Mud, mud and more mud!

I've been meaning to post this for the last two days but the internet and/or power has been sketchy at best.  Yesterday we got the first real rains since we arrived in Tanzania.  We've seen the odd storm or dash of a 20 minute downpour but nothing like yesterday.  We awoke yesterday morning about 7:00am to hear the sound of rain falling in the distance - SIGNIFICANT rain...  then you could hear it as it advanced to our location.  That was very cool.  It wasn't wind that was pushing the rain as is often the case (or if it was, it was nearly non-existent) but rather just the rain flowing down in rivers from the clouds high above.  We heard it coming from at least 1/4 mile away and when it opened up here, it was like someone had turned on a huge fire hose.

I'll say something for the rain here... when it finally does happen, it sure does happen!  And the mud?  Well that hard packed concrete red dirt we've been walking on almost instantly turned into the most vile, sticky substance known to man.  Our Pamoja (together) Guesthouse is located on a long stretch of dirt road between two main, well paved, roads which hasn't been an issue.  (I've marked it on the location for this post and you can see the house we are staying at in the satellite view.)  Every day, we've packed up our stuff and hiked into town or to the Y for swimming or what ever with nary a thought for the conditions of the road.  It's rough as all get out and nearly takes a 4x4 to navigate the ruts and bumps but on foot, it's as hard as pavement and we've loved passing by all the locals and kids who unfailingly shout out Jambo! to us as we walk by.

Yesterday however, we found out just how bad that road can get.  Within seconds of passing out of the gate (the driveway is made of stone and red-concrete), our shoes were carrying along another 2 lbs each of mud.  The mud sticks in layers so you end up walking on 6" platforms... and this mud is SLIP-PER-RY!!!  While the adhesive properties of this mud would put the Space Shuttle Tile Glue to shame, it is also more slippery than water on ice and teflon combined!    Imagine our fun walking with an extra few inches of sole to your shoes (that weigh a LOT) and then add the fact that ANY slight incline (let alone the trenches and moats of this road) is enough to send you slip-sliding-away like Paul Simon from Art Garfunkel.

When we finally did make it to the Y (and took our shoes off at the entrance to the building and carried them 150' to the sinks), it took us over 20 minutes each to get the mud off the shoes because of that fore-mentioned adhesive properties.  I thought I knew mud from PEI.  This stuff is red like that, but it puts PEI mud to shame.  After doing a swim and getting our shoes/sandals cleaned off as best we could, we stuck to the pavement (dodging motorcycles driven by maniacs with less than 1-2 years behind the wheel - Motorcycles are only within the last 3 years here) and buses (driven by drunken maniacs carrying 250% more people than they should) to go in and try out the wifi at the local Muzingu (white person) Union Cafe.

The internet is cheap here (I bought three 60 minute cards for each of our devices) for under $2 but we found it's the same provider as the guesthouse - with those proverbial two tin cans and a string somewhere between here and North America.  Didn't get a lot done but did have a pretty decent Pizza for about $2-3 each.

This AM, we awoke to the sun again and were planning on going back to Theresa's Make A Difference Now Orphanage for a Christmas Celebration with the kids before they all head back to their villages for the holidays.  I went out and checked the roads and sure enough... they were back to their usual hard packed selves... the tire treads from the cars the previous day being as firmly etched into the surface as if it were concrete!  No issue taking tire prints here - if you happen by during a heavy rain at least!

The Christmas celebration was very cool.  We walked to the Y (about a mile) and were picked up by Theresa in her van and driven out to the Orphanage in Hima.  We got there around noon just in time for a traditional Tanzanian lunch of corn meal in a large shapeless blob and beans - which add some flavour.  It's not the most tasty meal out there but it sure is filling (which is obviously the point).

Then we helped prepare the Christmas dinner.  This involved picking through the rice (about 25 lbs of it) for chaff and small stones, peeling loads of vegetables (cucumbers, carrots and green peppers) and fruit (oranges).  We then spent the afternoon playing and/or reading with the kids again.  I've said it before but these kids are really special and stick to your heart.  One of the girls (that was our star swimmer) came down with a malarial attack it was thought so Theresa took her into the local clinic for a quick checkup.  We had the kids to ourselves - and the Tanzanian house moms of course.  They knew UNO and played for keeps!  They also loved teaching us a new game with cards and would peel off a new rule as soon as we goofed so it seemed we could never win although by the end, it was clear that there really was some rules to this game and they were very good at it.  They throw down every card with such enthusiasm, it's hard not to have lots of fun playing with them - even if one of the little monkeys could teach a pool hall card shark a thing or two about cheating!

Christmas dinner was served about 7pm and it was a traditional dish called Pilau (beef flavoured rice - quite tasty), some VERY overcooked and cheap beef/bone chunks, a few slices of orange, cucumber, a small passionfruit and a slice of watermelon.  All quite good and from the silence around the classroom as everyone was busy eating, a real treat for them!  Then back to Moshi to drop off two of the youngest brothers (Peter and Juma) with their Auntie who is a street vegetable seller in Moshi for the holidays and us to the guest house.

The power and Internet were on (thanks to my handy Apple Airport Express router that I'd brought alone - the main router was not working as the power supply got fried in the thunderstorm the night previously) so we caught up on the news and Jen looked into our next destination - we're now thinking of avoiding Zanzibar at least to start with as neither of us can face a 10 hour bus ride, a night in Dar es Salaam, a two hour ferry ride and then a 2-3 hour taxi drive.  Theresa had pointed out a great little spot on the coast halfway between Mombassa (in Kenya) and Dar called Pangani and we are thinking to stop off there for a bit and see how things go.

Now that the swimming lessons are over, we'll likely pack up here in a few days and head off on the road again.  We'll certainly miss this place and the people we've met here - both at the guesthouse as well as around Moshi.  This has been a great spot to hang out and get to know Tanzania.  Hope all is well with everyone.With our love.

  

More volunteering

Not a lot going on the last few days. No pictures either.  Two days ago we traveled to the home of one of the patients of the Pomoja Women's Clinic.  This lady is a good example of why they setup the Women's Clinic in the first place.  The lady is in her late 30's and has three daughters.  One day many years ago, she became quite ill and went for help.  It was determined that she had HIV.  Once her husband found out, he left her (despite him being the one who gave it to her) and her three young babies.  Destitute, she moved back with her parents and their son's but they also shunned her and her children.  The father at least decided that he would sever a small parcel of land at the back of his plot and built a mud hut for her to live in.

Her brothers would have nothing at all to do with her and basically make her life miserable as she's not allowed to be around the family farm when they are there.  The father died a few years ago and luckily he left written instructions with the village warden that the plot was his daughters.  The young daughters are all young women now and were tough to support on what she could grow on one acre of land.  The land around Moshi is suitable only for one crop a year as it almost never rains for much of the year and the land is as hard as rock.  From what we could tell, she was growing Maize (corn).  As she found it impossible to feed the 4 of them when the girls got older, she sent her oldest daughter off to be a live in housekeeper at some place not too far away.  This girl was then raped continually by her employers and became pregnant.  As soon as this became apparent, her employers fired her and sent her packing.  When she got herself into a medical clinic for her pregnancy tests, it was determined that she also had HIV.  They believe she got it from her mother breastfeeding as a baby as she had always been quite sickly.  She's pretty resentful of her Mother for not telling her that she was HIV but frankly its such as stigma here, you can understand her Mother's position as well.

The Women's Clinic had been sponsoring this family and had let us know that they could use an outhouse as the women were having to go behind a bush.  Crazy as it may seem, Tanzanian law is fairly strict about the construction of outhouses (must be concrete with tin roofs, have porcelain drop holes, and be constructed to fairly high standards so this was something the Women's Clinic couldn't take on themselves and we had indicated that we'd like to help so we went out with a few of the social workers and the "Fundi" (builder) to see what it would entail.  They had also mentioned that there were a few holes in the mud hut that needed attention as snakes were getting in so we thought perhaps we could do some manual labor to address that.

What we saw when we got there however removed any doubts about building the "Cameron Crapper".  The logs that were supporting the mud hut were completely termite infested and you could push your fingers through them.  Basically the only thing holding up the roof was the mud walls which didn't have much of the traditional cow dung & ash "stucco" which prevents the mud from washing away left on half of the house (the  young girls room) and you could drive Tonka trucks through the holes in the wall which were allowing snakes, and such into the house in the evenings.  With that house in that state, it seemed silly to be spending money building a crapper that would be the only thing left standing come the rains in March so we redirected the Fundi to looking into what it would cost to repair the structure.

