On our way to dinner we rounded a corner and there was a zebra grazing just a few feet away. It barely moved an ear as we "oohed" and "aahed" and whipped out our cameras. This place is just incredible, I can't even think of enough words to describe it.
Dinner was another great buffet, candlelit no less, and a trio of men playing African drums in the background. Pretty nice.
We came back to our room, which was both baboon and monkeyless and watched the gecko run up and down the wall, and eventually fell alseep to the sound of the crickets and the howl of some other creature out there.
TIDBITS
When we were driving through the Ngorongoro area we saw a lot of Masai herding their cattle. They have grazing rights in the Ngorongoro, plus they still have a lot of their homes and villages there as well.
If you slow down even the slightest bit, kids will run out to the road and start to yell. They want their pictures taken, which is actually not allowed as it teaches them to beg as opposed to working.
Prior to entering the park we stopped to look at some camels and a young camel herder appeared and came over to the truck. Hamisi said I could take a picture so I asked the boy: "Picture?" and he said: "Money." I held out 1,000 TS and to my surprise, he shook his head and said:"2,000" I paid him, and I got a nice picture, but I can see why it's so easy for them to beg. In Haydom most families make less than $2.00 a day. All the kids around here run to the road with their hands outstretched, and that's because the area has so many tourists in the high season who will pay a dollar or 2 to get a picture. I had a bad taste in my mouth from that experience and we didn't take any more pictures of people at all. Western influences....how wonderful are we?
The hotels on the safari are all powered by generators so there is no power or hot water from midnight-5 AM. They turn it on at 5AM until noon, and then off again until 5PM until midnight. They supply candles and matches in all the rooms in case you are up past midnight, however we are asleep long before that. We each brought a small flashlight, which have finally come in handy (for me anyhow) as I always need to make at least one bathroom run during the night..
Nicole decided to have a shower after dinner, but the prior occupant had turned off the cold water tap SO tight that she couldn't turn it on. We both tried and tried and we were just about to call maintenance when I managed to stand in the tub and use a wet facecloth and both hands and all the leverage I could muster, I almost gave myself a hernia, but *whew*, managed to save the day.
We can hear the baboons (we think) hooting and calling at night.
Jan 24.
Up at 7:30 (we have no phones in our rooms here, so no wake-up call from Chad, but our bodies are so acclimated to the time that we wake up anyhow.) Another good buffet breakfast, although neither of us was very hungry so we packed up our box lunches and saw that Hamisi was early too, so we headed out.
The Serengeti is so vast. 15,763 sq. km of wheat coloured blowing grass, acacia trees looking like they were just randomly dropped down into huge empty spaces, and these massive rocky outcroppings that appear every few miles--giant boulders that must be an ice-age leftover. The horizon stretches as far as the eye can see and is so flat that you can turn in a complete circle and it all looks the same. So easy to get lost. You can see the wildebeest everywhere, little specks in the distance that look like someone has shaken pepper on a piece of burlap.
As you drive around you can sometimes see faint, hazy hills in the distance, a pale blue against the light blue sky, it looks like a soft, often washed denim shirt.
We saw some maribou storks, a silver backed jackal and some hippo's in their pool, we also saw a big ole hippo lumbering off for some morning feed, but we could only see the side of him. But as we rounded the corner we saw 2 hyenas sitting on the side of the road.We stopped and rolled down the window for a picture, it was a little dusty so we were waiting for the dust to settle so we could get a good photo. They were not 2 feet away, I could have reached right out and touched the one. He gave me a "hyena smile" though, so I snapped the picture through the dust and rolled the window back up again. I saw a picture of a man in Haydom who was bitten in the face by a hyena and it was not a pretty sight.
Shortly after that we saw a gazelle family, mom, dad and a small baby that couldn't have been more than a few weeks old. Mom must have been teaching him to run in a zig-zag formation (as they do, to outfox the big predators who can't turn as sharply)because the little guy would stand still as stone, then he'd BOLT as fast as he could, running in a zig-zag pattern and he'd kick up little puffs of dust as he turned, then he'd take a few stiff legged bounces and stop dead for second and start all over again.
Our eagle eyed guide spotted 2 cheetahs under a tree, we had to use our binoculars to see them clearly, but we were able to watch them for a while, they were trying to decide whether or not to chase a nearby gazelle. The one would stand up and walk a few feet towards it and then just lie down again. It did this a few times and then I suppose it decided it was just too hot out. Or it wasn't hungry enough...who knows what goes on in the mind of a cheeta?
We also saw 2 lions in the distance, we had a hard time seeing them clearly even with the binocs, but we were happy to see them none-the-less.
We saw all manner of odd birds from starlings to lilac crested roller birds to oxpeckers that sit on the backs of the Cape Buffalo. One buffalo had 3 white egrets just sitting on his back.The egrets just sat there like they were observing something very serious.
We came across baboons and waterbucks at a waterhole along with a black-headed heron, a bastard bird and some Egyption geese.
Then, and this is the best, we rounded a corner and saw 2 parked vehicles and we noticed a large male lion sleeping under a tree about 12 feet away. Just stretched out, not a care in the world. Then we saw a female coming down the road towards him. We all stood still, hoping she would keep coming, and she ambled down the road, not even looking at us; she walked over to the lion and rolled over in front of him and then walked closer and rubbed her face against his neck. By this time he was awake and looking at her with interest.She walked in front of him and over to our truck and he got up and followed her. She lay down about 8 feet in front of us and he came over and did his "lion duty." It only takes seconds, and he bit her neck and gave a roar and then he wandered away. We were all astounded at our luck in seeing this. The female is only in heat for 7 days, so we picked a good time! It was incredible to see a lion that close. My pictures turned out pretty good. Nicole and I just looked at each other, we could hardly believe it.
We then headed back to the hotel for lunch and a rest. The game tends to hide out in the early afternoon, so we did the same thing and then went for a late afternoon drive. Nicole wasn't feeling great so we didn't stay too long, but we saw loads of buffalo, a beautiful herd of Topi, some mountain reed bucks, some bush bucks (which look like little tiny whitetail deer) and of course gazelles everywhere. We sort of saw a leopard-our driver saw a bunch of vehicles around a tree and he said whenever you see more than 5 or 6 vehicles in one spot, you know there is a leopard there as they are very rare and hard to spot nowadays. So we all raced over there, 14 (14!!) trucks in all. Needless to say the poor thing refused to show itself and all anyone could see was the flicker of an ear in the deep grass. It could have been anything down there, so we just left.
Back at our room we freshend up and listened to the monkeys and baboons running over the roof. You can hear their little feet thumping across the roof and then silence...they sit at the edge and peer over at you as you pass by, and sometimes they holler at you, it's a little scary. Nicole had one race right by her as she was walking up the path..
As I wrote this in my journal I was watching a Cape Buffalo grazing outside my window, and this morning a family of warthogs went running through, they make the most noise...piggy screams and all sorts of thrashing and rustling and it makes the gazelles leap with fear. Yesterday it was zebras out back and there are always hundreds of the hyrax running about as well. It is a miracle place for sure!
Hamisi's name means Thursday, as that's the day of the week he was born.
Yesterday he was going to take us to see some crocodiles, but he was talking to another driver who said that there were a lot of tse-tse flies over there and Hamisi decided it wasn't a good idea to take us there-when your guide wants to stay away, well, I think it's probably best to stay away. We have no innoculation for sleeping sickness (which is what you get from the bite of tse-tse fly)
The drivers all know each other, at least most of them do and we have seen, oh, about 12 different company vehicles driving around and the drivers all wave to one another and will stop for a quick chat in swahili. I like to think they are telling each other what animals they have seen, and where the good spot to go today is, but I imagine they are talking a little bit about their customers. I know that Nicole and I are always in awe of Hamisi's sighting abilties and his knowledge of everything Tanzanian, and we tell him that too, so hopefully he only has nice things to say about us.
We are so happy to have a driver and a vehicle to ourselves, we see other people crammed in, sometimes 8 in a truck, someone is always stuck in the dreaded middle seat and there is never enough space in the open top roof for all 8 to get a good picture. We can move all over and stop whenever we please to take a picture of whatever silly thing strikes our fancy, and we can leave early if we feel the need as well, without offending another couple. If I were ever to do this again, I'd spend the extra money and have another private vehicle, it's SO worth it.
Hamisi has been with Sunny Safari for 5 years now and he says he really likes his job. The guides take a course before they are certified, anywhere from 2-6 months, I guess it depends on how much you already know.
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Monday, January 30, 2006
Little Tidbits.
As we were leaving Arusha with our driver, we passed by some rather large coffee plantations. They grow Arabica coffee here, and it is really tasty stuff. Nicole asked our driver to stop so she could get a picture and he happily pulled over. That's the great thing about spending a bit more and having our own driver and vehicle, we can stop whenever we please and we always have a window seat! If he sees us taking a picture out the window, or hears us mention something that we see, he pulls right over and explains thing to us or waits until we take the picture. A very agreeable fellow.
We also passed banana plantations, sugar cane fields, and oddly enough, rice fields (rice paddies?)
The land outside Arusha is very badly eroded, there are areas that look almost like a desert they are so dry and dusty.
We also saw some camels in a field, which was sort of unusual. It was unusual to me at any rate.
School here is very expensive. Hamisi could not believe it when we told him that school is basically free for our children and that it is law for kids under 16 to go to school. Most kids here cannot afford primary school and University is far beyond most peoples grasp. When an average family makes MAYBE $300 a year and high school can run as much as $1500 a year...well, you can see why it's almost impossible for so many young people to get an education.
Dinner at the Lake Manyara lodge was the most excellent buffet. Beef, chicken, lasagna, fish, all sorts of veggies prepared in different ways, rice, some curries, salads and a huge table of desserts. We were very impressed!
When we returned to our room we found our beds turned down, mosquito nets in place and little candies on our pillows.
After dinner there was a group of young folks who performed some traditional songs and dances while wearing traditional clothes and face-paint. I'm sure it was partially packaged for us tourists, especially noticable as we watched one young guy dancing with wild abandon, but we kept getting glimpses of his red Nike shorts beneath his robe.
The wind was getting quite strong, although it was a very warm wind and quite refreshing. The bathrooms all have spaces at the top of the walls where the wall meets the ceiling and this space is just filled with a screen. It's about 8 inches high and is meant for ventilation and breezes I guess. The wind was whipping through this space so hard that the shower curtain looked like it was possessed and it sounded like it too as the wind howled and screamed through the bathroom. A very strange feeling to walk into your bathroom and have to control the shower curtain before you can sit on the toilet.
We slept very well and we are loving our mosquito nets, it's like being in a little cocoon. I am considering getting one for my bed at home!
Jan 23.
This morning we went to the morning buffet which was really nice. They even had an omelet bar, plus hash browns, bacon, sausage etc as well as all sorts of fruits and cereals. We have become addicted to the slices of pineapple served at every meal, so fresh and juicy. We sat and looked at the vista of Lake Manyara as we ate. All the different shades of blues and greens--a little hazy in the morning mist, it looked very ethereal. I still cannot believe we are here.
We watched 2 men cut the grass with scythes. They were very diligent and it looked as smooth and as even as if a power mower had been used.. We were ready by 8:30 and Hamisi appeared just as we were gathering up our box lunches, so off we went.
(the box lunches are all set out "buffet style" and you can pick what you would like and pack your own little lunch. They supply a sandwich, fried chicken, carrot and cuke sticks, bananas, apples, cake, a small chocolate bar, a juice box and a bottle of water. Sometimes there were hardboiled eggs and cheese as well, so it was quite a healthy and filling lunch.)
It was the start of a pretty long day. We left Lake Manyara and headed towards the Serengeti- driving on a major highway where we saw all sorts of interesting things. Locals plowing fields using cows and/or donkeys hitched to an old fashioned wooden yoke, and some people who were plowing and didn't even have that luxury; they were simply using a hoe. The land looked very fertile, lots of green maize seedlings, but if the rains don't come, they'll die. The landscape had a lot of rolling hills, and quite a few trees as well. The trees looked like our poplar trees until you got close to them and you can see that the leaves look like small ferns. They are called "silk oak." People walking everywhere.
We passed through the small town of Karatu, which looked very nice, it seemed clean and had a lot of little restaurants, curio shops, souviner stands and tiny little guest houses. It gets a lot of tourist trade, people who are not on an organized safari but instead are travelling between Lake Manyaro, the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater on their own. It seemed like sort of pleasant place. Hamisi said there it is mostly populated by Ethiopian and Iraqui people.
To get to the Serengeti, you pass through the Ngorongoro area. You drive up, up, up a series of steep and twisty roads and then you stop at the top and look down, down, down the other side into the crater. We didn't descend that day, that's the day after tomorrows adventure, instead we circled around the crater and go down the other side to the Serengeti. It's like a jungle up here, very thick and green.
It's a $60 transit fee to go through the Ngorongoro, but that is all fed back into the upkeep and maintenance of the park. I will say that the Tanzanian government takes extremely good care of their national parks.
As we came down the other side, the land became very flat and dry and looked like you imagine the Serengeti to look. We started to see gazelles everywhere, both the Thompson Gazelles and the Ranch Gazelles, as well as zebras grazing all over, and wildebeests? I had no idea we would see them in the millions, and I do not exaggerate, we were fortunate enough to catch the migration and they were stretched out as far as the eye could see, it was amazing. They, and the zebras wander around beside the road and you think you are going to get a marvelous picture but as soon as you get close the zebras turn their back on you and the wildebeest kick up their heels and fling their heads about and do that silly wildebeest dance--tails flicking back and forth, it makes you smile to watch them, silly beasts.
