Boing Boing: Buy tanks and guns to be melted down for African farm-implements

i don’t know why i feel so skeptical about this project. something just seems a little fishy… but i guess it could be an interesting idea if it is true.

i think it is just the whole idea of promoting the purchase of more weapons for a country already devasted by years of conflict, even if there is a humanitarian objective behind it, is slightly naive.

yes they say that blacksmiths are going to convert them into farm utensils. but something tells me that, unless the weapon is already completely useless, the majority of them are not going to end up being used to help plant next years maize crop.

but then i don’t know the whole story, so maybe i should just stay quiet.:)

currently the sky is overcast and white flakes are falling down to the ground. if it were not for the sake that it is something like 90 degrees farenheit and i am sweating like a pig (its true pigs sweat alot), one might think that it was snowing.

what is apparantly happening is that people are burning fields. it must be lots of fields because there is a huge haze hanging in the air. and the white flakes coming down are ash. why people are burning fields, I am not exactly sure.

no more news about lord’s resistance army folks. they have been keeping quiet. Saturday, we had a small scare when it was reported there was a big fistfight in Maridi town between some Dinka and a Zande guy. These are people from the two tribes that were going at it in the town of Yambio to west of here. But it was a small skirmish and the local authority settled things down. The only inconvience that arised from all of this was that the cooks working for us were not able to get to the market to buy food for lunch in the normal time that they do. So instead of 1 p.m. lunch, we had to wait until 2 p.m. life can be really difficult sometimes.:)

otherwise everything is very quiet.

tags:dinkazandemaridiyambiolord’s resistance army

i would love some mashed potatoes, with a bit of gravy, some good ol stuffing, and a heap of white turkey breast right about now.

unfortunately I am going to be stuck with rice or pasta and chicken or goat meat. don’t get me wrong, i’m not complaining about the food. i am happy to have food. I just wish i could have thanksgiving food instead.

and maybe some pumpkin pie…

News from Monday about the lord’s resistance army.

Google News about lord’s resistance army.

Kenya had a referemdum on their constitution on Monday. People voted if they wanted a proposed draft of a new one. They said “No”. Alot of folks were concerned that there was going to be alot of riots or something along those lines, but so far everything has been very quiet and people have behaved themselves.

i forgot that in two days it will be thanksgiving. unfortunately no turkey for me this year. mabye some chicken though.

yesterday we had a slight scare. there was a rumor reported that a small group of lord’s resistance army rebels were moving towards maridi with the intent to cause harm.

apparantly a small group of these rebels attacked a village, killed one person and stole food and supplies. what they hadn’t realized was that other people living in the area were well armed and did not take kindly to having their neighbors attacked. A local chief from a neighboring village organized his 25 sons to take their guns and take care of these rebels that had attacked. They engaged in a confrontation with the LRA and allegedly killed one of their members. The lra were running from these guys, and the villagers pursued them. but apparantly the villagers didn’t have enough ammunition to finish the business, so they sent one of their guys to come into Maridi town and alert the soldiers here of the situation and to ask for assistance. well when this guy got into town and informed the soldiers, a bunch of them went running to get their guns and to organize themselve to go after the rebels. well everyone in town saw the soldiers running around, heard the name lord’s resistance army and the rumor started flying that lra was on their way to maridi. so everyone started grabbing guns, all the shops closed down and people were a little bit tense yesterday.

so another fun day.

the power on my comp is about to go and i can’t plug in anywhere cause the generator is down.

i took some photos of Maridi. click here to see em.

i stayed up a bit late last night watching terminator 3. yes it was a waste of time.

but as i turned out the lights and laid down in my bed, i kept hearing these very stranges noises coming from outside. almost like and owl hooting, or some sort of small animal howling. it was very high pitched and sort of gurgled. ok, so maybe this isn’t the best description. I think it was some kind of bat. it just freaked me out a bit. especially cause I had to go to the toilet very badly, and the toilet is about 30 yards from the house i stay in. and the cries were coming from the direction of the toilet. I finally just stood out the back door of the house and watered the grass.

i also kept hearing branches and stuff fall on the house before i went to sleep. that was annoying.

then, just as I was about to drift off into the abyss… i heard a gunshot. and with all the hubbub that has been going on round here the last few days, i got a little nervous at first. but the thing is that if you only hear 1 shot somewhere off in the dark, you normally don’t have to worry about a thing. It was probably someone shooting at an animal, or a drunk soldier firing a shot into the sky. the thing to worry about is if you start to hear a number of shots at the same time. something along the lines of “pow, pow… pow… pow, pow, pow… pow, pow…pow”. So instead of immediately going back to sleep, i laid there for about half an hour waiting to hear more gunshots. Luckily the next thing i knew was that I was waking up and it was morning.

although i overslept and the eggs were finished by the time i went for breakfast… grrr…

click the photo to see a few more. this is mary. more about her later.:)