monkey business

We have just had our shower renovated! It now features fresh dry grass, a new vanity stand and pearly white stones. There is even a huge gray pumice stone which (it seems) nobody else besides me uses. We used to have a pair of
Collared Sunbirds(Hedydipna collaris )
nesting in the shower but the cleaning staff removed them thinking they were a nuisance:( My best part of the day was just before sunset when I would go for a shower and the female would be peaking her head out hoping I hadn't spotted her and probably praying I would not drench her with water. The male (who is more colorful than the dull gray female) would be perched on the tree just above watching intently in a protective manner towards his home and his woman. But now they are gone and I don't know what became of them which is kind of sad but anywho I spotted a half dozen flying trumpeter hornbills (Bycanistes bucinator) yesterday afternoon on my way to take a nap! To be fair I heard the loud honking/wailing noises first before something disturbed them from their perch and they flew off, low just above the trees. It felt like a flying scene in a jurassic park movie. Personally I find this kind of hornbill to be quite unattractive and obnoxious.

The most annoying thing though has to do with monkeys. Its getting very hot now, am reading 36 degrees celcius and its 3 in the afternoon! By morning it's already in the 30s! Which means less food for monkeys and baboons. They are now being spotted sneaking into chalets looking for food or just trying to cool down. This morning a male monkey snuck into the office and by the time I turned around it was already too late, he had already opened the tupperwear box with breadrolls and was hightailing it out of there. I think they have figured this is conservation land so they can get away with such behavior without getting shot- not good! Yesterday Odin was accosted by a pair of baboons while he was in the shower. They must have been dying of thirst but were scared to go to the lake because their natural instinct tells them there are crocodiles in the lake even though none are around during the day. So they have learned to come to our shower room when the water is on hoping they can either scare us out of there or enjoy the cool water if we accidentally leave the shower on, at least there they are guaranteed no crocs. I had an encounter with a huge male who was almost my size, he came barking towards me while i was heading to the toilet, I threw a rock in his direction and he relented(was not about to take my chances with an aggressive male baboon!). Though they usually keep to themselves and are shy of human contact the poor mammals are now desperate as the hot season reaches its apex and will do anything to ensure their survival, quite amazing to note.

Last week two guests decided to go fishing in one of the boats. The men were completely unaware of the African fish eagles who are attracted to anything shiny like the floaty thingy used in fly fishing. Well; as soon as they threw their lines out an eagle swooped in and grabbed the thingy with his talons and tried to fly away with his "catch." He ended up being caught with one of his talons pierced by the hook. They had to pull him by the line dragging him as he was fluttering and cawing back into the boat to unhook him. From what i hear it was quite a kodak moment for those things are huge and can cause significant damage with their talons! Needless to say I don't think the guys are going to be bragging about catching a bird on the 3rd largest lake in Africa!

Football highlights

We heard there was a hot match at Chigoma. Having no tv and starving for some action we packed the guests onto a speedboat and headed for Chigoma. On arrival we were met by a dozen or so kids cooling themselves on the shores. They didn't seem very interested in us nor were they impressed by the speedboat. A half hour walk later we made it to the "stadium" which was a large fig tree and a dusty playing field with 2 goalposts made from sticks. We parked ourselves under the tree with our coolerbox and soon enough; we had attracted a nice crowd around us, the game though did not look like it was going to start soon. There was only one team suited and ready for battle, their opponents it turned out; had decided not to show up for fear of getting defeated. This caused a huge argument because it appears, winning by default was not an option the "Great Warriors" were prepared to accept. As they went back and forth, deciding the future of football leagues on Lake Niassa Coastlines, we passed balls to the kids and to each other, drank some coke and even took line up pictures of the team that actually showed up!



The sun got hotter, baking the red earth beneath our dusty feet, lucky enough we had box tickets under the fig tree complete with a wooden bench to sit on! It was finally decided that 3 goals will be scored by the "Great Warriors" to symbolize their unequivocal victory, to me this was nothing short of comic relief as the defender bravely protected the ball from invisible assailants.



False goal



With a potential disaster avoided and a clear winner revealed; a second team materialized to play "friendly" against the "Great Warriors." After all people had come a long way for a game and internal politics aside; we got a game!

Spectator mixing business with pleasure

Mozambique

This might have something to do with why I am enjoying myself soo much!