Drop the Mango and Run!

We took a three day trip up to Gaza this week. We had some progress with out crop project, finally! But just a little progress. We still have a long way to go.

We stayed in Bilene again since that is the only place that has decent accommodation. As we were driving on the skinny highway on our way to Chokwe (where our project is), we were going fast as there was no one on the road. Then we see an animal jump out of the bush. Not any animal, but a BABOON jumps out of a bush with a mango, he starts to cross the street with the mango in hand. We see his hair around his head, bare butt, everything you'd imagine Rafiki to look like in real life. Then he sees our car coming at 130 km/hr, so he shoves the mango in his mouth and books it into high gear. We couldn't slam on our brakes, we could've crashed. I scream, Alex holds the wheel tight...and phew. The monkey baboon BARELY got across the road without getting hit. I wouldn't be surprised if we nicked its tail. I would have been so sad if we hit the baboon. I mean, I ran over a squirrel once and I had tears in my eyes. But if we ran over a BABOON? I don't know what I would do. But we didn't. Thank goodness.

Friend Filipe

We took a group of irrigation and drainage experts with us to analyze our land. We drove all around the land looking at all the canals and drains. I guess I didn't realize how big 1,200 hectares actually is. It is huge! It took all day to drive around the land and take GPS coordinates, and having the experts look at the infrastructure. It was frustrating because the map we had wasn't sufficient to our needs, the government officials wouldn't give us their map. (They are overprotective of their maps). It was a big deal, but it worked out OK.

Working

After the day out on the land, we drove into the local village closest to our land to look around. We took pictures of their school, hospital, church, etc. The benefits from the crop project we are working on will go towards rehabilitating their village and such.  The people in these villages are different. They are so kind. The people in the city where we live aren't as friendly. Its refreshing to know there are kind people still in the world.

Village school

Village kids

Village Hospital

The Village Church

On the way home we stopped on the side of the road next to a village, and bought a 10 kilo bag full of maracuja AKA passion fruit for 100 meticais (3 bucks) what a steal! I love maracuja, its delicious. Tonight we cut and gutted all of them and put them into little baggies so we can freeze them so it doesn't go bad. We will have maracujá for months now! I'm excited to have it for breakfast in the morning!

The fruit sellers on the side of the road. That whole bag is full of our maracuja!

Yummy

other pictures:

A macala. This is the fruit Rafiki has in the Lion King. It looks so gross, but it tastes like a juicy fruit.

Man on the side of the road making sugar cane juice. Not as good as it sounds.

The dump. People spend all day there digging through the garbage. Gross.