Some other Canadian lady had donated a large pile of stones to be used as the foundation material but it was clear that if you rebuilt the walls using traditional techniques, the termites would just get back in and do their damage once again (the place was originally built 5 years ago).  The Fundi suggested rebuilding the walls using local stones and concrete and we got a quote for rebuilding (essentially the entire house) from the ground up.  The roof rafters were all termite infested as well and the tin roof was going to leak like a sieve once the nails were pulled out so a new roof, windows and doors were required as well.  The entire quote was of course larger than our budget but we determined that we could at least do the half of the house that was in the most danger including the interior wall and the Women's Clinic would do some fundraising on their next Caravan (medical tour) to complete the rest in January.  This was a fair bit more than we wanted to spend but the thought of the four ladies and a new baby living in a place that literally wouldn't survive the rains in March (when the baby is due) clinched it for us.  Construction starts tomorrow and should be complete in a few weeks.  We'll likely not be here to see the end of it but the Cameron Bedroom sounds much better than the Cameron Crapper and we're happy to help as we could.

Yesterday afternoon, Theresa (from the Make A Difference Now Orphanage) brought four young (14-15) women over to the local YMCA and we started with swimming lessons for them.  None of them had ever even seen a pool before and only one of them could float at all (face down in the water moving her arms a bit to make her move).  The rest of them were very timid and had only been in local streams.  

I'll say one thing for these Tanzanians... they are amazing athletes.  The girl who could float (Jacqueline) and her friend (Neema) who was brave but had never even put her face in the water before, were both gung ho to try it.  Jackie could swim about 5 feet and Neema was doing everything she could to keep up.  I spent time with both of them giving them basic pointers on how to float, move their arms and kick their legs.  Within minutes Neema was putting her face in, floating and flailing away with her arms and legs and swimming 10-20' and Jackie was doing it with her face out of the water.  We got them floating on their backs and then Jackie said she wanted to try the deep end.  The pool had a pipe welded to the side of the pool wall all the way around (it was an Olympic size swimming pool) with a 3m deep end.

I left Neema in Shawn's capable hands and swam beside Neema as she went hand over hand down the pipe to the ladder at the deep end.  Then she said she wanted to reach the bottom... so she'd duck her head but of course she was full of air so didn't get down more than a few feet.  I suggested that she use the ladder to help her down and she'd go down 5-6' before coming up saying she couldn't get down any more - with evident frustration.  Then I showed her how to exhale and get rid of the extra air to make herself less buoyant and she got to the bottom on her first try.  You should have seen her face!  She was so pleased with herself.  

Then we spent a bit of time showing her how to turn her dead mans float into treading water and she could almost immediately do that...  by this time Shawn and Rachel had showed up and were jumping off the diving board and it was very apparent that Jackie wanted to try that.  I told her to try the edge of the pool first and she scampered up the ladder and jumped right in.  Head completely under, popped back up laughing, paddled back to the ladder and then it was off to the diving board!  She'd blast off the board and then paddle back to the ladder over and over.  

I well remembered learning to swim myself in a similar sized (indoor) pool on the base in Baden Baden in Germany when I was about 6.  They had a very tall diving board (about 20') high that I used to dream about jumping off (as well as a regular one about 3' high)).  Anytime the life guards weren't watching, I'd run down the pool, climb up the tall diving board and jump off and then barely make it back to the edge of the pool to have at it again.  Within one jump, the lifeguards would come chase me and tell me I couldn't be in the deep end unless I swam the length of the pool unassisted.  I spent many days getting tested each time until I could finally do it and then jump off the high diving board to my hearts content.  I've never forgotten this and figured it would be a good thing for Jackie to be able to swim the length of the pool before I set her free as I was concerned that she'd jump off the diving board with nobody around and get into trouble.

The first attempt, she made it about 1/4 of the way before she said she was so tired and grabbed on to the end.  Then I showed her that she was holding her breath to stay afloat and then didn't have enough air to complete the task and I showed her how to take the shallow topping breaths we all know how to do when swimming.  She is a very quick learner as the next time she made it to the shallow end before standing up.  She was very curious as to how Shawn and I could swim so effortlessly beside her so we took her back into the deep end and showed her how to tread water and take a break.  She did it for 8 minutes and then from there swam the width of the pool!  If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I'd have never believed it!   

By now, her friend Neema, who'd been watching her jumping off the board (and without prompting even tried one dive - and got the usual belly flop) wanted her part of the action so asked to come down.  We went through a similar routine with her.  Her swimming wasn't nearly as strong as she could still only do it with her face in water but she soon learned to tread water with her head above water (tilted way back so only her nose/mouth/eyes were out).   The rest of the girls then all came down the pool (followed closely by Theresa and Veronica (a good looking Swedish young volunteer who looks remarkably like a much heavier version of my cousin Karen) hand over hand down the pipe.  They made their way around the entire pool and then we got them all back in the shallow end to dive down for some coins.  Only one girl (Omega) who'd had a very difficult experience recently was the least bit timid and even she did just about everything she could to get down and get the coins.  

We had to drag them out of the pool as they were all blue and shivering but were obviously having a blast.  You should have seen their faces when Theresa told them they were coming back for the next two afternoons!  We live for moments like this.  It makes our trip so worthwhile.

Its another hot day here in Moshi and the kids are finishing up about 3 hours of school work before we go back to the Y.  Jen and I have been working on the plan for the next few months and its starting to come together.  Right now it looks like we'll leave Moshi on or before the 3rd of December  and head for Zanzibar.  We'll take the bus to Dar es Salaam (about 8 hours) and then the 2 hour high speed ferry across to Stone Town in Zanzibar.  (This isn't the same ferry that rolled over and sunk in August... that one had mostly locals on it and was severely overloaded.  This one costs 10 times as much so it's mostly Muzingu and VIPs/diplomats).   We think we're going to stay up around Kwendra Beach on the North West side of the island - 2 hours from Stone Town and I'm supposed to be figuring out transport right now).

On the 17th, we'll leave Zanzibar and then head back to Dar es Salaam to spend the night before our flight out in the early morning on the 18th for Johannesburg and then Victoria Falls in Zimbawae.  We've got a 20 day overland trip booked that will take us into Botswana (to see the Okavango Delta), Nambia (to see the Kalihari Desert and the huge sand dunes among other things) and then through Swaziland (to spend a night with a local tribe) and then into South Africa all the way down the west coast to Cape Town.   We then plan on spending the better part of a week in Cape Town and then will do a self drive up the Garden Route and somehow make our way up to Johannesburg for the flight to Singapore on or about the 27th of January.  If you were paying attention to the dates, we'll be somewhere deep in the swamps of the Okavango on Christmas and we doubt very much we'll see any power let alone internet the entire 20 day trip.  (Its a camping trip, not a hotel one).  

Once we get to Singapore, the current plan is to spend 5 or so days and then make our way up the Malaysian peninsula to Thailand (hitting Phi Phi, Ko Samui and all those places on the way) and then winding along the coast into Cambodia down the Mekong River into Vietnam coming out on the Mekong Delta.  We'll then work our way up Vietnam starting at Saigon (I still refuse to call it Ho Chi Ming City - I'm not much of a socialist!) and up to Hanoi and the North Country.  I'm keen to see a lot of the Vietnam War sites that I've read so much about over the last 40 years (and that I remember from the nightly news my parents would watch).  Then overland into Laos and then back into Thailand to see Chang Mai and then down into Bangkok.  From there, we'll fly into Europe (on or about April 1st).  

Jen's already got her Villa rented in the Loire Valley for the last two weeks of April and the first week of May.   So we're hoping we can spend some time with Macrae and Jillian in Paris around then sometime (before or after) and I also want to spend some time at Normandy, Dieppe and some of the other WW1/WW2 landmarks.  Other than that, we've not got much figured out until our flight out of Madrid for home on the 31st of July.  I suspect we'll go down the east side of the Adriatic through Serajavo, etc to Greece after Italy to conserve the budget but we'll see.  

We're off to hunt for sleeping bags for our camping trip through South Africa.  Bye for now.   

A very special orphanage

The last few days here have mostly been filled by minor shopping expeditions, adventures in trying to get money from African ATM's and school work for the kids.  I must say that I'm also very much enjoying the opportunity to get some reading done in the evenings on the Kindle.  I've downloaded most of my favorite authors and have been going through them sequentially and so far (since I got the Kindle before we left), I've read 23 novels!  That's way more than I've read in the last few years put together and as many of you know, like Shawn, I LOVE to read (just haven't had the time).  This ebook thing really makes a huge amount of sense after some practice with it and I'm already planning on donating the hundreds of books I have sprinkled around the house once I've got electronic versions of them.  I've got more than 300 on the Kindle/PlayBooks and NetBook already.

