Having had a fabulous February, seeing Antarctica, meeting new people and having had the excitement of fabulous travels, I headed back from a cold and snowy desert to a hot and sandy one.
The start of March saw me land back in Namibia with a bump.
“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” ― Heraclitus
Aside from the horrific seasickness, having had the most awesome trip, coming back to 'normal' life was a little hard. With lots of new people (two in my department alone) and everyone having moved into new offices and new accommodation and life just carrying on here it was strange and unsettling to come back.
“I never come back home with the same moral character I went out with; something or other becomes unsettled where I had achieved internal peace; some one or other of the things I had put to flight reappears on the scene.” - Seneca
“Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you. You must travel it by yourself. It is not far. It is within reach. Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know. Perhaps it is everywhere - on water and land.” ― Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass
That said having new people (and finally having a new Fundraising Manager after doing two roles for 6 months) finally means we will be able to achieve more, even if whilst I have been away we seem to have taken on a few new projects....
In the first few days back there were a couple of birthdays, so a few drinks were had for those. During one of these 'beers on the grass' sessions we got a call that a donkey was stuck in one of the pools at the houses, so we jumped in the bakkie and within ten minutes three of us had waded into the pool to help the poor little lady out - than goodness this was not Donsie!
"That which is called firmness in a king is called obstinacy in a donkey." - Lord Erskine
Luckily for the donkey, having our encouragement and a rope either supported her enough or scared her enough to get out of the pool within about five minutes (just at the point we were thinking it could take 5 hours). I had a blanket and some food to warm her, but she scooted off into the bush before I got chance - good luck Mrs donkey!
The weekend was spent catching up with sleep and people, before heading into the next week of work.
The next week begun with a new arrival, one of our giraffe was spotted getting a little rotund last month and over the weekend gave birth to a female (we think).
"It's funny how after enough drinks a woman wearing high heels can turn into a baby giraffe that is learning how to walk" - anon
"NASA space scientists have been studying giraffe skin so they can apply what they learn from it to the construction of spacesuits." - Joanna Lumley
Finally after 6 weeks I managed to catch up with my little ones. I was looking for them the week before I was away and since I returned. I saw Donsie on Saturday morning when I hear a rather rambunctious 'e-yore e-yore' from my bed, I ran to the window to see her on the edge of the garden announcing herself. By the time I had put something over my PJs and dived outside, she was gone. I looked all round the house and saw footprints everywhere, but neither of them. Almost as if to say either 'we have been here all morning where were you?', or perhaps 'welcome home' (probably the first one knowing that donkey). So, she vanished into thin air, not to be seen until later in the week.
"Nature is forever arriving and forever departing, forever approaching, forever vanishing; but in her vanishings there seems to be ever the waving of a hand, in all her partings a promise of meetings farther along the road."- Richard Le Gallienne
I went for a walk after work to get some fresh air and see if I could see them and there they were in the middle of the pan with the donkey herd. As Frankie and Donise let me close the others didn't move too far away and I am sure I spotted Buddy in amongst the others. We had cuddles and the two of them tried to knock me off my feet forgetting I am not as strong as them. They nudged me to scratch their favourite spots (Donsie everywhere and Frankie his bum!) and I had to stop them scratching me back with their teeth as my skin cant take it!
After a few minutes I spotted one of the zebra herd running towards us and they got closer and closer and closer, inching nearer to the donkeys who they know and Frankie, who should clearly be with them, and this other creature (me). Normally wild zebs would run a mile, but as I was stood in with my two they came close to investigate. By the end there were about 16 zebras from little to large stood within 5-10 meters of me, just as the sun was setting. So special. It felt like the meeting of two kinds, donkeys on one side, zebs on the other and my two and me (our own weird little zeb, donkey, human herd in the middle). And of course one of those moments where you forget your camera, but perhaps best enjoyed without.
After a few minutes I spotted one of the zebra herd running towards us and they got closer and closer and closer, inching nearer to the donkeys who they know and Frankie, who should clearly be with them, and this other creature (me). Normally wild zebs would run a mile, but as I was stood in with my two they came close to investigate. By the end there were about 16 zebras from little to large stood within 5-10 meters of me, just as the sun was setting. So special. It felt like the meeting of two kinds, donkeys on one side, zebs on the other and my two and me (our own weird little zeb, donkey, human herd in the middle). And of course one of those moments where you forget your camera, but perhaps best enjoyed without.
This of course meant I hung around in the veldt for far too long and pottered back in the dark through the bush in flip-flops without a torch worrying about snakes all the way back!
