67 posts from 2007

We surprised my family for Thanksgiving.  They had no idea we were coming back.  We just showed up for Thanksgiving dinner.  I got to spend the weekend with my new niece!

For those who are interested, the map of our travels is up to date.

After Thanksgiving, we drove out to Pittsburgh to visit our friends Bryan and Joy.  From there, we visited Fallingwater, and made our way to Shenandoah National Park.  Then we drove down the Blue Ridge Parkway to Great Smoky Mountain National Park.  We did some great day hikes all along the way, and saw lots of deer and even a black bear!

While we were at Smoky Mountain, we stayed in Pigeon Forge, home of Dollywood.  No, we didn't go.  We did play black light mini golf, though.  I swear, this town is Vegas goes country, right down to quickie wedding chapels featuring hillbilly ministers and wedding receptions of "nuts and mints" for $4/head!

From there, we made our way to Atlanta, to visit my cousin Karen.  We started going through Grandma's photos, which I now have in storage and will begin the task of scanning when things settle down a bit.

From Atlanta, we drove to Rogersville, AL, home of a couple we met on the ferry from Italy to Croatia.  They put us up for the night and showed us around their beautiful county.  We had a really fantastic visit with them.

Then we drove through an ice storm in Oklahoma to get to Dean's place in Sedona, AZ.  From there, we all drove to Sonoma to bottle the wine from the grapes we picked last year.

A couple of days in the Bay Area, and then it was up to Portland, for a night with my old buddy Scott, and then finally up to Seattle, and Patty's family for the holidays.

That's the quick rundown.  We're here for a few weeks, and then what, we don't know!

11/15/07

We're sitting on an air-conditioned ferry to Dar es Salaam from Zanzibar.  Just one night in Dar, and then we board a plane for NYC. Zanzibar was the perfect cap on our African experience. 6 days of worry-free beach relaxation, including a snorkeling excursion with dolphins.  We actually got a very nice view of about a half dozen swimming around each other, apparently mating.

11/16/07

...entry interrupted on account of puking.  Weird.  I've never been seasick before in my life.  Those seas were pretty rough and stormy, though.

I was very grateful to arrive in Dar.

We got off the ferry and shrugged off all the cabbies to walk the few blocks to the YMCA.  Walking around this city with our big backpacks made us big targets for pickpockets, as we couldn't run after them.  We're pretty savvy by now, though, and though I was carrying my wallet in my pants pocket, there was only a little bit of cash in it, and nothing else.

Several guys tried to pickpocket me, but they were rank amateurs.  They each tried the bump and swipe technique, without a partner, and each time, I protected my wallet.  The last guy was really obvious, and I actually smacked his hand away from my pocket.  Later, in the room at the YMCA, I went to throw away my used ferry ticket, and noticed it was missing, from that pocket.  One of those guys got quite a haul :)

Just sittin' at the beach.  The water is warm.  The food is great (fresh seafood, delicious fruits, lots of fresh spices).  The sand is fine.  The room is large and comfortable.

The water is very shallow, and the tide goes out a long way.  When it does, local women walk out and tend their seaweed farms.  The men go to repair the boats (crude wooden outrigger canoes), and burn off the algae.

We're spending this, our last week abroad, relaxing.  We're sleeping, eating, playing games, and of course, swimming.  No stress.  We flew from Arusha to Zanzibar, because it was only slightly more expensive than the 9 hour bus ride combined with the 2 hour ferry, and didn't require us to overnight in Dar es Salaam.

On arriving in Stone Town, we spent a day getting lost in the narrow streets (which are much more charming in the guide book than they are in real life with souvenir hawkers and the heat and humidity).  We stayed in a pleasant little guest house and had excellent seafood curry at a nice outdoor restaurant next door.

The next day, we went on a "spice tour".  This is the big tourist thing to do here, and it's totally worth it.  First they take you to some historical sites, which are not kept up well and pretty forgettable.  Next, you go to a coconut grove, where you watch a climber go up to pick coconuts, singing as he goes (our climber was really playing it up for tips).  He cuts down some young coconuts - one for each of us.  We don't get them this young at home (they don't ship well).  They are tender and delicious.  Then we sample other local fruits: jack fruits, "Zanzibar apples" (like rose-scented pears, really), star fruits, pomelos, local orange breeds, and even the fruit of the cocoa plant (betcha didn't know it was a fruit!)

Afterwards, we drive to a spice plantation, where they have every spice imaginable growing.  Our guide walks us around from tree to bush to tree, picking leaves, crumbling them, and having us guess by smell.  I ate a pepper corn right off the stem, and the juice squirted out and made me cough from its intensity.  We nibbled bark right from a cinnamon tree.  Cardamom, cloves, cumin, nutmeg, aloe vera, vanilla, etc etc... the list just goes on and on.

Finally, we stop at someone's home to have a lunch specially prepared for the tour: 5 or 6 dishes, each prepared with different spices.  Imzuri sana!

Drove back to Arusha last night, after a final goodbye to Mameti, Hawa, Ingi, Kennedy, Fisel, and the other children.
The school is nearly complete.  We smoked out all the bats that were living in the rafters and sprayed foam insulation to plug the holes they were using. We screened the windows, installed window frames, and cleaned the place up.  The fundis (skilled workmen) built a fence to keep the cattle and goats away from the school, and built overhangs to provide more shade.  So, they just need a stove and they'll be ready to start their school lunch program next semester!
It's nice to get back to western toilets and real showers. We had a pizza dinner and a good night's sleep.  Today we're spending some quality time at an internet cafe to answer all the worried emails wondering why we've dropped off the face of the earth.

Entry from 11/02:

After leaving Serengeti, we drive to Tarangire National Park, and camp out just outside the park.  On 10/30, we take a morning game drive through the park.  We see tons (literally!) of elephants, and ostrich family crossing the road (baby ostriches are funny!), and a giraffe taking a drink.  We also spend some time watching vervet monkeys eating baobab flowers.

Afterwards, Aaron drops us off at Minjingu village.  When we arrived, no one from Paula's project was around, as they were having a medical clinic in a nearby village.  So, we checked into the guest house, got the keys to the nursery school from Johnas (the teacher), and I walked over to check it out.

It's kind of funny how we became so comfortable around this village so quickly.

We'd been telling Aaron how every white woman gets called Paula by the village children.  I think he thought we were exaggerating.  When he dropped us off, he just laughed as a kid ran up calling Patty Paula, and asking (in Swahili) if it was time to go to the school.

Amiri showed up a couple of hours later to pick up lunch for the clinic.  He showed us the materials we'd bought for screening the school's windows.  We spent the afternoon cutting and fitting screens.  Over the next few days we finished the screens, cut and painted some window framing, and painted decorative trees, flowers, and a giraffe on the building exterior.

Entry from 10/29:

Woke up early for a game drive before breakfast.  By this time, we're joking about how Aaron can take any request for wildlife spotting.  It seems our trip is charmed.  We break 50 lions, more than doubling Aaron's old record.  He spots a leopard, and I spot another in the same area.  The leopards give us a good show, and we depart the area as all the other trucks start pouring in to see "our" leopards.

Aaron takes us to a park office, where there is a display about the ecosystems and park history.  Just as we're getting ready to leave and head back for breakfast, we see a giraffe running, which we've been dying to see!  Running giraffes are pretty funny, because they look like they're in slow motion.

On the way out of the park, we see a lioness poised to pounce on some gazelles.  Alas, something scares them away, and we miss the sight of a lion attack.

Entry from 10/28:

On our 2nd safari day, we drove all the way to Serengeti National Park.  On the way, we stopped at Oldupai Gorge and Shifting Sands.  Oldupai Gorge has a museum that explains about different pre-human species found there, and a cast of footprints left by Australopithecus.

Shifting Sands is a sand dune of volcanic ash that stays in one mount, but migrates 17 meters/year.  There are stone markers with each years' location going back 20 years.

On entering Serengeti, we saw a cheetah, an big group of elephants right next to the road, hippos in and out of water, and even several lions.  Then we camped out in the center of the park.  The next morning, there were fresh lion tracks in the campsite, leading up to the water tank.

After breakfast, we took a game drive and saw quite a lot.  Aaron spotted a dead gazelle in a tree, a sure sign of a leopard (the last of the "Big 5").  We looked around but couldn't find it.  Patty spotted a family of spotted hyenas.  We got up close with some giraffes and 3 lions.  2 of them mated (a very brief affair).  While we were there, another driver radioed to say he found our leopard, so we high-tailed in back there to see it lazing in the same tree.  All of the "Big 5" spotted!

In the afternoon, Patty gave me a haircut at the campsite, and then we went for a dusk drive. We saw so many lions, we beat Aaron's previous record for most lions in a single trip ... 28 and counting!  we even saw some feasting on a zebra.  Also, 42 elephants and counting.

Entry from 10/26:

After several days of rest and recovery at Paula's, Patty and I are off on safari!
Day 1, we're picked up by our driver Aaron and our cook Ruben.  Our first stop is Ngorongoro Crater, where we see 4 of the "Big 5" on our first day! (Lions, elephants, buffalo, and a rhino).  The rhino was a bit distant, but we got a nice view in the binoculars.  We saw a lioness right up close, though.  It was being annoyed by a pack of hyenas, and it was fun watching the lioness assert herself.  We also saw hippos, gazelles, warthogs, ostriches, wildebeests and loads of other animals.  Aaron said we had a very fortunate first day, particularly because of the rhino.

Entry from 10/24/2007:

Our entry into Tanzania was inauspicious.  We arrived in Kilimanjaro International Airport, a tiny airport with corrupt officials who overcharged us for our visas.  Then we were trying to find someone to share a cab with, to split the excessive $50 ride.  Most of the other passengers seemed to be in a group together.  Their organizer, Itai, offered us a ride in their bus.

This group was from Israel, and it turns out they're getting together with my cousin Lori's friend Paula, to do some work in "her village" of Minjingu.  They were there to build the region's first basketball and volleyball courts.  Paula also wanted them to help renovate the nursery school.

Itai seemed a bit nervous about us at this point, getting in the way of his program.  But Paula was happy to have us along.  We went to the village a day ahead of the Israelis to set things up for them.  This meant sewing mosquito nets, cleaning pit toilets, and generally doing the guest house's job by making the accommodations palatable to western visitors.   Paula said she felt comfortable bringing us for that because we've been traveling all over for 8 months.  Still, this was far and away the most basic accommodation we've had, aside from camping.

Minjingu is a strip of huts, shacks, and a phosphate factory.  Little kids run around in filthy torn clothing.  They run up to mzungus (white people) to hold our hands and be lifted in the air.

We ate our meals at Mama Fisel's.  Mama Fisel is Fisel's mother.  The women actually take their children's names (oldest male child).  Such is their societal role.

Meals were generally rice with beans, or chapati (tortilla) with chicken.  Sometimes there were vegetables.  Always, the kids would hang around, hoping for leftovers.  They always get some from us.

The kids are really, really friendly.  There's still a sense here that begging is impolite, and when children do it, they are discouraged by adults (a sharp contrast from Ethiopia, where parents urged their children on us to beg).  Nonetheless, these kids need help.  There's one family in particular, whose mother is not "all there".  She has several children, by several men, and she's pregnant again.  We made friends with Mommedi (boy, 6), Hawa (girl, 4), and Ingi (girl, 2).  Mommedi gets into fights a lot, lashing out because he doesn't know how to socialize.  But, he takes care of his sisters as best he can.  Hawa's situation is a bit better, because she has a scholarship from Compassion, a Christian organization that picks the poorest child from each village to attend their school.  If she sticks with it, she'll even go to college.  And right now, she gets a good lunch every day she goes (though her attendance could be better).  They teach her some odd things, though.  When she heard that a group of Jews were coming to help in the village, she said, "Oh, the ones who killed Christ?"

Ingi is sweet and adorable.  She has a big belly, though, because she retains water due to protein malnutrition.  Patty was constantly feeding her peanut butter!

We arrived in Minjingu on 10/16.  On the 17th, aside from cleaning the guest house, we bathed Ingi and a few other kids, and washed and repaired their clothing.  Ingi and Mommedi insisted on helping wash heir own clothing, which was very cute.

On the 18th, the Israeli's arrived.  They were a bit surprised to see us again!  But, I think they were glad for the help.  We all went to the village of Mtu Wa Mbu (River of Mosquitoes), where we toured a medical clinic, and went to a market for curios and produce, including custard apples - YUM!

Paula really knew how to get a decent price.  She found a guy who quoted her the local price, and she gave him all our business.  Anything he didn't have, he bought from someone else - at his price.  It's like hiring a personal shopper.
The 19th was spent working on the nursery school.  It was a fairly nasty job, given the quantity of bat guano we cleaned out of there.  We painted the rafters and walls, and replaced the bat smell with new paint smell.
We finished painting on 10/20, and had lunch at the local ward officer's home (wild buffalo with rice).  While we were there, some men arrived with more game kills, including an impala.
 
I wonder what impala tastes like?

That night, we went to a Maasai boma (family dwelling).  We got to see the inside, and then the younger ones danced for us.  Paula's assistant Amiri translated for us.  It was  "dry season" song.  The men sang about having to take their cattle a very long way to find pasture, and that is why they are home late.  The girls sang to welcome them home.
While half of us had been working on the nursery school, the others were building the basketball and volleyball courts over at the secondary school.  They cleared and flattened dirt courts, and cemented in the poles and hoops.  On 10/21, we all played.  It was weird being on the basketball court with a bunch of black kids and be the best player!  We gave them a few pointers, but didn't get into the rules too much.  They'd already been taught about dribbling, so we actually got a decent game going.  Within an hour the girls were hiking up their skirts to dribble between their legs!
They got the gist of volleyball very quickly.  I think they could play entirely by kicking and heading the ball!  They picked up bumping in no time, and Patty and I demonstrated bump, set, spike.  Once they're explained the rules in Swahili, they'll be pros in no time I'm sure.

We headed home to Paula's house that night.  The next day, Patty and I both had the flu, and Marie (another volunteer living with Paula for several months) was diagnosed with typhoid!  (Since then, it's looking like she was misdiagnosed, though)  The thai food Patty had promised to cook Paula had to wait.  Instead, Paula made a huge pot of chicken soup for all the sickos in her house.

Our arrival in Tanzania was a bit of a downer, as we paid too much money to a corrupt immigrations officer for our visas.  After that, however, things have really been looking up.

We've got a personal contact here in Arusha, through my cousin Lori.  Her name is Paula, and she runs an NGO helping village children.  We exchanged a few emails with Paula, but we hadn't nailed down a meeting time yet, as she was traveling to her brother's wedding in Nairobi.

So, we're at the airport, looking for someone to share the $50 cab ride with, and most of the other passengers seem to be getting on the same tour bus together.  They're an Israeli group from a university on some kind of volunteering trip.  The fellow who arranged their bus invited us to hitch a ride into town, and we gratefully accepted.

Turns out, the volunteering trip they're doing is being coordinated by Paula.  Small world.  Better yet, we're going to the village with her in advance of this group to help out for a week.

All the travel literature about volunteering in Africa says, "You can't just show up and say 'I want to help'".  Well, our timing was just perfect, so that is, in fact, exactly what we did.  We're going to build a basketball court.  We leave in a few hours :)