“We can arrange that you stay at Florisbad from 5-20 Oct…I’ll get you a hut ready where you can work.”
This was the only information I had received about Florisbad (a research station 45km outside of Bloemfontein) from the researcher I am working with. I had met him when I was in South Africa last year, and he is a very nice, very brilliant guy but super absent-minded and very bad about communicating via email. So I had really no idea what to expect in Florisbad. Would my hut have electricity so I could work on my laptop? That was really my main concern, because how else was I going to get any work done for two weeks?
Well, I am definitely in the middle of nowhere staying in a hut, but the middle of nowhere, South Africa is beautiful. My hut has a gorgeous, unobstructed view of the African savanna… definitely an inspiring place to work on a dissertation on the paleoecology of Africa. And I have electricity. And hot running water for the shower! And a dial-up internet connection!!!!
I’ve also encountered the most disgusting bugs I’ve ever seen in my life. They look like inch-long worms, but they fly. And land all over the place – the table, your computer, your shoulder. Eeecchhh.
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PHOTOGRAPH THESE WORMS PLEASE FOR IDENTIFICATION LATER. THANKS! D I am so pleased you have a hut with hot water and a pleasing place to curl up and work. New Orleans friends sent me home with a wonderful collection of succulents for my enjoyment and cultivation. I plan a "secret" winter garden, unseen from the street. New Orleans was quite grey like my moods, and distruption is evident everywhere, mostly outside the french quarter and uptown. So dreary. I past by block after block of uninhabitated houses along usual routes, no where close to the sites so frequently touted in the press. Wind damage not flood damage shocks my brain.
Ocean Springs looked normal except along the coast where coastal houses were damaged. P.Beach here looks far worse today. I find that I really don't want to see the destruction and participate in comparisons in my head.
The jolts also come later. My parents recieved their household hurricane coverage. It's $8,000 a year. They can't possibly afford it. The real estate market has tanked, due in part to the realization that they can't afford a mortgage payment inclusive of hurricane coverage. Do your best sweet thing. D
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