We stopped at a designated place to eat our lunch and we were approached by all these little iridescent blue birds- black heads, shiny little eyes and a yellow stripe on their throats, but their feathers glow like blue gemstones. They hopped around our feet looking for crumbs and I was so interested in watching them that I never noticed the sneaky little grey bird who swooped down and tried to steal the sandwich right oiut of my hand.
This lunch area is where the drivers pay the entrance fee to get into the Serengeti area even though we had entered the actual part area a few miles earlier. Another $50 each. Good thing all tis is covered in the cost of our safari fee.
We headed off into the arid, dusty, wheat coloured area and almost instantly Hamisi spotted a cheetah stalking a gazelle. It was a ways away and we had to use binoculars to see her clearly, but it was still pretty exciting to watch!
Turning a corner we almost ran over a Topi, which is a large reddish animal, similar to a deer, but much stronger looking. Their front end stands higher than their back end so they almost look like they are stretching their necks out. It just stood there, still as stone, looking as if it were trying to ignore us and that if it didn't see us, then we wouldn't see it. We saw a lot of them standing like this, just staring intently off into the distance...all alone, just standing on the horizon. Hamisi said that the Topi's are sort of a sentinal, because they are large, they look for enemies and the gazelles and other smaller animals can graze in peace as the Topi will spot something coming and give the warning. I have a few good pictures of these fellows, which I'll post soon.
We saw so many birds, and our driver knows them all-- blacksmith plovers, grey herons, secretary birds, ostriches, crowned cranes, white egrets, stilt jacks and 2 huge nubian vultures leering at us with their wings outstretched, they must have a wingspan of 6 feet. They were a little scary looking.
We also saw reedbucks, redbucks, waterbucks and springboks, haartbeestes and wildebeests and of course gazelles, zebras and the ornery, cranky and dangerous Cape Buffalo, not to mention warthogs busily trotting off as if they had somewhere important to be.
The haartbeest, when his horns are full grown, looks like he has a heart on the top of his head, his horns grow outwards and then curve in, heart shaped.
We drove until about 3 PM and then headed to the hotel. The land is very flat, but suddenly the hotel appeared out of nowhere. It's built around these giant rock formations that are scattered through the Serengeti, every few miles you will come across these giant boulders some are 3 or 4 stories high. These are the places where the lions will go during the rainy season, they have little hidey holes in between the rocks. Some places have rocks stacked on top of each other and they look like a strong wind would blow them over, but I guess they have stood here for millenia now.
So we checked into the room, which had 3 small beds so we happily used the middle bed for our stuff and as we were happily unpacking we heard a "knock-knock" on the door and a hotle staff memebr apologetically told us that we had been put in the wrong room and we'd have to move. What is it with us and room changes? So we were moved upstairs to a room that overlooked the Serengeti. The patio door opens, but ther is no actual deck there, just a railing so that you don't tumble down and a ledge that is maybe 8 inches wide.
We can watch the gazelles in "our" backyard, not 15-20 feet away and also in the evening we watch families of warthogs running past, screeching little piggy sounds and making everything else scatter. I saw some cape Buffalo wander by one night and a few zebra as well. What a backyard!
The rest of the hotel area is filled with Red Hyrax, whuich is a really cute little thing, sort of like a giant guinea pig, about the size of a large cat. They scamper all over the place and play in the little pond.
We were told by the staff to not only keep the door to our room locjked at all times, but when we leave the room to also put our stuff in the closet and lock it too. Apparently the monkeys and baboons are very sneaky and will get in and demolish your things given the slightest chance!
As we look out our window we saw all sorts of monkeys running by and then we saw a procession of baboons, about 5 or 6 of them coming out of the grass towards the hotel. They stopped beneath our balcony and then wandered to the front of the hotel. We ran to our front door and the last we saw of them was their red backsides as they wandered nonchalantly up the path to the restaurant. I half expected to see them at a table, holding a menu upsidedown when we went for dinner.
We were still trying to unpack when I glanced out the window and saw, sitting on our ledge, a mama monkey nursing her baby who could not have been more than 2 or 3 weeks old. I whispered to Nicole to come and see and we took a few pictures through the glass and mama didn't seem the least concerned so we slowly opened the window and she was fine with letting us take as many pictures as we wanted. Then the baby decided to clamber around a bit and as it tried to be adventurous mama held on to the end of it's tail so that it wouldn't fall or get too far away. Then another mama came over with her little one, who was a bit older and the 2 little ones played and hugged while the 2 moms groomed each other, one mom would lie with her arms outstretched as the other one would pick and clean her. We were just enthralled. We finally forced oursleves to go for dinner, although we had to find fresh towels as in the front desks haste to move us they gave us a room with someone else's towels in it. I swear, we have the worst room luck, but if we hadn't had this room we never would have seen the monkeys so close, so that was worth it all.
As we were leaving Arusha with our driver, we passed by some rather large coffee plantations. They grow Arabica coffee here, and it is really tasty stuff. Nicole asked our driver to stop so she could get a picture and he happily pulled over. That's the great thing about spending a bit more and having our own driver and vehicle, we can stop whenever we please and we always have a window seat! If he sees us taking a picture out the window, or hears us mention something that we see, he pulls right over and explains thing to us or waits until we take the picture. A very agreeable fellow.
We also passed banana plantations, sugar cane fields, and oddly enough, rice fields (rice paddies?)
The land outside Arusha is very badly eroded, there are areas that look almost like a desert they are so dry and dusty.
We also saw some camels in a field, which was sort of unusual. It was unusual to me at any rate.
School here is very expensive. Hamisi could not believe it when we told him that school is basically free for our children and that it is law for kids under 16 to go to school. Most kids here cannot afford primary school and University is far beyond most peoples grasp. When an average family makes MAYBE $300 a year and high school can run as much as $1500 a year...well, you can see why it's almost impossible for so many young people to get an education.
Dinner at the Lake Manyara lodge was the most excellent buffet. Beef, chicken, lasagna, fish, all sorts of veggies prepared in different ways, rice, some curries, salads and a huge table of desserts. We were very impressed!
When we returned to our room we found our beds turned down, mosquito nets in place and little candies on our pillows.
After dinner there was a group of young folks who performed some traditional songs and dances while wearing traditional clothes and face-paint. I'm sure it was partially packaged for us tourists, especially noticable as we watched one young guy dancing with wild abandon, but we kept getting glimpses of his red Nike shorts beneath his robe.
The wind was getting quite strong, although it was a very warm wind and quite refreshing. The bathrooms all have spaces at the top of the walls where the wall meets the ceiling and this space is just filled with a screen. It's about 8 inches high and is meant for ventilation and breezes I guess. The wind was whipping through this space so hard that the shower curtain looked like it was possessed and it sounded like it too as the wind howled and screamed through the bathroom. A very strange feeling to walk into your bathroom and have to control the shower curtain before you can sit on the toilet.
We slept very well and we are loving our mosquito nets, it's like being in a little cocoon. I am considering getting one for my bed at home!
Jan 23.
This morning we went to the morning buffet which was really nice. They even had an omelet bar, plus hash browns, bacon, sausage etc as well as all sorts of fruits and cereals. We have become addicted to the slices of pineapple served at every meal, so fresh and juicy. We sat and looked at the vista of Lake Manyara as we ate. All the different shades of blues and greens--a little hazy in the morning mist, it looked very ethereal. I still cannot believe we are here.
We watched 2 men cut the grass with scythes. They were very diligent and it looked as smooth and as even as if a power mower had been used.. We were ready by 8:30 and Hamisi appeared just as we were gathering up our box lunches, so off we went.
(the box lunches are all set out "buffet style" and you can pick what you would like and pack your own little lunch. They supply a sandwich, fried chicken, carrot and cuke sticks, bananas, apples, cake, a small chocolate bar, a juice box and a bottle of water. Sometimes there were hardboiled eggs and cheese as well, so it was quite a healthy and filling lunch.)
It was the start of a pretty long day. We left Lake Manyara and headed towards the Serengeti- driving on a major highway where we saw all sorts of interesting things. Locals plowing fields using cows and/or donkeys hitched to an old fashioned wooden yoke, and some people who were plowing and didn't even have that luxury; they were simply using a hoe. The land looked very fertile, lots of green maize seedlings, but if the rains don't come, they'll die. The landscape had a lot of rolling hills, and quite a few trees as well. The trees looked like our poplar trees until you got close to them and you can see that the leaves look like small ferns. They are called "silk oak." People walking everywhere.
We passed through the small town of Karatu, which looked very nice, it seemed clean and had a lot of little restaurants, curio shops, souviner stands and tiny little guest houses. It gets a lot of tourist trade, people who are not on an organized safari but instead are travelling between Lake Manyaro, the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater on their own. It seemed like sort of pleasant place. Hamisi said there it is mostly populated by Ethiopian and Iraqui people.
To get to the Serengeti, you pass through the Ngorongoro area. You drive up, up, up a series of steep and twisty roads and then you stop at the top and look down, down, down the other side into the crater. We didn't descend that day, that's the day after tomorrows adventure, instead we circled around the crater and go down the other side to the Serengeti. It's like a jungle up here, very thick and green.
It's a $60 transit fee to go through the Ngorongoro, but that is all fed back into the upkeep and maintenance of the park. I will say that the Tanzanian government takes extremely good care of their national parks.
As we came down the other side, the land became very flat and dry and looked like you imagine the Serengeti to look. We started to see gazelles everywhere, both the Thompson Gazelles and the Ranch Gazelles, as well as zebras grazing all over, and wildebeests? I had no idea we would see them in the millions, and I do not exaggerate, we were fortunate enough to catch the migration and they were stretched out as far as the eye could see, it was amazing. They, and the zebras wander around beside the road and you think you are going to get a marvelous picture but as soon as you get close the zebras turn their back on you and the wildebeest kick up their heels and fling their heads about and do that silly wildebeest dance--tails flicking back and forth, it makes you smile to watch them, silly beasts.
We stopped at a designated place to eat our lunch and we were approached by all these little iridescent blue birds- black heads, shiny little eyes and a yellow stripe on their throats, but their feathers glow like blue gemstones. They hopped around our feet looking for crumbs and I was so interested in watching them that I never noticed the sneaky little grey bird who swooped down and tried to steal the sandwich right oiut of my hand.
This lunch area is where the drivers pay the entrance fee to get into the Serengeti area even though we had entered the actual part area a few miles earlier. Another $50 each. Good thing all tis is covered in the cost of our safari fee.
We headed off into the arid, dusty, wheat coloured area and almost instantly Hamisi spotted a cheetah stalking a gazelle. It was a ways away and we had to use binoculars to see her clearly, but it was still pretty exciting to watch!
Turning a corner we almost ran over a Topi, which is a large reddish animal, similar to a deer, but much stronger looking. Their front end stands higher than their back end so they almost look like they are stretching their necks out. It just stood there, still as stone, looking as if it were trying to ignore us and that if it didn't see us, then we wouldn't see it. We saw a lot of them standing like this, just staring intently off into the distance...all alone, just standing on the horizon. Hamisi said that the Topi's are sort of a sentinal, because they are large, they look for enemies and the gazelles and other smaller animals can graze in peace as the Topi will spot something coming and give the warning. I have a few good pictures of these fellows, which I'll post soon.
We saw so many birds, and our driver knows them all-- blacksmith plovers, grey herons, secretary birds, ostriches, crowned cranes, white egrets, stilt jacks and 2 huge nubian vultures leering at us with their wings outstretched, they must have a wingspan of 6 feet. They were a little scary looking.
We also saw reedbucks, redbucks, waterbucks and springboks, haartbeestes and wildebeests and of course gazelles, zebras and the ornery, cranky and dangerous Cape Buffalo, not to mention warthogs busily trotting off as if they had somewhere important to be.
The haartbeest, when his horns are full grown, looks like he has a heart on the top of his head, his horns grow outwards and then curve in, heart shaped.
We drove until about 3 PM and then headed to the hotel. The land is very flat, but suddenly the hotel appeared out of nowhere. It's built around these giant rock formations that are scattered through the Serengeti, every few miles you will come across these giant boulders some are 3 or 4 stories high. These are the places where the lions will go during the rainy season, they have little hidey holes in between the rocks. Some places have rocks stacked on top of each other and they look like a strong wind would blow them over, but I guess they have stood here for millenia now.
So we checked into the room, which had 3 small beds so we happily used the middle bed for our stuff and as we were happily unpacking we heard a "knock-knock" on the door and a hotle staff memebr apologetically told us that we had been put in the wrong room and we'd have to move. What is it with us and room changes? So we were moved upstairs to a room that overlooked the Serengeti. The patio door opens, but ther is no actual deck there, just a railing so that you don't tumble down and a ledge that is maybe 8 inches wide.
We can watch the gazelles in "our" backyard, not 15-20 feet away and also in the evening we watch families of warthogs running past, screeching little piggy sounds and making everything else scatter. I saw some cape Buffalo wander by one night and a few zebra as well. What a backyard!
The rest of the hotel area is filled with Red Hyrax, whuich is a really cute little thing, sort of like a giant guinea pig, about the size of a large cat. They scamper all over the place and play in the little pond.
We were told by the staff to not only keep the door to our room locjked at all times, but when we leave the room to also put our stuff in the closet and lock it too. Apparently the monkeys and baboons are very sneaky and will get in and demolish your things given the slightest chance!
