Overdue pictures

I don't have too much to write about today. I will be off to the field next week, from Sunday to Wednesday, so I figured I ought to post something before next week.

The news in Malawi is:
We had a good storm the other day, but the rains still haven't really started. It's not too late yet, so hopefully they'll start soon and we'll have another good crop next year. Especially since the president gave away half of the strategic grain reserve to Zimbabwe a couple months ago. But that's another post, really. Anyway, the storm knocked down a bunch of branches and trees, and one of the cars in the parking lot outside my office had its windshield smashed in. Ouch.

In preparation for the rains, everyone has prepared their fields, and planted seeds. We get three distinct, seasonal landscapes here: Maize crops and grasses growing as high as your head, covering the land everywhere you loook; then the wild, overgrown, dried out season where everything is scrabbly and brown; then finally, the season we're in now, where the land is all neatly sown and ready for growing, and it looks like the country is covered in freshly vacuumed ochre-colored carpet.

Anyway, here are some overdue pictures from our trip to Zambia in November:

To get from our lodge to the park we had to drive across the Luangwa River.

Man, Jorge loves safaris. But he's so cute when he's all outdoorsy.

We stopped to help dig out another car that was stuck in the sand, only to get our car stuck as well!