lizard butt
there is a lizard butt (well, i guess I should say 'tail'), sitting in the kitchen of my house.
I heard Lupe, my cat (named after a needy mother from my favorite soap opera, 'The Revenge', which, by the way, is definitely nearing a spectacular finale - Renaldo has died, Rodrigo is on the run, Isabella is finally softening up and Alejandro/Soledad are together again after a blessing from, and a miscarriage by, Carolina) making a commotion yesterday afternoon, in the empty, aka 'cat room' of my house.
I went in to investigate, and found her playing with a sizeable lizard (though, disappointingly, not one of the ones with a pink head and purple butt - those are my favorite). I took some video of it with my new camera (thanks Dad and Mom!), which i will attempt to post here in the near future (along with more pleasant pictures, like Zanzibar).
I wasn't sure if this was just a game or a meal, but it turned out to be the latter. This morning I woke up to found, joy of all joys, some barfed up lizard head in my doorway, and a big fat lizard butt in the middle of the kitchen ('leftovers'). For all the credit I usually give cats as the superior species to dogs, which I still strongly believe in, they can all be pretty freaking stupid sometimes. Then again, I know plenty of humans who drink themselves silly and barf all over the place too - guess stupidity knows no boundaries.
I still haven't mopped up the barf, am waiting to see if the stupidity extends to re-eating gross lizard remains she failed to properly digest the first time. Plus, I have no water. My guard was suposed to bring me some, but was at a funeral and so very late. The rains here in Tanzania were supposed to have started in December, continued Jan, paused in Feb, and then really pick up March through June. Well, it didn't rain in December, and after a few good downpours in early January (enough to get farmers out to their fields to plant), it has again cut out here in the Mwanza region, leaving things pretty dry, dusty, and hot.
The small-picture side of this is that I can't clean up my cat's vomit, I'm down to only one bath a day (using about 10 liters of water instead of my normal 15), and when I blow my nose my snot is a nice brownish/sandy color. The big-picture is that Tanzanian farmers are essentially 'good-luck' dependent, i.e. they plant water-intensive crops like maize (gotta have their maize porridge) but then have no means of irrigating in case the rains, as they have this year, decide to take a month off.
Some places along the Lake are a bit better, though this involves lots of time and labor hauling pails of water up to the farms. Which, by the way, is how most farming around this region is done: by hand. Plowing is done with a hoe - I've seen a small handful of people using cows to plow the fields, much more common is to see a whole family (5-year-old children included), each with hoes in hand, heading out early morning to dig up some dirt.
That said, they really get their shit done here. The Sukuma people in Mwanza region are apparently known for a strong work ethic, and what I guess I would call a stubbornness, in that they don't like to depend on food from other parts of the country, but like to be self-sustaining. But you can only work so hard when natural forces are working against you!
Long story short: waiting for guard to bring water, housegirl to clean puke, and mother nature to CUT THESE PEOPLE SOME FUCKING SLACK AND LET IT POUR ALREADY.
I heard Lupe, my cat (named after a needy mother from my favorite soap opera, 'The Revenge', which, by the way, is definitely nearing a spectacular finale - Renaldo has died, Rodrigo is on the run, Isabella is finally softening up and Alejandro/Soledad are together again after a blessing from, and a miscarriage by, Carolina) making a commotion yesterday afternoon, in the empty, aka 'cat room' of my house.
I went in to investigate, and found her playing with a sizeable lizard (though, disappointingly, not one of the ones with a pink head and purple butt - those are my favorite). I took some video of it with my new camera (thanks Dad and Mom!), which i will attempt to post here in the near future (along with more pleasant pictures, like Zanzibar).
I wasn't sure if this was just a game or a meal, but it turned out to be the latter. This morning I woke up to found, joy of all joys, some barfed up lizard head in my doorway, and a big fat lizard butt in the middle of the kitchen ('leftovers'). For all the credit I usually give cats as the superior species to dogs, which I still strongly believe in, they can all be pretty freaking stupid sometimes. Then again, I know plenty of humans who drink themselves silly and barf all over the place too - guess stupidity knows no boundaries.
I still haven't mopped up the barf, am waiting to see if the stupidity extends to re-eating gross lizard remains she failed to properly digest the first time. Plus, I have no water. My guard was suposed to bring me some, but was at a funeral and so very late. The rains here in Tanzania were supposed to have started in December, continued Jan, paused in Feb, and then really pick up March through June. Well, it didn't rain in December, and after a few good downpours in early January (enough to get farmers out to their fields to plant), it has again cut out here in the Mwanza region, leaving things pretty dry, dusty, and hot.
The small-picture side of this is that I can't clean up my cat's vomit, I'm down to only one bath a day (using about 10 liters of water instead of my normal 15), and when I blow my nose my snot is a nice brownish/sandy color. The big-picture is that Tanzanian farmers are essentially 'good-luck' dependent, i.e. they plant water-intensive crops like maize (gotta have their maize porridge) but then have no means of irrigating in case the rains, as they have this year, decide to take a month off.
Some places along the Lake are a bit better, though this involves lots of time and labor hauling pails of water up to the farms. Which, by the way, is how most farming around this region is done: by hand. Plowing is done with a hoe - I've seen a small handful of people using cows to plow the fields, much more common is to see a whole family (5-year-old children included), each with hoes in hand, heading out early morning to dig up some dirt.
That said, they really get their shit done here. The Sukuma people in Mwanza region are apparently known for a strong work ethic, and what I guess I would call a stubbornness, in that they don't like to depend on food from other parts of the country, but like to be self-sustaining. But you can only work so hard when natural forces are working against you!
Long story short: waiting for guard to bring water, housegirl to clean puke, and mother nature to CUT THESE PEOPLE SOME FUCKING SLACK AND LET IT POUR ALREADY.
posted by Brian at
3:32 PM
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