As we look out our window we saw all sorts of monkeys running by and then we saw a procession of baboons, about 5 or 6 of them coming out of the grass towards the hotel. They stopped beneath our balcony and then wandered to the front of the hotel. We ran to our front door and the last we saw of them was their red backsides as they wandered nonchalantly up the path to the restaurant. I half expected to see them at a table, holding a menu upsidedown when we went for dinner.
We were still trying to unpack when I glanced out the window and saw, sitting on our ledge, a mama monkey nursing her baby who could not have been more than 2 or 3 weeks old. I whispered to Nicole to come and see and we took a few pictures through the glass and mama didn't seem the least concerned so we slowly opened the window and she was fine with letting us take as many pictures as we wanted. Then the baby decided to clamber around a bit and as it tried to be adventurous mama held on to the end of it's tail so that it wouldn't fall or get too far away. Then another mama came over with her little one, who was a bit older and the 2 little ones played and hugged while the 2 moms groomed each other, one mom would lie with her arms outstretched as the other one would pick and clean her. We were just enthralled. We finally forced oursleves to go for dinner, although we had to find fresh towels as in the front desks haste to move us they gave us a room with someone else's towels in it. I swear, we have the worst room luck, but if we hadn't had this room we never would have seen the monkeys so close, so that was worth it all.
I got really impatient with fixing my spelling errors so I have just decided to ignore it all for now.
After the Street Hustler brought Nicole to me we decided we needed to find a bathroom and the bookstore that we were in the other day. We shook off the vendors and we briskly headed off, we were quite confident that we knew where we were going, but apparently we didn't as we walked up and down and up and down and simply could not find the street, We even asked some of the "men with guns" and they pointed us one way...no bookstore there. We walked through one of the smaller roundabouts a few times trying to not stop and look like we were lost as that brings them flocking to you like tse-tse flies. We hear the cry: "pole-pole mzunga" ("slowly, white people.")
We never did find the bookstore. Things just vanish around here, roads, streets, store, entire bus-stops. It's really very strange. We ended up taking a taxi back to the hotel ($2.00) where we caught up on laundry and postcards and had a nice light dinner.
Tomorrow we will take a taxi directly to the bookstore, no more of this aimless wandering. In case you are wondering about the attraction to this book store, it's in a well ventilated building, there are loads of books (new and used) about Africa and also the Best Sellers from America too. There are souviners, odds and ends, bits of art and crafts and a little cafe that serves coffee and cakes. It's just a nice little haven to spend a few hours in. The city itself is not conduicive to wandering around in, and there are no "sights" per se.
TIDBITS.
When we left Haydom we decided to leave our mosquito nets behind. They are really pretty bulky and since we were returning to the Impala we knew we wouldn't need them there and we asked at Sunny Safari's if all the hotels on the safari provided nets and the answer was yes, so we relinquished ours and made a bit of room in the suitcase. I have had 3 bites, and none were in the rooms, all were outside, one in Haydom and 2 in the Impala, so it isn't like the net is saving us from either malaria or dengue fever anyhow.. However, everyone, even the doctors at Haydom do sleep under them at night. It isn't just mosquitos that are out there, but there is a plethor of winged and creepy crawlies just waiting to join you in bed. I have only seen 2 spiders though, a small and speedy one that took off across a floor and one HUGE one that was on a wall inb Haydom, but it was nowhere near me.
We also saw (again in Haydom) caterpillar type things and millipedes. But nothing too horrendous and they are all things I can outrun or stomp on.
But once again, "I digress". We asked Clementina, the hospital secretary who was so helpful and had helped Nicole set up the whole visit, what we should do with our nets, if maybe the hospital could use them and she asked if she could have them. She lives 2 km from the hospital so it's somewhere that does not have running water (the village has a public water pump, there are no pipes that run to individual homes) and she has a 3 year old daughter so we were happy to have them go to her. It seems odd to think that a net from the Cranbrook Wal-mart is going to be living out its days in a small African village.
Jan 21.
Today we decided to take the taxi to the bookstore after our pathetic attemptto find it on our own yesterday. Our taxi driver took us there is a matter of minutes and we asked Abdala if he would come back for us in an hour and of course the answer is always "no problem." We had a nice browse and bought a few little items (african wrapping paper actually) and when he returned for us we asked him to take us to the Natural History Museum. He was pleased to do so and off we went.
As we pulled up, a van came screetching to a halt beside us; siren blaring and out leaps 4 or 5 swat team members dressed in full riot gear, guns and all and went running through the gate. Our driver said very casually: "Oh, it's ok, you don't have to worry about them, just go in." We were a little hesitant and it must have showed (gee I don't know, do you think eyeballs bugging out an inch and a half and feet frozen to the ground would indicate a little fear?) so he jumped out of the taxi and ushered us in, commenting that he didn't want us to be concerned. He even took our packages for us and stored them in the trunk of the car. We went through the doorway and saw the swat fellows talking to a screaming woman and we never saw any of them after that, so I have no idea what that was all about.
The museum was small and dusty and didn't have much in it at all, although there were some of the fossils that Doctors Mary and Richard Leaky had discovered and we found that of interesting.
The museum itself however, is in the old German Boma, or Administrative Headquarters from Colonial times. The Germans did bring western education and health care (this being in the late 1800's and early 1900's) but there was also very harsh working conditions and slavery and very few of the railways and roads and other improvements benefitted the African people and this eventually led to the maji-maji uprising in which over 100,000 Africans were slaughtered. The German era lasted until the end of WW1 when the country became Tanganika under British Administration and finally in the 1960's it received independance and became Tanzania. There is still a lot of hard feeling toward the German occupation.
After that we decided to have a ginger ale in small restaurant/music club in the grounds behind the museum, a nice little place called Via-via. We then went outside to find our driver reading a newspaper, happy as a clam to wait for us. He took us back to the hotel and it cost us a whole $5 each to have him basically spend half the day with us, and watch our parcels as well. We tipped him an additional $5, a 50% tip, but it is so worth it, and he is such a nice guy.
We thenwent to our local supermarket to pick up a few bottles of water and some snacks for tomorrows ride to lake Manyara, the beginning of our safari! We were sidetracked by a furniture/souviner store where we accidentally bought a few more things. The lack of suitcase room is becoming critical. We were in bed early tonight, I think by 9 PM.
Jan 22. Safari Day!
Wow! What a day! I can't use enough exclaimation marks! As we were checking out of the Impala I saw a fellow wearing a Sunny Safari shirt so I introduced myself to him and he is our guide, Hamisi. He loaded up our suitcases (so meagre compared to the other clients who were all cramming themselves and dozens of suitcases into their vehicles) and we hopped into the Toyota Landcruiser Hilux diesel.
We drove out of Arusha, past the local shops and small lumber mills and the general area where a lot of the locals live. It was market day and thus the roads were filled with families all dressed in brightly coloured clothes carrying their wares, tugging along little tethered goats, and pushing carts filled with all sorts of items, as well as the women carrying all those amazing items on their heads.
Children were outside their homes, brushing their teeth and spitting in the ditch, I guess if you have no running water it's a little hard to brush and spit indoors. All these things are the types of things that never occur to you when you are lucky enough to live where we live.
We drove through the military base, which is HUGE, it goes on for miles and miles. They let the Masai live there and graze their cattle there, although parts are left vacant for military exercises. No photo's allowed.
The roads are crowded with people walking to town (or home) waiting for the dalla-dalla at designated stops and even selling charcoal on the side of the road--which they make. They take a large tree, dig a hole and put it in, douse it with kerosene and light it on fire. It's then covered with dirt and smolders for 3 days and then you have charcoal! They fill a huge burlap bag and sell it on the roadside. Quite innovative.
The first animal we saw was a zebra on the edge of the road, unfortunaly crows were snacking on it as it was not much more than a carcass. The crows here have huge white patches on their chests.
We stopped at a small curio/souviner/little food stand place to use the toilet and it was our first experience with the "hole in the ground" type, and a very filthy one it was indeed. The best item we have brought along are the little antiseptic wet wipes. I'm sure they have saved us from many an unusual germ.
It took the promised 2 hours to get to the gates of Lake Manyara national park, the first time that we had an event that was on time. Hamisi paid the entrace fee ($50 for each of us) and in we went. It is very lush, a lot of foliage and green shrubs and trees. Sort of like our forests except the trees are ebony, mahogany, wild palm, wild mango and yellow backed acacia, tamarind (the fruit is used to make a type of porridge that Muslims can eat during Ramadan) and a very strange tree called a sausage tree. It looks like a regular leafy tree other than the hundreds and hundreds of fruits that are dangling from it that look EXACTLY like some prankster has crawled up there and tied bratwurst sausages to every limb. It was hysterical! The locals use the sausage to make alcohol and also for stomach remedies.
The park is 330 sq. km and 220 sq km of that is the lake, so the land area is quite concentrated and has a lot of wildlife in a small area. Of course the lake is way down right now because of the drought and that is good for tourists because other animals from smaller lakes have no water and they are coming to Lake Manyara which still has some. Not good for anyone or anything else though.
Almost the minute we got into the park we saw blue monkeys (they aren't blue though) They were jumping from branch to branch, roughhousing and scampering around. We were totally enthralled. Then, just around the corner were baboons---hundreds of them just wandering down the road like a rag-tag bunch of children. They would walk by the truck and sneak little glances at us out of the corner of their eyes, quickly looking the other way if we made eye contact. There were big ones, small ones, moms with babies on their backs and babies clutching their moms tummies and rowdy "teens". And yes, they had those big red baboon butts! It was like a convoy.
Around the next corner we saw our first giraffe-just standing in the bush twirling his ears. We felt like it was all animatronic and that we were in some sort of Disneyland...
Then we saw banded mongoose and drove to a small swampy area called The Hippo Pool where we saw maribou storks and pelicans (Pelican-his beak can hold more than his belly can) There were these huge grey rocks with some birds on them and imagine our amazement when the rocks shifted and turned into hippopotamus's. (hippopotami?)
We could see animals in the distance that were cape Buffalo and also some wildebeest and we got close enough to get a few good pictures.
The impala are everywhere, and the bucks are massive with beautiful wavy horns, and also there are thousands of gazelles as well. And the zebra are all over the place, grazing just like horses. They, to me, are the most exotic looking animal-all those stripes are stunning.
Hamisi pointed out all these interesting birds as well--guinea fowl with a foolish little top knot that bobbles as they run away and red-billed hornbills that look sort of like a toucan.
We saw a little dik-dik standing as still as a stone, looking just like a miniature deer, maybe 18 inches high. They aren't that easy to spot as they are very, very shy, so we were happy to see this little fellow, with a tiny female behind him..
We stopped for lunch under a huige acacia tree and opened up our box lunch which had Indian food in it; an empanada type of thing filled with spiced meat, a meat pie filled with a different type of meat, some injera bread, a box of juice, a donut and a chocolate bar. It was excellent, eating our lunch overlooking Lake Manyara.
There were some amasingly clean bathroom there, with flush toilets. I couldn't figure out how they possibly could have a flush toilet until I noticed a 5,000 gallon tank on the roof. I assume that a tanker comes in and fills it as needed.
As we continued on we saw elephants! Elephants all over the place! We watched a mother teaching her baby how to kick up dust to take a dust bath and then the baby was nursing afterwards, there were some young males drinking and there were elephants just lumbering along, going about their elephant business. It was very surreal to us, to actually be watching all this, like a national Geographic special come to life in front of us.
We came across more giraffes, eating from the trees, spreading their gangly legs apart to bend over to get a more delictible leaf from below, glancing at us now and then and then blending into the bush as they slowly loped away, looking like they were running in slow motion and tilted to one side almost like they were falling over.
It was really like a scene from Jurassic park, all these huge animals just appearing out of nowhere and I really would not have been too surprised to round a corner and see a brontosaurus standing there, that's how dreamlike today has been.
As we headed out of the park to the hotel we saw a warthog trotting down the road, his tail flicking from side to side. He stopped and looked at us for a second and then vanished into the bush. We had seen a mom and baby earlier, but they were quite a ways away.
Just as we were leaving the park we got a flat tire and poor Hamisi had to change it in the heat, it must have been 35 outside. We got to stand in the shade while he changed it, but he had obviously done it many times before as it only took him minutes. Each vehicle carries 2 spares.
As we left the park we started up this steep and windy road and Hamisis pointed out this huge (HUGE) baobob tree and he pulled over for a second so that we could get a picture and to our amazement a little boy leaped out of nowhere with a chameleon on a stick. I think we were supposed to buy it or give him money to take apicture of it or something, but Hamisi rattled off some Swahili to him and the little guy took off. Where do these kids come from? They must just linger somewhere and hope for a tourist to stop.
We arrived at the hotel about 4 PM--the foyer is large and open, no doors, and they greet you with a cool, damp cloth and fresh orange juice, mmmm. The hotel grounds are green with lots of huge leafy trees to sit under. There are a lot of flowering plants and bushes and even some candleabra trees, which have the trunk of a regular tree but then branches look like a cactus or an aloe plant and point upwards like a....candleabra. There are also magnolia trees in bloom and a swimming pool in the middle of this little Eden. The lobby has couches and chairs to relax in and a large glassed in dining room for the buffet dinner. The entire complex overlooks Lake Manyara. We are at the edge of a cliff, and the lake is below, each room has the same view and it is incomparable.
I cannot believe that this is considered a moderate hotel.