But enough about me and my sometimes addictive reading habits...  yesterday we had an opportunity to visit with a unique orphanage about 30 minutes outside Moshi (about 15 minutes from Kenya).  On the HASH that I mentioned a few posts ago, Jen met a great young lady named Theresa who apparently made her fortune in Silicon Valley a few years back and decided to come to Africa to see if she could give back to the world.   She started about by funding about 2000 kids in orphanages in Zaire but found that she was just marginally reducing the pressures on the community and decided to try a different approach here in Tanzania.

She approached about 20 different tribal villages and asked the elders to recommend one child that was "most vulnerable" that she could assist by providing room/board and a great education to.  She ended up with this group of about 25 kids ranging from a few years old all the way up to 14-15.  She setup a small gated compound with a class room, multiple rooms (3 to a room) for each of the kids, a large enclosed area for playing, a room for a library, and some outhouses (she didn't want the plumbing to be too different from what the kids would be used to and have to go back to eventually).

The facility itself is very nice, kept very clean (by the kids themselves) and the kids are relatively well dressed (have good school uniforms and play clothes consisting of shorts/long skirt, a tee shirt and sandals (either goodyear or croc type).   They had about 300 books in the library but mostly of the "Cat in the Hat" variety recognizing that the kids when they came could speak no English.

Her philosophy is to take these 25 or so kids and give them an exceptional opportunity by really making a difference in their lives so that they will end up with good jobs and can go back to their villages and do the same thing - i.e. have 25 ambassadors making a real difference.  In theory it sounded like a very good idea so we were keen to see how it is working out.

We walked over to her house which is beside the Pamoja Women's Clinic (about a mile from our guest house) in Shantytown.  When we arrived, she was finishing up lunch with 5 of her senior students who have been away at Secondary School (boarding) and were returning to the Orphanage and then their home villages for the Christmas break (they are off now until mid January).  These students were well dressed and their English was very good.  We learned that Theresa also does special outings for those of her students who excel at something and that this lunch was meant as a treat to celebrate their completion of the first term.

Her place was a nice cement block house behind a gated wall.  Inside, as many of the nicer homes are here, we found wooden wainscoting and wooden boards (like cedar paneling) on the ceiling.  The colour schemes here are very familiar to us as they closely match our kitchen/living area and many of the local decorations fit in quite well.  She also had an older 7 passenger 4x4 Toyota van (it had been used as a Safari vehicle as it had a pop up roof).  Her oldest student, Emmanuel (16), was to be our driver.  I got to ride up front and had a good conversation with him.  His English was quite good and he was finishing what we'd call Grade 9. I must say his driving was quite good as well - if a bit fast but that's par for the course here.

The Orphanage is out the road that goes off toward the coast and Dar es Salaam from Moshi but continues rather than branching off south up to Kenya (it goes to Mombasa on the coast).  We arrived after about 30 minutes at a nice clean compound with very colorful mosaic painted on the outside showing it was a children's care facility.  Large artwork showing kids studying, eating, playing, etc on it.  We had passed the primary school about 2 miles back on the same side of the road.  That was a very large compound (probably 25 acres) with many buildings and a large 5-6 storey apartment building that was the residence for those boarding).  This was considerably better than what we'd seen in Moshi, and it became clear why Theresa had located her Orphanage here.

We then went into meet the kids and the house Mom who runs the place (normally there are two but one had returned to her family as they had needed her).  Theresa doesn't stay there as having Muzingu around is an invitation for break-ins and theft (and most of Theresa's work is getting permits, arranging for shipments from patrons in North America and volunteer placement/assistance).

The facility was (relatively) nice with painted concrete floors, clean walls, and LOTS of pictures of the kids as well as a wall with newspaper clippings of current events and profiles on significant African men and women that have made a difference.  They are clearly trying to make a good impression on the kids to try to get them to follow the example.

We were then taken into the library and shown their collection of books and their computer (not connected to the Internet).  Shawn was to spend some time with some of the older kids showing them how to use the computer while Jen, Rachel and I would take a child and have them read 1 page of a book to us and we'd read the next to them and so on.  Once they completed the book, we'd ask them questions to test their comprehension of what they learned.   They have a big chart on the wall with each of the kids names on it with a star for each book (some books were considered hard so had multiple stars assigned to them).  We each got a child who picked out a book they'd never read before, took some chairs and sat outside on the front porch with them.

I wasn't expecting a lot after seeing many of the kids at the other orphanages even those these kids were clearly better English speakers but holy smokes were we impressed.  You have to remember that they don't start schooling here until they are 7-9 years old.  The little boy that picked me out  was about 10 (he had come up to me in the hallway earlier all by himself and introduced himself to me and stuck with me through our tour).  He picked out a book called "Do Tarantulas have any teeth?".  It was a science book aimed at kids and dealt with just about every poisonous creature there is.  It had about 100 pages with large colorful pictures of some of the creatures.  I was quite impressed with his reading abilities (and remember that we have two very good readers ourselves and have read to them since they were babies).  He was quite fast and sometimes mispronounced words but when I'd give him the rules of thumb for that word (e.g. he'd say "bit" for "bite"... I would say if it has that final "e", that turns the "i" into an "eye" sound... and after a few tries he'd get it... and apply it to other words like that - we even found an exception to the rule!).   We must have read for about 90 minutes (it was a long book - but very interesting for both of us).  His comprehension was pretty good although he would often steam right over words he didn't understand so I'd have to slow him down a bit to ensure he understood).

My little reading buddy.

At the end, it was clear he got it and then we took the book to Theresa to get some stickers.  You should have seen his face when he realized it was worth 5 stickers!  She tested him on some items out of the book and it was clear he got it all.  Although he's 10, you have to remember that he only started school at most 2 - 3 years ago.  He was doing better than most Grade 3's at home for sure.  I was quite taken with him and he had a smile that would melt your heart.

About 30 minutes before we'd finished, most of the other kids had already had their turns and had taken the soccer ball we'd brought and had started an impromptu game.  This first started out as each kid keeping the ball in the air as long as they could with only their feet.  If one dropped it or it strayed out of reach some other kid would reach in with his foot to keep it in the air.  They were an exceptionally talented bunch!  Then they formed teams (somehow... no uniforms so other than the direction they were going, it was impossible to know which one was on which team).  Unfortunately they were so good at this and moved so fast and so surely that both Shawn and Rachel didn't feel comfortable to join in.

We watched this for about 5 minutes and then I thought that I'd have a look at the computer that we couldn't get to power on.  I took it outside in the sun, and within about 2 minutes, I had 20 kids looking over my shoulder at what I was doing.  It was clear that they'd never seen the insides of a computer and were fascinated.  I pointed out the various components (CPU, memory, CD  player, hard disks, adapters, power supply, motherboard, etc.) and the functions of each.  I then would point to items and they'd parrot back the name and what it did.  I was quite impressed.... but unfortunately the cause here was a dead power supply so I couldn't show them much... but then I got the bright idea that my BlackBerry Torch was also a computer and I could use that.

You have to picture this, I'm sitting on the step of the front porch and I have at least 15 kids leaning on me, sitting on my lap, all pressed together as I'm taking apart my Blackberry and showing them the processor, memory, battery, sim cards, keyboard, etc.   They were all quite fascinated.  Then I put it back together and showed them how it could play music (they wanted to hear ABBA), video's (showed them a video of Rachel learning to snowboard I had on it), the internet and then they saw a game (Mega Assault Tower) I had downloaded for Shawn/Rachel at one point and wanted to see that.

I'd never played it before so was pretty clueless at how it worked so was picking through it enough to get to Level 1.. then I passed it over to one of them.  They are each reaching in and dragging new weapons on to the battle field, pressing the shooting button, and having a blast.  I never imagined one little BlackBerry could be used by 15 kids at once!   I was very surprised at the level of cooperation amongst them... without words, they'd pass it around, and have one person on one function, another on an another and no fighting or hogging.  It was really something to watch.  In the meantime, I've got two of the smaller ones snuggling onto my lap and putting their arms around my shoulders.  You could hear the little grunts of contentment as I'd reciprocate and make room for more.  I don't think you could have put a drop of water between us all.  Even as I was sitting there, others would be reaching in and touching my leg, feeling my muscles or touching my hair - remember all kids have their heads shaved.

Shawn walked by at one point and said he wished he had a camera... so did I... not to show off but as a way to remember this moment always.  We played like this for over an hour until it was time to go...  I then showed them the camera function and took their pictures...  they'd line up and were pleased as punch to see it as it was taken and then a bunch of them said they wanted to take pictures of me with them in it so they'd line up taking turns taking pictures (generally three people taking the picture and three on or beside me).  It was magical how infectious they were.

Then it was time to go and this little girl came up to me and put her arms around my waist and gave me a big hug.  I put my arms around her shoulders and then she reached up like she wanted a real hug so I picked her  up and gave her one.  I don't know if I've ever been hugged so hard... by this time my eyes are watering up a storm.  These little urchins had made a huge impression on me and Jen/Shawn/Rachel have similar impressions.

