In the midst of all the worskshopping and keeping myself clothes in clean clothes and eating off clean plates, a girl has to have a bit of a break now and again. So today, my neighbours dragged my tired little butt out of bed at 7am, and off we went to the "mountain" that sits to the West of town. It's not a very big mountain - more like a giant pile of rocks, and the town has grown all around it. Most of the foundations for all the new buildings in town have been built using rocks that have been smashed (usually by hand) off of this mountain. I kid you not - there are probably a hundred people sitting around with basic tools (a hammer, a chisel...) literally breaking rocks by hand in the shadow of that mountain. Today we even met several folks who have come from a neighbouring country in order to sit under the sun and bit by bit, piece by piece, chip away at the mountain to sell for building material.
Anyway, there is still plenty of rock to tromp around, so off we went. By 7:30am I was already sweating, and I believe I have a dehydration induced headache this evening, but it was really nice to just get off my little compound and do something a bit different. Nature always refreshes the soul, even if it was stupidly hot and humid and rather overgrown!
I don't have too many grand photos because... well... um, well, we never actually made it to the top of any of the pile of rocks! We were going to go up the highest "peak", but we ended up not being able to find a path... and with thick grass that was about 7 feet tall (seriously, not an exaggeration!), we decided to abort the push to the summit of that one. So we went back down to the "valley" and went up another side... but we were thwarted on that attempt, too, by some serious rocks. So, we had a nice walk up and down half the mountains and through the valley. My attempts at speaking the local language always come in handy in places like that, because there are a ton of people up there, and they never expect a foreigner to greet them in their own language. So it was good fun to surprise them and to chat a bit about the place... in the local language :) So fun!
But like I said, it was a sweaty, sweaty affair. I think the humidity was around 85 - 90% today, with a temperature (according to the car thermometer) of 36C. How's that for mountain climbing weather?! I had sweat dripping off my elbow at one point. Who knew your elbows could sweat?!
I also got nicely marked up by the grass. Somehow, I seem to be allergic to whatever grass we were walking through, and I came out of the grass forest with huge red itchy welts on my arms and legs! They were pretty impressive - I wish I had remembered to take a picture of them. But you can imagine the sight that we were when we finally got off the mountain and went for a Coke at one of the fancy lodges in town, which just happens to sit at the foot of the mountain. We were a pretty sad sight - drenched in sweat, muddy, and me with my welts... to top it off, I had forgotten to bring my wallet with me, and my friends had also forgotten to bring money with them! So between three of us, we dredged up about $3.50... just enough to buy two Cokes, which we shared between the three of us :) Most people go there and spend rather a lot more than that - the lunch buffet there costs $18... but there we were, with our $3.50 - exactly enough for those two Cokes. We even walked up the counter to order our own Cokes, because we didn't even have enough to leave as a tip for a waitress! We were the last of the big spenders today...
... But never fear, I did get a chance to spend some money later in the day. I had to do my weekly fruits and veggie shopping today, too. My main diet is veggies and fruits, so the weekly marketing trip is an important one, to say the least. Unfortunately, prices keep going up. I went with my other neighbour, though, who is quite the talker, and he got us all sorts of little gifts and discounts! I was absolutely amazed at how many potatoes he got for $2 - I think he got twice as many as I got from the same potato seller last week! It's good to go shopping with him, though, as it sharpens my own bargaining skills :) We did get some beautiful fruits and veggies, though! I can't wait to make fruit salad tomorrow with the giant passion fruits we found today!
And, I'm sure you are wondering what Zane was doing while I was sweating out under the sun today?
Good thing he was guarding those teaching aids so well...
Anyway, there is still plenty of rock to tromp around, so off we went. By 7:30am I was already sweating, and I believe I have a dehydration induced headache this evening, but it was really nice to just get off my little compound and do something a bit different. Nature always refreshes the soul, even if it was stupidly hot and humid and rather overgrown!
But like I said, it was a sweaty, sweaty affair. I think the humidity was around 85 - 90% today, with a temperature (according to the car thermometer) of 36C. How's that for mountain climbing weather?! I had sweat dripping off my elbow at one point. Who knew your elbows could sweat?!
I also got nicely marked up by the grass. Somehow, I seem to be allergic to whatever grass we were walking through, and I came out of the grass forest with huge red itchy welts on my arms and legs! They were pretty impressive - I wish I had remembered to take a picture of them. But you can imagine the sight that we were when we finally got off the mountain and went for a Coke at one of the fancy lodges in town, which just happens to sit at the foot of the mountain. We were a pretty sad sight - drenched in sweat, muddy, and me with my welts... to top it off, I had forgotten to bring my wallet with me, and my friends had also forgotten to bring money with them! So between three of us, we dredged up about $3.50... just enough to buy two Cokes, which we shared between the three of us :) Most people go there and spend rather a lot more than that - the lunch buffet there costs $18... but there we were, with our $3.50 - exactly enough for those two Cokes. We even walked up the counter to order our own Cokes, because we didn't even have enough to leave as a tip for a waitress! We were the last of the big spenders today...
... But never fear, I did get a chance to spend some money later in the day. I had to do my weekly fruits and veggie shopping today, too. My main diet is veggies and fruits, so the weekly marketing trip is an important one, to say the least. Unfortunately, prices keep going up. I went with my other neighbour, though, who is quite the talker, and he got us all sorts of little gifts and discounts! I was absolutely amazed at how many potatoes he got for $2 - I think he got twice as many as I got from the same potato seller last week! It's good to go shopping with him, though, as it sharpens my own bargaining skills :) We did get some beautiful fruits and veggies, though! I can't wait to make fruit salad tomorrow with the giant passion fruits we found today!
And, I'm sure you are wondering what Zane was doing while I was sweating out under the sun today?
Good thing he was guarding those teaching aids so well...
2 comments:
I feel duty-bound to remind you of this experience:
http://yerble.wordpress.com/2010/09/11/a-new-song/
Am suitably jealous... I can even hear the associated mutatu call in my head still...
I know, the whole way up, I was looking over my shoulder. And then on the way back down, I stopped to take a photo of Dan, and a friendly by-stander told me, "Not the best place to take a photo... move on..." 'cause behind the rock he was standing on was the barrack. Oops.
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