It's better when you mush it with All Gold

I think I owe some more detail in this blog – the last one was a bit skint, no? It’s Friday night, and I’m frantically trying to remember everything we’ve done in the last while – the days kind of melt into one another after a while – a blend of hyena dreams, ticking off sites, lasagna (what’s for dinner?  Yeah, I love that stuff! It’s better when you mush it with All Gold), keeping hydrated, finishing my masters thesis (well, this draft at least), trying to keep in touch with family (Yes, internet! No, sorry – false alarm. Cell phone? Left it at the cell phone tower – two bird poos right on the screen).

Well, we’ve officially finished up our sites in Moremi – we were so excited on our last day, we left singing at the top of our voices!  Mich has this great PDA loaded with a bunch of classics – loads of Johnny Clegg, Roxette, Jon Bon the Great Jovi, Billy Joel, Dire Straits, ah…. My favourite so far is “She’s got the look” – it’s been my favourite for a while, but you just can’t resist the “na na na na na!” until your jaw hurts! 

Ooh, before I forget, we saw a cute little jackal the other day. Oh my goodness. Reminded me of little Jack Russel Woody (who we suspect is a dwarf Jack Russel – he’s just too tiny to be normal) – I just wanted to call him over, pull him into my lap, and give him cuddles. Oh, cuddles. I will call him Jackal Russel and he will be my Jackal Russel.




Things are still eating me in the night – I find a new and fascinating bite almost every day. I have an idea that it may be spiders – never seen mozzie bites that go white and bulgy – and something that gives me this idea is the collection of spiders and webs I have all over the corner of my wall, next to my bed. I have doomed and doomed, but they persevere. By the way, Michelle says stupid mozzies keep trying to bite her screen. Ah, the number of times I’ve had the blood sucked out of me here (this has nothing to do with the fact that I just read the third Twilight book in just a week). But don’t worry mum, apparently there’s only a real malaria risk when we’re in Maun. Another aside in my tumble of thoughts – this is pronounced ‘Maaah-oooon!’ in reference to the sound a lion makes. Maaa-ooon!  I’ve only heard them go ‘ooh ooh ooh ooh!’ So I’m trusting local knowledge here. 

So, National geographic came and went. Our lives didn’t change, they didn’t give me a job on the spot, and they don’t know what they’re missing. They obviously were preoccupied, but I’m sure they’ll realize their mistake at some stage and come hurrying back. Totally. The only thing that really changed is that we lost our friend Chris for a few days, and we realized that the ladies here make pizza – we realized this when we saw them making pizza for the film crew, and now we realize that maybe they’ll make for us too. Yay! 

Today, as we were having our afternoon swim (ahh!), two very friendly folks came over to the pool to say “Hello!  Hello there!  How are you!?” They were so friendly and smiley! They handed Mich an official invite and proceeded to explain – we have been invited to…wait for it…the MTC 2009 Christmas Party!!!  It’s late, but better late than never, right? How awesome!  So, MTC is Moremi Tented Camp – very fancy, how do you spell laany? Larny? Laaney? Very expensive, I’m sure. On the edge of the river, naturally. So, they’re having this amazing CHRISTMAS party on Monday, and so far Mich, Roz, Emily and I are going – party!!! There’s gonna be food, and maybe even entertainment, PLUS we get to see MTC, take pics, and pretend like we stayed there! Woohoo! Anyway, I deserve a party, cos Jess (Jamo’s lovely cousin) is having her 21st down in Durbs this weekend, and all of Jamo’s family are down there, and they’re out at dinner tonight, and I so wish I was there!!

And now, to end, a quote from Michelle:
‘You know you’ve been in the bush too long when hot chocolate and cake makes you so happy that you flap your arms like a little bird.”

Hey hey!

It’s Saturday – and I felt like writing a bit for the blog. Just cos I can. One of the big bosses, plus some peeps from National Geographic, are arriving today for a bit of lion filming. I think? I was going to try to make a good impression, but the mysterious ‘thing’ that’s been biting me in the night has obviously got some pretty nasty venom, as certain areas of my skin are looking quite diseased at the moment. I’ve tried to cover up with plasters, but...let’s just say, Michelle’s avoiding skin contact. And I don’t blame her.

Anyway, enough of that personal embarrassment. I’ve been missing home so much, and been feeling pretty down about this whole Masters thing – not being able to do work on it except on a giant TV screen bigger than Hagrid’s torso, which is often being used as an actual TV. Not Hagrid's torso, the screen. Papers I need, I can’t access on the net. No stats programs to use and absolutely no way that I’ll finish by the end of March. So I’m feeling down, and this is the song that God gave me on my kPod:

Artist : Sonicflood
Title : Everlasting
----------------
The sky will fall
The ground will give
Through it all You will be faithful
Friends may leave
They come and go
This I know
You will be faithful
You will be faithful

You will always be the same
Your love will never change
You are the everlasting
I will put my trust in You
Forever to be true
You are the everlasting
You are the everlasting

When beauty fades
And slips away
For all my days You will be faithful
When I breathe
My final breath
I find my rest in Your
faithfulness


As far as news goes, we’re almost done with work in Moremi (2 more days), and then we’ll be moving on to our burnt sites. All is moving at a good steady pace, so that’s excellent! We’ve been so spoiled with everything we’ve seen, and the beautiful drives as the Okavango is waking up and going to sleep. We’re onto Rachel and Ross breaking up in Friends (watched 8 episodes last night!). Emily and Roz are nowhere to be found, and we’ve just about given up on them ever coming back. They’re having serious car issues in Maun – who knows when it’ll be fixed? They’re spending all their days on the net in the airport, just biding their time. Sven has gone off on holiday too, so camp is so quiet!  Well, that is until National Geographic arrive. Wish Zambuk would work faster, darn it!

