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It seems that Alex has come out of retirement and is getting his sleeves rolled up to turn around the Community Campsite ... Friday, 02 March 2007 The Environmental Council of Zambia came today for their inspection. I had given up and forked over the cash so that some action might be taken within the tear on the Tourism License approval. There were four of them, two from Chirundu and two from Lusaka. As usual none of them had been out in the bush before which makes me wonder who exactly does go out on inspections usually. Anyway, it seemed to go all right and so hopefully the approval should go through on the nod. Of course I have thought that before. Sunday, 04 March 2007
I am in Lusaka now preparing to get in the next load of hardware and building materials for the staff compound at CC Camp. I want to get that building up in the near future to provide a dormitory for the casual workers. Tuesday, 06 March 2007 Shit! Immigration has turned down my extension for self-employment. Munalula from immigration at Chirundu warned me that this might happen. Matonka, the agent has asked meet to give him a week to find out the reason for the rejection ... Friday, 09 March 2007 In the meantime I carry on as though nothing is wrong. I have another six workers digging out the topsoil for Nyalaberry House. I sent home the red and blue teams because the rains are still here and the Chongwe River is inaccessible for fetching sand. Mweemba is busy on the new staff house for Community Camp. At least that should be finished before I get expelled. Friday, 16 March 2007 Life goes on tick-tock. On Sunday I shall travel up to Lusaka again and on Monday have a meeting with Mr Matonka, the immigration agent. We will make a plan on the appeal for my self-employment permit if indeed I decide to appeal. I am still flip-flopping the idea with running away to Borneo... A pair of firefinches has decided to make their nest in the bathroom doorway. I noticed it yesterday and thought they would move out but this morning spied two eggs in the bottom of the nest. With all the guys around disturbing them and making noise all the time I will be amazed if they breed successfully. I could scream and shout in frustration. A group of four elephants just came strolling past in the water, a beautiful sight and I think to rush for my camera but the battery is flat. I plug in the mains adaptor and stretch the cord to the maximum and catch a few shots of their disappearing backsides as they quietly wade past a pod of hippos and glance down at my camera. “No CF Card” is flashing on the screen... Moments before, I had been watching James and Elias looking at something downstream in the river. They did not come and tell me what it was and I was not curious enough to go and look for myself. Will I ever learn? Monday, 19 March 2007 I look forward to a week in Lusaka. It looks as though I will have to stay longer than usual as Matonka needs to get my appeal together and hopes to get it lodged on Wednesday so I can sign my report order on Thursday. I got a reference letter of support from HRH and maybe, just maybe that will swing it my way. I hope so. Tuesday, 20 March 2007 Bonzo kindly agreed to do this run on credit so he will be taking all the stuff down to finish the staff quarters at CC Camp later this week. I was hoping he would go tomorrow and take some rations down for the staff as I left them with practically nothing in the cupboards. Instead he is taking his daughter to school in Livingstone. He is fatherly proud of her intelligence and though from the paperwork it seems she is good at English, I did not see anything exceptional about her grades. Ah well, I guess I am not the fatherly type. Sunday, 25 March 2007 The Landcruiser acted as a bus again today when I went and picked up all the casual workers to get back on with the project. I am still working with the thought that immigration will let me stay all though I am by no means certain that they will... The brick factory has been doing really well and we are nearly finished with the small bricks. Our two main problems now are space to store them and the threat of a least rainstorm as thunder still rumbles over the river in Zimbabwe. Although the guys are working hard on the manufacture and process, I do not think that any of them believe these bricks will be good. I hope that I am proved right and the project works well. I hope indeed that I get the chance to prove it as these methods and skills would save villagers a fortune in building costs. Tuesday, 27 March 2007 There is an elephant who is visiting at night at the moment who seems to patrol the perimeter of camp but not enter. I have not seen him yet but I do not think it is Notch who has never been shy. It has been a long time since I have seen Oliver, I just wonder if he may have fallen victim to the poachers who are really getting active right now. There was a shoot out on Monday when a patrol found a group who had slaughtered two elephants close to the Chongwe. Garth sounded pretty apprehensive on the radio when calling Sierra to ask what was happening.
Fingers crossed that the rain has finished. Actually, the farmers will not object to my sentiments. I am beginning to understand a little about agriculture and the annual cycle of things now. Although the rains were plentiful, they came too late and the sorghum is drying in the fields. Rain now would only produce rot and fungus which would further damage the fragile harvest. This valley is not natural farming country. |
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© Afrikeye 1999 - 2007 (certain items under permission of original copyright owner) |
Last
night there was the most amazing lunar eclipse I have ever seen. I stayed up
till 2:00am to watch it through and managed to take a few photos. It was nothing
like as dramatic as the solar eclipse in 2001 and all the staff and workers were
fast asleep so I could not share the experience with anyone. It did look like a
“blood moon” so I can understand why it might look like a bad omen and hard as I
tried it did not look romantic in the least where a beautiful clear full moon
definitely does.
We
have enough small bricks now. Patros has even saved me the problem of the water
supply to the staff compound by locating another pipe that we can link into. Now
that deserves a bonus. Of course the polypipe is of a different size so we have
to make a bodge fix to get the two pieces linked but it worked for the compound
on this side and there is no reason why it should not work again.