In anticipation of an upcoming Christmas party, I'm tidying, doing laundry, and washing dishes. It's almost noon and the ice inside the kitchen window is slowly thinning. This week marks the beginning of the descent into winter, and with it the first trickles of the expatriate exodus to warmer climes. In the project area- even the government shuts down for winter and moves to lower altitudes- so our compound will soon be filling with officials and their families even as the foreigners are departing. Others on the team are now up on the plateau finishing up the clinic monitoring, looking for land to lease for a research station, and tying up loose ends before the new year. January will find only the hardiest folk on the grassland- and that's when we hope to be getting into some substantial wildlife monitoring and equipment setup- though I won't be around to make the trip.
Back to the dishes.
