Losing Streak

Originally distributed July 2009

I’ve been quiet for a while because I’ve been traveling and losing stuff and trying to reconstruct my life. It began with a pair of field pants that I couldn’t find. I thought I had brought them to Swaziland in January but I couldn’t find them anywhere. Maybe I left them in the US after all? Well, I visited home for a very brief period at the end of June and they weren’t there. So they disappeared. I also had a neat little solar radio that I was planning to bring that also vanished into thin air.

But it got better on my way back to Swaziland. So much better! I’m pretty sure it was the baggage handlers in Johannesburg, South Africa who broke the lock off my luggage and stole a ton of stuff. I just realized tonight one more thing they stole! That’s how much stuff it was. They stole my tennis shoes, shorts, battery charger, camera cable, field pants and much more. Those are just the things that hurt the most to lose.

Fleece and first pair of field pants lost

But that wasn’t the end of it. My first day back in the field here in Swaziland I somehow lost my fleece. It vanished into thin air. That was quite bothersome. Then I was helping a friend with her field work and she needs power from car batteries to run black lights in sugarcane to attract insects. She’s collecting them for her master’s research. While carrying a car battery, battery acid leaked onto my pants, my one and only pair of field pants for cold weather at this point. The next day they ripped wide open from my hip to my knee. Great…..

I also managed to lose one of two keys to my bike lock, so I’m now down to one. And, when I washed my sleeping bag in the washing machine, which it’s supposed to withstand, it came out with 6 rips. Awesome…. At least I was able to stitch that up. I don’t know what kind of curse I have on me at the moment, but I can’t wait ‘til it’s over! This is insane!