"That's Africa Baby!"

This is my new catch phrase. After the fourth time of trying to get money to pay our work crew and failing (this was a couple of weeks ago), the other post-doc on the project looks at me and says "T.A.B". When I give him a quizzical look that says "are you speaking English?", he says "That's Africa Baby - T.A.B." Its the basic explanation of what happens when things go wrong in your day - as they often do when two or more people are involved in a project here. So when things go wrong now, its T.A.B. - just like it comes with the territory (or the continent I guess).

Have to hold the comuter printer drawer in so that it won't shoot paper across the room when you print - T.A.B.

Your work gloves fall apart after one day in the field - T.A.B.

The hardware store give you fencing standards with no holes in them, then acts like you are crazy that such a thing would happen - T.A.B.

Can't finish building your experiments because there is a NATIONAL SHORTAGE OF FENCING STANDARDS - you guessed it T.A.B.

It just kind of somes up working here in some respects. Not that I am not enjoying myself and the field work. The extra challenges just make things a little more interesting and unpredictable.

I'll try to post some more pictures to the Flikr site on Friday when I'm back down in Skukuza.