More photos- Ngorongoro Crater

Hello friends,
This set of photos was taken in Ngorongoro Crater - a very famous national park and for good reason- there's lots of amazing wildlife viewing there.

Ngongoro crater

Further comments on Matemwe

Zanzibar

Hi all,
I just wanted to add to Carol's description of Matemwe. It was wonderful to witness the rhythms of the day by being in one place for five days in a row. The tide went out as the morning progressed...and as the tide went out many women waded in the water fully dressed head to toe (As Muslim women they cover their head as well) to collect seaweed to sell. They gradually would fill up canvas sacks full of seaweed and carry the bags on their head to a spot where they could hang it to dry. Women collected seaweed all day long until the tide started coming back in around 4pm.
Also first thing in the morning, you would see men leave on their boats. The boats were mostly wooden catamaran style sailboats without motors. In low water they would use long wooden poles to push themselve out far enough to then raise their sails to head out for fishing. The men would return around 4pm with their catches of the day. Carol and I found a bar alongside the fish market where it was quite an interesting scene to watch. Men, and children would gather at the market to await other men returning with their fish...then the cleaning of fish, bargaining and selling of fish would take place. Another common sight was to see lots of kids playing on the beach some naked some clothed...and many would approach us as they did all over the country..Mzungu, Mzungu (white person)...some just found us a novelty. Others wanted us to give them money.
Occasionally you would see other Mzungu stroll down the beach from one of the other beach resorts. As Carol said the beach was very beautiful..adding to the beauty was observing locals in their daily routines as well as the many wooden boats anchored along the coastline.

A few notes on the chimps

As Mike wrote, the chimps were truly a highlight, along with the Red Colobus Monkeys and the Baboons (very entertaining creatures). The baby chimps, Grimly and Tabora, were particularly captivating and playful and toddled along much like human babies do. One fun moment was when Gremlin, Gimly's mom, was pounding a wild mango on a rock to open it and Grimly grabbed some leaves and started mimicking her mom :) We were also lucky enough to see Titan and Tarzan, two males, the males being much more elusive than the females. We were really lucky with how close we were able to see them and the variety of activities we saw them engage with. They have intelligent looking faces, a calm demenour (though this is not always true), and are quite avid groomers. As Mike wrote as well, Gombe is a beautiful park and Lake Tanganyika is gorgeous- rippling crystal waters the color of aquamarine.
While in the town of Kigoma we stopped by the Jane Goodall Institute and talked with the director of the Roots to Shoots Program and also the premere researcher of Baboons, who moved to TZ in 1972 and worked side by side with Jane Goodall. People spent an hour with us there and were really generous with their time. The Institute is doing great work re: trying to re-establish a cooridor between Uganda/ Rwanda/ TZ b/c the chimps live on "islands," such as Mahale and Gombe Parks and can't migrate due to deforestation. Inbreeding is becoming a problem for the chimps and their physical size is decreasing. So, JGI is doing some really progressive work trying to re-establish these cooridors and working *with* the locals to do it, as opposed to creating more problems for the local people. You can read more about JGI and also check out their Google Earth site to see Gombe where we were (can see Jane's research site and the buildings where we stayed). I am a proud member of JGI and "adopted" a little chimp named Nani. :) Check 'em out at www.janegoodallinstitute.org

From the White Sands of Zanzibar

Mike and I have spent the past week enjoying Zanzibar Island- a beautiful and very interesting island off the coast of Tanzania... the perfect way to close our trip. We spent the first three days here exploring Stone Town, the main town on the island, went on a spice tour (loved seeing nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla, cloves, cocoa all growing... and for the record nutmeg is one funky looking seed in its fresh off the tree form), and went sailing on a dhow (gorgeous wooden sailboats made exactly as they have been for the last 100 years) out to Menai Bay Conservation Area for some snorkeling. It was lovely. The Indian Ocean is spectacular- every shade of blue from deep slate to bright topaz. It is not, however, extremely warm. It is not freezing like our Pacific waters, but it definiely takes a bit to get used to, even with the warmth of the sun on our backs. We also went to see a local group rehearse Taarab music, a wonderful bled of Arabic, African, and Indian influences. The men and women sit on different sides of the room, (though they welcomed me to sit with Mike and the men), and the women dance up the aisles to give the female singers money if they appreciate the music. Men do not give women singers money, as that would have sexual implications, but will give money to women audience members to bring to the singers, so that whole exchange was as fun as the music.
For the last four days we went to the east coast beach, Matemwe, with its palm trees and powdery white sands. It didn't even feel like sand, but was blindingly white and extremely soft. Our days consisted of reading a good book in a chase lounge or in a chair outside of our bungalow in the sun, walking along the beach, drinking a soda or beer now and again, and eating a meal. It was blissful. We did have one scheduled activity, however. We went snorkeling off of Mnemba island along a coral reef yesterday. The coral itself was not too spectacular, but the fish were great. Special highlights for me were two different types of Moray Eel and many Moorish Idols- I think they are really cool looking fish. We also saw many different types of parrot fish, which are also fun and colorful and a little freaky looking b/c of their teeth :) The water was chilly, so we had to take breaks on the boat, but it was a great day.
We are back in Stone Town for the remainder of the day and then fly to Dar Es Salaam and to Dubai tomorrow. It is sad that our trip is ending and we feel it has been a great and diverse experience- a magical five weeks.

