The individuals with whom we share a dorm are oblivious to the laws of physics… especially the laws concerning the speed at which sound travels and the time/space continuum. If you understand what we mean that’s great… otherwise ask us in person.
This morning was spent writing a complete professional report for Helvetas… first in English, and then translated into French. We made it pretty with graphs and everything.
Meanwhile, Tyra and Amanda created a close relationship with the bathroom facilities last night, which continued into the day. We all seem to be suffering from a little food poisoning from something on the trip. Luckily it has not stopped anyone from participating fully in any of our activities.
Everyone except Amanda (who opted to read a book to give her knee a break after performing like a mountain goat on testosterone yesterday) went exploring in the area… it is beautiful country and we found many of the animals we have treated over the last couple of days.
After lunch we then clambered back into the lovely 4×4 vehicle to traverse the now painfully bumpy road. We have started to recognize many of the locals on the route that we travel, and ironically the first individual that the girls recognize is the boy with no pants (he always wears the same shirt!!).
We had the opportunity to see one of the lakes that has been created for holding water to provide a drinking source for livestock during the dry seasons. It was leaking and so we discussed the potential problems and solutions. We then were headed to see the beekeeping project underway in the area and wound up in an interesting traffic jam on the side of a steep cliff. With no space to spare between either the semi-truck or the side of the mountain, Denel managed to maneuver his way through. Cheers for amazing drivers! (We have a video of the roads so that you can see exactly what we have been referring to.) Of course it had started to rain at this point which made the visit to the bees somewhat short. We have been promised an opportunity to see them in the morning on our way out.
Once back we finished the last details of our report and then headed for dinner. We were somewhat disappointed to find that it was stale toast, scrapings of PB and burnt hot chocolate. However, at least when we got back to the dorms there was the first real hot showers of the week.
We are all somewhat exhausted from the last few days so we’ll sign off here and write more tomorrow.
Lots of love,
TRAJ