After the Street Hustler brought Nicole to me we decided we needed to find a bathroom and the bookstore that we were in the other day. We shook off the vendors and we briskly headed off, we were quite confident that we knew where we were going, but apparently we didn't as we walked up and down and up and down and simply could not find the street, We even asked some of the "men with guns" and they pointed us one way...no bookstore there. We walked through one of the smaller roundabouts a few times trying to not stop and look like we were lost as that brings them flocking to you like tse-tse flies. We hear the cry: "pole-pole mzunga" ("slowly, white people.")
We never did find the bookstore. Things just vanish around here, roads, streets, store, entire bus-stops. It's really very strange. We ended up taking a taxi back to the hotel ($2.00) where we caught up on laundry and postcards and had a nice light dinner.
Tomorrow we will take a taxi directly to the bookstore, no more of this aimless wandering. In case you are wondering about the attraction to this book store, it's in a well ventilated building, there are loads of books (new and used) about Africa and also the Best Sellers from America too. There are souviners, odds and ends, bits of art and crafts and a little cafe that serves coffee and cakes. It's just a nice little haven to spend a few hours in. The city itself is not conduicive to wandering around in, and there are no "sights" per se.
TIDBITS.
When we left Haydom we decided to leave our mosquito nets behind. They are really pretty bulky and since we were returning to the Impala we knew we wouldn't need them there and we asked at Sunny Safari's if all the hotels on the safari provided nets and the answer was yes, so we relinquished ours and made a bit of room in the suitcase. I have had 3 bites, and none were in the rooms, all were outside, one in Haydom and 2 in the Impala, so it isn't like the net is saving us from either malaria or dengue fever anyhow.. However, everyone, even the doctors at Haydom do sleep under them at night. It isn't just mosquitos that are out there, but there is a plethor of winged and creepy crawlies just waiting to join you in bed. I have only seen 2 spiders though, a small and speedy one that took off across a floor and one HUGE one that was on a wall inb Haydom, but it was nowhere near me.
We also saw (again in Haydom) caterpillar type things and millipedes. But nothing too horrendous and they are all things I can outrun or stomp on.
But once again, "I digress". We asked Clementina, the hospital secretary who was so helpful and had helped Nicole set up the whole visit, what we should do with our nets, if maybe the hospital could use them and she asked if she could have them. She lives 2 km from the hospital so it's somewhere that does not have running water (the village has a public water pump, there are no pipes that run to individual homes) and she has a 3 year old daughter so we were happy to have them go to her. It seems odd to think that a net from the Cranbrook Wal-mart is going to be living out its days in a small African village.
Jan 21.
Today we decided to take the taxi to the bookstore after our pathetic attemptto find it on our own yesterday. Our taxi driver took us there is a matter of minutes and we asked Abdala if he would come back for us in an hour and of course the answer is always "no problem." We had a nice browse and bought a few little items (african wrapping paper actually) and when he returned for us we asked him to take us to the Natural History Museum. He was pleased to do so and off we went.
As we pulled up, a van came screetching to a halt beside us; siren blaring and out leaps 4 or 5 swat team members dressed in full riot gear, guns and all and went running through the gate. Our driver said very casually: "Oh, it's ok, you don't have to worry about them, just go in." We were a little hesitant and it must have showed (gee I don't know, do you think eyeballs bugging out an inch and a half and feet frozen to the ground would indicate a little fear?) so he jumped out of the taxi and ushered us in, commenting that he didn't want us to be concerned. He even took our packages for us and stored them in the trunk of the car. We went through the doorway and saw the swat fellows talking to a screaming woman and we never saw any of them after that, so I have no idea what that was all about.
The museum was small and dusty and didn't have much in it at all, although there were some of the fossils that Doctors Mary and Richard Leaky had discovered and we found that of interesting.
The museum itself however, is in the old German Boma, or Administrative Headquarters from Colonial times. The Germans did bring western education and health care (this being in the late 1800's and early 1900's) but there was also very harsh working conditions and slavery and very few of the railways and roads and other improvements benefitted the African people and this eventually led to the maji-maji uprising in which over 100,000 Africans were slaughtered. The German era lasted until the end of WW1 when the country became Tanganika under British Administration and finally in the 1960's it received independance and became Tanzania. There is still a lot of hard feeling toward the German occupation.
After that we decided to have a ginger ale in small restaurant/music club in the grounds behind the museum, a nice little place called Via-via. We then went outside to find our driver reading a newspaper, happy as a clam to wait for us. He took us back to the hotel and it cost us a whole $5 each to have him basically spend half the day with us, and watch our parcels as well. We tipped him an additional $5, a 50% tip, but it is so worth it, and he is such a nice guy.
We thenwent to our local supermarket to pick up a few bottles of water and some snacks for tomorrows ride to lake Manyara, the beginning of our safari! We were sidetracked by a furniture/souviner store where we accidentally bought a few more things. The lack of suitcase room is becoming critical. We were in bed early tonight, I think by 9 PM.
Jan 22. Safari Day!
Wow! What a day! I can't use enough exclaimation marks! As we were checking out of the Impala I saw a fellow wearing a Sunny Safari shirt so I introduced myself to him and he is our guide, Hamisi. He loaded up our suitcases (so meagre compared to the other clients who were all cramming themselves and dozens of suitcases into their vehicles) and we hopped into the Toyota Landcruiser Hilux diesel.
We drove out of Arusha, past the local shops and small lumber mills and the general area where a lot of the locals live. It was market day and thus the roads were filled with families all dressed in brightly coloured clothes carrying their wares, tugging along little tethered goats, and pushing carts filled with all sorts of items, as well as the women carrying all those amazing items on their heads.
Children were outside their homes, brushing their teeth and spitting in the ditch, I guess if you have no running water it's a little hard to brush and spit indoors. All these things are the types of things that never occur to you when you are lucky enough to live where we live.
We drove through the military base, which is HUGE, it goes on for miles and miles. They let the Masai live there and graze their cattle there, although parts are left vacant for military exercises. No photo's allowed.
The roads are crowded with people walking to town (or home) waiting for the dalla-dalla at designated stops and even selling charcoal on the side of the road--which they make. They take a large tree, dig a hole and put it in, douse it with kerosene and light it on fire. It's then covered with dirt and smolders for 3 days and then you have charcoal! They fill a huge burlap bag and sell it on the roadside. Quite innovative.
The first animal we saw was a zebra on the edge of the road, unfortunaly crows were snacking on it as it was not much more than a carcass. The crows here have huge white patches on their chests.
We stopped at a small curio/souviner/little food stand place to use the toilet and it was our first experience with the "hole in the ground" type, and a very filthy one it was indeed. The best item we have brought along are the little antiseptic wet wipes. I'm sure they have saved us from many an unusual germ.
It took the promised 2 hours to get to the gates of Lake Manyara national park, the first time that we had an event that was on time. Hamisi paid the entrace fee ($50 for each of us) and in we went. It is very lush, a lot of foliage and green shrubs and trees. Sort of like our forests except the trees are ebony, mahogany, wild palm, wild mango and yellow backed acacia, tamarind (the fruit is used to make a type of porridge that Muslims can eat during Ramadan) and a very strange tree called a sausage tree. It looks like a regular leafy tree other than the hundreds and hundreds of fruits that are dangling from it that look EXACTLY like some prankster has crawled up there and tied bratwurst sausages to every limb. It was hysterical! The locals use the sausage to make alcohol and also for stomach remedies.
The park is 330 sq. km and 220 sq km of that is the lake, so the land area is quite concentrated and has a lot of wildlife in a small area. Of course the lake is way down right now because of the drought and that is good for tourists because other animals from smaller lakes have no water and they are coming to Lake Manyara which still has some. Not good for anyone or anything else though.
Almost the minute we got into the park we saw blue monkeys (they aren't blue though) They were jumping from branch to branch, roughhousing and scampering around. We were totally enthralled. Then, just around the corner were baboons---hundreds of them just wandering down the road like a rag-tag bunch of children. They would walk by the truck and sneak little glances at us out of the corner of their eyes, quickly looking the other way if we made eye contact. There were big ones, small ones, moms with babies on their backs and babies clutching their moms tummies and rowdy "teens". And yes, they had those big red baboon butts! It was like a convoy.
Around the next corner we saw our first giraffe-just standing in the bush twirling his ears. We felt like it was all animatronic and that we were in some sort of Disneyland...
Then we saw banded mongoose and drove to a small swampy area called The Hippo Pool where we saw maribou storks and pelicans (Pelican-his beak can hold more than his belly can) There were these huge grey rocks with some birds on them and imagine our amazement when the rocks shifted and turned into hippopotamus's. (hippopotami?)
We could see animals in the distance that were cape Buffalo and also some wildebeest and we got close enough to get a few good pictures.
The impala are everywhere, and the bucks are massive with beautiful wavy horns, and also there are thousands of gazelles as well. And the zebra are all over the place, grazing just like horses. They, to me, are the most exotic looking animal-all those stripes are stunning.
Hamisi pointed out all these interesting birds as well--guinea fowl with a foolish little top knot that bobbles as they run away and red-billed hornbills that look sort of like a toucan.
We saw a little dik-dik standing as still as a stone, looking just like a miniature deer, maybe 18 inches high. They aren't that easy to spot as they are very, very shy, so we were happy to see this little fellow, with a tiny female behind him..
We stopped for lunch under a huige acacia tree and opened up our box lunch which had Indian food in it; an empanada type of thing filled with spiced meat, a meat pie filled with a different type of meat, some injera bread, a box of juice, a donut and a chocolate bar. It was excellent, eating our lunch overlooking Lake Manyara.
There were some amasingly clean bathroom there, with flush toilets. I couldn't figure out how they possibly could have a flush toilet until I noticed a 5,000 gallon tank on the roof. I assume that a tanker comes in and fills it as needed.
As we continued on we saw elephants! Elephants all over the place! We watched a mother teaching her baby how to kick up dust to take a dust bath and then the baby was nursing afterwards, there were some young males drinking and there were elephants just lumbering along, going about their elephant business. It was very surreal to us, to actually be watching all this, like a national Geographic special come to life in front of us.
We came across more giraffes, eating from the trees, spreading their gangly legs apart to bend over to get a more delictible leaf from below, glancing at us now and then and then blending into the bush as they slowly loped away, looking like they were running in slow motion and tilted to one side almost like they were falling over.
It was really like a scene from Jurassic park, all these huge animals just appearing out of nowhere and I really would not have been too surprised to round a corner and see a brontosaurus standing there, that's how dreamlike today has been.
As we headed out of the park to the hotel we saw a warthog trotting down the road, his tail flicking from side to side. He stopped and looked at us for a second and then vanished into the bush. We had seen a mom and baby earlier, but they were quite a ways away.
Just as we were leaving the park we got a flat tire and poor Hamisi had to change it in the heat, it must have been 35 outside. We got to stand in the shade while he changed it, but he had obviously done it many times before as it only took him minutes. Each vehicle carries 2 spares.
As we left the park we started up this steep and windy road and Hamisis pointed out this huge (HUGE) baobob tree and he pulled over for a second so that we could get a picture and to our amazement a little boy leaped out of nowhere with a chameleon on a stick. I think we were supposed to buy it or give him money to take apicture of it or something, but Hamisi rattled off some Swahili to him and the little guy took off. Where do these kids come from? They must just linger somewhere and hope for a tourist to stop.
We arrived at the hotel about 4 PM--the foyer is large and open, no doors, and they greet you with a cool, damp cloth and fresh orange juice, mmmm. The hotel grounds are green with lots of huge leafy trees to sit under. There are a lot of flowering plants and bushes and even some candleabra trees, which have the trunk of a regular tree but then branches look like a cactus or an aloe plant and point upwards like a....candleabra. There are also magnolia trees in bloom and a swimming pool in the middle of this little Eden. The lobby has couches and chairs to relax in and a large glassed in dining room for the buffet dinner. The entire complex overlooks Lake Manyara. We are at the edge of a cliff, and the lake is below, each room has the same view and it is incomparable.
I cannot believe that this is considered a moderate hotel.
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Home again!! I was going to finish up my adventures, until I quickly perused some of what I had written...Holy Cow, spelling and grammer errors everywhere! I was always in a rush, but heavens, I didn't think my typing was quite that bad. No entry tonight, I need to edit a bit. Sorry for making everyone read all those mistakes.
Friday, January 27, 2006
More odds and ends.
Mt Meru is visible outside our hotel, we have a great view of it from the hallway, and you can actually open the hallway windows and get really good pictures of things. Mt Meru is the 2nd highest mountain in Tanzania, it's not really high compared to the Rockies, but it is a major trekking destination. It is almost always covered at the top with clouds and it's not often you can see the peak. Today as I was on my way back upstairs with my coffee I saw that it had no cloud cover at all so I ran and got Nicole and we snapped a good picture each and within minutes the clouds covered over the peak again, so we felt pretty fortunate. The Tanzania Gods seem to be playing with us, from blowing up bedside lamps and sending plagues of bugs to annoy us and then they show us these breathtaking sights. It must be a test, and I assume we are passing because each day just has more and more wonderous things.
Jan 20 (as I write this it is Jan 27, but I am a few days behind)
Today we decided to walk downtown--it's a 20 minute walk from the hotel, you just cross the street to the roundabout and then follow Moshi Road to the clock tower and that is the general "downtown" area. So, we crossed the street and Moshi Road just wasn't there. All the roads that branched off the roundabout had other names, and even though we have taken a taxi downtown numerous times, nothing looked familiar. We didn't want to stand around and look too lost, that's a sure sign for every street hustler within 2 miles to appear at your side, nattering in your ear. We trudged back to the hotel and took a taxi to the clock tower (for 2,000 TS I might add, half the price of Razak! At least this adventure introduced us to our newest taxidriver, Abdala.)