"Always carry a flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite and furthermore always carry a small snake." - W. C. Fields
I have also just discovered that whilst I was away the small lump on Frankie's face swelled into a massive abscess I thought it was some sort of infection in glands in his face, but our director suspects it could have been a snake bite. Luckily he is fine now, but here is what he looked like when I was away, poor wee man!
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The week continued with the sad news that the friend who had come out to join me for a few months was leaving, really quite sad as since he arrived I have hardly been here or have been hectically busy preparing for being away. We caught up the other night properly for the first time since he arrived over a few glasses of paint stripper - ahem I mean wine- and put the world to rights. Muy nice.
"Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend - or a meaningful day."- Dalai Lama
The last week or so has seen more than its fair share of bedroom wildlife - from the mosquitos that are eating me slowly piece by piece to the bird that I saw fly through the house as I was on the toilet and who crashed into the window the other day and landed in my boot. I was expecting him to die into my boot and took him and the boot out to recover, slowly he gained his strength, steadied himself and flew off.
"It's best to have failure happen early in life. It wakes up the Phoenix bird in you so you rise from the ashes." - Anne Baxter
The next surprise in store for me was coming home to an empty house, relaxing with the long french doors open to the stoop and veldt beyond and suddenly being swooped on by a bat, in my own bedroom. In he flew round and round and landed on my pillow, up for another swoop and onto the other pillow. Not so much you can do in this situation but take the bedding outside and wait for the bat to find a new home.
"I got rabies shots for biting the head off a bat but that's OK - the bat had to get Ozzy shots." - Ozzy Osbourne
I thought perhaps a bird and a bat in my room would be enough for one week, but alas two days after the bat I was greeted with a scorpion in the bath.
Quite a menagerie of visitors!
"Life is a zoo in a jungle." - Peter De Vries
One night a few of us headed to the lodge for an "award winning" dinner - the menu had actually won an award the week before and we got to try hartebeest (one of Namibia's nicest meats) for the first time - baie lekker. On the way home we checked on the volunteers in the watch tower, who mistook us for poachers and thought their number was up. I'm not convinced about how unnerved they claimed to be when they said "we even turned the movie off" - must have been terrified!
I thought perhaps a bird and a bat in my room would be enough for one week, but alas two days after the bat I was greeted with a scorpion in the bath.
"There is poison in the fang of the serpent, in the mouth of the fly and oi the sting of a scorpion; but the wicked man is saturated with it." - Chanakya
Next there appears a cat in the roof
right up on top of the wall- see her?
"meow meow''
first time she did this i was scared she wouldn't be able to get down, but I have seen it a few times now, funny never the less as she gains access to the whole house!
About an hour after the cat, I felt a wet nose on my toes and Mia (the now very grown up baby jackal) had come for a visit, after a bit of a stroke she chased her tail then lay on the grass enjoying the rain, before camping out in my room.
Quite a menagerie of visitors!
"Life is a zoo in a jungle." - Peter De Vries
One night a few of us headed to the lodge for an "award winning" dinner - the menu had actually won an award the week before and we got to try hartebeest (one of Namibia's nicest meats) for the first time - baie lekker. On the way home we checked on the volunteers in the watch tower, who mistook us for poachers and thought their number was up. I'm not convinced about how unnerved they claimed to be when they said "we even turned the movie off" - must have been terrified!
In 2011 Namibia saw the rainiest rainy season in 100 years, last year it seemed moderate, this year we have had barely anything and I missed most of it as I was away. Sat at the end of March and watching the end of the season rain all around, none actually on the farm - just the surrounding ones and what a fire from the lightening on the other side of these hills. Always feels strange being from up north in the UK and wanting rain, but rain here is different, it comes in droves, you see if coming, it freshens everything and then its gone and a few days later everything is far greener.
oooooh I lie, it's just started rain!!!!
[wahooo, does rain dance]
And the day after we got hail- errrrm no such thing as global warming, ahem!
"Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams." - Ashley Smith
We recently noticed Lala getting sorer and stiffer and older. Over the last couple of weeks she was really stiff and wimpering a little at something on her neck, struggling to get up in the morning and sore at night, so I took her to the vet. We discovered three things:
1. a stripey legged tick which was causing the soreness on her neck and shoulders
2. She has Arthritis which we had suspected for a while (old age hey?!)
3. She gets about as motion sick as I do on a boat (dog vom all over the minibus both there and back - great!).
"It was dog food. Beef livers with onions in a can. You open it up and it looks like vomit" - Tom Sizemore
She also peed on the vets floor (and looked at me with big soppy Lali eyes knowing she had done wrong, but not able to help herself - bless, all you can do is give her cuddles).
"A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than you love yourself" - Josh Billings
At least it was nothing serious!
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