Chimpanzees

Chimpanzees in Gombe National Park

Hey all,
As I sit in the Jambo Inn internet cafe I can hear the evening prayers being broadcast over Dar Es Salaam. Dar is 99% Muslim so 5x a day you can hear prayers being sang over a broadcast system. One morning Carol woke up from a dream where she thought God was speaking to her ....well he or she kind of was speaking to her...it was the 5am prayers being broadcast.
Ok that wasn't the topic of this posting...chimpanzees are! After a four hour flight from Dar to Kigoma ( a town on the coast of Lake Tanganyika- the longest and second deepest lake in the world), an overnight there, and a 2 hour boat ride north from Kigoma to Gombe National Park we were there..where the chimpanzees can be seen in there natural environment! Gombe was made famous by the research of Jane Goodall. Back in the 50s she and a colleague set up camp on the shores of this park to begin the first observational research of these primates. We arrived on Tuesday around 9am and after handing over our wallets- park fees are $100 per person per day!- we were off on the trail with our guide. We decided on 3 days in the park to ensure that we would see the chimps. The park is about 50 square miles and has about 100 chimps residing in in it. We were visiting the section of the park called Kasekela.
I was mentally preparing myself that we may not see any chimps while we were there. You are immediately greeted by lots of baboons. But after 3 weeks in Africa Baboons had become as common as squirrels are to us in the US. Not long after beginning our hike our guide turned to us and says "Prepare your cameras" He had spotted a chimpanzee...Sure enough there was a chimp swinging in the branches above us. Pretty hard to see at this point but we waited for her to come out of the tree for about 30 minutes. Not just one chimp came out of the tree but five chimps..a whole family of females...Gremlin, Greta, Golden, Gimly and one other name that escapes me right now. They sat themselves down right in middle of our trail. We stayed about 10 meters away and watched them as they groomed each other for quite awhile. They are meticulous about grooming. It's both about cleanliness and relationship building with each other. One of the most fun to watch was the baby in the bunch...very playful, she picked up pieces of a palm tree and made a head dress out of it, jumped on top of her mother, and sister...and was cute to watch lounge. We had the opportunity to follow this family for hours and watch them groom, collect food from various trees, groom again, feed again...that's pretty much the routine, groom, feed, rest..groom, feed rest.
After a couple hours of following, the chimps went off deep into the woods and we walked up to a waterfall. Upon our return from the waterfall and on our way back to camp..all five of them crossed our path again and sat down in front of us. We got to spend another half hour watching them before our first day ended. We then took our boat 10 minutes north to our resthouse right on the beach and got to take a swim in the Lake. Lake Tanganyika is huge...it reminds me of Lake Erie where I grew up..but a lot more remote where we were. We were very pleased to have a good meal of beans and rice as the sunset over the lake.
Carol will have to add more chimp stories later. We were very fortunate to meet 5 other chimps on Weds..and since I am running out of time on this computer I will save that story for later....hope you are all well!

