Building a kitchen in Swaziland

As with moist projects in Africa, there is the "hurry up and wait method".  Having arrived at the project site in Shewula, Swaziland we discovered that there was no cement, even though it had been ordered and there were not enough bricks - welcome to Africa!  So, Bex, Kate and I drove to Cash Build to buy construction materials for a kitchen.  You can buy all the materials for a building in fell swoop, load it onto a lorry and ship it to where you are going to build.  So that is what we did.  Simple.

Matola, the builder, was there to give us direction for the building and we all got stuck into mixing the cement, which over the following eight days we became professionals at. It was hard work but in a week we saw the kitchen for the NCP building rise from it's foundations. 

The NCP (National Care Point) is a place for children to be looked after by volunteer women from the community during the day and a place to get fed at lunchtime - for some children this may be their only meal of the day.  Most of the children are AIDS orphans who are being looked after by extended family and can not afford to go school.

The project had been chosen by the committee as the most needed project for the community and we only realised the significance of this once we had got started. A number of people have been over to the building site to thank us for supporting them and yesterday we discovered that this was the last place in the whole community that needed a decent kitchen. The women had been cooking out of a shack that looked as if it was about to fall down.

The roof is now on the kitchen and the plastering has been completed along with setting the two very large and very heavy cauldrons into cement, suspended over a fireplace, and fitted by Domenica and Lexie.  Matola is pretty happy with the work that we are doing, although our plastering leaves a bit to be desired - chunks of wet cement having a tendency to fall off the wall!  Lydia and Jess have got that in order now.

On Sunday we all went to church with Nomsa and we were welcomed by the whole community. The girls sang a lovely song for the congregation and gave a short talk. The locals were surprised at their excellent harmonies, as was I and everyone shook hands with us at the end to show their appreciation.
We will be leaving the site tomorrow to let the plaster dry, but we will be back in a week to paint the building and for the opening ceremony which Ellen is organising - I suspect there will be a few songs by the children to organise.

Off to Hlane Royal National Park to track white rhino .... Another adventure in store for us all.

Bone Chewing Giraffe?

Mbuluzi Game Reserve in Swaziland, in my mind, is the one of the best places to see giraffe - up close and personal.  This is probably because I have spent many weeks tracking giraffe in the reserve and after a while I could identify each giraffe by its manner, who it was with and its individual markings.  I was amazed at how different each giraffe is in character, scratches and nicks as well as the colour variation.  There is one giraffe called Othello (right) who has the darkest colouration that I have ever seen in Africa, very nearly jet black. Astounding.

On the last Sense Africa trip we had a bizarre sighting.  Clarence and Clarabel, who are often found together, were standing around a zebra carcass and at first it looked like they were eating the bones.  Clarence had this enormous thigh bone in his mouth and was twirling it around with his black tongue, a bit like a majorette.  If he had swallowed it I wondered whether we would see the bone descend his neck in true cartoon style! Needless to say the bones were not consumed but they were licked, sucked and chewed, the bones being used like a giraffe lollipop. I had not seen behaviour like this before, but I suspect that they were getting extra nutrients from these bones.

Bone chewing giraffes - not seen every day, even on safari!

Zealous Zobrani (Zebras)

I am off to Swaziland in 2 weeks, well less than that, and I am looking forward to walking around Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary.  Here you can trek wherever you want to and truly immerse yourselves into the African savannah.  And I love to see the herds of zebra grazing out in the open and hear their whinnys in the early evening, it is enchanting.

Zebras are high up on the menu stakes. To counteract this, a group of zebra, or a 'dazzle' of zebra, bunch up together to confuse predators and mess with their perception, young foals can walk and run after an hour of being born and their eyes are on the side of their heads to give them a wider field of vision to keep an eye out for those pesky predators.  

But what I did not realise is that zebras, or the plural for zebra being 'zobrani', do have a darker side to them.  Zebras (sorry I can quite get the hang of calling them zobrani) form two types of herds; breeding herds and bachelor herds.  Within the breeding herd there is one male and a number of females and foals related to the main man.  Within the bachelor herd are a load of youngsters who have been literally kicked out of their original breeding herd and this is where boys will play.  They fight by kicking and biting to assert dominance, and at times these skills are used elsewhere.  When a younger male challenges an older male of a breeding herd a serious fight ensues.  And if the younger male wins he may kick and bite the offspring of the previous males to the death to ensure his genes survive.

Maybe not so dazzling after all?

Welwitschia - living fossils of Namibia

It is rather amazing that the Welwitschia has survived all these years; it grows in one of the most inhospitable places in the world, collects water only from dew and as it can reach over 2,000 years in age it is often sought after by illegal plant collectors.  All in all, its survival does not look great.

Welwitschia are found in the deserts of Namibia and Angola, the plant population in Angola is fairing better as landmines prevent over zealous collectors.  Each plant is made up of only two leaves, which split as the leaves grow, making it very difficult to discern where the leaves begin, believe me, I have tried.  On these leaves there are approximately 22,000 stomata, small holes, per square cm (upper and lower sides) which are used in the exchange of gases during photosynthesis.  These are also used to absorb moisture, in the form of dew, and during wet and foggy conditions these stomata remain open, unlike the stomata on the leaves of its counterparts.  The species is also dioecious, meaning that each plant is either male or female, and insects are used for cross fertilisation.  The plant ingeniously attracts specific insects to both plants by a delicious nectar that these insects find very attractive.

All in all a very weird plant.  The big Welwitschia (pictured above) stands at 1.4m high and is aged at 1,500 yrs old, however there are some experts that claim it to be twice that age.  It is a plant which is well worth the visit, permits required along with a sense of adventure.  And remember to take water with you.

