10 - Just Call Me Cowgirl

20 June 2010

Eventually Tokkie came home. I think he really enjoys having someone at the house who can take care of things so he can be gone for as long as he wants to be gone. And it doesn’t bother David and I at all to be here on our own. Most days nothing really exciting happens and we have a chance to relax. Occasionally someone interesting will come through the overnight camp and we’ll have some good conversation. Usually we just find things to entertain ourselves.

David finally convinced me to help him saw that big dead tree in half. It didn’t take too long, as he had already cut halfway through it, but it served as a very blunt reminder to me of how out of shape I have become. I run a 3 or 4-mile loop three or four times a week, but other than that I don’t really get any good weight-bearing exercise. The running is really fun out here, though, and David usually comes with me. I often see some wildlife and I always come back feeling refreshed and invigorated. I usually take at least 2 of the 3 dogs with me when I go, mainly for safety reasons, and they have a blast too. They run wide circles around me, jetting off into the bush on the left, circling around in front of me, coming back to my side to check on me, and then hurtling off in the opposite direction. Their energy is astonishing, which I guess is a trait of their breeds (jack russels and fox terriers). The third dog is still a puppy, but he’s growing up quickly. He has come running a few times with me, but by the time we make it back to the house he’s usually pretty blown.

I have tried to commit myself to starting a lifting routine out here, but the weather has just gotten so darn cold that I really just don’t want to move. Sometimes getting out to run takes a huge effort, so I’m not sure how successful I’ll really be in motivating myself to do stretches and lifting exercises. Probably not very.

Anyway, when Tokkie returned from South Africa he brought some extremely exciting news. I sent him an email asking him if he would ask around and see if anyone had a second-hand piano they’d like to sell me. Apparently his friend in Musina (just across the border on the SA side) has a piano laying around his house that he said I could have and use as long as I wanted to for free. So the plan is to go across the border tomorrow to pick it up, along with a few other supplies and things we need, and bring it back here to Threeways. I’m very excited. Life without music is just. . . . flat somehow. Devoid of a whole dimension.

The night before Tokkie returned, we had a little bit of a scare, though. We were sleeping in Tokkie’s room (which we do when he is gone so we can keep an eye on things at the house), and we woke up to the sound of startled chickens next door by the workshop, which is not a very quiet sound. We assumed a civet or serval or something had come and was finding a meal, so we went back to sleep. The next morning we took a walk over there to find out what the commotion had been about and found a very disturbed Mavis. Mavis is the black lady here who is sort of the overseer of the camp staff. She speaks very good English and it was obvious something was not right. She proceeded to tell us how she woke in the middle of the night (she sleeps at the workshop) to the sound of the chickens, and also footsteps outside her window. She opened her curtains a crack to peek out and saw two shady-looking guys standing there smoking. She said they then started throwing rocks around and rummaging through things in the workshop, although they did not take anything. She was certain they had come to kill her.

Whether or not these guys had any murderous intentions, or were just drunk and stumbled into the wrong place I don’t know. But we did arm ourselves and slept lightly that night. David was hoping someone would try to break into the house so he could blast them, but I was certainly grateful that nobody did. We had a long discussion about what did and did not constitute self-defense.

Other than that, things have been fairly normal and nice here. A friend of Tokkie’s from the war by the name of Jan is here with his two sons. They are sort of freelance hunting for wildebeest, as a favor between friends I think. They are nice guys and it’s good to have them here. Tonight the camp is fully booked, and we will be very busy come dinner time.

I have become sort of the madam of the house since Dirkie and Quinn are still away. It is kind of an unspoken expectation that the woman is the one who clears the dishes and presides at meal-times and makes sure everyone has what they need. I don’t mind it most days. It’s kind of like playing house, except for real. But sometimes it does get annoying. It will be nice when Dirkie comes back and takes her job back from me.