When we told him where we wanted to go he turned down Nyerere Rd and when we asked where Moshi Rd was he said:"Oh this is Moshi Rd, it was changed a while ago,and we still call it Moshi Rd, but the sign has changed. We all know that. Even the maps still say Moshi rd. So you see Nyerere Rd, but you say it's Moshi Rd."
I believe I have mentioned how this place enthralls me.
He also told us that it isn't safe to walk to town if you are white and carrying anything that resembles a purse or a camera, it is simply assumed that tourists are rich and an easy mark. If you leave your things at the hotel it is ok, the "robbers" don't want to hurt anyone, they just want your things.
We asked him if "mzungu", which we know means "white person" as everyone on the street calls us that, was a derogatory term and he was quite appalled that we would think so, it simply means "white person" which is what we are.
So, he dropped us off at the tourist bureau where you can book local cultural tours and visit local villages and that sort of thing, but they were very expensive and since we had just returned from Haydom where we were lucky enough to experience the genuine thing we didn't feel like seeing a "packaged for tourist" type of thing, although I know we would have thouroughly enjoyed it if we had not gone to Haydom.
We crossed the street to the Lutheran Center since Nicole had a contact name from a fellow in Haydom and she was lucky enough to be able to set up a meeting with this fellow right away. I wandered up and down the street while she was in the center. This is on Boma Road where there are a lot of curio shops and coffee places and a nice bookstore as well as every street hustler and slick tour guide between here and Dar es Salaam.
As the only white person on the street, I was a prime target. Although these guys are harmless, they are so annoying. They try to sell you (among other things) newspapers, they push the paper in your face and say:" Norway? French? America? America?" They never say "Canada" and as any other Canadian, I hate to be mistaken for another nationality so of course, foolish at it is, I say "Canada." "Ohhhh" they reply, "Vancouver or Toronto?" And even if I didn't tell them Canada, we were pegged as Canadians yesterday and these guys have incredible memories.
"Remember me? Hey, Canada, yesterday?"
They are all "tour guides" as well, and they try to sell you a crappy or even a non-existant tour to somewhere.
"Hey Canada--hey mama, you need a safari? A newspaper? A guide? "
If you tell them you have already booked a safair, they nag at you to tell them with who, and Wow! turns out they work for that very company. It's all a game, and no harm done.
I wasn't sure how long Nicole would be and I was running out of things to do.
"Hey mama--you buy batik? No? Later? When? 1:00 PM? You buy from me, I give you best price."
"Hey mama, my name is Joshua/Abraham/Losai--you recall me? Canada? Vancouver? Toronto?"
"Jambo! I remember you, you are with your friend, I am Lasio. Where is your friend?"
I said to him, "you rememebr my friend?"
Lasio, looking at me as if I could possibly NOT know that there are no other white women walking around. "Yes, your friend in there. You need a safari? I am a masai guide" he added, just in case I had changed my mind about a safari in the last 30 seconds.
Me: I want to go for coffee across the street, if my friend comes out will you tell her where I am?"
Lasio:"yes, yes, for sure."
And when Nicole came out from her meeting, sure enough, he brought her over...so these guys are really not so bad, just so annoying. .
Mt Meru is visible outside our hotel, we have a great view of it from the hallway, and you can actually open the hallway windows and get really good pictures of things. Mt Meru is the 2nd highest mountain in Tanzania, it's not really high compared to the Rockies, but it is a major trekking destination. It is almost always covered at the top with clouds and it's not often you can see the peak. Today as I was on my way back upstairs with my coffee I saw that it had no cloud cover at all so I ran and got Nicole and we snapped a good picture each and within minutes the clouds covered over the peak again, so we felt pretty fortunate. The Tanzania Gods seem to be playing with us, from blowing up bedside lamps and sending plagues of bugs to annoy us and then they show us these breathtaking sights. It must be a test, and I assume we are passing because each day just has more and more wonderous things.
Jan 20 (as I write this it is Jan 27, but I am a few days behind)
Today we decided to walk downtown--it's a 20 minute walk from the hotel, you just cross the street to the roundabout and then follow Moshi Road to the clock tower and that is the general "downtown" area. So, we crossed the street and Moshi Road just wasn't there. All the roads that branched off the roundabout had other names, and even though we have taken a taxi downtown numerous times, nothing looked familiar. We didn't want to stand around and look too lost, that's a sure sign for every street hustler within 2 miles to appear at your side, nattering in your ear. We trudged back to the hotel and took a taxi to the clock tower (for 2,000 TS I might add, half the price of Razak! At least this adventure introduced us to our newest taxidriver, Abdala.)
When we told him where we wanted to go he turned down Nyerere Rd and when we asked where Moshi Rd was he said:"Oh this is Moshi Rd, it was changed a while ago,and we still call it Moshi Rd, but the sign has changed. We all know that. Even the maps still say Moshi rd. So you see Nyerere Rd, but you say it's Moshi Rd."
I believe I have mentioned how this place enthralls me.
He also told us that it isn't safe to walk to town if you are white and carrying anything that resembles a purse or a camera, it is simply assumed that tourists are rich and an easy mark. If you leave your things at the hotel it is ok, the "robbers" don't want to hurt anyone, they just want your things.
We asked him if "mzungu", which we know means "white person" as everyone on the street calls us that, was a derogatory term and he was quite appalled that we would think so, it simply means "white person" which is what we are.
So, he dropped us off at the tourist bureau where you can book local cultural tours and visit local villages and that sort of thing, but they were very expensive and since we had just returned from Haydom where we were lucky enough to experience the genuine thing we didn't feel like seeing a "packaged for tourist" type of thing, although I know we would have thouroughly enjoyed it if we had not gone to Haydom.
We crossed the street to the Lutheran Center since Nicole had a contact name from a fellow in Haydom and she was lucky enough to be able to set up a meeting with this fellow right away. I wandered up and down the street while she was in the center. This is on Boma Road where there are a lot of curio shops and coffee places and a nice bookstore as well as every street hustler and slick tour guide between here and Dar es Salaam.
As the only white person on the street, I was a prime target. Although these guys are harmless, they are so annoying. They try to sell you (among other things) newspapers, they push the paper in your face and say:" Norway? French? America? America?" They never say "Canada" and as any other Canadian, I hate to be mistaken for another nationality so of course, foolish at it is, I say "Canada." "Ohhhh" they reply, "Vancouver or Toronto?" And even if I didn't tell them Canada, we were pegged as Canadians yesterday and these guys have incredible memories.
"Remember me? Hey, Canada, yesterday?"
They are all "tour guides" as well, and they try to sell you a crappy or even a non-existant tour to somewhere.
"Hey Canada--hey mama, you need a safari? A newspaper? A guide? "
If you tell them you have already booked a safair, they nag at you to tell them with who, and Wow! turns out they work for that very company. It's all a game, and no harm done.
I wasn't sure how long Nicole would be and I was running out of things to do.
"Hey mama--you buy batik? No? Later? When? 1:00 PM? You buy from me, I give you best price."
"Hey mama, my name is Joshua/Abraham/Losai--you recall me? Canada? Vancouver? Toronto?"
"Jambo! I remember you, you are with your friend, I am Lasio. Where is your friend?"
I said to him, "you rememebr my friend?"
Lasio, looking at me as if I could possibly NOT know that there are no other white women walking around. "Yes, your friend in there. You need a safari? I am a masai guide" he added, just in case I had changed my mind about a safari in the last 30 seconds.
Me: I want to go for coffee across the street, if my friend comes out will you tell her where I am?"
Lasio:"yes, yes, for sure."
And when Nicole came out from her meeting, sure enough, he brought her over...so these guys are really not so bad, just so annoying. .
THERE'S ONE IN EVERY CROWD.
When we went to the village outside of Haydom, one of the women who came along was a very abrasive lady whose husband was with the Norwegian Embassy. She was asking rather rude questions to everyone, but you know how it is, you take these things with a grain of salt. When the young Totoga man came and posed for pictures with us, I asked the woman if she thought this fellow was Masai since he was wearing one of the red plaid shukas. She said:"Yes, yes, he is Masai" and the man who came with us said:"No, he is not." This lady insisted that he was and said:"Look at his robe and his stick, of course he is, just ask him."
The man said: "I did ask him--I asked him in Masai, he doesn't speak it, he speaks Swahili and he is Totoga."
I said, rather incredulously: "You speak masai?" (he had already told me he spoke English and French, and I knew he spoke Swahili since he was translating things for our translator.)
"Yes." he said "I am masai."
The lady then said: "What? You are masai? How come you don't have those big earlobes? Your body is awful large to be a skinny masai, can you jump like them? Let me see you jump."
He patiently said:"I was born in Arusha of 2 masai parents, there are cultural changes although my parents are still quite traditional. And yes, I can jump."
And he did.
When we went to the village outside of Haydom, one of the women who came along was a very abrasive lady whose husband was with the Norwegian Embassy. She was asking rather rude questions to everyone, but you know how it is, you take these things with a grain of salt. When the young Totoga man came and posed for pictures with us, I asked the woman if she thought this fellow was Masai since he was wearing one of the red plaid shukas. She said:"Yes, yes, he is Masai" and the man who came with us said:"No, he is not." This lady insisted that he was and said:"Look at his robe and his stick, of course he is, just ask him."
The man said: "I did ask him--I asked him in Masai, he doesn't speak it, he speaks Swahili and he is Totoga."
I said, rather incredulously: "You speak masai?" (he had already told me he spoke English and French, and I knew he spoke Swahili since he was translating things for our translator.)
"Yes." he said "I am masai."
The lady then said: "What? You are masai? How come you don't have those big earlobes? Your body is awful large to be a skinny masai, can you jump like them? Let me see you jump."
He patiently said:"I was born in Arusha of 2 masai parents, there are cultural changes although my parents are still quite traditional. And yes, I can jump."
And he did.
I went downstairs to see if I could get an empty cup so that I could make a cup of coffee in my room. (I have some instant packets and my immersion heater)
Me: "may I have one empty cup so I can make some coffee in my room?"
Her:" One cup of coffee?"
Me:" No, just one empty cup."
Her:"one coffee and a cup?"
Me: No, just one cup."
Her: "a cup of coffee."
Me, resignedly:"Yes, one cup of coffee."
Her:"Milk? Sugar?"
Me: No sugar, but yes please, some milk."
Her: "We have no milk."
Have I mentioned how much I adore this place?? .
Me: "may I have one empty cup so I can make some coffee in my room?"
Her:" One cup of coffee?"
Me:" No, just one empty cup."
Her:"one coffee and a cup?"
Me: No, just one cup."
Her: "a cup of coffee."
Me, resignedly:"Yes, one cup of coffee."
Her:"Milk? Sugar?"
Me: No sugar, but yes please, some milk."
Her: "We have no milk."
Have I mentioned how much I adore this place?? .
So, to continue on with the hotel room story. Nicole phoned down once again to ask about their non-smoking policy, emphasizing that it was because of her allergies that she was concerned, not just because we "don't like the smell" of smoke. The girls at the desk insisted it was a non-smoking room, but when Nicole asked why there were ashtrays in the rooms, she was told: "Well, you can smoke in your ROOM if you want." Of course then the reply is: "But then it isn't really a non-smoking hotel is it?" And they answered: "Yes, it is non-smoking, it is your choice, you don't have to smoke if you don't want to." Nicole then asked if there was perhaps a floor that really was designated as a non-smoking floor where you actually were not allowed to smoke, and the girls finally said that they would move us to the 8th floor, to a suite and that if we would pack up, a bellman would be right up in five minutes to help us move our luggage. Well, we re-packed in a hurry, luckily we hadn't really unpacked yet, and as we were waiting Nicole decided that maybe she should go downstairs and get the key to the new room and check it out before we moved...just in case, as this does seem to be a hotel full of surprises. So imagine my astonishment when she came back and told me that we would remain in this room as when she got downstairs the hotel was magically full, there was no room anywhere and no bellman was coming to help us move anything, and the girl who had told us we would would move had dashed into an office, and wasn't coming out. We could only laugh, and be a little astounded, but this is Africa.
We did get this massive portable air conditioner though, which cleared out the smoke smell and if we leave the bathroom fan on it sucks in the cool air from the hallway (remember those odd hallway vents? They serve a good purpose after all) And the air conditioner has a hose out the back, large like a dryer hose, and it spewed hot air out, so we washed our clothes, hung then on a bar that was in front of the window, aimed the hose at them, and it was like a drier and an airconditioner all in one! We are becoming quite "McGyver-ish" and very innovative.
We decided that the room was quite acceptable and we started to get ready for bed and Nicole unfurled her mosquito net only to find that it was like a mini-net and came no where NEAR to being able to fit over her bed. It looked like it was maybe meant for a crib, so we had to phone down yet again, and we apologized yet again for being so incredibly annoying, but the staff all seems fine with it, and they rushed up a new net within minutes.
I do know that "a foreign country is designed to make its own people comfortable, it is not designed to make us comfortable" but our issues were health concerns and we felt they needed to be addressed. I will add that we tip very generously as well.
We decided to go back to the Indian restaurant for dinner, I can't remember if I mentioned earlier that while it might seem that we don't seem to be eating very much local food, it's because there isn't really a local food, per se. The tribespeople subsist on meat that they hunt, and a dish called "ugaali" which is sort of like a porridge/cornmeal dish, I haven't seen it anywhere yet, although I would like to try it. Closer to the coast they eat a lot of seafood and fish, so there isn't really a specific type of food. Lots of rice and curry.
