The July Sampling Quest Begins

John and Winfred sampling snails in the Mansa river. The hip-waders are a life saver!

John leading a parade of children... or sampling for snails in the Mutiti Dambo.

Yesterday was a day full of water sampling. We started out to the field at 8:00am in the morning and visited 4 sights around Mansa. At each sight Winfred and I would take the water samples, GPS coordinates and water temperature (a cool 16-17 degrees Celsius). John would conduct the snail sampling and do the environmental assessment of the sight. It was amazing how the sights look so different from March when they were flooded with water! This time we actually found snails at all of the sights.

Lately we have had a few intersting encounters with owls. On Wednesday of this week we had a dead owl in our lab, along with broken glassware. Apparently it came in through a hole in the roof but was unable to find its way out agian. Then when we were sampling yesterday some children brought a dead owl to show us, apparently they had killed it and were playing with it. I found this to be rather sad and disturbing. Our friend/driver/coworker, Winfred, explained to me that in Zambia owls (and cats) are associated with witchcraft so if people find them they will often kill them.

We also stopped at the market on our way home to get some staples like tomatoes, oranges, peanuts and potatoes. I waited out in the truck with our sampling equipment (we didn't want it to grow legs and walk off). While waiting out in the truck I was propositioned for marriage but declined the offer and told them that I was already happily married, they insited that I needed an African husband since I was in Africa, this I also refused. The man then countered with a new tactic, asking if I had a sister, when I said that I did, they insisted that "she will marry me". I am skeptical, but at this time John returned and we made our way back home.