The great little hugger!

Its very clear that Theresa is making a HUGE difference in these kids lives.  We met one kid about 15 or so that gave Theresa his report card and he was 1st in his class of 81 people.  Not boastful in the least but you could see she (and he) was beaming with pride - and deservedly so!

These kids spend a lot of time at the Orphanage and the older ones look after the younger ones but they all go back to their villages on a regular basis to maintain ties with their communities.  You look at these kids and see the future of Africa in them.  It is astonishing what's she's accomplished here and we were privileged to be able to join her for an afternoon with them.  Later this week, we're going to take some of the older kids to swim at the local YMCA.  None of them know how so we're going to spend 3 afternoons teaching them how to float, etc so they can help the others as well.  We are really looking forward to spending more time with these incredible children and the young (40 perhaps) lady who made it all possible.

I really think this is a model that should be replicated... providing subsistence living like the other orphanages surely helps but it will never take the pressure off as those kids will more than likely just grow up to to the same things as their parents did (spawn them and abandon them due to death from HIV, separation, etc.).  THESE kids, have a real chance to make a difference and break the chain.  She's not taking more in, and has committed to run them all through this program until 2020 when they should all return to their communities and start doing the same thing (in some fashion) for other kids there.  After talking with Emmanuel and some of the other kids there, I have no doubt that this will happen.

We're off to the Pamoja Women's clinic now to finish up with those kits (we found the missing ziplocs) and then make arrangements to go help a young pregnant HIV positive woman tomorrow build an outhouse!  With love from Tanzania...

Time flies when you're having....

fun?  Not always, but it's sure been interesting!  Now that we're back from our big splurge on Safari and all the full time attention that required, we've rejoined the normal day to day life around Moshi and have been trying to get the kids back on schedule with the school work and get into some of the "volunteer" work we wanted to do while here.  No pictures this time as we don't feel comfortable taking them in the Orphanages or at the Women's Clinic, so words will have to suffice.

We love the people here, both the expats and the locals, but man can it be frustrating getting even simple things done!  Just a simple trip into town to get a few things for the Women's Clinic can be a two day ordeal.  Our Pamoja Guesthouse is about a mile out of the centre of Moshi.  We have about 3/4 of a kilometer walk on a very rough dirt road beside homes that are either gated and reasonably nice or shacks that would be considerably worse than anything you'd see in Canada - it's interesting how there doesn't seem to be segregation between "nice areas" and "poor areas"...  despite this, we feel perfectly safe and would venture out at night (despite warnings in the guidebooks not to do so|) except for the fact that there are no street lights and power here is very intermittent - we had it for about 8 hours yesterday (which was far worse than average).  They drive like maniacs here and I'd be worried about getting clipped by accident.

The locals never fail to light up with huge smiles when ever you greet them in Swahili (as simple as "Jambo!" (Hi), responded by "Jambo!", or at least 5-6 sentences which we are slowly picking up.  As I've said before, greetings are extremely important here and they really appreciate Muzingu who take the time to learn it.  We've also discovered local shops (there is a guy next door with a small room behind iron grates who will dispense bread ($0.50/loaf), pops ($0.30/bottle), and other usual sundries like fresh eggs (probably from his chickens in his back yard we can hear at all hours - especially the rooster!).  The kids love going over there for a Orange or Purple Fanta (the Purple is sort of like a grape Dr. Pepper - YUCK! But the kids love it).

There are a few ladies down the street that have a table set up and sell local fruits and veggies... so generally, we just buy what we need for the day.  On every second day or so, we run into town to get stuff we need such as more money from the ATM (which only dispenses it in $160 chunks - 400,000 Tanzanian Shillings) or supplies for our project at the Pamoja Women's Clinic.  Even getting something as simple as ziploc bags which we are using to contain the post-partum kits we are putting together is a huge ordeal as 99% of people have never even seen one.  Same goes for safety pins to hold the diapers together!  It seems there is a special store for most items and we've only found two "supermarkets" - and we treat those like gold!

For these kits, we needed to get ziplocs, 2 cloth diapers, an infant baby jumper, a wool hat, some maxipads and then some medical supplies (vitamins, suture kit, surgical gloves).  I think I may have mentioned this but women need to bring these in when they are about to deliver.   We didn't suspect we'd have a tough time finding diapers/safety pins, and thought that the ziplocs/baby jumpers/maxi-pads would present the biggest issue.... but we found an outdoor "mall" called the Memorial Market outside of town that had baby jumpers galore and we were picking up brand name (used) jumpers for 500 shillings each (there are 1700 shillings in a US dollar).  You had to see this market to believe it.  There must have been 300-500 vendors selling stuff at temporary tables (usually covered by a tarp and some temporary roof) with stuff laid out on the ground, on tarps, what ever.  Mostly clothes, but its like the biggest open air bazaar you'd ever seen.  My guess is that this is where most of the stuff you give to Sally Anne eventually ends up.

Maxi-pads were also easy to find and were surprisingly inexpensive although the girl in the store did raise her eyebrows somewhat when Jen told her she wanted to buy 16 large packages of the most absorbent kind.  You could see her thinking... "poor woman"!

Cloth diapers were the biggest surprise.  They cost about 5 times as much as the baby jumpers...  and more than the average woman could make in a day's work...  We have no idea how they afford them.  Even more than the prices of these items, the experience of shopping for them was quite enlightening/frustrating.  The moment we hit the second roundabout in Moshi (the start of the downtown strip), we end up getting tagged with all kinds of touts trying to peddle something.  I'm pretty used to being hassled by street touts but these folks put it into a new league.  They all want to know where you are from (standard old line), then they'll tell you their line about what ever it is they are trying to sell and then when you make it clear you aren't going to buy from them, the continue to walk with you for the rest of your trip, following you into shops and trying to help you decide to buy something from that shop.  We're sure that they work off of some sort of commission  system as a few times, we were walking down the street unmolested (it helps to walk very purposefully in a specific direction and ignore the touts altogether) but the moment we turn to enter a shop, someone would spring off the sidewalk and enter with you and then act as your "assistant".  It's quite frustrating as you know you are going to end up paying more.

I've noticed that they don't do this when you go into the "supermarkets" (basically old style general stores - our Hawkestone General Store would be a "supermarket" here - and in Costa Rica).  I suspect this is because the supermarkets have the prices printed on the items and they use (IBM) cash registers to scan the items on checkout.  We tried to buy some shampoo and a bar of soap at one shop (with a tout "assisting") and they wanted 5000 for the soap and 15000 for a completely generic brand of cheap shampoo.  When we told them no way, they immediately dropped the price on the shampoo to 5000.  That really annoyed us but we politely walked out and then down to a local supermarket where we bought a brand name shampoo in a fancy bottle for 8000.

Unfortunately, this additional "pressure" has made us somewhat reticent to go into town.  It really gets at Jen and I'm not keen on it either.  We know we are representing our country and don't want to be rude, but these folks are SO persistent it's hard not to be.  We've scoped out different ways to enter the town centre without passing by the spots where they sit to pick up their targets.  Its too bad the shop keepers seem to encourage this as I'm sure they'd do a lot more business if their customers didn't feel so much pressure.  We now head into town knowing which banks/stores we want to hit first so we aren't carrying around bags (when you have a bag, you've shown you are willing to buy something - although getting to the ATM also tells them you CAN buy something).  Then we call for a taxi in our last store (the SIM card I bought for my BlackBerry has been a godsend in more ways than one) and put all the stuff in the car and head home directly.  It sure makes you appreciate the super stores back home!

The last few days, we've been doing school work and shopping as well as acting as nurses for the doctors at two different orphanages as they were doing general checkups.  Jen and I would set up an assembly line where I'd measure their height, arm circumference and weight while Jen would create a small school booklet with their name, sex, date of birth, etc.  Then we'd send the kids off to see one of the doctors for a checkup.  Most of the kids were fine, but many of them had fungal infections in their hair or skin that left untreated could leave disfiguration that could result in bald patches or scars on their faces.  They are also checking on the teenage girls pretty heavily as they are mostly all anemic.  They then schedule secondary checks the next day.  We've seen about 30-40 kids at each of the orphanages and we have another one next week.  While Jen and I are doing this, Rachel and Shawn play with the kids to keep them out of the doctor's equipment.

We've found that they are exceptionally well behaved when it comes to following instructions.  We could give them their booklet and ask them to go to the doctors, and they'd wait there patiently for up to half an hour for their turn.  In North America, the kids would be bouncing off the walls.  The ones we haven't seen yet, or have already been through would play games.  The first day, Rachel and Shawn would play soccer or   a game that the kids played (boys against the girls passing the ball to each other).  Rachel has really been missing the team sports so really enjoyed this.  We've made it a point to bring a new soccer ball to each of the orphanages as we've come and it's been a big hit.

