Bear with me while I try to tie this all together - I am currently in the throes of a gross cold/flu/something that has rendered me unconscious for at least 55 of the last 72 hours. This occurred shortly after I scoffed at my mother's concerns over Avian flu due to my extensive bird handling recently - and it has indeed been extensive. Thus, since a blood test ruled out Malaria, I am referring to this current bout of disgustingness as my own personal Avian flu. Pity me.
My birds of a feather are sadly flying away, Christian having left yesterday and my wonderful Guilia flying tomorrow. Peter comes back tomorrow from Sudan, which helps, but I'm going to miss them a lot.
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| You're going WHERE?!? |
As for the chickens, I got a call this morning from Frankie, the Tanzanian teenager who has been helping us with the birds - apparently, the birds decided they like the container for the bonemeal better than they like the custom made nestboxes, and have been laying their eggs there instead! Stupid birds. At any rate, it will require some rethinking of the pen design. My theory is that the birds shy away from the nest boxes because they are within sight of the window, from which a plethora of adorable, tiny, loudly screaming faces are using looming. So maybe we just move the boxes and solve the problem. We shall see. We collected our first egg last week, and my buddy Stevie promptly took it upon himself to throw it down a hill in his excitement - I think we all need to work on our chicken husbandry skills. In case you couldn't guess from the video, kuku means chicken in Kiswahili.
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| Chicken's eye view |
And geese - this is borrowed from a wonderful friend of mine, who discussed how much easier life would be if men were tagged - I quote, "you know, like the way bread loaves have that little plastic thingy that closes tha bag. sometimes they are different colors. and men should be tagged like bread loves or like geese" to let us know whether they are gay or married or just terrible human beings so that we don't waste our time. This was an entirely theoretical and humorous idea until the recent revelation that certain people in positions of power here... let me rephrase that, a shockingly large percentage of men I've met in any kind of position of power here - seem to have serious problems with lying and/or attempted or successful sexual coercion of the women, and especially girls, working under them. I am devastated and deeply disappointed with some of the information coming to light, and in the process of trying to figure out what, if anything, can be done. I would like to extend the goose idea to tag men who are immoral and irresponsible, so they can be kept out of positions of power. When I'm God-Empress of the Universe...
Ugh. We're still doing good work, but getting bogged down a lot with organizational problems, and I'm starting to feel discouraged and frustrated. For instance, we STILL haven't had our survey done, despite being told every day since last week that it would be happening. Meanwhile, the man who has offered to drill for us essentially for free is getting antsy about the timetable, as he has paid commitments in the new year. Even when people legitimately ARE good and want to do good, the endless little frustrations of Africa seem to get in the way. Nothing to be done but to keep on plugging, and keep working on my Hakuna Matata attitude... Deep breaths...
...and dancing. Deep breaths and babies and dancing. These are the keys.
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