'Too' Close Encounters with Mozambique Spitting Cobras

When I first lived in Zimbabwe, I was given an old farmhouse which the first Europeans had built back in the times when there were vast herds of game wandering across the plains of Africa.  It was a beautiful five bedroom house, built out of teak, but had not been lived in for ages.  I was not too concerned by this as it was four walls, (well more than four with all those rooms), and a roof over my head.  With the house came an enormous garden that was over run, a large kitchen with a wood burner, the use of the swimming pool in the compound and  a very large game fence to protect us from wildlife.  Or maybe it was the other way around?

What I had not banked on was the wildlife inside the compound.  As I moved into my new house, Derek, the land owner, asked me how I was with snakes.  I was not too sure whether this was a trick question or not, I mean, I have not handled that many snakes but they do not give me the heebie jeebies if that was what Derek was asking.  He promptly gave me a shotgun and told me to keep it under my bed - Mozambique Spitting Cobras had a penchants for this particular house and I was advised to shoot from the hip.  I was told that if I shot from the shoulder I would probably dislocate it.  I was left holding a shotgun with my mouth wide open.  I did not sleep well that night, even with that loaded gun under the bed.  No wonder the house was empty...or was it?

That was my first experience of not seeing a cobra.

My second experience was that I was far too close for the state of my own health.  I was staying with a friend of mine called Karen Paolillo, who has single handedly saved a pod of hippo in the Turgwe River and in my mind is the Jane Goodall of hippos.  She, and her husband Jean, have built a wonderful house over looking the Turgwe River in Save Valley Conservancy.  One night, myself and Karen were at the house by ourselves.  Karen was busy feeding the menagerie of animals that regularly came to her place to be fed during the drought, all completely wild, but the trust that she had gained from these animals was amazing.  There was 'Arthur' the extraordinarily large warthog, contentedly feeding at the back door along with a few vervet monkeys, 'Jenny' genet (not named after me I hasten to add), a few baboons and her pet cats and goats. 

I needed the loo and walked out of the front door to go to her long drop and to avoid disturbing 'Arthur'.  My sixth sense kicked into gear.  I have no idea why I looked back over my shoulder as I was passing through the door, but I did, and there, standing at full striking height, and at eye level, was a Mozambique Spitting Cobra.  Its hood was fully inflated and it could have nailed my eyes with a shot of accurately spat venom.  The chances of not been blinded were against me.  There then followed a comedy moment as I reversed direction in mid air, slammed the door shut behind me and then let my knees buckle as I sat on the floor to recover.  Once I had gained composure I calmly told Karen that I was going to wee in her bath.

Now that was too close for comfort!

Killer bees - part African, part European.

There seem to be a lot of bees around at the moment which made me think about the African 'Killer' bees.  These killer bees are a cross between the African honey bee and various European honey bees, mostly from Italy.  Killer bees are descended from 26 Tanzanian bees which were accidentally released in Brazil and these mated with European bees that had been brought over from Europe in order to provide productive hives.  Unfortunately the resulting cross were bees which swarmed more frequently, were more aggressive when there was a perceived threat, had a larger proportion of guard bees in the hive, deployed a greater number in the defence of the hive and had a larger alarm zone around the hive, thus making these bees more of a threat to humans and surrounding wildlife.  These bees had a major impact in southern USA.

Back in Africa it has been seen that African honey bees can be more protective of their hives and when disturbed more guard bees will attack that threat.  But these guys are not the same killer bees as in the States.
Their sting is not more venomous, it just means that you will probably be stung more often and therefore feel worse after the incident - believe me, I know.  I have been chased by a swarm that had been accidentally disturbed and ended up with numerous stings all over my back.  Despite all this, bees do tend to keep themselves to themselves, I was just rather unlucky.

The most incredible thing that I have seen are some local Zulus smoking out a wild hive of bees.  After a lot of preparation and smoke, my eyes were steaming by this point, one (brave) guy inserted his arms into the depth of the tree trunk to emerge with his arm covered in sleepy bees and holding a dripping honey comb.  He had not been stung once.  The knowledge that these guys have is incredible, living in harmony with the wildlife, and the honey was as sweet nectar!

Impala Steak anyone?

At the moment I am surviving on mass catered food courtesy of the Navy.  It is not that bad, but I am getting a bit bored of knowing what I am going to get as the chef's special each day of the week - it has not changed over the past three years.  It was scampi tonight.  And the lack of really fresh food is making my body revolt against it all.  What I am missing is some fresh African cooked food.

There is something special about the food that is cooked in Africa, it is fresh (probably picked, dug up or killed that morning), it is untainted from additives and pesticides and it always tastes better when you eat it outside. Fresh fruit and vegetables are available all year round, where they have not been processed, injected, shaped, sprayed, packaged, moulded or battered into what we are told that we like to eat.  Instead, the fruit and vegetables come as they are, malformed, distorted, bobbly, non-conformist and pure and free of chemicals, you can certainly taste the difference in the misshappen African tomatoes to the perfectly formed, force ripened ones in the UK.  My mouth is watering at the thought of it all.

But for me, the best thing is the choice of fresh meat - beef, lamb, impala (roasting in the picture - can you smell it?), warthog, kudu, crocodile, bushbuck, the list goes on.  The meat is often fresh that day and the flavour is an assault on your taste buds.  I suspect that it is all helped with the atmosphere; dining on decking, over looking a hippo or elephant watering hole, with the sound of the African bush in chorus around you and the African sky towering above, you can not help being sucked into romantic notions whilst you dine with everything tasting absolutely wonderful.  And it is not just the dining experience that is memorable, it is also the the knowledge that it will all happen all over again tomorrow.  It is a healthy eating with a healthy lifestyle.

Not so looking forward to the chef's special tomorrow now, it is mince.