Yesterday, the kids had a sand pile (not much more than a sandbox without sides) and two bags of sand piled on top of each other.  They'd run at the sand bags and then use them as a launching pad to do flips and cartwheels of amazing dexterity.  We were quite impressed by how they'd amuse themselves.   The kids are also picking up that each of the kids doesn't have anything... as you'll often see boys wearing pink crocs or shirts with female specific sayings on them... or girls with pants and boys clothes.  As all school kids here HAVE to have their heads shaved, its really tough to tell the young girls from the boys - especially when they are all cross dressing with what ever fits.

We've loved working with them but are under no illusions that we are changing the world.  These poor kids are coming from so far behind, they'll likely never have anything even the most poor Canadian would take for granted.   I was transcribing from the Orphanage records yesterday to make our lists, and they listed the parents of these kids.  About half were orphans with no known parents, the other half had either a mother or  2 parents that were separated.  Its quite sad to see whole families there.  In many cases, the family breaks up and neither parent is able or willing to care for them.  At the orphanage at least they are getting some meals, a place to stay and the opportunity to go to school (if someone donates a school uniform and shoes for them).   If they make it to secondary school (they start primary school at age 7 so go until they are 15 or so and then move to secondary school for 4 years), they will learn some English but most know basic greetings and answers to questions like "what is your name/age?"

We're here in Tanzania for another month and have been trying to figure out how long we should stay here but we know we'll be here for at least the next 10 days or so.  While its frustrating, the smiles of the Tanzanian people and kids, make it all worthwhile.  There are so many issues here its frustrating because the system is so busted its hard to figure out what needs to happen to fix it all.

Free and fair elections would be a good start.  The last bunch apparently the government went around on such a spending spree buying votes that its out of money now.  Between the government and the NGO's siphoning off the aid, very little of it is reaching down to the people who need it the most.  We're very conscious of not doing things that take away other peoples (potential) jobs but it also seems that the folks who do have jobs are all on a union time card system as they seem to spend as much time finding ways to avoid work as doing it.  We're told that this is endemic here and that once they become adults and get a job, they feel entitled and then don't push for change or to get ahead.  Teachers are especially bad as they make nothing and rely upon volunteers to do most of the heavy lifting but then don't carry on any best practices.

The one exception I've seen is the local ditch diggers (they are putting in sewage pipes along the streets|).  These guys are digging a 4' deep trench along the side roads by hand with shovels and picks.  You see these guys hard at it all day long.  Their stamina is very impressive.  None of them weighs more than 120 lbs.  The soil here is rock hard and they are also digging up some very large boulders.  Its great to see them putting in sewage pipes.  Hopefully garbage collection is next.  They seem to dig deep holes anywhere (the middle of the street is OK), and dump stuff in that they can't burn - water bottles, cans, etc.) and fill them up until its about 1' from the surface and then start another hole.  Everyone has a fire going in their backyard (or in the ditch in front of their house) to burn garbage.  At least it keeps the mosquitoes away!

Power here is pretty intermittent and the internet connection was down for 36 hours because something happened to some tower somewhere.  Until they can get reliable infrastructure, any business would be nuts to set up here even if they had a decent education system (which they don't).  A lot of people think the government actually tries to keep the infrastructure back as it helps them keep the people under control.  This is a democracy but there is a large block on Zanzibar that votes uniformly (Muslim) and they have the most seats and therefore the levers of power.  Until they have a (peaceful) change of government with some competition, I'm not sure things will ever change.  For sure the NGO's aren't helping much as most of the money seems to go into providing the expat NGO supported workers with nice homes/cars etc rather than into the people who really need it.  That's one of the reasons we are so taken with what is happening at these orphanages and at the Pamoja Women's Clinic.  They are really run by people without ties to the NGO's and are doing things on a shoestring directly for the people who need it most.

These folks really are saints and make us feel very humble indeed.  I'm glad our kids are getting a chance to see this as its starting to sink in how lucky they are - which was our main reason for doing this in the first place (we aren't under any impression that any work we are doing will make a significant difference beyond easing our consciences a bit).  We'll certainly never forget the advantages we have as Canadian's.  This is nothing WE did.... we were just lucky enough to be born Canadian.  It makes our problems seem rather insignificant in comparison.  You always "know" that, but living this, really drives it home.

We just watched our first big downpour here... it lasted about 20 minutes and came down pretty hard but now is clearing up so we're heading into town to pick up some supplies for ourselves and the guesthouse/women's clinic.  Wish us luck!

Pamoja Women's Clinic

We’d offered to help anyway we could and Dr. Mino offered to give us a tour so we got up and walked down the dusty road to through the slums to the clinic about 8-9 blocks from here.  We arrived at this nice white house, and were ushered into the clinic as honoured guests.  It hasn’t opened again yet (this week sometime)  so we got to crawl around a bit.  Looks like it will be a step up from what we saw in Costa Rica.

Jen and Rachel spent the morning putting together kits for expectant mothers and inventorying what we’ll buy tomorrow to leave them in good shape.  Apparently mothers have to buy their own suture kits and surgical gloves.  These kits will have knit hats for the babies, some jumpers, maxi pads for the mothers, a few diapers and some post natal vitamins.  The plan it to give these out in exchange for a prenatal visit that will check for the presence of HIV so they can get the mothers on the right drugs prior to the baby’s birth.  

It’s a worthy cause so we’ve offered to pick up a bunch of the supplies to create a bunch of these kits.

They then also spent the better part of the afternoon acting as computer printers.  Nobody has printers or photocopiers here so they created 162 inventory sheets for the various drugs and supplies they need.  Shawn and I played at being Pharmacists and dispensed hundreds of small bags of medications as the local staff is useless at counting out pills so they wanted prepackaged amounts of highly used drugs they could just hand out.  We got to learn about all kinds of drugs.  We had a lunch at a local canteen (Dr. Mino and the 4 of us).  With tip, it came to less than $4 for all of us.  Finally a place that exceeds our budget requirements!!!  The food was quite good to boot.

Then back to the guest house for some schooling for the kids and time for me to sort out the internet issue and get caught up on the blog.  We have been having some fun with the internet here and our access to our bank has been shut off due to repeated attempts at access (not by us).  We will get it sorted out but the 8 hour time difference is playing havoc.  Jen is also looking forward into Europe and Asia to figure out our next stops.  Phew…  10 days in one.  That is where we are now… safe and sound back in Moshi, trying to do some volunteering and figuring out our next steps.  Love to all!

The HASH

No, we didn’t get ideas from the Hadzabe and start toking with our kids…  we found out about this thing called a HASH that was happening at a Muzungu’s house up on the slopes of Mt. Kili.  Apparently it’s a world wide phenomenon for expats and travellers but neither Jen nor I being current with the latest hostel scene had ever heard of it.  One of the doctors in the guest house (Mino) told us about it and invited us to come along.  As we understand it, it was invented in the 30’s when the British expats in Malaysia would get together every Saturday for a big drink up… after many Saturdays and a lot of drinking, some wise sod decided that they should actually do something before they all got sloshed and decided to create a on foot rally of sorts… with a trail made of flour with false branches, and the like.  It was really just an excuse to get some exercise, explore some new areas and STILL get staggeringly drunk. 

Mino assured us that there would be lots of kids, so we said sure, piled in the van and took off for the suburbs of Moshi to find the HASH.  Turns out it was being held on Lutheran Church property at the house of a local missionary and his family who showed up from Collingwood, Ontario only 4 weeks ago!  Small world.  Sure enough about 10 minutes after we showed up about 20 kids were on scene so ours had a ball.  The actual hike was good fun and went for something like 7kms up and down the slopes of Mt. Kili through people’s back yards and throughout the local neighbourhood.  Most of the local Tanzanian’s were watching with fascination and were quite helpful in pointing out where the rest of the Mizungu (white people) had taken off for. 

Then we went back to the house and had some local food and beer.  Good fun was had by all.  Best of all, the choir in the church behind us was on full volume and the music was amazing.  I’m not into church music or even gospel, but this was enchanting.  Then we piled back into the van and headed into Moshi for a dinner at a local Indian restaurant that was quite good and back for an early night to catch up on our z’s.

Safari! Day 8 - A step back in time.

Another beautiful African sunrise… and then out with the Hadzabe to hunt for breakfast!  We met up with Gorjo our guide who took us to a Hadzabe village.  The Hadzabe are a bushman tribe that 2000 years ago migrated north from the Kalahari and speak a language with clicks like the San (those little bushmen in the great movie “The gods must be crazy”).  They welcomed us into their village and we watched as they prepared for the hunt.  They were dressed in skins and typical African Goodyear sandals (sandals made from tire treads and inner tubes) and were sitting around the camp fire smoking marijuana getting strength for the hunt.  These “men” were actually young boys… the youngest about 7-8 and the oldest about 15.  You can imagine Jen and I trying to figure out how we were going to explain taking our kids to see other kids smoking pot!

