Day 37 (7/7/11) Mongu

So today was our second last day in Mongu and if I was lazy I could just say right now “see the last 2 days post for what happened today” because today was once again repeat of the day before. We have lots of stuff to get finished before we leave so the last few days have been spent doing that. Tomorrow however we’re getting up early and heading into town to the craft shop and in the evening we’re heading out for dinner and maybe a few drinks with some Irish teachers who arrived yesterday ( we may even stay out until the crazy hour of ten o’clock). We started the day once again hoping to meet the block plant manager. We were all set and just about to start walking to the plant when we saw him outside the guesthouse. However try as we might we never managed to get hold of him, so instead it was back to the drawing board (well computer). So up until lunch we drew, typed and prepared (anyone feeling a sense of Déjà vu). Lunch today was back down in the Cheshire Homes centre, in their huge kitchen/dining room. Dinner was chicken, ham, roast potatoes and rice. The amount of food was once again ridiculous (I don’t quite understand it, they struggle for money yet overfeed us, it makes you feel a bit like a dickhead but they’d be offended if we didn’t eat). After our latest feast we started asking Sr. Cathy some questions and once again the information came flooding out. Áine hurriedly took as much of it down as possible. A doctor called Andrew, from Lusaka, had also joined us for dinner and once Cathy Information hour finished, he started telling us how he was treating a boy whose leg was amputated because of a snake bite. Apparently it’s really common here. The main culprits are Black Mamba’s and Spitting Cobra’s and Cathy told us how she come close to lots of them. She told us the story of how a Spitting Cobra was living in one of the rooms for about a month and how she was almost bitten when they tried to get rid of it but they managed to kill it just in time. It was one of those conversations you could have done without hearing as it made us uncomfortable on the walk home (truth be told I was checking the bed cloths this evening making sure there were no snakes, if they’re had been I’ve no idea what I would have done, I’ll admit screaming like a girl couldn’t be ruled out). The whole conversation made me think of Bill Bryson describing a snake as so poisonous your last words will be “oh my god is that a sn...). So after lunch we made another fruitless walk across the Kalahari to the blockplant where Augustine the manager was nowhere in sight. We went back to the guesthouse for a bit and surfed the world wide web and played with some kids (I ended up playing a kinda of ground soccer with hands with a kid who had both his legs in casts it was a weird game, basically you kneel down and use your hands instead of feet, it just might take off). After a bit we headed for home with a quick stop in a small village full of shops to get some water and coke. Its a weird little place with two bars and an internet cafe with one really old computer. The water I bought turned out to be undrinkable but I only realised this after I’d already drank a bit (it was a shady white colour which I and Jamie {who shares the same bathroom} may end up regretting). The evening was spent much like the mourning computerising. Andrew the doctor also checked into the guesthouse today so we’re no longer here alone. So that was our penultimate Mongu day let’s see what joys tomorrow brings. Night night and a Happy Christmas!