Action in Africa

Well it’s Friday and I have been here in Zambia for a week now and the temperature here is a comfortable 25°C.  BUT the sun is beating on you… oops I mean beating down on you like a mother!  When I left the T-Dot I was my natural chestnut brown complexion.  Now I am Jet Black. This is some intense sun over here.  I guess the fact that I have been sitting on top of a shiny galvanized roof that resembles a giant tanning mirror all day doesn’t help either.  The house is coming along fine.  For a bunch of amateurs (minus Erik “The Chief” and Teddy) we are doing well.  I am pretty sure that the local builders are laughing at us all day everyday.  I can just hear them talking “Look at those crazy Musungu’s! (whitey’s in bimba), we could have finished that roof in 2 days.  What is our brother Actiondingo doing with them?”  Thanks to Edward (local worker extraordinaire) we wouldn’t have done half the work we have done.  The workers here are incredible.  Edward’s father Brian who is 71 years old is the mason here.  He has built the entire walls of the house next door pretty well in 1 week with very little help.  

Today I offer you the quote of the day from the chief himself…  Just imagine a bunch of fertile men watching an older (but wise) fella sitting on and straddling an oily roof rafter with shaky hands and running shoes.  We say be careful that doesn’t look so comfortable and the wise one says: “At my age it’s only used for one thing!”  Hmmm… Its been 10 hours now and I am still waiting for an answer from Pops.  All we want to know is what is the cutoff age?  I would ask Jimmy A but he has a totally different answer.  Sorry guy but you leave your self open for this.  By the way for those of you who don’t know Jimmy he lives in Keswick and he doesn’t have kids anymore he has a team!   

The best thing about today for a change was not the “Everybody Loves Andy Moment” (even though there were a few good ones!) but it was Arny’s birthday!  HAPPY 35^th BIRTHDAY ARNOLD!  I think he thought we forgot his birthday again but guess again.  Lots of planning and preparation went into this one.  It was also Justin the Seeds of Hope’s accountant’s birthday as well.  After our hard day of work we returned back to the Buseko House and we grabbed Justin and told him we wanted to talk to him.  When we went around the corner it was complete mayhem.  To their surprise there were buckets and buckets of water balloons and the children, staff and team pelted Arnold and Justin with them.  Then it turned into a complete all out water balloon fight.  It was incredible to see a full out water war going on.  The kids absolutely loved it.  The smile on their faces could have lit up any major league baseball stadium.  It was an awesome sight.  There was plenty of birthday cake afterwards for everyone.  They even gave Arnold a birthday gift (including a beautiful clip on tie).  Damn, the most I’ve ever given the guy is a pint of beer for his birthday.  Now that they have set the bar so high Shaun and I are worried about Arny’s new found expectations.  

That was my day.  Until next time I bid you adieu!   

Keep Bouncin!  

Action Out!