Our guide Gorjo and the merry band of hunters - smoking pot!

Anyway, they rounded up their bows and arrows and we followed them off into the scrub in search of breakfast.  Turns out there aren’t many Impala running around there so the menu appeared to consist of squirrels and small birds (they managed to  bag one of each).  We also saw the women gathering water (in a five gallon pail with her hands from the apparently dry stream bed).  We were gone about 2 hours and walked about 5 kms to catch this meagre breakfast. 

One of the lads breaks out his knife, finds a chunk of softwood, scrapes a depression in it and a gash running from the depression off the stick (horizontally).  He then breaks out a long hardwood stick they were carrying around, plunks the end in the depression and starts to spin it back and forth with his palms.  Within 15 SECONDS, he has smoke in a pile of carbon that has trickled out of the gash onto the knife blade and they transfer this to a pile of loose brush and flames pop out.  Very cool.  I’m not sure I could have found a lighter and got a fire going much quicker.  They then gave the stick to each of us to try our hand at it.  Shawn/Rachel didn’t have any luck, I got some smoke going and Jen put us all to shame by getting a spark going on her first try.  She’d do OK with these people!

They then had a fairly small fire going so threw on the squirrel and the bird just as they were… once all the fur/hair had burned off, they opened them up, gave the intestines to the dogs and then put them back on for a bit more on the flames.  Then of course they sliced up some squirrel and offered it to us.  It was clear that they were giving us the best pieces so Jen and I graciously accepted a small morsel – it tastes like BEEF (not chicken).  The kids wouldn’t have anything to do with it.  About 10 minutes later after some more pot smoking, they stamped out the fire and took us back to camp.  I’m very good with a sense of direction and would have got us within a few thousand feet but they had us directly back which was amazing as every bush looked the same and there were no visible landmarks.

They then showed us a log they use for target practice and gave us a bit of a demonstration from about 100’ away.  I was surprised that only one of them was able to hit it.  It was obvious he was their ringer but all of them came within a few feet of it.  They then gave a bow to Shawn and showed him how to do it.  It’s a good thing Shawn wasn’t born in Africa because he’d starve to death as he couldn’t come within 20’ of it.  They then gave it to me and I was able to shoot as well as the worst of them, glancing the log with one shot.  This quite impressed them and our guides and they kept throwing more arrows at me to shoot as I’m sure they thought they were lucky shots.  I guess there is some Indian in my blood somewhere!

We bid farewell to the Hadzabe and very much enjoyed our time with them and left to visit another tribe that is noted for being blacksmiths.  They would formerly hunt down special rocks but now rely upon old junk (valves, door handles, hinges, car springs) that people bring them.  They had a small fire of charcoal they’d made with two bellows made from animal skins blowing into a hollow rock next to the fire.  They threw in an old 2” copper valve and within a minute or so had it white hot, took it out and broke it into small chunks they put in long thin tray.  That went back into the fire and they pumped away at the bellow and and after a few minutes, liquid copper.  They poured it into a mold for braclets and then covered it with a small amount of water to cool off.  The Hadzabe buy their arrow heads from these folks and we could see that they’d made crude spoons, knives and forks out of steel.  Finally, we watched the local tribe irrigating onion fields that they had planted (and scratched out of the hard plains) with 1’ hoes made by the blacksmiths.  They sell these onions on the market. 

To recap, we witnessed a stone age tribe on the hunt and then an iron age tribe fashioning steel, bronze and copper to farmers using irrigation and tools to make nature more effective.  Thousands of years of human progress in one morning.  What a fantastic way to end our Safari!

From Lake Eyasi, we had a 4.5 hour drive back to Moshi… and we suffered another flat!  Sam and I had that tire changed within about 10 minutes.  We were becoming pros at this.  It was very clear why they always carry two spares on the back of the Land Cruisers!  The rest of the drive was uneventful and we arrived back at the guest house, safe, dusty and very happy.  The kids immediately rushed off to find the puppies.

We loved that Safari.  This was always the big splurge of our trip and while we found a relatively inexpensive way to do it compared to most people, was still many multiples of our average daily costs but to us, it was worth every penny.  Eight days was a perfect amount of time and we were anxious to get the kids back on schedule to learn stuff (and do some much needed laundry!).  Highly recommended!

Safari! Day 7 - Ngorogoro Crater

We knew this was our last day on Safari <sniff> so we wanted to be up early to get down into the crater as soon as possible.  We also had to be out by 3pm when our park pass expired (it lasts for 24 hours from the time of entry).  We still hadn’t seen Rhino’s  yet which were the last of the big five we hadn’t seen (Lions, Leopards, Elephants, Buffalo and Rhinos) and this was to be our best chance.  We weren’t overly concerned about them as we will be in a Rhino sanctuary in South Africa in 6 weeks but would enjoy seeing the Black Rhino’s they have up here. 

Our lodge wasn’t too far from the drive down which was a bit of an adventure.  No guardrails and single lane (unidirectional) road – and an aspiring Mario Andretti as a driver on a vehicle with dodgy tires to boot!  Anyway, we safely make it down to the bottom and just as we are about on the floor, we spot a Cheetah on some rocks on the hillside.  Sam says this is quite unusual.  We can also see a pack of about 20 Hyena’s on the prowl.  Quite cool.

We drive across the crater floor and are paralleled by a crazy Hyena who was running along just to get to the (salt water) lake and cool off.  Lots more Zebras, Wildebeest, and Wart Hogs.  Then we come across a female Ostrich doing something really crazy with her wings… she’s got them fully extended but drooped down to the road and is hopping around a bit.  Then the male comes charging on to the scene and all is clear….  He starts this crazy dance where he’s got his wings out and is rocking crazily from side to side as he’s chasing her… after about 20 seconds of this, she decides he’s OK and plops down in a pile and he mounts her.   Well, female Ostriches aren’t that lucky cause things are over in about 10 seconds (but he was hung like a horse) and he wanders off like he’d never seen her before.  The kids jaws were on the floor.  J  Jen was trying to change batteries with the camera at the time so she missed it… Ostrich sex – blink and you miss it.  Sam had never seen it before either.

Then we came across this cheetah on the open plain… walking along.  We raced to intercept him (with about 10 other 4x4’s) and he crossed about 3 vehicles ahead of us.  We got some great shots of him.  Too bad we couldn’t see him sprint.  Some idiot honked his horn to try to spook him but he was as laid back as Elvis in his fat suit and completely ignored us.

Just out for a morning stroll.

After that, we found some lions sleeping on a hill side.  The more we watched the more lions we’d see… you could see them spread out all over.   We counted 4 females (three on one side of us and one on the other) and two big males (Musafa and Scar).  The lone female eventually got up and crossed right in front of us… giving us some great shots.  They weren’t far from us so we got some good shots of them lounging around although it was clear they were keeping one eye on the Zebra/Wildebeest herd as well.  Just as we were preparing to leave, the two males got up and decided they wanted to get the the tree on the other side of us so we raced up to put ourselves in their path.  We got some great shots of the lion as it was only inches from our rear bumper.  It paid no attention whatsoever to the crazy human hanging out over the roof taking his pictures!

We spent at least an hour with the lions. We never got tired of watching them.  They are my favorite animals by far, but Shawn’s were Zebra’s (followed by Giraffes) and Rachel’s were the Elephants.  I never did get a favorite from Jen as she insists she enjoys them all. 

We grabbed our quick lunch at the park by the (fresh water) lake.  Sam advised us to eat inside the vehicle as the eagles there would dive bomb you and steal the food right out of your hands.  A school bus came up while we were eating and we saw what he meant!  After that, it was a VERY quick race up the crazy winding road and along the crater to make it out by three pm deadline.  Poor Rachel wasn’t feeling too well, what with Mario having the vehicle on two wheels half the time.  We made it with  3 minutes to spare.  (not great planning on his part but we did appreciate maximizing the time in the crater). 

From there, it was back down past Lake Manyara to Lake Eisha for an overnight and then an early morning hunt with some local tribes.  This turned out to be another tented resort (with 3-5 tents) and we were one of two guests they had.  Jen and I aren’t sure how they pulled it off as we didn’t see a kitchen and the place only had stone age facilities but they managed to make the best meals of the entire trip!  The location left a bit to be desired – out in the middle of a dry desert scrub, but they built it when the Lake really was a lake… it dried up two years ago and they are hoping it’ll come back.   A 5:30 am start tomorrow so an early night.

Safari! Day 6 - Sunrise on the Serengeti!

