oh, so busy!!

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nonsense. Exactly. Work has been swallowing all of my time.

I am back home in Nairobi and going to try harder to remedy this. Maybe even post a few more blogs. :)

equanimity

Equanimity: a steadiness of mind under stress. How does one achieve this? Go here. My new favorite little corner - Inhambane, Mozambique.

ants in my coffee, cockroaches on the toes

A little protein never hurt anyone. I must be happy if I take a look at my freshly brewed hot coffee and there are a few ants floating on top...and I smile. :)

Last night I enjoyed a good little laugh at the expense of my colleague. To set the scene, I call him one of my Mozambique bodyguards. At 6'4"ish, his tall and broad Swedish build scares away plenty of creeps as we travel. But last night, he did a little dance at the table and shrieked like a girl! Complete with a jump and the heeby jeeby shivers. After catching myself from spewing orange Fanta out of my mouth and all over the table from the surprise of this little charade, I couldn't hold back my laughter. I asked what was wrong?! A cockroach had started to nibble on his little toe. He felt at first, a tickle. Then looked down and shrieked at the sight of this giant squishy cockroach (bigger than his big toe!) nibbling away happily. Mozambique cockroaches do not die when you step on them. Their shell is hard and resilient. Even after a bodyguard tries to stomp the life out of it. Didn't die. The restaurant guard, who was also laughing, took it out to the street. Dinner and a show!

32:

tete

I was up in Tete, Mozambique last week scoping out sand dams. They were pretty cool. You take a seasonal riverbed, build a dam at a prominent point where the river narrows and then opens again; then when the rains come, the water soaks deep into the sand acting as a reservoir. The sand itself is a natural filter for bacteria and water-borne disease agents. A pipe can be placed at the bottom of the dam, capped, and used for drinking water year round. You can also dig a hole in the sand at the surface, without digging too far, and up comes water. Its a sustainable clean water source for communities, their livestock, and agriculture. Very little maintenance and low-cost to build. We're hoping to pilot a few through our Moz office this next year.

Take a look!

sand dams are FUN!

cowboys and a chameleon