Helmet Cam!

I decided I should try strapping my phone camera to the top of my helmet so I can show everyone where I bike to regularly around my site and in towns. Here are the first two I've made. The first is coming from the house of my health counterpart, Martin Nkaka, to the dambo where we went diving. The second is the bumpy 6.5 kilometer ride from Martin's brother, Chris Nkaka, to my hut. I've sped up the videos 4x so you don't have to wait around for 20 minutes.

Mwasha Diving Team

At the bottom of the stream I could see what I thought was a clay pot
half buried in the sand and gravel. I convinced Martin that we would
have to go swimming on a hot day and go treasure hunting. I told him
I would teach him how to do a cannonball. When the day came he invited
the best divers in the area, and the pool party began.
Below is hopefully the training video I took of them attempting to dive
headfirst. Good stuff.

 

Peace Corps poker game. We didn't have chips so we improvised.
imbalala (nuts) are worth 1, sweeties (candy) are worth 2, and impwa
(yellow eggplant) worth 5. Check out how much bigger of a pile of
impwa I had!

There's no grocery stores for about 100 miles. Instead, we have "tuck shops".
Here's one I like about 27 kilometers from my site. You can buy anything from
soap to candy, beans and rice, fresh rolls (when his wife makes them), and
citenge (the fabric used for everything here). This one also has electricity
and a fridge, making him a pretty awesome guy with orange Fanta!

  

Inside he's got even more random things. Some bike parts, kids toys, clothes,
talk time for your phone, cheap jewelry, tea, even some watercolors.

Soccer game between local villages Kasuba (red) and Mwita (zebra). About
half of the players were barefoot.

Without sidelines the kids kind roam the edges of the field playing their
own games.

Home team Kasuba scores. Kids and drunks storm the field.

Pond harvesting. Knotted net. Frustration.

Actually we weren't really harvesting, but first clearing out all the tadpoles
from the ponds, then redistributing the baby fish to new ponds.

Everyone gets in on it.

 

For a couple weeks our water pump broke. We found a guy
to come help fix it. Pretty interesting how you dismantle
a 9 meter long pipe with a slippery metal rod down the middle
without dropping anything along the way.

Fixed! The bottom 3 meter long pipe was rusted at the
joint. Could have been much worse.

From the archives. End of dry season vs. middle of rainy season.

Cleanup crew.