Back in Zimbabwe

Wednesday, October 7, 2009, 9:30pm local time

 

Dear Friends and Family,

 

I am back in Zimbabwe. Arrived yesterday around 1pm after over 24 hours of travel. It would have been a bit grueling if not for my pleasant and interesting fellow travelers (quick shout out to any Zambian ex-pat computer system experts, Unicef public health directors or soon-to-be-married Rawandans who may be reading this ;)

 

The power went out just before sundown and was still off when I went to bed last night. I woke up pre-dawn. It was still pitch black outside. I didn't have a watch or a cell phone, so I stumbled around the room looking for a battery powered clock but couldn't find one. I did find an old laptop computer that was left here by my uncle. I powered it up and low and behold, it said 9:17pm... I was quite sceptical as to the accuracy of this and hoped that it was in the wrong time zone. About a minute later, I remembered the battery powered shortwave radio in the kitchen. It has a clock on the front and was hopefully still accurate. 9:18pm. I resigned myself to being up for a while and started stringing up a mosquito net. I had let a swarm of them in with the fresh air when I opened the windows to let in fresh air. Drank some water, ate  a stack of Lobel's bread to stave off my (whgat I thought were) morning hunger pains, put some Ladysmith Black Mambazo on my mp3 player and drifted off to the familiar old sounds of African harmony blended with the music of mosquitos that are just outside the net.

 

Luke

 

note: I am trying out remote blogging via email. This letter should now be posted on my blogspot (www.eatplants.blogspot.com).