David and I have spent the last 2 days getting a really good start on sorting out Tokkie’s cattle. We have the guys round them up in groups of 100 to 150, and then put them through the chute one at a time, documenting what their ear-tags and brands say, what color they are, whether they are pedigree or grade, and trying to correlate that information with what I have gleaned from the helter-skelter records up at the house. There are a lot of discrepancies and I have to keep reminding myself that I can only do my best with what I have at my disposal, nothing more. The real problems come when the brand and the ear tag say two different things, or when the ear tag is missing and the brand was not done well enough to be legible, or when both the brand and the ear tag do not jive with what the paper records say. It is annoying and I’ve resigned myself to the fact that there will be mistakes no matter how hard I try.

Something that actually annoys me more than the messed-up records is the way vaccinations are done. It seems that the cattle guys just sort of sit around and think to themselves “hm. I haven’t jabbed any cows with a needle lately. It must be time to vaccinate them for something.” And then they come to the house and gather up a bunch of bottles of various cattle medicines and set about administering them, seemingly without knowing what exactly they are giving them. And the worst part of it is that Tokkie doesn’t seem to know either, and that there are NO records kept as to what cow is given what medicine/immunization at what time. There’s not even any messed-up records to go off of. Once I have the identification records straightened out as much as I can, the vaccinations are next. There will be no more of this arbitrary sticking. And I am going to do my best to explain the importance of sterilization and cleanliness, and the difference between sub-cutaneous and intra-muscular injections, and why it matters. I probably will just end up more frustrated, but we’ll see what happens. I discussed the matter with Tokkie’s friend Jan, who has a few head of cattle himself. His opinion on the matter was not encouraging. He said that sometimes if something is working reasonably well then it’s best to just leave it, as it just takes too much energy to change to something more organized. We will see about that.

On a different track, David has come up with another money-making scheme, in addition to the chicken-farming, cow-trading, videographing, tilapia-raising, vegetable-selling, second-hand clothing importing, and various other schemes he already has floating around in his head. When we are in South Africa tomorrow he wants to buy some cheap drills and power saws and such to make wooden beads. There is all kinds of beautiful dead hardwood here of all colors and grains, and I think he could be on to something. The beads will have a hand-carved look to them and we plan on pushing the “buy this and you are helping the starving Africans” angle for all it’s worth. In the end there’s not a whole lot of falsehood in that statement anyway. Except, of course, for the starving part.

Also, I’ve worked up my courage enough to actually bring up the subject of writing a book with Tokkie. He thinks it’s a wonderful idea, although I’m not sure he really grasped the fact that I want the book to be based on his life. Will hopefully start putting pen to paper soon. I have this grand sprawling idea in my head of how it will go, and I’ve been a little afraid to actually start it in case it just falls flat. Guess that’s kind of cowardly. We’ll shortly see if I have what it takes.

9 - The Quicksand Phase

Well. . . . . now that it's been 3 weeks since my last update. . . . . I won't bore you all with a detailed recap of everything that's happened since then. Just a general outline. And a recommitment to do this more often.

The Galkas finished up their trip with a few more casualties and headed for the airport. The next group of hunters, a father and retired police man from Houston and his 3 children, followed closely on the Galkas' heels. It was really a pleasure to have them here. The youngest was 11 and so cute, and it was so much fun to have some younger people here to chat with and joke around with. The death toll was low, only a zebra, a vervet monkey and a black mamba, but it was one of the more fun hunts.

The group after them was from Spain, and the original plan was for half the group to go hunt elephant on the Chikwalakwala concession, and the other half to stay at Threeways hunting plains game. David and I were left to man the house while everyone was away in South Africa picking up the Spaniards and more supplies. We got a call from Quinn the day before the hunters were to arrive. He was at the border coming back to Threeways and wanted us to be ready to leave for the concession when he got here. This is what caused me to remember that I had not as yet written another update as I had hoped to. I realized it would be another week before I would be able to catch up with things, and wrote a hasty mass email to everyone letting them know that David and I were still alive and would be updating soon. (I've hit that point in journal-keeping which I like to think of as the quicksand phase. It happens to me nearly every time I re-decide I'm going to keep a record of my life, and most times I just end up staying stuck. This time I'll do my best to drag myself out of the pit and forge on.)

