Home stretch....

Phone ringing endlessly, the constant "bing" of email notifications, problems to solve, people to answer, contractual fine points to maintain, payments to be made, paperwork and paperwork and paperwork to sort, struggling with personalities and lines drawn in the sand, and have no doubt, the people at this end of the game have strong, strong personalities, and to focus, focus everything, on the task at hand.....move people safely when required to do so.  Learning experience.  Personal development. Call it what you will, but my hitch is almost over.  I must say, most issues are solved with just a little guidance, some decision making, some head scratching, and some you just have to pass up the chain of command, and appreciate that mistakes are to be expected, and learnt from, pushed aside and ever onward.  I will admit....at times it is great fun. 

All it takes is seeing a steady stream of young men struggling with insanely over-laden 60 year old bicycles up steep grades with white NGO Land Cruisers whipping by at great speeds honking at them to make way, women with incredibly large bags of sugar or grain or water or impossibly heavy loads of firewood balanced on their heads while maintaining control over children running about, amongst the overladen bicycles and speeding Land Cruisers, all under that hot African midday sun, and as always, one appreciates what one has that much more.  Some specialists from the Western world came over to study the effects of these great loads balanced precariously on heads for hours at a time, over great distances, and they were suprised to find these women had no neck or back problems.  Their posture was absolutely perfect.  Their backs and necks were in far better shape than Westerners.  You see youngsters, probally as old as eight or nine, helping mom with the workload, and it is obvious that if your balance isn't perfect, if you are using muscles rather than poise, to handle these loads, it just isn't going to work.  It is impressive to see.  As I sit and sweat and type, having crawled out from under the mosquito net, air conditioner not keeping up but letting it churn the air regardless, wondering if a cold trickle of water shower is worth the effort, I know I'll leave it all behind for a few weeks.  Decompress.  Relax.  Surf.  Bike. Watch movies.  Eat chips.....

I am wondering how to get all the carvings I've bought home.  It will be heavy, and the baggage limit is quite small out of these remote areas.  This area is renowned for it's carvings, and there is no shortage, in various levels of workmanship, of monkeys and elephants and rhinos and or course, Masai warriors.  Known and trained from the youngest age to keep their livestock safe from leopards and lions, these nomadic warriors wander about East Africa with impunity, greatly respected, and feared, by the locals, and even the police give them a wide berth.  Many hire Masai to provide security, in their robes and carrying only a staff, no one is foolish enough to mess with them.  But I am impressed by these nightmare inspired carvings of bizarre creatures, that often times are difficut to understand just what is taking place.  Too bad the above figure is five feet tall, it'll never fit in my suitcase......