Back to the Indian restaurant. We had our same waiter from the other day and we knew this time not to order the spicy bread and dipping sauces, and that yes, we should order rice. His feelings were a little hurt that we didn't want the spicy flat bread and he kept asking: "Papadom? Salad?"......
Us: "No, no papadom, no salad."
Him: "Salad?"
Us: "No, hapana asante (No, no thank you)
Him..appearing with 2 dishes of salad and asking in a hopeful voice: "Salad?"
Us:"No salad."
Him:"Papadom?"
Us: "No, the papadom is too hot, we burned our mouths. Spicey!"
Him:"Ok, papadom then."
He returned with papadom and only 2 sauces, both actually quite mild, one was yogurt which Nicole wanted to rub on her sunburned arms as we hear the culture is like a soothing aloe, I had to forcibly stop her by rapidly double dipping my papadom in it.
The we asked for a cup of coffee and a cup of tea when he asked us what we would like to drink.
Him, in an incredulous voice: "Coffee?"
Me: "Please."
Him: "Coffee and tea?"
Us: "yes, please."
Him, sadly: "Coffee."
He gazed off into the distance for quite some time, hoping perhaps that we would have vanished when he looked down again.
"And tea?" he added morosely as he strained his eyes towards the depths of the restaurant.
He heaved a huge sigh and was gone for so long that we had to place our order with someone else.
As we waited for our meal we were reviewing our pictures on our little cameras and when our waiter suddenly reappeared with our drinks he asked us where we had been as he couldn't help but see the pictures of all the children.
My question is--where had HE been?? Is there a hidey-hole in the tree in the middle of the yard? How could he have seen the pictures? But he was generally interested in seeing the photos and hearing about our trip to Haydom, so we shared them with him as we enjoyed our tea and coffee. I just love this place!
TIDBITS
The small shops like supermarkets and the gift shops in the hotels all have quite modern looking computers and keyboards for their till systems, but none of them have a cash drawer and all the money is mixed up together in a bucket or a paper bag that just sits under the counter..
Another thing I learned in haydom is that pain management for patients is quite a problem as the Tanzanian government does not allow opiates to be used by the hospital. No morphine. It's considered too addictive and the gov't thinks it will cause more problems than it will solve..
Today there were power outages every few minutes all morning. This is a direct result of the water shortage and the gov't has not yet restricted electricity use, nor have they implemented a water ration, however they "are thinking about it."
We did get this massive portable air conditioner though, which cleared out the smoke smell and if we leave the bathroom fan on it sucks in the cool air from the hallway (remember those odd hallway vents? They serve a good purpose after all) And the air conditioner has a hose out the back, large like a dryer hose, and it spewed hot air out, so we washed our clothes, hung then on a bar that was in front of the window, aimed the hose at them, and it was like a drier and an airconditioner all in one! We are becoming quite "McGyver-ish" and very innovative.
We decided that the room was quite acceptable and we started to get ready for bed and Nicole unfurled her mosquito net only to find that it was like a mini-net and came no where NEAR to being able to fit over her bed. It looked like it was maybe meant for a crib, so we had to phone down yet again, and we apologized yet again for being so incredibly annoying, but the staff all seems fine with it, and they rushed up a new net within minutes.
I do know that "a foreign country is designed to make its own people comfortable, it is not designed to make us comfortable" but our issues were health concerns and we felt they needed to be addressed. I will add that we tip very generously as well.
We decided to go back to the Indian restaurant for dinner, I can't remember if I mentioned earlier that while it might seem that we don't seem to be eating very much local food, it's because there isn't really a local food, per se. The tribespeople subsist on meat that they hunt, and a dish called "ugaali" which is sort of like a porridge/cornmeal dish, I haven't seen it anywhere yet, although I would like to try it. Closer to the coast they eat a lot of seafood and fish, so there isn't really a specific type of food. Lots of rice and curry.
Back to the Indian restaurant. We had our same waiter from the other day and we knew this time not to order the spicy bread and dipping sauces, and that yes, we should order rice. His feelings were a little hurt that we didn't want the spicy flat bread and he kept asking: "Papadom? Salad?"......
Us: "No, no papadom, no salad."
Him: "Salad?"
Us: "No, hapana asante (No, no thank you)
Him..appearing with 2 dishes of salad and asking in a hopeful voice: "Salad?"
Us:"No salad."
Him:"Papadom?"
Us: "No, the papadom is too hot, we burned our mouths. Spicey!"
Him:"Ok, papadom then."
He returned with papadom and only 2 sauces, both actually quite mild, one was yogurt which Nicole wanted to rub on her sunburned arms as we hear the culture is like a soothing aloe, I had to forcibly stop her by rapidly double dipping my papadom in it.
The we asked for a cup of coffee and a cup of tea when he asked us what we would like to drink.
Him, in an incredulous voice: "Coffee?"
Me: "Please."
Him: "Coffee and tea?"
Us: "yes, please."
Him, sadly: "Coffee."
He gazed off into the distance for quite some time, hoping perhaps that we would have vanished when he looked down again.
"And tea?" he added morosely as he strained his eyes towards the depths of the restaurant.
He heaved a huge sigh and was gone for so long that we had to place our order with someone else.
As we waited for our meal we were reviewing our pictures on our little cameras and when our waiter suddenly reappeared with our drinks he asked us where we had been as he couldn't help but see the pictures of all the children.
My question is--where had HE been?? Is there a hidey-hole in the tree in the middle of the yard? How could he have seen the pictures? But he was generally interested in seeing the photos and hearing about our trip to Haydom, so we shared them with him as we enjoyed our tea and coffee. I just love this place!
TIDBITS
The small shops like supermarkets and the gift shops in the hotels all have quite modern looking computers and keyboards for their till systems, but none of them have a cash drawer and all the money is mixed up together in a bucket or a paper bag that just sits under the counter..
Another thing I learned in haydom is that pain management for patients is quite a problem as the Tanzanian government does not allow opiates to be used by the hospital. No morphine. It's considered too addictive and the gov't thinks it will cause more problems than it will solve..
Today there were power outages every few minutes all morning. This is a direct result of the water shortage and the gov't has not yet restricted electricity use, nor have they implemented a water ration, however they "are thinking about it."
Thursday, January 26, 2006
TIDBITS
At the Arusha airport, while we were waiting for our pilot to fuel up that mini-plane, we were admiring the flowers and plants that were all around the fence that surrounded the fuel tanks when a young fellow of maybe 20 years old came up to us and asked us if we liked "the garden". "Mine" he said, pointing to his chest; "Mine". Turns out that he had planted the garden simply because he likes to garden, and then he showed us his pride and joy..this huge watermelon he had planted and cared for. He wanted us to know that his name was Petro and that he loves to plant things. All the people we meet want to know our names, and they want to tell us theirs. They will write it down on their hands and they will write their names on ours, or on any scrap of paper. And they all remember you when they see you again. It's sort of touching.
Before we took the Flying Medical Services plane, I wrote out 3 postcards to my family, just regular ones, but they were sort of a "just in case" the plane goes down. I didn't mention it to Nicole, I didn't want her to think that I thought we might crash in this little contraption, it didn't look any sturdier than one of those balsa wood planes that kids play with. Anyhow, I mentioned it to her a few days after, and she laughed and said she had done the very same thing!!
There is a goldmine near Haydom now--very primitive with shafts all dug by hand, and the men go down by a rope. The pay is not great, but it is much better than any other wage. So now there is an increase in drinking and drug abuse which then causes an increase in spousal abuse as well. The mine itself isn't very productive, and isn't causing any increase in the economy and a lot of people just hope it will close down, but apparently there are a lot of Arab investors who want to purchase it, and bring in professional miners and equipment and go deep enough to mine gemstones. There is quite a bit of debate going on about it.
The compound at Haydom tries to find employment for everyone. This morning as I was sitting outside my room writing in my journal, an old man came shuffling along carrying a long stick with a cloth on the end. "Jambo" he said, "I am looking for spiders, I kill the spiders here." and off he went, intently staring up at the roof, giving a sweep with his stick every now and then. I haven't seen any spiders in our room, so I guess he is doing a good job!
Sitting outside my room I can see the village to my left, directly outside the hospital fence, I can hear the people laughing and talking and getting ready to start their day, kids yelling and dogs barking. In front of me is the kitchen and eating area and I can hear the house girl singing as she prepares breakfast for us and to the right of me are some of the staff houses and their cleaning lady is playing African music which stirs the soul. It isn't hot yet and the local cat is sneaking through the grass trying to stalk a gecko that is sunning itself on the wall of the kitchen compound. The birds are making a soft little purring noise, sort of like a pigeon "cooing" and not another soul is around. I try to imprint this moment in my mind and to remember this Africa and these people. Last night we came outside and looked at the stars, they look so close and so bright...diamonds on black velvet. All you can hear are the crickets chirping and the silence of the sky, silence has a sound that fills the ears. We could see Orion the Hunter, the Pleides and Casseopeia, the same stars that I see at home are a faded imitation of these. It was a moment I hope to always remember, maybe when I am stressed at home I can dredge up how I felt on this day.
We wandered the compound and said our goodbyes, Elizabeth from the Norwegian Embassy who visited the village with me, Dr. Olson (who looks like William H Macy) and who has done such amazing work here, his mother, Mama Kari (as everyone calls her) who was recently awarded The Order of Norway from the King for her charitable work that she has done here; Anders who looks so much like Milton Berle that I want to call him Uncle Miltie, and Clementina who helped Nicole with all her arrangements in getting here.
We think that maybe the reason that this feels like such a community so quickly to strangers is because everyone who is here WANTS to be here, they all love what they do and it's an infectious feeling. I'd love to come back here myself someday.
At 9:50 our driver showed up to take us to the airstrip, our plane was to arrive at 10:00., however it didn't get here until noon. Originally it was to arrive at 9, but he phoned yesterday to say he would be an hour late as he had to pick up a patient, after all, it is a medical plane. He ended up getting here at noon as he had some other sort of delay. We had no plane to catch after this, so we were fine with the wait, the scenery is so beautiful that we just wandered around the airstrip and took a few pictures and sat and talked, completely forgetting that we were below the equator in the sub-Saharan sun and did Nicole's arms ever burn! No hats, no sunscreen, no sunglasses, no sense...but in our defence, we were supposed to wait for 10 minutes not 2 hours!
As we were waiting though, a cow wandered onto the runway and our driver had to hop in his vehicle, drive to the cow, hop out and chase it into the bushes and then drive back, ever vigilant for more runaway (or should I say "runway"?) cows.
We were pleased to have the same pilot as our flight in--we figured that anyone who could land a plane in that red, oozing, thick clay during a rainstorm has got to be an OK pilot!
The pilot pointed out Lake Manyara on the flight in, 2 days ago, and it was full of of water-he said when he flew to Haydom 2 days prior to that it was dry as a bone, and now today as we flew out, it was dry again. This drought is scary, water evaporates so quickly that it boggles the mind. Lake Manyara is part of our safari, so we are wondering how (or if) this will cause any changes or problems.
The flight was fine, a little bumpy in places but not too bad. I glanced at the pilot once to see him concentrating on cleaning his fingernails, no hands on the wheel. I know about auto pilot and that sort of thing, but still, it was pretty disconcerting. I just looked the other way and concentrated myself, on keeping the plane aloft through sheer willpower. It worked like a charm!
Back at the Impala we had yet another round of room woes. This time they had no record of us arriving today at all, and after a great deal of confusion they gave us 604 which was actually the smoking room with no fan that we were offered the last time we were here. However, after our sparse room in Haydom, and some of the things we saw, the room seemed quite luxurious so we simply asked for a portable fan and stated to settle in. Then the smoke came wafting out of the bathroom, the aroma is so strong that you would really think that someone is in there smoking. (you know...at night we hear this gentle rhythmic breathing. Each of us thought it was the other one until we realized that it happened even when the other one is not in the room!...Ghost Whisperer anyone? A newly departed smoker who can't leave the room?)
But, now I am out of time, so the room woes will continue tomorrow!
We had arranged for Razak to pick us up, and to our utter surprise, there he was, still waiting for us after a 2 hour delay, and no extra charge!
W
At the Arusha airport, while we were waiting for our pilot to fuel up that mini-plane, we were admiring the flowers and plants that were all around the fence that surrounded the fuel tanks when a young fellow of maybe 20 years old came up to us and asked us if we liked "the garden". "Mine" he said, pointing to his chest; "Mine". Turns out that he had planted the garden simply because he likes to garden, and then he showed us his pride and joy..this huge watermelon he had planted and cared for. He wanted us to know that his name was Petro and that he loves to plant things. All the people we meet want to know our names, and they want to tell us theirs. They will write it down on their hands and they will write their names on ours, or on any scrap of paper. And they all remember you when they see you again. It's sort of touching.
Before we took the Flying Medical Services plane, I wrote out 3 postcards to my family, just regular ones, but they were sort of a "just in case" the plane goes down. I didn't mention it to Nicole, I didn't want her to think that I thought we might crash in this little contraption, it didn't look any sturdier than one of those balsa wood planes that kids play with. Anyhow, I mentioned it to her a few days after, and she laughed and said she had done the very same thing!!
There is a goldmine near Haydom now--very primitive with shafts all dug by hand, and the men go down by a rope. The pay is not great, but it is much better than any other wage. So now there is an increase in drinking and drug abuse which then causes an increase in spousal abuse as well. The mine itself isn't very productive, and isn't causing any increase in the economy and a lot of people just hope it will close down, but apparently there are a lot of Arab investors who want to purchase it, and bring in professional miners and equipment and go deep enough to mine gemstones. There is quite a bit of debate going on about it.
