Random Ramblings

Introducing Kanono, our vervet monkey. Kanono means little bit in Bemba. It's scary how human like monkeys can be. He often gets rides around the property on Tom's shoulders or clings to him looking, for all the world, like a little hairy baby.
The other day Tom brought Kanono into the living room and learning from past experiences, Jasmine ran for a diaper. Kanono however hates wearing a diaper and fought with all his might and his very agile appendages to keep the diaper from going on. He got so upset that he messed all over the floor. Yuck!
He got whisked off to the bath (in the bathroom sink) for this antic and once we were sure his bowels were clear he was allowed back into the living room for playtime.

Kanono found Jasmine's jar of moths and was fascinated with all the fluttering. He turned it round and round trying to figure out how to get to them.

Next he found apples left over from faux jack o' lantern carving fun at Halloween.
He alternated between taking bites from the apple and leaping from couch to couch. He even used my head as a launching point for many of his leaps which I was less than thrilled about.

Next he found an empty tin of baby formula with just enough powder in the bottom to keep him busy for a while. I finally drew the line and booted him out of the living room when one of his leaps landed him squarely on the sleeping baby's face. Animals are fine but babies come first.

I had a bit of an adventure yesterday: Things went well on our shopping trip yesterday. We found diesel although we did have to queue up for it again. Tom worked some more on his Mutomboko website by photographing hotels and compiling information about their amenities so he can give prospective visitors options of where to stay.

After having lunch at our favorite restaurant, Anna Maria's, we hit the road. About 10 minutes I felt that telltale rumbly in my tumbly to quote Winnie the Pooh. With no rest stops or public toilets anywhere in sight I began to panic a bit. I asked Tom to be ready to pull over anywhere. Problem is, in Africa there are people everywhere! I would see a stretch of promising looking bushes but no, there was a hut hidden in there. Ok, over there--nope group of kids. Look! There! Nope.
Finally I spotted the perfect spot and ran for it, hardly waiting for the car to come to a complete stop. Ah, sweet relief.
As I um....sat there I realized that the Zambian bush is not really well suited for clandestine activities. The undergrowth is pretty scant. While attempting to hide behind a tree about 50 feet from the road I was, unfortunately, pretty visible from the road. And, of course, a during the time I was there bicycles and trucks went by and everyone had to take a good look at the muzungu hiding in the bushes.
I got back in the car to the sound of Tom's laughter and we made it about 15 minutes down the road before I was begging Tom to find a stand of trees again. I began to wonder if we would ever get home at this rate.
This time I had Tom pull up just past a house and ran for the bushes again. As I took care of business I couldn't help but see that 2 children attracted by the unusual sight of a car pulling up near their house were running down the road to come see what was happening. I began an internal chant: Please don't come this way, please don't come this way, please don't come this way. They didn't, thankfully. They waited by the car and then asked for money.--Little stinkers!
The good news was that that was the last time we had to stop. We made it home safely.

Now in case you're still reading:
Remember how I told you we are at the beginning of our rainy season? This season lasts from late October up to March or even late April in our part of Zambia. It rains every day and the country turns quickly from brown to green. After six months of no rain we are oh so grateful!

In yesterday's newspaper an article caught my eye.

I think these meteorologists may just find their prediction coming true.