Week 1 in Africa

Damn it was cold last week. We had a storm and snow on the mountains but now the weather is just like early an early British summer. I've had calamari four times in the last week.

I took this whilst walking back to the lab (building on left). The Outeniqua Choo-Tjoe runs infrequently in the South African winter but came by the lab everyday when I was here last. Once a day it stops just outside the lab to let people off as this is the last stop (the photo is of the train departing after turning around at the junction). It brings tourists to the diaz museum and Mossel bay for a few hours before it departs back to the railway museum in George.

Friday Night

On Friday we decided to have a party. We had pizza, and did a braai, after the braai we stoked it up a little resulting in this:

Yes those are flames (thanks Ben) coming out of the top of the chimney, usually this would simply have a small layer of smouldering coals on which to cook in the opening. At one point we were loading planks of wood down the chimney and I think in the picture you can see the top of one of them amongst the flames. So that kept us warm!

Meanwhile since a friend was leaving we decided to do tequila shots but when that ran out (fairly quickly because of the group size) we moved on to less conventional gin shots, ouzo shots, and whiskey shots. As a result of this wild partying I and a few other spent most of the remainder of the night at the hospital where we decided to admit one of our colleagues...

I and a few others had been dancing and whilst jumping up and down he fell over and hit his head. This resulted in a small cut to the back of his head and a mild concussion. We bandaged and took him to bed where he slept for about 20 mins whilst we continued to party. However, during one of the checks to see if he was okay somebody decided to wake him up and try to get him to go to the toilet. Whilst trying to lift carry and push him to the toilet she could not keep him stable and he fell again but this time into a rough brick wall. The result was a three inch gash to the rear of his head. After promptly being alerted to this we attended, decided to take him to hospital and found the least drunk driver to take us to George. During the thrilling 20 minute drive we kept the dude awake by ripping his local NFL team. There was lots of blood (like 1litres worth) over most things including my new sweater which I was wearing at the time.

I couldn't resist taking this pic to remember the evening. Just prior to this he had been through CT so things were looking better. It was interesting to visit a South African hospital. We carried him into the A and E and handed him over to the doctors and then the dude at the front desk was like 'so before we do anything I'm going to need to take some money, okay' so I had to put 300 rand on my card for entry, 300 for referral, 1600 for a CT scan and another 300 for a admittance. I do not know what would have happened if we had not had any money but the impression was that we would not have been given service. WTF.

Anyway it was a good way to get to know some of the guys. The dude is fine FYI though he can't drink for another week.... Just in time for the 4th of July then!

Saturday

Not much happened, me Sieman, Cathryn and the dude with the bandage on his head were going to drive to the mountains to build a snowman but since one of us was in hospital we decided not to, plus most of the snow evident on Friday afternoon was gone by the morning anyway. We prepared for Sunday, watched the lions lose, and some of us dined out.

Sunday

On Sunday we got a braai going, opened some beers and did this:

I got a kick out of what one of the guys said. 'Some people go to the 'church of Christ' on Sunday, we go to the 'church of evolution''.

Yes, that's a springbok, yes those are video cameras, and yes that is 'lil' sioux', a device that thrusts spears into the springbok with a 28kg load. Some of you may be shocked by this and some may even be appalled. Well the animal was already dead we just shot it another thirty odd times with a spear that's all! After this me and a colleague skinned it and I butchered it. Science in action.

I braaied the tenderloins and one of the backstraps straightaway. By this time, after all the masculine hunter type talk, every vegetarian on the team ate (wasn't expecting that kind of reaction at all). The tenderloin of this beast was probably the nicest bit of meat I have ever eaten. The rest of the good cuts I have saved for a braai next week and the rest will be made into pies or stews. We would have eaten it all right there and then but we had dinner plans.

Later we went out to watch the USA almost beat Brazil in the confederates cup and I had more calamari.

Arrived in South Africa

So I arrived in South Africa on Monday after a torturous flight from Heathrow. The in flight movie selection wasn’t that bad I watched yes-man, the wedding singer, and seven pounds (which was crap by the way), then I watched the wedding singer again. In Johannesburg airport I found a KFC and had some sprinkle pops (popcorn chicken) before waiting a couple of hours before flying on to George. This is the view as I got off the plane:

I was greeted by Lizelle who drove me to my house over here ‘Rondo house’. I’m living with one man documentary producer Jonahe and Yay, whom does the web/communications stuff for ASU. The crew at ‘Bobby house’ and on the dig is quite large. I haven’t counted people but it is up towards 20. I do not know the names of everybody yet. Aaron, Siemen, Cathryn, Kyle, and Curtis I know from the last time but the majority are new to me. Lets see, I remember Tova and Logan (mac guy) so far. We had dinner (chicken pie) with rice (3 stars) cooked by our chef, Fricky. The first night I walked over the bobby house we watched Blade runner on the big screen.

Tuesday

I walked over to the bobby house with my microscope (must remember to never try to do this again) so I could take it to the lab. This is my office for the duration:

And the view out of the window:

And looking down towards the lab from the museum:

It’s pretty good.

I spent most of the day setting up my microscopes and getting the camera working but I also walked to the town to get some household supplies (since I had to dump most of my stuff to reduce luggage weight) and whilst I was there I found this nice little Italian ice-cream cafe:

My usual hope to lose weight whilst on field work will not be fulfilled again!

Tuesday night I sat next to Luke, from Long Island. Cool guy, now working on OSL. He told me how he did a lithic analysis class with John Shea and how Shea was a really good teacher. Apparently you can knap frozen chocolate. I’ll have to give this a try. Later we watched the big lebowski, that movie never gets old.