Anyway, we packed up everything we'd need for the next week, loaded up and drove down to the concession with Quinn. We were instructed to set up the camp and have everything ready for the hunters' arrival the next day. By the time we arrived at the camp, however, it was dark and we decided we'd do the setup in the morning. Quinn returned to Threeways to await the arrival of the Spaniards. The weather here is cooling down considerably and it was difficult for me to wrench myself from under the covers early the next day and get moving. There's nothing gradual about the weather here right now. The afternoons are hot enough for shorts and t-shirts, and I break a sweat if I'm doing anything physical. The instant the sun hits the horizon, however, the temperature plunges and if I don't have a sweatshirt nearby I become very cranky. The nights are regularly in the high 30s, low 40s and the mornings are brutal until somewhere between 8:30 and 9:00 when the sun hits a magical height in the sky, and I'm instantly peeling off the layers.

Anyway, we finished setting up the camp by lunch time and were just getting ready to scrounge up some food when Quinn drove in. But he was not attended by any Spaniards, and had not brought any food or supplies as we had planned. He disembarked from his vehicle and announced with a smile that the Spaniards had changed their minds and no longer wanted to split up to hunt elephant. They would rather stay together and hunt plains game at Threeways. I'll admit it was somewhat flabbergasting, and I was a little disappointed that we would not be having any serious action, but there was obviously no use wasting energy being annoyed, so we set to work breaking down the camp we'd just finished setting up. It came down much faster than it went up, and we were on our way back to Threeways. It was not a total waste, as we were able to witness a rare, gorgeous colorful sunset on our way back. Generally the sky here goes from bright blue to black in an astonishingly short time, with only a flush of orange low on the horizon to mark the place the sun vanished. On the rare evening when the air is clear of dust, but there are a few clouds in the west, the scene is totally different, with all the pink, yellow and orange splendor to herald in the twilight. This was one such evening and it was a delight to behold.

There were 5 in the group from Spain. The main man was Jose, and he paid for his 2 body-guards, a friend who was a wildlife specialist, and a translator to accompany him on the trip. I was extremely relieved that there was a translator, as I had been feeling somewhat apprehensive about putting my Spanish skills on display. However, I realized the next day that I was not completely off the hook when Tokkie asked David and I if we would be responsible for guiding the 2 body-guards during their time here. They were extremely tolerant of my butchery of their language, and we generally made do, with surprisingly few misinterpretations. The group had planned to remain at Threeways for a week. However, Jose was not happy with the way things were going. He apparently was not getting enough action, and would rather have more shooting than hunting, so he made a new plan with Tokkie to head down to South Africa where the bush is not so thick and the animals are much more restricted in their movements. If shooting is what he wants, he'll most likely find it there. The body-guards seemed to have had a nice time, though, and tipped us generously for being their guides.

So the whole group took off to South Africa. Quinn and Dirkie were delighted to be left unexpectedly with a free week on their hands, and so they took off to South Africa as well to do some serious planning for their wedding. So David and I are here alone again. Tokkie is due back on Friday, Dirkie and Quinn will be back sometime between the 17th and the 20th. We are getting used to the rhythm of running things over here and have not been caught without the answers as often as before.

David has found a dead tree he wants to make into a table. The only issue is that we do not have a functioning chain saw, and so he has been hacking and sawing at it with hand tools. This may not necessarily be a bad thing, as it occupies him for hours at a time and he does not seem to get bored with it. At the moment he has gone off with one of the guys to take a look at some cattle they want to sell. We've made contact with a man who has agreed to buy all the cows we can get ahold of for a certain price, which happens to be nearly twice the price we would be paying to buy them from the local guys. So it looks like a fair investment of our money, but we'll see how it pans out. I am relaxing at the house today. A repair man has come to fix the walk-in refrigerator here (for the third time) and so I'm keeping watch on the place until he goes. After that I think I will go for a long walk.

Anyway, sorry to be so general and bland this time. Will get my butt out of the quicksand and have a nice story for you all next time I update!