Today was our daybreak safari.  We had to be up at 5:30 to catch the sunrise on the safari.  That’s fun trying to get 3 grumpy people going at that hour I can tell you!  Jen has been affected by the malaria medication we think as she’s not sleeping much (or more correctly I tell her, she’s not getting restful sleep – she says she’s having pretty vivid and disturbing dreams) and the kids don’t do well this early anyway but we’re all excited about getting out early to see what’s out there.

The plan is that we’d get out early, and have breakfast on Safari and then come back for a hot lunch before leaving the Serengeti for Ngorogoro Crater.  We almost no sooner left the grounds of the hotel than the sun started poking up over the horizon bathing everything in that red light…  stunning and well worth the early morning.  Especially with lots of Impala and Zebras lounging around us. 

We can see a couple of hot air balloons getting ready for flight (Jen sat beside a lady on the flight here who’s husband has the exclusive rights in the Serengeti for this).  This was an option we easily discarded as they wanted $400/person for a two hour excursion (most of which is on the ground having breakfast!).  It looked fun but not at that price on our budget!

What's not to love about this place?

LOTS of Giraffes and other animals such as Baboons who we never really got tired of watching.  We also learned a neat trick about Giraffes in how they chew their cud.  You can watch them chewing away and then they swallow and you can watch it go down… then seconds later you can watch a new load come back up their throat.  When I get a chance on a better internet connection I’ll post a short movie.  Its quite entertaining.

We had breakfast at a large hippo pool.  We counted 85 hippos and lost count (and there seems to be every 4^th one under water at any time anyway).  A couple of crocodiles out sunning themselves as well.  We also saw another Hippo wandering in the grass not far from us and a mom and a young hippolet? walking up the rapids to the pool.  Its interesting that they keep the babies on the OUTSIDE of the group as they are more concerned about them getting squashed from other Hippos than attacked by predators. 

Back to the hotel for a quick lunch and then on for the long drive back to the Ngorogoro Crater Rim where our next lodge was.  On the drive back, we saw even more Wildebeest than before if that’s possible.  That migration is nothing less than stunning.  Sam was driving like a maniac between the herds crossing the roads and we were sure he was going to take out a wildebeest or a zebra but they are far too quick to catch and can change direction in a nanosecond.  Great fun to watch.  I have a great video of it I’ll post when I can.

We passed another pride of lions lying at the side of the road – I think they must pay them to be the star attractions!  It is amazing how in such short grass they seem almost invisible from more than 100’ away.  

Back to the park gates and then out the long and dusty road to Ngorogoro.  Out in the middle of the desert, we saw a bunch of Giraffe walking toward Ngorogoro… they must have walked 20 miles without a stick of grass or a mouthful of water and still had another 10 to go.  Can’t imagine what would drive them to do that. 

Then back up the mountain to the top of the rim, where our next lodge (Ngorogoro Wildlife) was located.  We drive in, get the traditional juice and then are transfixed by the view… floor to ceiling (20’) glass panels on an angle looking down directly into the crater.  Wow!  What a view!  It’s a Billion dollar view.

Our rooms are nice but also have stunning views of the crater.  The bar area has one of those attraction binoculars (at no cost) that allows you to pick out individual animal species from all the way up here.  Jen and Rachel spent a good 20 minutes looking at it.  I ended up with the first migraine of the trip so wasn’t really in the mood .  I pop a bunch of Excedrin Migraine and nothing happens… I find that only Advil works so I pop a couple of those and its la-la land for me (although I had a bit of an upset stomach from the ASA a bit later).  Damn migraines are a PITA.  (I was getting them about 1-2 a week at home and have gone almost 6 weeks with only one here… must be stress related or something although this evening, I’m suspecting it’s the lack of sleep and the altitude change.  

Safari! Day 5 - This is the real Africa!

This was our first real day on the Serengeti.  We hadn’t gone far before we drove by a pool and discovered a group of Hippo’s (which by now were popular with the kids).  This group was only metres from the vehicle so we got a very good look at them along with a large crocodile that was sneaking around waiting for unsuspecting animals to take a drink!  We discovered just how big Hippo’s can yawn (up to 150 degrees) and how noisy they can be!  It’s hard to take them seriously, they seem to just wallow and float but once in a while, you’ll see this explosion in the water when two of them decide to go at it and you get a sense of just how dangerous they really are.

Lots more Wildebeest, we found another huge block of them… in fact one large herd was approaching our road so we stopped and they crossed about 100’ in front of us.  Without a word of a lie, the herd continued for at LEAST 15 minutes.  It didn’t occur to me to count them until the herd was nearly gone but at one point, they stretched from one horizon to the next.  At any given time, there would be three of them on the road and they were booking it so there must have been thousands, if not tens of thousands in that one herd… and we saw many that day.  You really have to see it to really get how many there are… and all without seeing a single lion or predator!

By the time I thought to get a picture, the herd was thinning out a bit... but this gives you an idea of the density of the line.  This was quite typical... now imagine this goes for 10 miles in either direction!

We drove about 100kms south of the lodge and found a cheetah not far from the road, lots of wart hogs and other animals but at nothing like the density of Lake Manyara or Tarangira.  We also found a few rock rugs (lions) hanging out on the top of some Kjobes.  When they are sleeping, they really do drape over the rocks like a rug. 

About 1000’ down the road, we pulled over to have a picnic lunch however the flies drove Shawn and me nuts and back into the 4x4 but Jen/Rachel were determined to stick it out.  The flies were sort of like our house flies but much lighter.  They didn’t bite but they liked to land around your eyes and lips which would drive you nuts.  Gladly enough though, we’d only seen about 3 mosquitos on the whole trip and about as many Tse Tse flies (in Tarangira).  After a bit, the flies seemed to lose interest in us so we hung around and just enjoyed being out on the plains in the middle of nowhere without another human within 20 miles.

Soon after that, we turned back north to head back towards the lodge and I made a comment about how good the 4 wheel drive seemed to be on the Land Cruisers.  Sam immediately said, they aren’t great and he’d much rather have a Land Rover but the problem with them is that they break down every two or three safari trips.  He said there were places he just wouldn’t go with the Land Cruiser because he didn’t trust it.  It wasn’t 1 km later that we got stuck right up to the axles in a mud hole! 

Out we jump again, out comes the jack as we tried to get some large rocks under the wheels but we couldn’t lift the thing high enough (or rather our jack would sink into the mud faster than we could lift the vehicle despite putting some large patio stone sized rocks under it).  Just how far down does this mud go? 

Anyway, after about 10 minutes of horsing around with the jack, this ranger comes along in a light Land Rover about half the size of our Land Cruiser.   Our guide brings out this tow rope that looks like one of the ones we get at Princess Auto for $5 (the jack was the exact model of Chinese jack I’d bought at Princess Auto as well) and hooks on.  Unfortunately, our vehicle is just too bogged down… and the Land Rover was just digging a hole for itself.  Just as it was apparent that wasn’t going to work, a large 4x4 dump truck rolls along, pulls up and we hook up the tow rope to it.  The driver didn’t even wait for Sam to get behind the wheel and started pulling.  The cheapo rope of course couldn’t take it so it came apart at the seams (just like the one Dad bought about 2 years ago), so they search around in their truck and come out with a cable (really just a 75’ length of solid wire bent back on itself three times).  Anyway, they hook this up to us, Sam gets in and they drag us out, no muss, no fuss.  They all high five each other and then off they go.  A day in the life in Africa!

Anyway, we head through a bunch of other likely spots and don’t see a lot of activity but a few new animals here and there and after an hour long drive back on the plains had just about given up when we came across this pride of lions lying in the short grass right at the side of the road!  We stopped and admired them, again, lazy darn lions sleeping it off… and then one in another patch we hadn’t seen sticks his head up and its Mufasa again!  This pride was 14 lions…  quite cool.

Then we headed back towards the lodge and past the hippo pool again, and this time there is a lone hippo out wandering around in the grass not 25’ from the road!  She’s HUGE.  You don’t really get a good sense of how big they are until they are right beside your vehicle!  No way are you getting outside with one of them around!  Apparently they spend all day in the pool (pooping) and then come out at night to feed on the grass.  They “only” eat 35 Kgs of grass a day – compared to over 300 Kg’s for an elephant but their digestive system is many times more efficient.  You can see it in the spoor.  Elephant poop is nearly undigested whereas the hippo is the green slop I’m used to cleaning up after pigs. 

It’s getting dark, so we have to be off the roads so race back towards the lodge and come across a strange looking antelope with orange feet – a Topi.   They are quite a bit bigger than most of the antelope but have this strange habit of coating their horns in mud to make them more impressive.  A quite cool end to a very long day.

Safari! Day 4 - The Serengeti!

