#riolonga — Public Fediverse posts

The Mexican Chronicles – Twelve

Not visible from my first tent was the Rio Longa. Noticing the reeds, I took a walk and was surprised at the sheer size of this river. On the map it is marked as a smallish river; in real life it is wider than the Vaal in full flood, by far. It is a muddy brown colour and seems to be moving at a sluggish pace. This is, however, deceptive; a few months later we saw a whole island the size of two Mack trucks rush past us at about 20-30 km an hour!

Re-education

The day started off with a few more shocks, one of the first being roll call. Before that, though, we needed to get coffee and rusks. In true “in the bush” army style, only two meals were scheduled each day: one at 11 o’clock and then a supper.

The mess consisted of a few tables and chairs under some beautiful palm trees; the kitchen was a series of cookers and gas fridges under a tarpaulin with wire and sail “walls”. The floor was plain sod and the pantry was some shelves at the rear, which eventually grew to a small shipping container. It had very little in it, but at this stage there were only about 30 of us at Longa, so having only few supplies was not so worrying. The other startling thing was that in front of the tables and chairs was a top-of-the-range TV and video setup. In time to come we would all watch those ridiculous Vietnam movies and almost die laughing, trying to find look-alikes amongst ourselves. For some reason, the people “back at the house” were of the impression that all we would want to watch would be war movies. This was not true; we were living in those conditions all day, every day, and most of us would have preferred movies about absolutely anything else.

The mess had a roof of sorts made of canvas, rope and wire, to protect the equipment against the rain. Again we were met with unfriendly stares from the other men in the camp, with little or no conversation going on. We actually got issued with a mug! No spoon. The sugar was in a big plate and had hundreds of bees swarming around it. In the deep shade the mossies were still active. This early in the morning the flies were still sleeping; we would meet them at brunch time. One day later on an Angolan chap arrived. He showed us that if we took a dead, dried-out piece of cactus and lit one end of it, it would smoulder all day and the smoke would drive both the mosquitoes and the bees away. The flies didn’t give a shit.

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The Mexican Chronicles – Twelve

Not visible from my first tent was the Rio Longa. Noticing the reeds, I took a walk and was surprised at the sheer size of this river. On the map it is marked as a smallish river; in real life it is wider than the Vaal in full flood, by far. It is a muddy brown colour and seems to be moving at a sluggish pace. This is, however, deceptive; a few months later we saw a whole island the size of two Mack trucks rush past us at about 20-30 km an hour!

Re-education

The day started off with a few more shocks, one of the first being roll call. Before that, though, we needed to get coffee and rusks. In true “in the bush” army style, only two meals were scheduled each day: one at 11 o’clock and then a supper.

The mess consisted of a few tables and chairs under some beautiful palm trees; the kitchen was a series of cookers and gas fridges under a tarpaulin with wire and sail “walls”. The floor was plain sod and the pantry was some shelves at the rear, which eventually grew to a small shipping container. It had very little in it, but at this stage there were only about 30 of us at Longa, so having only few supplies was not so worrying. The other startling thing was that in front of the tables and chairs was a top-of-the-range TV and video setup. In time to come we would all watch those ridiculous Vietnam movies and almost die laughing, trying to find look-alikes amongst ourselves. For some reason, the people “back at the house” were of the impression that all we would want to watch would be war movies. This was not true; we were living in those conditions all day, every day, and most of us would have preferred movies about absolutely anything else.

The mess had a roof of sorts made of canvas, rope and wire, to protect the equipment against the rain. Again we were met with unfriendly stares from the other men in the camp, with little or no conversation going on. We actually got issued with a mug! No spoon. The sugar was in a big plate and had hundreds of bees swarming around it. In the deep shade the mossies were still active. This early in the morning the flies were still sleeping; we would meet them at brunch time. One day later on an Angolan chap arrived. He showed us that if we took a dead, dried-out piece of cactus and lit one end of it, it would smoulder all day and the smoke would drive both the mosquitoes and the bees away. The flies didn’t give a shit.

Rate this:

The Mexican Chronicles – Twelve

Not visible from my first tent was the Rio Longa. Noticing the reeds, I took a walk and was surprised at the sheer size of this river. On the map it is marked as a smallish river; in real life it is wider than the Vaal in full flood, by far. It is a muddy brown colour and seems to be moving at a sluggish pace. This is, however, deceptive; a few months later we saw a whole island the size of two Mack trucks rush past us at about 20-30 km an hour!

Re-education

The day started off with a few more shocks, one of the first being roll call. Before that, though, we needed to get coffee and rusks. In true “in the bush” army style, only two meals were scheduled each day: one at 11 o’clock and then a supper.