Our Kili Attempt

The attempt here was to SEE the mountain. It has been completely encased in clouds since our arrival. We did see the snow capped summit peaking out from behind Mt Meru on our return home from the safari last week, but that is as close as we have come. So, we decided to take the local buses to one of the park entrances and hike around, ideally with the mtn in full view, but it remained illusive and we didn't see it all! However, we did get to hike to some lovely water falls and the whole valley surrounding Kili is gorgeous- verdant and we had perfect weather. And along the way we saw a couple of very cool chameleons.
The biggest adventure that day was riding the buses. Thank goodness Emmanuel and Adam were with us! I have ridden buses in Mexico and Central and South America without problem, but that is b/c I speak Spanish. It is a lot more challenging to navigate the system when the extent of your language base involves knowing how to say thank you very much, greet people, ask how they are, tell them you are well, thanks for asking, say sorry, go slowly, no problem, and that you appreciate being welcomed to Tanzania, none of which would have found us our bus or bus station. The bus station comprised of some large buses and alot of large minivan type buses (dhalla dhallas) parked in one location and a lot of smiling, shouting, and banging on bus roofs. So, Emmanuel led us to a crowded small bus and we were off! They kept piling people in at various stops- at points people were sticking their upper halfs out the window b/c there was no room and it was hard to close the door. We were greeted warmly by those around us and told that we were most welcome in Tanzania. Again, we have been so touched by the warmth here. In any case, we had a transfer to a smaller bus and just when we would think "They cannot possibly put another person on this bus," another would be sqeezed in along with their bag of fish, bag of charcoal, and full banana stock. This was a three hour adventure one way and we had no sensation in our feet or backsides upon arrival, but it was fun.
One of the aspects to the bus ride I found most fascinating, was the role of the person who collected the money, he would stick his upper half out the window and whistle and yell as we drove by people, telling them where we were going, and then bang on the roof or the side of the bus to tell the driver to stop. I noticed that if a young man got off of the bus, the driver would only slow down, not stop, and the men would jump off and run a bit to prevent from falling over! Fortunately, this did not apply to women or small children, so we were spared. The drivers go as fast as possible and cram as many people on as possible to make the most money. On the way back, our bus was so full that people were hanging out the door as we went about 50 MPH down the highway. We were really glad to have had this experience and were completely bone tired upon our return. It was fun and it pushed the edges of my American value of a large radius of personal space :)

Arusha- the Geneva of Africa

Arusha is where the U.N. conducts the criminal tribunals on Rwanda. On Weds and Friday of this week we got an opportunity to listen in and watch one of the trials. To get in, you have to show your passport and go through something similar to airport security. When you get to the trial room you are given a headset and device that translates the comments to English for you. Just that process alone is very interesting to observe and listen to how quickly translators translate both testimony and questions. The languages spoken were French and English in the courtroom.
In the courtroom there are about 8 lawyers on the defense and 8 lawyers on the prosecution. There are 3 judges presiding over the trial.
Today the prosecution was questioning the witness whose name we were not given. He was a administrator for one of the prefectures (regions). He was serving time in prison but we didn't hear what for. He described to the court that he was one of the resisters of the killing of Tutsis. This trial was for a higher up official that this witness had experienced as being complicit in the killings. The fascinating part today was hearing about how this official survived the war. He also described how different parts of the government worked together. I got lost on that part..the interamwhe (interim government), the civil defense, the RPF..all these terms were talked about and makes me want to study beyond what I learned from the movie Hotel Rwanda. Much of this trial was spent discussing the content of a meeting on April 18, 1994 at which the witness claimed gov't officials were suggesting escalating the killings without saying it directly...and after that date killings did escalate.
At noon, the adjourned for the weekend. The U.N. is a powerful force in the Arusha economy. Arusha has for decades been a launching point for safaris and Kili summits but having the UN here adds a whole other element making it a small cosmopolitan city where you can eat many types of food, get western amenities, etc. We got to have dinner with a UN lawyer who we met through Terra Watu and he was a great host to us and even treated us to a couple meals.
On Sunday we head to Kigoma in western Tanzania- the jumping off point for Gombe National Park where we hope to see both chimps and gorillas! There are more stories to tell..and maybe we will get to those tomorrow.

