Side Benefits

When the road crew took out all the trees, less people have been making charcoal. There have been people outside our compound chipping away at the big trees that were felled and pushed out of the way in order to get some firewood. Cooking is all done by open fire, and near to a town, all the trees that are able to be cut up for firewood have already been, so people are forced to search farther and farther away just to be able to get wood for cooking meals. It’s as if Christmas came a little early to a lot of households, and with the size and number of trees that were brought down, I think it just may even last until Christmas. Here are a couple pictures of whole families getting involved.

Revenge of the Bees

Do you remember the story I told about getting honey from bees about a year ago? We're even.

The time the heavy machinery was just outside our base for road work, I went out to watch them taking down the trees and clear the way. One of the trees ended up being the home to a huge swarm of bees. Everybody cleared out and watched from far away. I was about a quarter mile away, but a few hundred yards closer than most people to get to see the huge swarm still around the big track hoe that they were using to clear the trees. The machine had doors and windows that must have sealed well as there were thousands and thousands of bees swarming around the thing.

A motorcyclist decided he could ride through the swarm without any problems. He was way off! I was a couple hundred yards closer than everyone else, and then I see this motorcycle coming through. I stood in amazement at first, and then as I see a small swarm of bees leave the hoe and follow the rider, I realize he’s not going to be able to continue. The driver is completely encircled, and ends up crashing the bike, and gets up and runs in my direction. Seeing the bees all around him, I turn around and start running away too. I cut down a small path thinking I’ll escape, but the guy heads right for me still, and then a few bees leave him and come after me. So I begin running too and start stripping off my shirt as at least one got caught in it and swinging it at all the bees. Eventually the buzzing all but fades and I kill the final one I hear which is caught in my hair. I escaped with only two stings, but the motorcycle driver had over 50. The result of all that poison in his blood causes him to vomit violently and we ended up taking him to the hospital as he was totally weak and lost control of some of his bodily functions. Thankfully by late evening he was ok, and no one else made the mistake of trying to travel through the swarm until after they calmed down or just found somewhere else to go.

R.I.P.

On October 7, 2008 my monkey, Zakayo died. I’m not sure what the direct cause was, but she wasn’t eating and went downhill for the entire week beforehand. Thinking maybe if she was free that she’d improve, I ended up untying her for the last 5 or 6 days, but there was no improvement. At least she was able to roam around a little bit for a few days I guess. I tried medicating it with some antibiotics I had a couple days before death, but I think it was too late to have much effect, and I don’t know if it really would’ve helped anyway. Zakayo was a point of interest for all the visitors we had to our base, so I’ll leave everyone with a few parting shots to remember her.

Olympic Fever

I made it into Nairobi on Thursday evening for a bit of time out of Sudan. It is always nice to get back to civilization after a couple months "in the bush" as we say. A nice bed and some nice meals can go a long way. I also have enjoyed getting to catch up on the Olympics and the news.

So I guess all the talk of boycotting the Olympics over China's role in Sudan was mostly all talk. I'm sure there are some who are, but I don't think there's any more information getting out to people about the things that have taken and are taking place currently in Darfur. At least a few months ago there was quite a bit in the news to bring awareness and attention to the situation. And I understand that the U.S. had a Sudanese carrying the flag at the opening ceremonies or something, but it didn't sound like any information was being spread as a result.

Being around a television and being able to watch the Olympics has been fun, though. There's just something about it being every 4 years and people representing their various countries that can really get people interested. Here in Kenya, the long distance races are always the most talked about events as they are the ones that the country has excelled at in the past. Yesterday evening the Women's 10,000 meter race (6.25 miles) was on television, and there was a group of a couple Kenyans, a few Sudanese, a few Americans, and an Uzbek from a Russian background watching. Even though it was a 30 minute race, we watched it straight through focused the whole time on the women running. Support for the Americans, Russians, Kenyans, and Ethiopians was mixed throughout our group. We were all trading comments about our country's representative and other country competitors and joking around. But for the last 5 laps (about 6 minutes), the volume kept increasing and increasing and the excitement level kept raising. Finally, over the entire last lap, almost all of us were yelling and standing and cheering. It was the most fun I may have ever had watching any Olympic event, and it was great to watch the Ethiopian woman pull away over the last 200m from the runner from Turkey and to see the look of joy and surprise on the American woman's face as she managed to win the bronze medal in third place. It was surprising to see the Kenyans not fair as well as normal, and unfortunately for our Uzbek friend, the top Russian athlete was uanble to keep up with the American. I guess we've now got to wait another four years until it will happen again. But there's still some more events that can hopefully provide as much excitement over the next few days...