In a late rainy season in Zambia and southern Africa I hope to build an apartment for a nurse together with Anders from Sweden.
It rains all morning and instead we go and visit the big hospital farm.
The farm is leased out and here we visit some friends of Anders. It is a couple who used to have a farm in Zimbabwe. They have a very nice home reflecting his interest as a hunter and hers in interior design.
They are very talkative and we have some really nice time over perfect cappuccino and delious home baked cookies.
The couple tells me how they came here in 2000 after loosing there property to the Mugabe regim.
We start talking about snakes and how a big black deadly mamba snook in to there washing machine. They give me a great how to survive guide when encountoring some wild beasts. Which I may do in Botswana where I go next.
Mother and baby elephant- Dont get close. Stop until they go. Upsetting or making her feel threatened is very dangerous. Stay back or run and hide. Eye sight is very poor so hide behind a tree or in a bush.
Bull elephant- You can come close if wind blows towards you, there eyesight is poor so you may come 10-15 m from them without them taking notice.
Lion during day- Not dangerous if you dont come too close. They are lazy and uninterested. Cycle or walk pass them not closer then 20 m.
Lion in the night- Very dangerous. Dont push your luck. You may camp in a tent and this will be enough for the lions not to hurt you. But stay inside the tent. If you feel threatend, light and throw out a fire-cracker. It will scare any lion.
Black Mamba snake- stand still. It is deadly within 10 minutes but unless threatened it will not attack.
Other snakes- Walk and drag your feet on the ground and stamp to make vibrations. If it is dark use a flashlight and make the light dance on the ground in front of you to scare snakes away.
It feels great knowing this. Now I feel safe.
It stops raining and now we are eager to work. We start before lunch and we are very effective.
Even though starting late we manage to get as far as Anders wanted for the day. Anders is the boss. There is a couple of good masoneries which are leading the construction, measuring and putting the important corner stones, making the place straight.
I am doing my best working hard, motivating the rest of the about ten workers to do thesame and we have fun and at the end of the day we have also raised all money for this apartment 950 USD in theese two days. The money will be enough to get the workers to complete the fourth new apartment. We are very happy and at the end of the day we go for a great dinner to celebrate.