We hadn’t realized this, but to get to the Serengeti, you have to enter the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (which was later on our agenda).  We knew the Ngorogoro Crater was to be one of the highlights of the trip but we hadn’t realized that we would be driving the rim of the crater on the way to the Serengeti.  As is the case most mornings, the east side of the crater was draped in heavy clouds and thick fog so we couldn’t see the crater bottom from the viewing area although it was quite apparent to us that much of the drop offs went down thousands of feet if we missed a corner on those crappy tires!  By the time we’d worked our way around to the west rim, we could see right down into the crater and we got out for a quick look around although the wind was blowing at about 40mph and it was quite cool in our shorts and thin shirts.  From this height, you couldn’t make out individual animals or even cars without the binoculars.  The information centre at the park entrance showed a model of the crater and how it had formed.  It’s about 20kms across and about 3000’ deep from the rim with very steep walls on both sides of the rim road. 

The Ngorogoro mountain was formed millions of years ago as a result of the rift plates separating, bringing magma up from the earth’s core to create a mountain even taller than Kilimanjaro.  The spreading however allowed magma inside the mountain to pour out the side, causing the inside of the mountain to become hollow causing the centre to fall in on itself creating that huge crater (one of the biggest in the world I believe).  The floor is almost flat with a couple of small lakes (one salt, one fresh) and wide open plains.  We weren't able to go down as it was on day 6 of our agenda, so we pressed on to the Serengeti.

We have discovered that although the roads OUTSIDE the parks and conservation areas are great, the ones inside leave something to be desired…  matching the roads to Monteverde in Costa Rica.  Definitely needed a good 4x4 here!  Also, lots of rock hard roads (complete with large boulders) and wash boards that rattle your cavities out.  The solution seemed to be to drive at Warp 1 so that the 4 ton vehicle literally flew over the pot holes and kept the ride somewhat tolerable.  The roads do explain why no vehicle, I’ve seen here have their steering wheels aligned even within 25 degrees.  I can’t imagine owning mag wheels here! 

From the rim, we headed down the west side onto the broad Serengeti Plain which stretched out to the horizon for us.  Once at the bottom of the mountain, it’s still another 18kms on these rough roads to the main gate of the Serengeti so we were still inside the Ngorogoro Conservation Area.  The difference between the Conservation Area and the National Parks is that they allow the native tribes (Masai in this case) to coexist with the animals in a Conservation Area where as they evict them in the National Parks. 

There were about 8 “demonstration” Masai villages on the drive to the gates, and Sam told us these were set up to help the Masai earn enough money to alleviate the impact of not being able to kill the wild animals willy nilly so we decided that we’d stop and have a look.  We were welcomed with a traditional Masai welcome dance where the men jump high into the air and come crashing down on flat feet, while the women sing and egg them to greater and greater heights.  The women also bounce up and down making those beads bounce up and down.  It was quite the sight.

After that, we were invited into the village which was made up about 10 Bomas (small mud huts with roofs made up of cardboard and thatch) and surrounded by thorn branches.  It was explained to us that the first house on the right was occupied by the father’s first wife, his second wife would be the first house on the left, and so on until he ran out of wives.  Each of those wives would look after what ever kids she had with him and he would spend one night with each in strict rotation.  His first son’s first wife had the first house at the back gate on the right side, his second wife’s boma was on the left and so on.  The son’s would stay with the family village until they had 5 wives and 10 cows which ever came first (you get cows as wedding presents).   Our Masai guide was the first son and he was 20 and already had 2 wives and three kids.  He was looking forward to getting his own village soon.

We went into his house which for someone 6’2” means walking completely bent in half.  The bed was raised on sticks with a few skins thown on top and was about the size of a small sofa.  There was a small fire and not much else.  It was about 10x10 at most and made of sticks covered in mud and cow dung (to prevent the mud from “melting” in the rains).  It was apparent they were using just about any piece of garbage to hold the place together.  He then explained much of their culture to us which was interesting but we were starting to get that it was a real tourist trap as he started pointing out how important it was for us to buy stuff from the market which would come next and then tip him and donate to their “kindergarten”.

After the house, we went to see the market which was really made up of all the wives having individual stands.  The kids picked out an item each and then when they tried to buy that, were told that they had to buy it from the first vendor they saw that item at as they do it in strict rotation to give all women a chance.  Half the proceeds go to the woman for materials and allows her to buy a goat and the other half goes to the father to distribute for the village.  It cost a small fortune, but we were guilted into it.

After that, it was into a small hut (outside the village) that contained about 12 small kids (up to 7) quietly sitting on benches while their “teacher” drew wild animals on a chunk of a blackboard (that also had numbers 1-10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 & 100 on it).  The kids were then encouraged to shout out (in English) the names of the animals.  It was pretty clear to us that this was strictly for the tourists and a bit sad actually as we don’t think the kids were actually learning anything else.  Then it was on to the killing coral where the men sat around and smoked weed and slaughtered goats, or what ever.  We were pretty disappointed with the tour’s authencity but had really wanted to meet some of these Masai and take their pictures as they are an impressive looking people so we got our wishes in that respect at least.  Caveat emptor I guess.

On for another 15kms to the gate of the Serengeti which wasn’t much more than an arch in the middle of nowhere and a guard checking that our Ngorogoro permit hadn’t expired.  The Tanzanian’s are really particular about permits we discovered!

Another 15kms or so and we see this large Kjobe (rock outcropping) with the first bit of green grass we’d seen for 60 kms… and about 2 Million Wildebeest!  Holy mackerel, there are a boat load of Wildebeest (and Zebras) in the Serengeti.  We hadn’t even got to the park entrance yet and the place was full of them as far as the eye could see in either direction!  So much for worrying we wouldn’t be able to find the great Wildebeest migration!  It was lunch time so we took our box lunches and sat up on the Kjobe looking over the plains with about 50 other 4x4’s.  The Serengeti was obviously a very popular place!  We also did a short hike up to the top of the Kjobe and I took a panoramic picture.  Africa sure is beautiful!

After that, back into the Land Cruiser, with the top popped up now, and we raced along the plains alongside the Wildebeest for about 15 kms of rough roads at high speeds again.  I’m not kidding about the 2M animals… I really think there must be something like that there.  After a while, the Wildebeest petered out and the grass went back to its usual brown and we’d go long stretches without seeing anything.  Hard to believe any animal could live on this but Sam assured us there were lots there… including many elusive lions.  About half way to our lodge, Sam got a call on the radio that they’d spotted a leopard in a tree off the road a bit so we did a bit of a detour and arrived there as the second vehicle was pulling away.  Sam was pointing to a tree and saying see the leopard… and I was looking at another tree right beside it and I saw TWO leopards… he was surprised I was looking at the wrong tree and then when I moved the binoculars over to his tree, we noticed yet another leopard in that tree as well.  FOUR leopards in two adjacent trees.  Sam said this was exceedingly rare as they are solitary animals so this must mean that two of them are still juveniles although even having a male/female together is very rare let alone a whole family of them!  They would simply lie over a low branch draped over it like a rug, legs and tails hanging down straight and getting up to move positions once in a while.  It was quite special.

A "Tree Rug" - one of four Leopards we spotted on two adjoining trees

We drove for  a bit more and then heard about a pair of Cheetah’s hanging out on a small Kjobe…  raced over to see them and they were just lying around like a pair of lazy lions….  No quick racing for these two!  They are very beautiful animals though and we’d see many more in the upcoming days.

Then back on the road to head for the Serena Wildlife Lodge on yet another large Kjobe (those things that look like Pride Rock from the Lion King).  This place was more like a traditional hotel and was a bit of a disappointment although the main facilities were blended into the rock in amazing fashion.  This place was much, much larger than the other places (10-20 tents) and we ran into dozens of loud and pushy Germans in a large tour group that kind of ruined our unique experience that we’d been having… but the Serengeti is the place to go so no big surprise there.  One of the things that we’ve noticed on these travels in Tanzania is that Rachel gets a LOT of attention from the wait staff.  They all make it a point to find out her name and then consistently use it and treat her like the little princess she is… trailing her everywhere and not letting her even carry a cup of hot chocolate.  She was a bit freaked out by it, but it was clear that they just loved her to death.  Nobody believes Shawn is only 13.  He’s gotten even skinnier with his NY haircut and looks like he’s 6’ tall (and weighs 98 lbs). 

Another feature of this hotel is that they have what we called Rock Rats (Hyrax) that are actually most closely related to elephants but actually look like oversized guinea pigs.  They aren’t overly disturbed by humans and are all over the rock piles in and around the hotel.  Up on top of the highest rock, they’d built a large deck where you could do another panoramic photo (I did) of the Serengeti plains.  Great shots of the local mountains and huge stretches of plains.  Man, I love Africa!