October 31, 2004

Greetings on Halloween! Last night featured a Halloween party on Nsumbu Camp. People were remarkably creative with costumes given limited resources. Leah pulled together a Tse Tse Fly costume, featuring wings from a garbage bag and wire, stuffed socks for bug legs, dustbin brushes as antennae and sunglasses as bug eyes. As part of an ensemble costume, I went as an exterminator (Nsumbu Pest Control), featuring a giant fly swatter made of bamboo and tarp and a bottle of 'pesticide' with a skull and crossbones. The entertainment factor was high, given the generally slow paced environment we have going here.

We have definitely found our routine here. We get up around 4:30 am or 5:00 am and go out into the field for 3 or 4 hours. Field work usually consists os some sort of counting. Some days we might get an assignment to count beetles in a pitfall trap. Or small mammals in a sherman trap. (No animals are harmed...) Other times, we might be seen sprinting across Acasia Savannah with a butterfly net, desperately seeking a catch. Binoculars (or "bins" in our local slang) are our constant companions. They can often be seen around our necks or glued to our eyes as we count birds or large mammals.

After a few weeks here, we are able to identify quite a few birds, some of them by their call alone (such as the Black-backed Puff Back and the Emerald Spotted Wood Dove). Common mammal sightings include Puku (an endangered antelope species that is abundant here in Nsumbu), Warthog with their babies, Vervet Monkeys, Hippo (in the waters by our camp) and Baboon. On night drives, we have seen a black-backed Jackal, mongoose, civets, and genets. We have heard Elephants trumpet and rumble at night, seen their footprints and very fresh dung, but we have yet to see them in the flesh. They are quite secretive here and blend easily into the closed thicket that's abundant. We are hoping to catch sight of them before we leave.

After our morning field work, we come back to camp for breakfast (an exciting choice between oatmeal, oogee or rice pudding), a nap (because we got up so early), and lunch (some sort of vegetarian fare, usually including rice, potatoes or noodles). Thus avoiding the hottest time of the day in field.

Afternoon field work ensues for 3 or 4 hours, followed by dinner (some sort of vegetarian fare including lentils, beans or soya. Someone please save me from the soya!)

Evening entertainment usually involves some sort of card game. I never knew there were so many! And bed by 8:00 pm.

Chores around camp are labor intensive, yet meditative at the same time. We wash our clothes in a tin bucket on the beach of Lake Tanganyika as we watch Pied Kingfishers, Yellow Billed Kites and Cattle Egret fly overhead. Just yesterday, a yellow-billed kite (bird of prey) coasted on an air current 10 feet agove our head and stared at us with keen hunter's eyes! The water gentily laps the shoreline, and a soft breeze caresses our skin. If you are going to do laundry in a bucket, you might as well do it in paradise. Our definition of paradise anyway.

We haul lots of water from the Lake up to camp every day. It has become our version of 24 hours fitness: Grab 2 empty 5 gallon buckets (light) from camp, walk 75 meters to the beach, fill buckets, carry 2 full 5 gallon buckets (heavy!) up a slope 75 meters back to camp. And repeat! Water for dishes, water for drinking, water for the long drop wash basin, water for a bucket shower...

Ah, the bucket shower! A "shower" never felt so good or took so much work. Scoop water into cup. Pour water over head. And repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat... Someone last phase was kind enough to build an enclosure. It's the one place, save the long drop, where we are guaranteed privacy.

We live by the sunrise and sunset, the full moon (or note), the heat and the rain. We have not slept so well or been so rested or felt so centered in years.

Bye now from Paradise,

Cindy and Leah