October 22, 2005
I Survived the Mighty Zambezi
White water rafting is my new hobby... or it would be if I lived in Livingstone permanently or even had running water anywhere near my home here. Of course there hasn't been running water in Choma District for a good 50 years or so. Anyway, I had the pleasure to go rafting down the river with a guide from Scotland and a guide from Uganda. We flipped twice on two class 4 rapids. It was amazing. I think that I might have swallowed too much Zambezi River water (which in turn means a lot of baboon and elephant poop), so I don't expect the giardia to clear up and time soon. And I'm sure that I did something really bad to my right knee while climbing down the gorge to the launch site. Health is going haywire.
To answer Stacey's question, there are local health clinics that are ok. The best options in the netheregions of Zambia are the missions. There are quite a few GREAT mission hospitals here, Catholic and otherwise. In Choma there is a great Indian guy and his wife that practiced in Britain for a long time, Dr. Jain and Dr. Jain. Really though I get to get checked-out by my favorite doctor in the world... Dr. Shakankale... the Peace Corps Medical Officer. She is lovely, wonderful, marvelous. Georgie provides well for his volunteers "serving on the front lines of peace throughout the world."
Posted by ringo at 9:43 AM | Comments (2)
October 20, 2005
Safari, Heat Stroke, Intestinal Parasites... oh my!
Okay, so I've just returned from a really excellent time in Botswana with my friend Mary who was visiting. We got to see all the animals at Chobe National Park and stayed at Elephant Valley lodge (a bushcamp on the Zim/Bot border). AWESOME! This month has been intense for me; sorry there haven't been more blog updates. I've been going to a lot of villages and escorting Mary around Southern Province a lot. Even my good ol' ma hasn't been able to get through and was quite peeved about it. I'm back in better contact now.
The heat here now is so bad that I don't know if I am going to make it from day to day! My nose is red, hair blonde, and there are parts of my legs that haven't seen sun in years that are now tan! I have taken to drinking oral rehydration salts in quantities of 3 to 4 litres a day!
I guess I made a bad choice in drinking water from Mat or Erica's bore holes... because now I think that I might have giardia (sp). I am sick. I guess that this is the first time that I've really been feeling completely under the weather in Africa... 9 months! I was lucky to have made it this long without the squirts!
Love and missing all.
Oh! And happy belated birthday to my Granny Maudie Vine: SHE TURNED 104 ON OCTOBER 18TH!!!!!!
Posted by ringo at 1:02 PM | Comments (1)
October 1, 2005
More Pictures
Ringo got me some new pictures via Bev who just got back from visiting. Click here to see them.
Posted by booizzy at 11:01 PM | Comments (3)