Ospika Blues...

So I am writing during a necessary day-off taken to arrange for prescriptions to be picked up in PG. It's friday on the second shift of brushing activities in Ospika camp and we still have a long way to go. We'll probably be in this camp until early September.

The cutting so far has been fairly average Ospika terrain with one exception. We did have to do work on a ridiculously vertical, devil's club-infested hell block on some very hot days. Some of the managers were noting that they'd rarely been beaten so badly by a block before. I've had worse, but definatly not this year. Brushing is made increasingly difficult when there's absolutely no sure-footing. Add to this the fact that all around you are gardens filled with poisonous-spined hell-plants and the cutting becomes some sort of Sysiphusian trial. There comes a point where you actually get tired of cursing and resign yourself to a continual and extreme level of pain.

That being said, we've since moved on from that block onto something a lot more manageable. It's been a while since we've had rain and those days without clouds ("blue laser") make the cutting a lot more difficult. However, this is Ospika and it's my third season so it isn't anything I haven't come to expect from the camp. The cutting here is difficult and it makes you really earn your pay. Apex has added another form of payment onto our checks if we stay past August 31st, so that's a perk.

Soon it will be august and I'll be in the position of getting all my stuff for Africa ready. I keep mulling that over in my head and it keeps me positive.

I'll try to keep posting if anything of interest happens but chances are it'll just be groundhog day for the next 6 or so weeks.

Signing off.