25.03.07 Highs and Lows

Hi, and sorry its been so long. I have tried - believe me - but the internet connection here is pretty precarious. Anyway, I'm hoping that this time it will actually work.

Mozambique is now nearly 2 weeks ago. It was an amazing experience and I'm not really sure how to condense it. It took 3 days to drive there, part of which was going through the most amazing electrical storm I've ever seen. When we finally arrived we camped on a beach, at a campsite that had been trashed in the storm, next to a bar that had also been destroyed. Only the pool table was left intact, but all the surrounding walls had fallen down. Needs must, however, and the bar was set up in the dive shop next door. There were 15 of us in total, which included a driver, a cook and a couple of the project managers from African Impact and 11 volunteers. It was incredibly hot - mid 40c during the day. I remember at one point being in a car and thinking it was quite cool then seeing the temp guage said 31c! How strange is that for a Scot!

The work with Unicef/WFP was great to be involved with, and from an objective view it was really interesting to see how aid distribution works on the ground (pretty slowly in this case) and just travelling around with local people to get the outlying villages/islands was fascinating. One day was spent on a truck. On the way out we sat on top of all the food and materials piled on the truck and then on the way back we were on the empty flat bed. Luckily I remembered my factor 40 as otherwise I would have burnt to a crisp. Another night and day was spent on a boat going out to a couple of islands. It was also quite frustrating as at some points hours and days were wasted for really stupid reasons and there wasn't a huge amount we could do about it. The boat trip was a case in point - the boat sat in the harbour for a day, left at 9pm, got stuck on a sandbank for 4 hours, arrived at 5 the following morning, couldn't offload until 8, then it broke down at 9am, didn't get fixed until 11, we didn't get til the next island til 5pm at which point we discovered no-one was expecting us! It was also difficult as English was not widely spoken, and although we sometimes had a translator, quite often they would disappear or just not turn up so we were left to rely on sign language.

It was also amazing to do the drive from Livingstone, across Zim and Mozambique and down the coast road. Zim and Moz are stunningly beautiful countries. The problems are well known, and I don't want to comment from here. On that note, I know there's been trouble in Harare and its been widely reported in the UK. I am so far away from it that I only heard news as someone looked at the BBC website. So don't worry, there's no risk.

I've been here at Antelope Park now for 10 days. There's no getting away from the fact that I don't enjoy the work here nearly as much as Livingstone, and I have struggled to settle down. I hate the fact that we are unable to go into town and are really stuck in this park, and also that the internet is so expensive that it seriously restricts how much I can communicate with the outside world. The other volunteers are largely people I have nothing in common with, but thankfully Anne is here - she's been my roomie since January and we get on brilliantly. Having said that, the work with the lions can be fantastic at times. There are 2 and 3 month old cubs that I spend time with most days. This afternoon I was walking 11 month old cubs - these are big boys. One of them decided to pinch my rucksack and I had absolutely no chance of persuading him to let it go. They are so strong, and they have lots of quite sharp bits. I have managed a bit of riding here, which has been great, and my back has been fine. Anna, can I tell you that I was cantering round in the ring yesterday (we're not allowed to canter in the park) singing an Abba song (as a distraction technique) feeling really good about it coming back to me.

There are lots of other critters here - he park has zebras, giraffes, elephants, loads of different antelopes and two very bad tempered ostriches. There are loads of creepy crawlies and nasty thingies - mostly of the bug type. I got a tick stuck in me for 2 days which was quite unpleasant and grooming the horses mostly consists of tick removal. Yeuch. I am coping with most of the creepy crawlies in the sink, but I did almost slice my leg off when a frog jumped out from the corner of the shower as I was shaving my legs. I am used to it a bit more now and I do check before I go in.

I was chased by one of the ostriches last week. It is quite surreal really. There are moments when I do really enjoy it and think wow (or eek!) but I'm not sure I'll stick it out here for the whole of April. Watch this space.

Best wishes to all.