Weekend relaxation... and an infestation!

At the end of our first week, we have enjoyed a quiet Saturday in our comfortable house, surrounded by lush Zambezi riverbank vegetation.   

 

The Chitokoloki settlement has benefitted from huge amounts of donor investment over its 106-year history, and one of the key strategic investments has been in electrical supply.  Our house benefits from state-of-the-art solar power which maintains a continual supply – so long as you don’t have too many high-power items on at once!  Previously, the mission relied on diesel generators which ran for one hour in the morning and 3.5 hours in the afternoon – limited due to the enormous fuel consumption of 20 litres diesel per hour.  The new electrical systems have been a great improvement, although there are still hiccups.  Earlier in the week, Stuart was midway through amputating a leg (for an enormous cancer) when the power went off and the theatre nurse kindly lent his smart phone light to help proceedings along!

 

Aside from the usual African house co-occupants of geckos, spiders and ants, we have so far had to deal with a bat infestation!  The first bat appeared to have hidden round the back of the cooker and scuttled across the stove top, singeing itself until we could dispose of it with some kitchen tongs. We’ve had three other encounters with bats in the house since- one dispensed with a handy umbrella, one with a bin and another with a racket-styled bug zapper - "The Executioner".  I think we were most disconcerted by the one we found napping on the frame of our mosquito net – there did seem to be a lot of high-pitched squeaking going on overnight, and the cause became evident when morning light arrived.  We think there must be a colony of them in our roof space, and found a gnawed out hole in our bedroom ceiling – so patching that up will hopefully solve the problem. If not, The Executioner remains on hand.