The compound at Haydom tries to find employment for everyone. This morning as I was sitting outside my room writing in my journal, an old man came shuffling along carrying a long stick with a cloth on the end. "Jambo" he said, "I am looking for spiders, I kill the spiders here." and off he went, intently staring up at the roof, giving a sweep with his stick every now and then. I haven't seen any spiders in our room, so I guess he is doing a good job!
Sitting outside my room I can see the village to my left, directly outside the hospital fence, I can hear the people laughing and talking and getting ready to start their day, kids yelling and dogs barking. In front of me is the kitchen and eating area and I can hear the house girl singing as she prepares breakfast for us and to the right of me are some of the staff houses and their cleaning lady is playing African music which stirs the soul. It isn't hot yet and the local cat is sneaking through the grass trying to stalk a gecko that is sunning itself on the wall of the kitchen compound. The birds are making a soft little purring noise, sort of like a pigeon "cooing" and not another soul is around. I try to imprint this moment in my mind and to remember this Africa and these people. Last night we came outside and looked at the stars, they look so close and so bright...diamonds on black velvet. All you can hear are the crickets chirping and the silence of the sky, silence has a sound that fills the ears. We could see Orion the Hunter, the Pleides and Casseopeia, the same stars that I see at home are a faded imitation of these. It was a moment I hope to always remember, maybe when I am stressed at home I can dredge up how I felt on this day.
We wandered the compound and said our goodbyes, Elizabeth from the Norwegian Embassy who visited the village with me, Dr. Olson (who looks like William H Macy) and who has done such amazing work here, his mother, Mama Kari (as everyone calls her) who was recently awarded The Order of Norway from the King for her charitable work that she has done here; Anders who looks so much like Milton Berle that I want to call him Uncle Miltie, and Clementina who helped Nicole with all her arrangements in getting here.
We think that maybe the reason that this feels like such a community so quickly to strangers is because everyone who is here WANTS to be here, they all love what they do and it's an infectious feeling. I'd love to come back here myself someday.
At 9:50 our driver showed up to take us to the airstrip, our plane was to arrive at 10:00., however it didn't get here until noon. Originally it was to arrive at 9, but he phoned yesterday to say he would be an hour late as he had to pick up a patient, after all, it is a medical plane. He ended up getting here at noon as he had some other sort of delay. We had no plane to catch after this, so we were fine with the wait, the scenery is so beautiful that we just wandered around the airstrip and took a few pictures and sat and talked, completely forgetting that we were below the equator in the sub-Saharan sun and did Nicole's arms ever burn! No hats, no sunscreen, no sunglasses, no sense...but in our defence, we were supposed to wait for 10 minutes not 2 hours!
As we were waiting though, a cow wandered onto the runway and our driver had to hop in his vehicle, drive to the cow, hop out and chase it into the bushes and then drive back, ever vigilant for more runaway (or should I say "runway"?) cows.
We were pleased to have the same pilot as our flight in--we figured that anyone who could land a plane in that red, oozing, thick clay during a rainstorm has got to be an OK pilot!
The pilot pointed out Lake Manyara on the flight in, 2 days ago, and it was full of of water-he said when he flew to Haydom 2 days prior to that it was dry as a bone, and now today as we flew out, it was dry again. This drought is scary, water evaporates so quickly that it boggles the mind. Lake Manyara is part of our safari, so we are wondering how (or if) this will cause any changes or problems.
The flight was fine, a little bumpy in places but not too bad. I glanced at the pilot once to see him concentrating on cleaning his fingernails, no hands on the wheel. I know about auto pilot and that sort of thing, but still, it was pretty disconcerting. I just looked the other way and concentrated myself, on keeping the plane aloft through sheer willpower. It worked like a charm!
Back at the Impala we had yet another round of room woes. This time they had no record of us arriving today at all, and after a great deal of confusion they gave us 604 which was actually the smoking room with no fan that we were offered the last time we were here. However, after our sparse room in Haydom, and some of the things we saw, the room seemed quite luxurious so we simply asked for a portable fan and stated to settle in. Then the smoke came wafting out of the bathroom, the aroma is so strong that you would really think that someone is in there smoking. (you know...at night we hear this gentle rhythmic breathing. Each of us thought it was the other one until we realized that it happened even when the other one is not in the room!...Ghost Whisperer anyone? A newly departed smoker who can't leave the room?)
But, now I am out of time, so the room woes will continue tomorrow!
We had arranged for Razak to pick us up, and to our utter surprise, there he was, still waiting for us after a 2 hour delay, and no extra charge!
W
It is Jan 26 now, and we just returned to Arusha from ther safari---WOW! I cannot even begin to tell you how astounding it was, but first I need to catch up on the other things. We had no internet access during the safari, so I am way behind here.
To coninue with the village visit....
As we were drivnig down this bumpy, twisty road to the bottom of the Rift valley, we stopped and looked at The Holy Tree, a tree that the locals often stop and visit after a successful hospital stay. It's a large, gnarled old tree, not sure what kind, but it has all sorts of knotholes in it, and the locals wil put a small offering of grass in these holes to thank God for still being alive. They also will put bits of grass in to paray for rain. We didn't take photos of it as the villagers prefer us not too.
Eventually we came to a small village in the Endagulda area of the Rift Valley . "Village" isn't used in the same context as we use it, as this was one family (and their chickens) living in a small enclosure with 5 small huts. It was the father, about 70 and his wife, and his wife's sister. The father and his wife have 5 children; 3 daughters (one married, one whose husband had left her and one single daughter) and the children of the 2 older daughters, I think about 5 children. he 2 other children are sons who do not live with the family anymore.
This family has nothing. There are 2 grass huts side by side that the parents live in, and one for the wife's sister. There is a house made of mud with a thatched roof that the married daughter and her husband live in, and then there is a "modern" house made of sticks and mud that the other daughter lives in with her children. They have 2 huge bushes that they hang their clothes on to dry (the missionaries supply them with "western" clothes) They only other thing they own are chickens that run around and peck for food. And that is it. Not a toy or a pot or a bowl, at least not identifable by our standards, bowls are carved from wood, toys are sticks, pots are made from banana leaves and that sort of thing.
The wife of the girls could not have been more than 50 or so, and she honestly looked like an old Grandma of 75. She was sitting on the ground, pounding corn against a rock to make flour. There is a 45 gallon drum behind one hut that is half filled with sorghum that is fermenting to make home-made beer. The rusty old drum was the most modern thing they own..
They hunt with homemade bows and arrows which they showed us, they look like a toy compared to the ones we have in North America, but they are very proficient at hunting birds, small game like gazelles, but they can bring down a zebra with them as well! They tan the skins and use them as mats and blankets, and dry the meat in the sun.
For water they catch rainwater and they also know all the areas where you can dig a little way into the dirt and water will gather, although, again with the drought, water is very scarce. They certainly don't have the luxury of washing their clothes or having a bath. The one tiny water hole that we saw looked just like a muddy puddle on an old dirt road, but we saw people washing in it. It's really quite sad to see and makes me feel horrendously guilty at the water I waste...not drinking a glass because it "isn't cold enough".
The short rains are still being waited for, and the corn is usually 2 feet high by now, instead most farmers are just starting to plant, hoping that the long rains will start slowly and allow their corn to grow before it drowns it out. The long rains are due to start in a few weeks, so the entire country is praying for rain. It's all you hear on the news or in the paper or in any conversations. I just cannot believe how much we take for granted in our lives.
The most interesting thing abou this village is that they speak the Click language, it was honestly like stepping back in time and it's a good thing we had a translator with us! The one single daughter was laughing at us as we tried to imitate the clicks and tongue noises she made, and they make these clicks with both their tongue and the backs of their throats all while speaking with their larynx as well. It was spellbinding to listen too, it sounded almost musical.
The translator told us that one of the daughters had 2 babies in her house and she wanted us to come and look, and to my pleasure there were 2 little twins, a boy and girl, only 28 days old. She was so proud..."mbili, mbili" which means "two, two." Her father (not the father of the babies) was so proud as well, he kept pointing at the babies and chuckling. They graciously allowed us to take pictures of their homes and their family life, I felt quite priviledged to see all this, but I felt a little like a voyeur as well.
While we were there a young Tatoga manon his way home stopped in to see who "the visitors" were and he was wearing the traditional red "shuka" that the men wear and he was hoping we would take his picture, so of course I did. He couldn't have been much more than 16, he only had a bit of peach fuzz on his chin, but he is married with 100 cows and a bicycle...a wealthy man in this land. His hair was intricately braided into hundreds of thin braids, no bigger than a stand of spaghetti. The picture I have of him is one of my favorites (to be posted when I get home!) He shook his hair at us and grabbed one of the other ladies hands to let her touch his hair.
Speaking of bicycles--the most precious thing any one can have here is a bike or a donkey, and if you have both, well, you a re truely blessed. The bike gives you transportation and the donkey will help you pack you things and plow your fields.
This was without a doubt one of the most interesting things I have EVER seen, and to think that it was not a packaged tourist village, but one that has been living the same way for thousands of years (except for the 45 gallon steel drum!) was pretty thought provoking too, my mind was going a million miles an hour as we drove back to the Hospital.
We arrived back at about 6:30, 2 and half hours late but still in time for dinner, which was a sort of home made pizza with ground meat that was the end result of that bloody haunch of mystery meat that we had seen on the kitchen floor earlier. We took a small slice to be polite, and then we ate granola bars in our room...no mystery meat for me today, thanks.
There were no bug edisodes tonight although the sewar gas was pretty potent but we still slept the sleep of the tired tourist as the african crickets buzzed in the background.
Just a quick note on the water shortage. There are many places in the city that have the water pipes only an inch or 2 below the ground which causes untold problems from vandalism to just wear and tear and breakage from cars driving over. The majority of the people do not have running water and they buy it from the vendors, who of course are having a hard time getting water themselves, so the water you buy is often contaminated with ungodly sorts of things. The vendors will take a drink to prove it is safe, even though it isn't, because to them, getting a little money for their family is more important than their health. It's really horrifying to see this sort of thing. We North Americans are a spoiled, wasteful society. It's a shame.
To coninue with the village visit....
As we were drivnig down this bumpy, twisty road to the bottom of the Rift valley, we stopped and looked at The Holy Tree, a tree that the locals often stop and visit after a successful hospital stay. It's a large, gnarled old tree, not sure what kind, but it has all sorts of knotholes in it, and the locals wil put a small offering of grass in these holes to thank God for still being alive. They also will put bits of grass in to paray for rain. We didn't take photos of it as the villagers prefer us not too.
Eventually we came to a small village in the Endagulda area of the Rift Valley . "Village" isn't used in the same context as we use it, as this was one family (and their chickens) living in a small enclosure with 5 small huts. It was the father, about 70 and his wife, and his wife's sister. The father and his wife have 5 children; 3 daughters (one married, one whose husband had left her and one single daughter) and the children of the 2 older daughters, I think about 5 children. he 2 other children are sons who do not live with the family anymore.
This family has nothing. There are 2 grass huts side by side that the parents live in, and one for the wife's sister. There is a house made of mud with a thatched roof that the married daughter and her husband live in, and then there is a "modern" house made of sticks and mud that the other daughter lives in with her children. They have 2 huge bushes that they hang their clothes on to dry (the missionaries supply them with "western" clothes) They only other thing they own are chickens that run around and peck for food. And that is it. Not a toy or a pot or a bowl, at least not identifable by our standards, bowls are carved from wood, toys are sticks, pots are made from banana leaves and that sort of thing.
The wife of the girls could not have been more than 50 or so, and she honestly looked like an old Grandma of 75. She was sitting on the ground, pounding corn against a rock to make flour. There is a 45 gallon drum behind one hut that is half filled with sorghum that is fermenting to make home-made beer. The rusty old drum was the most modern thing they own..
They hunt with homemade bows and arrows which they showed us, they look like a toy compared to the ones we have in North America, but they are very proficient at hunting birds, small game like gazelles, but they can bring down a zebra with them as well! They tan the skins and use them as mats and blankets, and dry the meat in the sun.
For water they catch rainwater and they also know all the areas where you can dig a little way into the dirt and water will gather, although, again with the drought, water is very scarce. They certainly don't have the luxury of washing their clothes or having a bath. The one tiny water hole that we saw looked just like a muddy puddle on an old dirt road, but we saw people washing in it. It's really quite sad to see and makes me feel horrendously guilty at the water I waste...not drinking a glass because it "isn't cold enough".
The short rains are still being waited for, and the corn is usually 2 feet high by now, instead most farmers are just starting to plant, hoping that the long rains will start slowly and allow their corn to grow before it drowns it out. The long rains are due to start in a few weeks, so the entire country is praying for rain. It's all you hear on the news or in the paper or in any conversations. I just cannot believe how much we take for granted in our lives.
The most interesting thing abou this village is that they speak the Click language, it was honestly like stepping back in time and it's a good thing we had a translator with us! The one single daughter was laughing at us as we tried to imitate the clicks and tongue noises she made, and they make these clicks with both their tongue and the backs of their throats all while speaking with their larynx as well. It was spellbinding to listen too, it sounded almost musical.
The translator told us that one of the daughters had 2 babies in her house and she wanted us to come and look, and to my pleasure there were 2 little twins, a boy and girl, only 28 days old. She was so proud..."mbili, mbili" which means "two, two." Her father (not the father of the babies) was so proud as well, he kept pointing at the babies and chuckling. They graciously allowed us to take pictures of their homes and their family life, I felt quite priviledged to see all this, but I felt a little like a voyeur as well.