The mess consisted of a few tables and chairs under some beautiful palm trees; the kitchen was a series of cookers and gas fridges under a tarpaulin with wire and sail “walls”. The floor was plain sod and the pantry was some shelves at the rear, which eventually grew to a small shipping container. It had very little in it, but at this stage there were only about 30 of us at Longa, so having only few supplies was not so worrying. The other startling thing was that in front of the tables and chairs was a top-of-the-range TV and video setup. In time to come we would all watch those ridiculous Vietnam movies and almost die laughing, trying to find look-alikes amongst ourselves. For some reason, the people “back at the house” were of the impression that all we would want to watch would be war movies. This was not true; we were living in those conditions all day, every day, and most of us would have preferred movies about absolutely anything else.

The mess had a roof of sorts made of canvas, rope and wire, to protect the equipment against the rain. Again we were met with unfriendly stares from the other men in the camp, with little or no conversation going on. We actually got issued with a mug! No spoon. The sugar was in a big plate and had hundreds of bees swarming around it. In the deep shade the mossies were still active. This early in the morning the flies were still sleeping; we would meet them at brunch time. One day later on an Angolan chap arrived. He showed us that if we took a dead, dried-out piece of cactus and lit one end of it, it would smoulder all day and the smoke would drive both the mosquitoes and the bees away. The flies didn’t give a shit.

Rate this:

The Mexican Chronicles – Twelve

Not visible from my first tent was the Rio Longa. Noticing the reeds, I took a walk and was surprised at the sheer size of this river. On the map it is marked as a smallish river; in real life it is wider than the Vaal in full flood, by far. It is a muddy brown colour and seems to be moving at a sluggish pace. This is, however, deceptive; a few months later we saw a whole island the size of two Mack trucks rush past us at about 20-30 km an hour!

Re-education

The day started off with a few more shocks, one of the first being roll call. Before that, though, we needed to get coffee and rusks. In true “in the bush” army style, only two meals were scheduled each day: one at 11 o’clock and then a supper.

The mess consisted of a few tables and chairs under some beautiful palm trees; the kitchen was a series of cookers and gas fridges under a tarpaulin with wire and sail “walls”. The floor was plain sod and the pantry was some shelves at the rear, which eventually grew to a small shipping container. It had very little in it, but at this stage there were only about 30 of us at Longa, so having only few supplies was not so worrying. The other startling thing was that in front of the tables and chairs was a top-of-the-range TV and video setup. In time to come we would all watch those ridiculous Vietnam movies and almost die laughing, trying to find look-alikes amongst ourselves. For some reason, the people “back at the house” were of the impression that all we would want to watch would be war movies. This was not true; we were living in those conditions all day, every day, and most of us would have preferred movies about absolutely anything else.

The mess had a roof of sorts made of canvas, rope and wire, to protect the equipment against the rain. Again we were met with unfriendly stares from the other men in the camp, with little or no conversation going on. We actually got issued with a mug! No spoon. The sugar was in a big plate and had hundreds of bees swarming around it. In the deep shade the mossies were still active. This early in the morning the flies were still sleeping; we would meet them at brunch time. One day later on an Angolan chap arrived. He showed us that if we took a dead, dried-out piece of cactus and lit one end of it, it would smoulder all day and the smoke would drive both the mosquitoes and the bees away. The flies didn’t give a shit.

Rate this:

The Mexican Chronicles – Twelve

Not visible from my first tent was the Rio Longa. Noticing the reeds, I took a walk and was surprised at the sheer size of this river. On the map it is marked as a smallish river; in real life it is wider than the Vaal in full flood, by far. It is a muddy brown colour and seems to be moving at a sluggish pace. This is, however, deceptive; a few months later we saw a whole island the size of two Mack trucks rush past us at about 20-30 km an hour!

Re-education

The day started off with a few more shocks, one of the first being roll call. Before that, though, we needed to get coffee and rusks. In true “in the bush” army style, only two meals were scheduled each day: one at 11 o’clock and then a supper.

The mess consisted of a few tables and chairs under some beautiful palm trees; the kitchen was a series of cookers and gas fridges under a tarpaulin with wire and sail “walls”. The floor was plain sod and the pantry was some shelves at the rear, which eventually grew to a small shipping container. It had very little in it, but at this stage there were only about 30 of us at Longa, so having only few supplies was not so worrying. The other startling thing was that in front of the tables and chairs was a top-of-the-range TV and video setup. In time to come we would all watch those ridiculous Vietnam movies and almost die laughing, trying to find look-alikes amongst ourselves. For some reason, the people “back at the house” were of the impression that all we would want to watch would be war movies. This was not true; we were living in those conditions all day, every day, and most of us would have preferred movies about absolutely anything else.

The mess had a roof of sorts made of canvas, rope and wire, to protect the equipment against the rain. Again we were met with unfriendly stares from the other men in the camp, with little or no conversation going on. We actually got issued with a mug! No spoon. The sugar was in a big plate and had hundreds of bees swarming around it. In the deep shade the mossies were still active. This early in the morning the flies were still sleeping; we would meet them at brunch time. One day later on an Angolan chap arrived. He showed us that if we took a dead, dried-out piece of cactus and lit one end of it, it would smoulder all day and the smoke would drive both the mosquitoes and the bees away. The flies didn’t give a shit.

Rate this: