One of those weeks
This last week is best described as just one of those weeks. I apologize in advance for some graphic wording and for this probably sounding like a complainer of blog but it is just one of those weeks-no real complaints they just happen. This was especially tough as I have this idea about a chair I want to make for the house that I had to put off the last couple of weeks for other site related projects. This was the week I was going to work on it and this blog entry was supposed to be another Tiny House Tanzania. Then this happened:
Then it happened again and again and again. Since all my work is done outside it killed my project on the chair.
The first thing happened upon walking into the house and smelling an all too familiar smell-dead. Something had died and I am glad it did not take me long to find it. One of the mole/mice looking creatures had tried to get at my sink which I had forgotten to dump before leaving the previous week and they drown in less than an inch of water then bloat up. Still better than the time the squirrels got caught in my downspouts back home and after they drowned in a heavy rainstorm they got so swollen I had to cut them apart to get them out.
My first site project were planting some fence shrubs. I had stopped by the local tree and shrub store (I should have put that in quotations but by now I think my regular readers get the idea). I purchased 20 fence shrubs (what most people call them here). They are a vine like growth with the very long very sharp thorns. You train them to grow over your barbed wire fence creating a full fence of vegetation. Several years ago one of our board members planted them all around the site under the fence. We have a lot of fence. Unfortunately only a small portion of them actually lived and most of those were along the front. When I got here those were being choked out by other vines and trees so it was one of the first objectives I had with the grass cutting was to try and bring those back to life. Now they are doing very well.
But there are a lot of wholes from ones that died out so I am purchasing replacements and planting them along the front. This year my first objective is too see how many survive being planted and how long it takes them to show signs they are surviving. From this I can figure out how many of them we can plant and with our water resources keep alive for the first year at which point I will hope they are established since they are drought tolerant after becoming established. This plan will most likely take 6 years or more to get the entire fenced covered with the vines. I am dedicating the tank I managed to seal all the leaks up in as the fence shrub tank to supply them with regular water that first year of life.
The good news is the rain hopefully helped them out though it may have rained enough to water log the stem we are transplanting. So after that little project, I basically watched it rain and rain and mainly worked on some of my computer projects and accounting. If I had Internet at the site I would have worked on getting my continuing education done for my engineering license. That would really have lifted my spirits (where is that sarcasm button).
Wednesday night I had a lot of pain in my ear (my good ear at that) that kept me up all night only to find some discharge the next morning that looked like it had a small amount of blood. I did not think the storm beating on the tin roof was loud enough to bust an ear drum but knew something was wrong. The site doctor looked at it and prescribed the same stuff they used for the ear infection last year so I assume it is not too bad. Only with all the drops I can't hear much.
So finally the week ended with the first non-rainy morning and I had agreed to pick up one of the Peace Corp volunteers that lives along my route to Singida so off I went after walking all the possible routes out of the clinic to a graded road to see which one was the least likely to get me stuck in a couple feet of water and mud. The beast did excellent though. I did cheat and put it in 4WD before taking off and leaving it in the lower gear set so I could maintain a steady slow pace more easily. Never even spun though it did fish tail some.
I get to Singida and my hotel and look down at my feet and see this:
Then it happened again and again and again. Since all my work is done outside it killed my project on the chair.
The first thing happened upon walking into the house and smelling an all too familiar smell-dead. Something had died and I am glad it did not take me long to find it. One of the mole/mice looking creatures had tried to get at my sink which I had forgotten to dump before leaving the previous week and they drown in less than an inch of water then bloat up. Still better than the time the squirrels got caught in my downspouts back home and after they drowned in a heavy rainstorm they got so swollen I had to cut them apart to get them out.
My first site project were planting some fence shrubs. I had stopped by the local tree and shrub store (I should have put that in quotations but by now I think my regular readers get the idea). I purchased 20 fence shrubs (what most people call them here). They are a vine like growth with the very long very sharp thorns. You train them to grow over your barbed wire fence creating a full fence of vegetation. Several years ago one of our board members planted them all around the site under the fence. We have a lot of fence. Unfortunately only a small portion of them actually lived and most of those were along the front. When I got here those were being choked out by other vines and trees so it was one of the first objectives I had with the grass cutting was to try and bring those back to life. Now they are doing very well.
But there are a lot of wholes from ones that died out so I am purchasing replacements and planting them along the front. This year my first objective is too see how many survive being planted and how long it takes them to show signs they are surviving. From this I can figure out how many of them we can plant and with our water resources keep alive for the first year at which point I will hope they are established since they are drought tolerant after becoming established. This plan will most likely take 6 years or more to get the entire fenced covered with the vines. I am dedicating the tank I managed to seal all the leaks up in as the fence shrub tank to supply them with regular water that first year of life.
The good news is the rain hopefully helped them out though it may have rained enough to water log the stem we are transplanting. So after that little project, I basically watched it rain and rain and mainly worked on some of my computer projects and accounting. If I had Internet at the site I would have worked on getting my continuing education done for my engineering license. That would really have lifted my spirits (where is that sarcasm button).
Wednesday night I had a lot of pain in my ear (my good ear at that) that kept me up all night only to find some discharge the next morning that looked like it had a small amount of blood. I did not think the storm beating on the tin roof was loud enough to bust an ear drum but knew something was wrong. The site doctor looked at it and prescribed the same stuff they used for the ear infection last year so I assume it is not too bad. Only with all the drops I can't hear much.
So finally the week ended with the first non-rainy morning and I had agreed to pick up one of the Peace Corp volunteers that lives along my route to Singida so off I went after walking all the possible routes out of the clinic to a graded road to see which one was the least likely to get me stuck in a couple feet of water and mud. The beast did excellent though. I did cheat and put it in 4WD before taking off and leaving it in the lower gear set so I could maintain a steady slow pace more easily. Never even spun though it did fish tail some.
I get to Singida and my hotel and look down at my feet and see this:
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