No rains down in Africa to bless

Yesterday Ashley, Ahti (sp?) and I piled into Kgosi's truck with him (I accidentally sat on a large hunting rifle...) and headed out of town to one of the family farms. Best experience so far in Africa. They have 50 hectares there, with maize, cabbage, peppers, rabe, spinach, onions, bananas, etc. in one section, a small selection of those for household use in another section, the beginnings of an orange and mango orchard in another section, and finally the livestock--one rabbit, plus many ducks, chickens, guinea foul, goats, and sheep. The cattle are at a different farm. We met the farm manager. Charity is from Zimbabwe and has a degree in agriculture. She was great--showed us everything and even quoted Chinua Achebe. The other workers were busy making porridge in an iron kettle like a witch's, over an open fire. Ahti, the kgosi's grandson, showed us the hiding place of a mama dog and her new, feeding puppies. As the sun set, it hit me--I'm in Africa!

We drove home sleepily in the dark, as the English news murmured about Mugabe and Mandela. We ate well, and I crashed.

This morning we were at work at 7.30 as usual, and helped to reshelve. Then back to the inventory project. It'll be good to get the accessions done so we can make us of all those new books, and especially concentrate on projects and interactions. We did have our first reference interaction today--a young man who's taking a certification course in hospitality and wanted some books on tourism in Botswana. That was fun. While we sit and work, we think of more ideas for little projects, so that's good.

It was cloudy and windy for the first time this morning, and we were cold! Nothing is heated indoors here, and the temperature can easily be in the 40s F at night. We need to remember to bring tea and cups so we can partake of the boiled water always available at work.

We knocked off at 12.30 for the weekend, our 24 hours being more than used up. I'm aching to watch the World Cup!