So that’s it from me for today!  Drop me an email when you can - always feels like Christmas when I get news from home! :)

Love
The Kelminator

Some new pics - quick blog on extremely slow bush internet

The elusive albino red lechwe, up in Moremi

Baby ele running as fast as his legs could carry him, and Mommy looking very cross. So cute man.

We spotted this serval in the road by chance - so lovely and super cool

The wild dogs that Mich found 100m outside of camp - there were tons of these guys. Very skittish, because of the lions that were just another 100m down the road.

Bullet point, action-packed, goodie-filled blog!

Everything in Botswana is either non-existent or huge.

Non-existent: 

• Milk - this one doesn't count for the whole country - this is in my experience only. When you really gotta have that hot choc, you seriously consider buying a goat.

• Tarred roads - actually, I have seen some a few hours away.

• Bridges that make you feel safe in Moremi Game Reserve

• This tortoise was almost non-existent. This guy's thanking his lucky stars for Mich's sharp eyes. He hissed at us a little. Think he didn't like me grabbing him and placing him a photo-op position. Well, little guy, deal with it. 

• Doors in the loos and showers at The Old Bridge Backpackers in Maun.  What a beautiful place. You drape a rope across the doorway to show that the loo is occupied, and keep your knees bent in the shower to avoid swallowing the creepers hanging over the reed wall.

• Any cheese flavoured crisps. The favoured flavour of the national population is...wait for it...Pickled Onion!

Huge:

• The elephants standing in the middle of our roads, crushing our sage plants & trumpeting at us (giving us the fright of our lives).

• Emily's fund-raising Human Foosball Tournament!  Almost the entire population of Maun, getting ridiculous, kicking shins, trying very hard to be THE BEST TEAM EVER!  We didn't win. But we gave it our best shot and that's what counts. It's just a game, really. 

• The church service at Maun's All Nations Village Church - a really fun but LONG service, with songs that leave your arms and hands aching from all the clapping and dancing.

• The Most Amazing Extra Large Chocolate Hot Cross Buns from Maun Spar - this, plus yummy (free!) coffee, made the best breakfast. These things were like, bigger than my face. Like a big moon-shaped face. Actually, like a big hot-cross bun shaped face. This is getting silly.

• Mega-holes in the road, just waiting for you to get stuck in. So what if we need to radio for help? You know, even Bear Grills needs a little hand sometimes. Sometimes.

Exciting news!

Jamie wobbles has the most amazing job in Durbs, starting on Monday 15 March!

Well done my Jamie love, I'm so proud of you.

Is that a growl, a rumble, or thunder? I don't care. I'm getting in the car.

First of all, I have to say - the cool photos in the last blog (you'll know them if you just glance once) are Michelle's. She took them, she gave them to me, and I stole them for the blog. She knows it, and I know it. But I did it anyway. All credit to you Mich, your photos are WAAAAY better than mine :)

So Sunday, which would have been my day off, was instead filled with inward screaming as I watched my mac laptop disintegrate further and further into...a piece of metal that opens and closes, and makes a cool sounding 'bong' when you press the power button. That's all. Oh, and a flashing question mark in the middle of the screen, which sometimes changes into a smiling computer-shaped face, although why on earth he's smiling I can't imagine. It's just not funny. It flashes half-heartedly for a little while, then just gives up and switches off completely.

Thank goodness for the big old computer in the office, with a screen image that jumps up and down, and is even now making me just a little queasy. Kinda like that flight the other day. Anyway, I've been having computer nightmares lately, full of beeps and bongs and flashing screens, so I'm not gonna talk about it anymore.

We've taken to watching old episodes of Friends on Michelle's lovely laptop after dinner - normally with some PFMs, choccie (if we have any to spare), and hot chocolate. It's our indulgence. Yes. And we deserve it too, because this week we've been eating lots of carrots and pears for lunch, instead of last week's cottage pie. Anyway, last night, as we were getting our dose of Friends (Rachel and Ross finally got it together! Well, for the first time, you know)...I heard this weird loud scraping scratchy noise on the canvas (which is our wall) - I looked over, and saw the unbelievable. And this is gonna freak you out, but don't scream. I saw...CLAW imprints on the canvas, scraping down the wall in a long streaky, claw-like line!! **SCRAPE!!** Mich didn't see it, and we spent the next while completely freaked out (well, I did), trying to work out what on EARTH that was trying to get into our tent, and why on EARTH an animal would do that, and WHICH OF US is actually gonna look outside? Mich was the brave one, and as she was peering, Emily and Ros jumped out from behind Stanley and we got the fright of our lives!  We laughed until our stomachs hurt, and felt thoroughly embarrassed. Well, I did - Mich never did think it was an animal. I felt embarrassed.

All in all - Face doesn't have malaria, and he's right as rain. Andrew and Steph have been stuck in the mud enough times to drive a man insane. Even one as tough as Andrew. They spent the night in their vee-hickle (not a car, mind you), stuck in the mud, swatting mozzies and collecting drinking water from leaves. Bear Grills style. Minus the cliffs and eating snakes. We had apple pie this week...twice! Steph gave us some fancy American dark chocolate. That's our news. Big weekend coming up, so keep reading! :)

 The office

There's a storm rolling in - one of many!

Stanley getting some juice - he just oozes cool. Like Goose.

The boys - Moses and Tsitsi helping us give Stanley his juice. They're always full of smiles, but you know, gotta look cool for the camera!

Over and out ***