Earthquakes in Arusha

Perhaps in all the news about the big earthquake in Japan you missed the news that there was a big one here in Arusha? Yep, 6.1 on the Richter scale. Carol and I were sitting in a cafe called Jambo's cafe (which would translate to Hello's cafe..a rather silly name it reminds me of a street in Boulder called Table Mesa which translates to table table:)
anyhow I digress..we were sitting in the cafe when the whole place started rolling. Carol and I both being from the West Coast knew exactly what was going on and talked about getting under a doorway but sat just stunned. Everyone else spilled out onto the street and there was lots of laughter. It's been a long while since Arusha had this big an earthquake. It lasted about 30 seconds. What many people didn't feel was that there was also an earthquake on Sunday a much milder one that lasted for 2 minutes. I felt it as I was watching Harry Potter at our friend Sululu's house but noone else noticed it so I figured it was just my meds doing crazy things to me. The newspaper confirmed my suspicion that there was a light earthquake on Sunday as well.
Anyhow, thankfully no one was hurt. There is some scare about a volcano north of here that has been spewing some smoke.
On our end it was mostly entertaining since no one was hurt. Today there was an earthquake warning as we planned on entering the U.N. building to observe criminal tribunals on Rwanda. I have never had an earthquake warning before and have been through several before in Seattle. (and one in Ohio). Does the UN have some kind of special ability to predict earthquakes? Anyhow, we didn't have one today and were able to attend one of the trials...more on that later. Take care all!

More tid bits

I realized that we haven't clarified well how we were able to visit with the Tatoga and Hadzabe tribes- Sululu is good friends with a Tatoga man, Momomya, who took us around after clearing it first with the families.
A highlight has been visiting the schools, particularly a boarding school in the very rural area outside of Karatu. This is primarily a girls school, but a few boys attend as well, but the dorms are only for girls. While wandering around the campus, a few students stuck their heads out of the window, saying their teacher had not shown up that day, but would we like to come in to teach them English? So, we did! It was really fun- we had them ask us questions in English and answered them. They found my name really difficult to say, but me easy to understand and Mike difficult to understand. Two favorite questions... one from a boy (after learning about my profession and after I explained a bit about the field of psychology) who informed me that his passions were dance and football, but he was still made to come to school and learn all of this other stuff. How might I help him? I said he would find good company in the US :) I also emphasized that he could choose his subjects in university, but in order to get there, had to stay in school. And not to lose his passions, that those were important.
A young woman stood up and told us of the terrible AIDS problem in her country. What might I do in the field of psychology to help a person with AIDS and what are we doing in the US about our AIDS epidemic? Powerful questions. I explained that I work in matters of the mind and heart and would want to support that person in their emotional process- likely grief and loss- sadness and anger- as well as work with that individual's family. However, as I do not deal with medicine, it would be critical to support that person in getting medical attention, however available. As for question two, Mike gave a brief lesson on safer sex (both of us wondering if we would be escorted out of the class or laughed out), but they were very serious, listening closely and I talked about blood transfusions. There was much more to say of course and more importantly, much more to listen to...
On another note, the streets here are crazy- tons of gaping holes, busy traffic- communicating largely by honking and blinking lights, so you have to make a run for it, and I cut my arm on a street sign (They are low- ripped my shirt and all)... wouldn't happen in our sue culture of the US, as the things are so low I am surprised they don't regularly take someone out. We have also been escorted to bathrooms with much effort by shopkeepers, people going way out of their way, whether we were patrons or not, also not my experience in the US, bathrooms for customers only! And so life is good here, if only I can shake this cold...

Terrawatu School Project visits

Today Carol and I got a tour of some local schools that Terrawatu is working with. Terrawatu's mission is to provide a bridge between indigenous and modern worlds. One approach they are taking to fulfilling that mission is working with some local public schools that are attended primarily by Maasai children. Computers are not largely not available to children in public schools (or many private ones too)If there are any computers they are generally being used by administrative staff.
Today we visited 2 schools that Terrawatu secured computer donations for and helped them set up internet access. The first school we went to today on the outskirts of Arusha had over 600 students attending and a computer lab with 32 computers. The computers were half pentium 1 and pentium 2 and the other half pentium 3 & 4. 15 of them connected to the internet. We had a hard time imagining how 600 students would utilize these 32 computers. The students with the highest marks get to use the computers..and if I remember correctly mostly the students in the higher grades. The classrooms are very basic with a chalkboard and a bunch of desks with sometimes as many as 4-5 to a desk. On average there were 100 students in each class!! Hard to imagine that's very effective. We had a chance to sit down with the headmaster and hear about his school. One of the biggest difficulties they have is to get parents of these children to value school. Because school is so different than the traditional Maasai life that mostly consists of raising, eating, selling cattle for the men and gathering water, firewood, and cooking for men. So the integration of computers has been an approach to making school more attractive for both the students and the extended community. Family can come into the school and use the computers. Sululu the Terrawatu director says it has been difficult to find ways to keep these computer labs running due to the cost of electricity and internet connection. Given that they often don't have enough reading and writing materials for all their students, it's hard to justify the expense of the computers for administrators.
We proceeded to visit 2 primary schools as well where we were quite the spectacle for the kids. They don't see a lot of mzungu come to their school. MOre later....

