Successful day

Well, today was definately interesting. I was asked to go supervise at the bore-hole. Weeks ago, I had helped there to install a well pump, and ever since there have been a crew of guys working there. It turns out that a pipe running underground was burst, and the local guys knew about it long ago, but nobody ever mentioned it to Jon before. So it was ready to go... but... not. So Karanda hired about ten- eleven guys by-the-hour to dig the old line up, and replace it. Fast forward to today.
The pipes are in; most, but not all of the old pipes were torn out. Today we did the final hookups, and now two boreholes are ready to go online tomorrow morning. The day was not without incident, however. Malechi Zongoro, a local farmer, came over this morning to the worksite and unleashed a string of Shona on us that lasted for ten minutes. Being the white guy, it was generally assumed that I was in charge. Awkwardness reigned supreme. He has a piece of his crop that is dug up because of the pipeline, and he is being compensated for loss of production, but now he was claiming that theives came onto his land last night and stole his crops. The funny thing is that his crops are the poorest around- there's not much there to steal. The maize is mostly just a sad waste of seed, because the soil is burnt out, fried, spent. Without proper crop rotation or manure practices, it is a sad waste of effort. The only thing a thief could have stolen was weed seeds....
Jon Christiansen and Yamaseva (everyone goes by last names here)showed up, and called Zongoro's bluff. They figured that if there was a theft, then they should call the police. Zongoro backed down... the project continued.
Spending the day with this group of guys was the interesting part, however. There were a LOT of questions about Canada, from the weather, seasons, terrain, culture. Hard questions, too, like "How frequently does Canada suffer from famine?" Wow. I answered truthfully, that we have droughts, but not famines like they know. "Why?" Oh, boy. I was able to temporarily divert that line of questions by saying that in the past God has really blessed Canada, and that as a whole it has done very well, but who knows what the future will bring? I was able to talk about farming differences, that some people own as much as two thousand hectares.... now they thought that Nzou was lying. Oh, boy. They asked my age.. I told them the truth... 40! Now they new that Nzou was a liar. In Zimbabwe, life expectancy is 37 for a male, and I still look young, they said. Most men that outlive their life expectancy look like securus (grandfathers)...
In the end, it was a good day, and three guys told me they want to visit me in Canada... Too bad they're making $1/ hour, a very good wage. Jon has to answer to the finance committee as to why these guys aren't making the going rate... one 50kg bag of maize meal/week, valued at about $12!! Slave labor, Jon says. These guys have been digging like dogs for weeks now...
Nzou's fame has really spread here. On Sunday afternoon, about 5:45 pm, I got up from the chair and walked over to the door, just in time to see Jon's '92 Landcruiser came rolling past the guesthouse, with nobody in it. I ran out the door and chased after it. Fortunately,it turned, or it would have hit our guesthouse, it jumped over a three foot concrete lip, crashed through trees, and proceeded downhill. I ran after it, as it mowed straight over a clothesline pole while the roofracks were cutting the tree branches overhead, it plowed through a shallow ditch. I got the door open, jumped in, pulled the E-brake, and as the vehicle fast-approached the house in front of it, I can honestly tell you that instantly I experienced a flashback to last January in Haiti after the earthquake, but within a split second the Landcruiser harmlessly bumped Anna's house instead of destroying it!! Well, word seems to have gotten around quickly. This afternoon, Bud Jackson of Abbotsford, B.C. drove out a delegation of three guys from the Evangelical Free Church in Lethbridge, Alberta; and as soon as they realized who I was, one guy said "Oh, you're the guy who stops moving vehicles!" Here's the real funny part... he's Elsie Ellens' and Joanne Devries' brother Case Boskers. Too funny. He tells us that Neerlandia has insane amounts of snow this year, and very cold....
Today was probably in the low 30's celsius... just wanted to put that out there. Not sure how accurate our thermometer is, since it is always between 28 and 32 celsius in our room. The down side is that there's no swimming pool in Karanda, and if there was, it wouldn't be appropriate for anyone to strap on a swimsuit without critically westernizing their culture.... long pants it is, I guess. Alas... how I'd love to trade the farmer tan for a more complete one...