Thoughts in general

Some aspects of our trip in general: our primary contact here in Arusha has been with Sululu, co- founder of Terrawatu and a Maasai medicine healer. He's great. He organized our safari (it was just Mike and me, which was great) and is helping us with our plans for Gombe. We had beers with him and his daughter, Doris, a week or so ago and they invited us to lunch at their home in the foothills of Mt. Meru yesterday... it looked amazing (I have a bad cold and couldn't taste anything- bah- stupid recycled airplane air), but Mike confirmed it tasted fantastic- a wide array of colorful, vegan African dishes. It was so kind to have been invited into their home. We have been continually impressed by the warm, welcoming spirits of those we meet here. And then we watched "Harry Potter!" It was kind of a trip to be in Africa, in the midst of banana trees, coffee groves, potato fields, dirt roads, and mud huts, watching "Harry Potter." Doris's little sister and cousins were watching it and knew some lines by heart, saying them with the TV in British accents.
Earlier in the day, we hiked around the foothills of Mt. Meru. It has been very cloudy (winter here in TZ) and chilly, so we have not actually seen Mt. Meru much or Kilimanjaro at all. It was extremely steep and slippery- no switch backs- straight up through fields of potato and banana. Mike and I were quite the sight and attraction. As soon as we left Arusha, we were the subject of children staring, smiling, grabbing other children to come look at the mzungus (white people). And shreaking and jumping up and down with big smiles when we said, "Jambo!" and waved in return. At one point we had about 15 children, who had raced out of their huts, across a valley screaming. "Hallooo! Jambo mzungus!" and jumping up and down.
As a woman here, I am either treated with respect or am invisible, and I have never felt like a slab of meat, as in some other traveling. Women will often greet me, but not Mike and men will acknowledge Mike, but not me. When we had beer with Doris and Sululu, she was very quiet when they were around, but if they got up, she would be very talkative and ask questions of me. She would like to either be a lawyer or study international relations. She is really fun to talk with.
While visiting the Tatoga tribe, my hair length, color, and texture was a source of great curiosity and I found some women touching it and then asked (through a Tatoga man who spoke English) if I ever thought of shaving it (which in the bush would have been a great plan, as it was filled with dust) and also if I wanted facial scarring (some of the women cut round shapes around their eyes). When I asked if it hurt, they said that it did so much you could not move for two days. They also wanted to know why Mike only had one wife and if he was going to get more. They had trouble understanding that he only wanted one. And seemed sad for us that we do not have children. Apparently, I am worth 100 cattle b/c I am tall. I loved talking with them and enjoyed their questions.
Two things I am craving: one is a hot shower. 98% of our showers have been ice cold and a slow, small trickle of water, which is not worst case scenario, but a shocking way to wake up and then difficult to get soap out of long, thick hair. Another is a sit down toilet... fortunately, we have one in our room, but mostly they are holes in the ground and while the holes are efficient (and frankly much better than our Honey Buckets), sometimes I just want a toilet :)

Meeting the bushmen of Africa! or Vegans go hunting!

Vegans go hunting

Following our viewing of wildlife, Carol and I took a 60km drive with our guides and our cook. (We travel with many staff here- it felt quite odd to have 2 guides and a cook!) The 60km was all on a very bumpy bad road. The Landcruiser handled it just fine but our butts went numb. It took a couple hours to drive this distance. When we arrived we were greeted by some local kids who set up our tent for us at bush camp.(as if we didn't have enough help all ready- mzungu- white person- need a lot of help apparently). After being served a delicious dinner by our cook, Emmanuelle, we got a good nights sleep- well not all that good due to windy weather and our tent flapping in the wind- but good enough.
We awoke at 630am had coffee- fine Africafe instant coffee- and left by 7pm for another 30 or 40 minutes of bumpy ride further into the bush to meet the Hadzabe people. We parked our landcruiser with no humans in sight and walked a few yards where we learned the true meaning of bushmen- they actually sleep in bushes to keep warm at night. Not much to see but some big bushes with some canvas laid down in the bush to sleep on and a few pots and pans for cooking the poison that they put on their arrows for hunting the bigger animals.
We then were greeted by their chief of the family and he introduced us to his sons and daughters and wife or wives. The men do marry many wives. I wasn't sure which or how many wives this chief had.
At their campsite (for lack of a better term) they had skins of many animals hung out to dry ...many of which we had seen the day before alive. They had skin of a dik-dik, an impala, and a few other unidentifiable skins. ...and then we saw skin of a big animal- the leopard! It was beautiful skin to see and touch. Weird to see it off of the body. WE had the great fortune of seeing one alive a few days earlier. The men proudly posed with the leopard skin for a photo. They also showed us the arrows they used for hunting. They do all their hunting w/ bows and arrows. They have wooden arrows sharpened with a knife to hunt small animals like birds or rats. They put a metal arrow on the end of wood for hunting larger animals like impala, baboons, or leopard.
After a tour of camp, the chief motioned for us to follow him. We thought we might be meeting another family but quickly realized we were going out hunting with them. Carol had decided the night before that she would not go out hunting if offered and I was still unsure myself. Due to our own confusion about what was happening we were both out on the hunt with 4 of the Hadzabe men, our guide and a local guide who spoke the language of the Hadzabe- one of the few remaining tribes that speak a 'click' language. I call it that because that's a common sound you hear when they talk.
So we followed along as they hunted. First we watched them try to scare out a mongoose from a under the bush of a plant that we couldn't identify. Then we followed as they attempted to kill birds with their arrows. 3 of the men were much too quick for us to follow. The chief was kind enough to wait for us on several occasions. When they get separated they whistle aloud to find each other. The chief did that after an hour or so and one of the sons came back with the first catch of the day- a rat. Still alive hanging on the arrow. Thankfully the chief killed it by bonking it on its head and put it in his pocket. They found the other son who had caught a dove - also still alive hanging on the arrow. He didn't kill the dove until we sat down to prepare the kindling for the fire that they would cook the rat and dove on.
After preparing the kindling, we all walked back to the main camp where they started a fire with sticks rubbing together and just put both the rat and the dove right on the fire w/out skinning them. With small animals they don't bother to skin them. They just eat the whole thing as is. Both animals cooked fairly quick and they opened up the animals and fed some of the organs to their dogs who help them hunt and then shared the remains with the family. We were offered some rat but politely declined..as did our guides as well.
This was quite an experience! We were struck by how resourceful they are and were amazed by the fact that they do this day in day out. They hunt once in the morning and once in the evening to get their daily food. The women do gather roots and berries for eating as well. They do some trading with local tribes such as the Maasai or tatoga to get knives and some clothes. They were all wearing dirty western style shorts and some were wearing hides. They do make bracelets with materials they trade for with the Maasai. They get some money from doing these visits that they may buy knives or clothes with. They do not want or buy any food though. All their food comes from hunting. The only thing they do not eat is snakes. They see snakes as a god or goddess of sorts that will protect them and bring them good weather.
We spent the morning with them and then returned to our camp for lunch....and visited with another tribe after lunch- the Tatoga. See another posting for that story.

Into the wilds of Tanzania

It is difficult to put into words the beauty of the landscape or the magnitude of the things we witnessed and experienced, but I will do my best. We were very fortunate to see the animals up close and our guide noted on several occasions how lucky we were, in particular with big cats. We re-framed our mugging to an offering for the experience we had. :)
Our trip was six days- Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Eyasi, and two days in the bush.
Some highlights were seeing over 12 lions, including three males. It is pretty unusual to see male lions at all. And not only did we see three, but we saw one mate with a female, one eating recent kill, and we saw two lion hunts... they are very organized. And it is only the females who hunt, but the males who eat first. They lie very still in the grass and during one hunt a family of wart hogs and three zebra went happily trotting towards the lions, oblivious, suddenly the lead warthog stopped dead in his tracks, tail went 90 degrees, and then screamed. They then ran towards our jeep with the lion in hot pursuit. However, I don't think she was very hungry b/c she quickly gave up and none of the other lions joined her. However, there were three hyena and a jackal nearby who were very interested and looked very hopeful (popping their heads up to watch hunt from their low profiles in the grass). When one hyena realized it wasn't going to make a meal from the lions, s/he started his/ her own hunt of wildabeast- chasing them around looking for a weak, sick, or young one, but with no success. They are not as powerful hunters as lions and hunt alone.
Later, the same day, we observed another lion hunt- and this was truly incredible- three females suddenly stood up from their low crouch in the grass and startegically aligned themselves, aiming towards zebras. And as they did so, they passed directly in front of our Land Cruiser- like we weren't even there! I could have reached down and touched her... the guides kept saying, "I don't believe this!"- they are truly magnificent animals... amber colored eyes, huge paws, and gorgeous markings- quarter sized white spots on their stomachs overlaying golden fur. And sleek runners- we saw them charge the zebras, isolate one, but not bring it down- as the zebras were running away, they ran towards the other lions, who were ready, but the male lion blew their cover by standing up... maybe checking out the scene. The zebras gave out loud distress cries to each other (sound like donkeys) as they signaled the lions' locations to one another... and they kept their eyes on the lions long after this experience. Some warthogs got trapped at one point as well, again running around with their tails at 90 degrees. It was interesting to watch the lions return to their pride as well- one at a time, allowing a wide girth, facing the male head on, and then flopping down with the other females to wrestle and play. It was fun to watch these threatening hunters suddenly snuggle, cuddle, and roll around on their backs in the sun. A jackal kept trying to steal a bit of last nights kill, but the male lion would growl and spit and kept the jackal at bay. Several hyenas were hanging about as well.
We were also lucky enough to see a Serval, a spectacularly gorgeous cat with markings of orange and black spots similar to a Cheetah, but smaller and with more elaborate black markings on its ears and face. It is unusual to see one during the day, as they are nocturnal. And we saw a leopard, also a rare event. They are huge animals and spend most of their time in trees and drag their kill, even animals as large as antelopes, up to the branches of trees, so as not to share with other animals. It also had amber colored eyes and an infinate amount of lovely yellow and black spots.
Other highlights included hippos- male hippos fighting- they are really social and territorial, giraffe, dik diks, love birds, bats, flamingos, white pelicans, pink pelicans, hornbills, hammercocks, numerous eagles and bustards, bushbabies (cutest little guys ever), monkeys, baboons, and elephants. We were lucky enough to get close to a family of elephants... including a little baby who gave itself a dust bath right by our car- so close, I got dust in my eyes, and so did the baby, as it used its little trunk to rub dust out of its eye. We watched them feed for awhile and then the male decided we were too close, raised his trunk, trumpeted, and charged at our Land Cruiser! I thought, "This is it," as the elephant made our huge car look like a lego. However, he just wanted to tell us that it was time to go, as he didn't actually roll us over. I learned that trumpeting is mostly to communicate with other animals, as they communicate with each other through ultrasonic sounds in their stomachs!
The primates, such as Vervet Monkeys and Blue Monkeys and Baboons were really facinating to watch- intricate social structures. At one point, a family of baboons was feeding, and then three males started racing around and screaming and shaking some bushes, and out comes a terrified rabbit, racing towards the hills, with the dominant male screaming behind it, shaking a fist. Then, everyone went back to eating. The babies were really cute- carried on their mothers' backs or stomachs and with ginormous pink ears.
I was using the bathroom on the way out of one of the national parks and turned around and there was a Vervet Monkey staring at me through the window, and opened the door and there were two in the bathroom, drinking from the sink. They were scared of me, I was scared of them, and none of us felt safe to leave the bathroom with the other in the way- I had to call for Mike to come help me- he managed to scare them away from the door, into another bathroom stall, so I could race out.
Many times on our safari I thought of zoos and the stark contrast between these animals- vibrant, active, ever in motion with those behind bars- listless, pacing, uninterested, and am so glad for those that have their freedom.

Polizi! Polizi!

Carol shouted "Polizi, Polizi!" hoping she was getting the language right as I chased after a man that had just managed to sneak up on me and rip my over the neck wallet off of my neck. It happened very fast. He obviously had done this before.
Carol and I were searching for the bus terminal in Dar Es Salaam to purchase our bus tickets to Arusha. Having been unsuccessful in our search we were on our way back to the hotel to get some help with directions.
I barely saw the guy it happened so fast. He used both hands- one to grab the wallet, the other to rip it off of me. I shouted "Hey" and ran after him as soon as I felt it break off of my neck. I am not so sure that was a smart move. After all in the States, a thief might be carrying a gun or a knife! But testosterone must have kicked in because I didn't think twice about chasing after him to hopefully reclaim my wallet. I chased him down an alley about 200 yards and then he made a right down an alley behind a building. It was a this point that I began to wonder what I was going to do if I caught him. Grab my wallet hopefully..but what if he got other valuable on me? So as he scaled a wall and leapt over it I decided my effort was futile. I ran back to the street where I came from where Carol had about10-15 locals trying to help us. A nice man- Abuu Moshi- guided us to the Dar Es Salaam police station so that I could file a report. He sat with Carol as I was interviewed by a couple different police officers. The police officers used blank trace paper, drew lines with a ruler, to take my name and declaration of what happened. He used carbon copy paper to make copies. After a couple different versions of taking down my information on similar paper, and after waiting a couple hours I was led back to an office where I was given an official police report. This "official" report had real letterhead but was still written by hand. All the officers were very supportive and had lots of questions about my profession and by the end were encouraging me to do some social work in Tanzania.
So this was a different kind of cultural immersion experience than we had hoped for but interesting nonetheless.
The good news is that I had separated out my passport and credit cards and placed them in a waistbelt which he did not get. The one credit card he did get we were able to cancel with a $30 phone call from our hotel. We tried to call collect but there was a misunderstanding. Ahh well..not too much for security sake.
Aside from the one credit card, he got my WA state drivers license and my health insurance card. We don't expect this to cause any problems here but some inconvenience when I return.
Since this event two days ago, we have taken a 10 hour bus ride to Arusha and got to see many wonderful sights such as stopping for a baboon crossing, passing through many villages with interesting range of housing ...many thatched roofs..lush palm trees, children playing, people cooking over open fires, people hanging out of minibuses called dalla dallas here...and much more. We arrived safely and are staying in a wonderful lodge called Outpost Lodge- www.outposttanzania.com...try that link to see more. We still haven't figured out the whole uploading photo thing..stay tuned for that!
While a bit shaken by the wallet theft, we are grateful that we are both safe and sound and have experienced many generous friendly locals.
Hope you are all well!

Hello from Dar Es Salaam!

We arrived this afternoon after a night in Dubai, where it was over 100 degrees with 50 % humidity... it is a large, bustling city with a crazy amount of wealth (built their own islands off of the coast), but we stayed in the older part of town, where it had more remenants of its fishing village days...
And here we are in Africa! It is beautiful here and I immediately fell in love with it- very lush- many palm trees and colorful flowers, not to mention the many fruits and vegetables for sale on the streets. The people have been helpful and friendly and I love listening to them speak- Kiswahili is a very round, full sounding language. We have spent our short time here so far dodging traffic and bicyclists with their wares piled high and wandering many of the streets searching for an ATM that would take our cards (vs immediately spitting them out with "Sorry!"). Fortunately, we were just successful in our mission. We are looking forward to getting to explore more tomorrow around the Old Town and the market place. And now to bed for our first night in three days of real sleep!

...and we are off!

Hey friends,
We are heading out in a few hours. We are all packed up..w/very full packs in prep for the potential to climb Kiliminjaro, bask on the beach in Zanzibar, marvel at the wildlife, and hopefully to meet lots of new and wonderful people. We have a couple long days of travel ahead of us before arriving in Dar Es Salaam. 5 hours to NYC- JFK and then 13 hours to Dubai, United Arab Emirates where we will stay overnight before our flight on the 3rd from Dubai to Dar Es Salaam. Thankfully we brought some good books and good music! See you all in 6 weeks and stay tuned for more travel blogs.
Here is an entertaining look at my fascinating packing system:

Five days and counting

Our office has become a staging area... we've got our backpacks out and all of our needs for six weeks are piled on top! We are trying to pack light and still be prepared for a possible Kili summit at below freezing and 100 degree weather in the Gombe. Although our trip still seems very surreal, it is becoming increasingly tangible and very exciting. We are both working full weeks, as I am trying to close things with some clients and make sure others have access to resources while I am away and Mike is in Sacramento doing a training. But, we have all of our vaccines, some plans, and lots of room for adventure. We calculated 24 hours of flight time (fun!- heavy sarcasm), though it will take us two days to get there. Stay tuned!

The Plan

Hello friends,
Carol and I depart for Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania on July 1st, 2007. We will arrive on July 3rd and depart on August 6th. Plans include visiting the chimpanzees in Mt. Gombe National park. This is the park where the Jane Goodall Institute protects chimpanzees. Visit www.janegoodall.org for more information. We also plan on going on safari in Serengeti National Park. We have yet to decide if we will climb Kiliminjaro. Time, funds, and endurance will make that decision for us. We are making all of our plans through a non-profit based in Tanzania called Terrawatu (www.terrawatu.org). Stay tuned for more information.

Carol and Mike officially enter the blogosphere!