While we were there a young Tatoga manon his way home stopped in to see who "the visitors" were and he was wearing the traditional red "shuka" that the men wear and he was hoping we would take his picture, so of course I did. He couldn't have been much more than 16, he only had a bit of peach fuzz on his chin, but he is married with 100 cows and a bicycle...a wealthy man in this land. His hair was intricately braided into hundreds of thin braids, no bigger than a stand of spaghetti. The picture I have of him is one of my favorites (to be posted when I get home!) He shook his hair at us and grabbed one of the other ladies hands to let her touch his hair.
Speaking of bicycles--the most precious thing any one can have here is a bike or a donkey, and if you have both, well, you a re truely blessed. The bike gives you transportation and the donkey will help you pack you things and plow your fields.
This was without a doubt one of the most interesting things I have EVER seen, and to think that it was not a packaged tourist village, but one that has been living the same way for thousands of years (except for the 45 gallon steel drum!) was pretty thought provoking too, my mind was going a million miles an hour as we drove back to the Hospital.
We arrived back at about 6:30, 2 and half hours late but still in time for dinner, which was a sort of home made pizza with ground meat that was the end result of that bloody haunch of mystery meat that we had seen on the kitchen floor earlier. We took a small slice to be polite, and then we ate granola bars in our room...no mystery meat for me today, thanks.
There were no bug edisodes tonight although the sewar gas was pretty potent but we still slept the sleep of the tired tourist as the african crickets buzzed in the background.
Just a quick note on the water shortage. There are many places in the city that have the water pipes only an inch or 2 below the ground which causes untold problems from vandalism to just wear and tear and breakage from cars driving over. The majority of the people do not have running water and they buy it from the vendors, who of course are having a hard time getting water themselves, so the water you buy is often contaminated with ungodly sorts of things. The vendors will take a drink to prove it is safe, even though it isn't, because to them, getting a little money for their family is more important than their health. It's really horrifying to see this sort of thing. We North Americans are a spoiled, wasteful society. It's a shame.
Saturday, January 21, 2006
The hospital is very poor compared to North American hospitals, but it is incredibly self sufficient. They do not supply food to the patients in most Tanzanian rural hospitals and that is because the family usually stays in the same room with the patient, mainly because they have often have walked miles and miles to get here, or been flown in by a medical flight, and they would have no way to get back home, and even if they did, they'd have no way of knowing when to return for their family member. So the hospital has a large garden that they family can use to plant and grow food, and of course to purchase it from the already grown plots as well.
There are some renovations going on to an older building, to turn in into a canteen for the local staff and they are wasting productivity and time by going home for lunch. The staff that live on site (Europeans and North Americans, long term volunteers and so forth) eat in the common room, or in their own rooms if they prefer.
The hospital is always fundraising and looking for ways to make money, and also ways to save money. They make teir own IV solutions, glucose and saline, and they sell the excess to other hospitals in Northern Tanzania.
The latex gloves are reused after surguries, they are washed, turned inside out and powdered, then sterilized in an autoclave and packaged for other surguries.
Sheets and linens are donated (mostly from Norway) and they are cut into strips of various sizes for bandages and dressings, sometimes very colourfu! They have a small room where women do the cutting, and then another room where men are hemming the strips with ancient looking old Singer sewing machines (remember those old black and gold ones?) Then, like the gloves, they are packaged and sterilized.
There is a workshop where all the furniture, cupboards, shelves and other items are made, there is a mechanics shop and even an area outside where cinder blocks are made by hand by local men. We saw al these blocks lying in the sun and we thought some new project was about to start, imagine our surprise to see 3 men actually making the bricks.
I have pictures of all this, which I'll post as soon as I can.
The childrens ward is a building on it's own, called The Lena Ward, named after a child who was murdered in Norway. It's like any ward, a long hallway with rooms on either side, but each room has a sign above the doorway, indicating what type of illmess the kids inside have, and it's odd to see illnesses that have been eradicated so long ago in at home. "Children with Tuberculosis" "Children with Malaria" "Children with Cerebral Malaria" "Children with Meningitis" "Children with Burns" The kids that are able are running about in the hallway and they are so incredibly beautiful, with huge eys and shy smiles. Once the see a camera though, they all want their picture taken and they crowd around with huge smiles and lots of laughter as they see themselves. They all want to be touched and they hold their hands out to shake your hand, other than the odd shy one who will hang back, just watching.
The preemie room is pretty inovative. They hospital can't afford to buy and maitain incubators, so they just keep the whole room warm and the mother can stay in there with her baby to nurse and care for it.
Then there was The Orphans Room, a small, maybe 10 x 12 room, with a small bed, and some very tiny cribs, and this is where little ones whose mothers died in childbirth "live" and of course I use that term lightly as they do not get a lot of contact, the nurses are so busy. They stay there until they are 2, the hospital tries to find a home for them, but it's hard, no one can afford to feed another mouth, especially one that isn't theirs. If there is no home found by the time the baby is 2, then Social Services steps in. There were 3 newborns there when we were there, and a little guy about 8 months old just standing in his crib and staring at me with these giant solomn eyes. I almost had an Anglina Jolie moment and asked to bring him home, the most beautiful baby have ever seen.
It's really heartbreaking, but at least all these kids have a chance, if this hospital wasn't here who knows how they would end up? It's just really hard to see, and it makes us feel so wasteful and so guilty about what we have and how we always want "more stuff"
There is also an HIV/Aids clinic, with councillors, an eye clinic, a diabetes clinic, and of course it is clinic in word only, medications and equiptment are in short supply. Each clinic is in a little building of it's own. Most equiptment is second or even third hand, the they just received a "new" X-ray machine, but it wasn't working and when we saw it, they had a techncian who had screw drivers and duct tape, although it was working by the time we left!
They also just got a 2nd hand Cat Scan machine, which they are thrilled with. Up until now, unconscious patients were treated as if they had cerebral malaria (the most common cause of unconsciouness) but now they hae the CT so they can check for bleeding, strokes and other head traumas.
It's really strange to see the contrasts, to see an old African man stitching up bandages on a treadle machine and then round a corner and see a CT machine and computers. They do have computers in all the rooms, even their library has a small Internet Cafe with 6 computers to use, 500 shillings a half hour (.50, which is too expensive for most of the local staff to use) The server has the most modern room, air conditioned and well loaded with security.
The Outpatient building is a large circular (to help with patien flow) builing. Outpatients have to pay, there is a small user fee for everyone, but patients who are admitted are treated and do not have to pay until they leave. If they cannot pay, then a letter is sent to their village and a village elder will decide if they can indeed pay, and how much, or he will decide if the patient is too poor. But no one is ever turned away.
66 million shillings, or about 60 thousand Candadian dollars are overwritten each year by this process.
There are 437 staff, that includes everyone on the compound (kitchen staff for the common room, gardeners, security staff, cleaners and even the staff that work on the farm, a few miles away where they grow wheat and vegetables/) Excess is sold to loals to make money.
Lena's Ward (the children) has 100 beds, a quarter of the capacity of the hospital.
Laundry: They process 1.2 TONNES of dirty clothes/linens/bandages a day. It's all washed by hand, then sent through a steam boiler to sterilize and then dried.
They just installed a stabilizer (installed while we were there) so there is now, for the first time, 240V, 24 hours a day, 364 days a year. Prior to this they had constant surges between 90-300 and spikes of up to 100,000, which caused a lot of damage to vulnerable equiptment.
It is just an amazing place and everyone is so friendly, I guess because they are all there because they want to be, and they are all so proud of the work they are doing, and how they are changing the lives of so many people. Nicole and I were just in awe of everything we saw the whole time we were there.
After the hospital tour, we had lunch and Nicole had some interviews that she wanted to conduct, so Dr Olson had arranged a car and driver for a few of us to go to a small village in the Rift Valley about 2 and a half hours away. The Missionaries have been recently going to visit these people, and they still speak the Click language! There were 2 women from the Norweigan Embassy, a Congolese lady who I think was with the United Nations, a man who had something to do with hospital administration, a translator and me.
We drove a little while until we reached the escarpment at the top of the Rift Valley and the beginnings of a road that was built in 2000. It took 6000 people 6 months to build this road of 130km. It was all done by hand, using picks, shovels and spades, no modern earthmovers at all. When they came across a rock too huge to move, they would light fires around it and heat it until it exploded. And this was only 5 years ago. Now the villages and locals who live far away have an easier time getting to town and to the hospital, and of course the Missionaries can get out to see them, which I suppose is the main purpose. The village was amazing, but I am out of time for now.
There are some renovations going on to an older building, to turn in into a canteen for the local staff and they are wasting productivity and time by going home for lunch. The staff that live on site (Europeans and North Americans, long term volunteers and so forth) eat in the common room, or in their own rooms if they prefer.
The hospital is always fundraising and looking for ways to make money, and also ways to save money. They make teir own IV solutions, glucose and saline, and they sell the excess to other hospitals in Northern Tanzania.
The latex gloves are reused after surguries, they are washed, turned inside out and powdered, then sterilized in an autoclave and packaged for other surguries.
Sheets and linens are donated (mostly from Norway) and they are cut into strips of various sizes for bandages and dressings, sometimes very colourfu! They have a small room where women do the cutting, and then another room where men are hemming the strips with ancient looking old Singer sewing machines (remember those old black and gold ones?) Then, like the gloves, they are packaged and sterilized.
There is a workshop where all the furniture, cupboards, shelves and other items are made, there is a mechanics shop and even an area outside where cinder blocks are made by hand by local men. We saw al these blocks lying in the sun and we thought some new project was about to start, imagine our surprise to see 3 men actually making the bricks.
I have pictures of all this, which I'll post as soon as I can.
The childrens ward is a building on it's own, called The Lena Ward, named after a child who was murdered in Norway. It's like any ward, a long hallway with rooms on either side, but each room has a sign above the doorway, indicating what type of illmess the kids inside have, and it's odd to see illnesses that have been eradicated so long ago in at home. "Children with Tuberculosis" "Children with Malaria" "Children with Cerebral Malaria" "Children with Meningitis" "Children with Burns" The kids that are able are running about in the hallway and they are so incredibly beautiful, with huge eys and shy smiles. Once the see a camera though, they all want their picture taken and they crowd around with huge smiles and lots of laughter as they see themselves. They all want to be touched and they hold their hands out to shake your hand, other than the odd shy one who will hang back, just watching.
The preemie room is pretty inovative. They hospital can't afford to buy and maitain incubators, so they just keep the whole room warm and the mother can stay in there with her baby to nurse and care for it.
Then there was The Orphans Room, a small, maybe 10 x 12 room, with a small bed, and some very tiny cribs, and this is where little ones whose mothers died in childbirth "live" and of course I use that term lightly as they do not get a lot of contact, the nurses are so busy. They stay there until they are 2, the hospital tries to find a home for them, but it's hard, no one can afford to feed another mouth, especially one that isn't theirs. If there is no home found by the time the baby is 2, then Social Services steps in. There were 3 newborns there when we were there, and a little guy about 8 months old just standing in his crib and staring at me with these giant solomn eyes. I almost had an Anglina Jolie moment and asked to bring him home, the most beautiful baby have ever seen.
It's really heartbreaking, but at least all these kids have a chance, if this hospital wasn't here who knows how they would end up? It's just really hard to see, and it makes us feel so wasteful and so guilty about what we have and how we always want "more stuff"
There is also an HIV/Aids clinic, with councillors, an eye clinic, a diabetes clinic, and of course it is clinic in word only, medications and equiptment are in short supply. Each clinic is in a little building of it's own. Most equiptment is second or even third hand, the they just received a "new" X-ray machine, but it wasn't working and when we saw it, they had a techncian who had screw drivers and duct tape, although it was working by the time we left!
They also just got a 2nd hand Cat Scan machine, which they are thrilled with. Up until now, unconscious patients were treated as if they had cerebral malaria (the most common cause of unconsciouness) but now they hae the CT so they can check for bleeding, strokes and other head traumas.
It's really strange to see the contrasts, to see an old African man stitching up bandages on a treadle machine and then round a corner and see a CT machine and computers. They do have computers in all the rooms, even their library has a small Internet Cafe with 6 computers to use, 500 shillings a half hour (.50, which is too expensive for most of the local staff to use) The server has the most modern room, air conditioned and well loaded with security.
The Outpatient building is a large circular (to help with patien flow) builing. Outpatients have to pay, there is a small user fee for everyone, but patients who are admitted are treated and do not have to pay until they leave. If they cannot pay, then a letter is sent to their village and a village elder will decide if they can indeed pay, and how much, or he will decide if the patient is too poor. But no one is ever turned away.
66 million shillings, or about 60 thousand Candadian dollars are overwritten each year by this process.
There are 437 staff, that includes everyone on the compound (kitchen staff for the common room, gardeners, security staff, cleaners and even the staff that work on the farm, a few miles away where they grow wheat and vegetables/) Excess is sold to loals to make money.
Lena's Ward (the children) has 100 beds, a quarter of the capacity of the hospital.
Laundry: They process 1.2 TONNES of dirty clothes/linens/bandages a day. It's all washed by hand, then sent through a steam boiler to sterilize and then dried.
They just installed a stabilizer (installed while we were there) so there is now, for the first time, 240V, 24 hours a day, 364 days a year. Prior to this they had constant surges between 90-300 and spikes of up to 100,000, which caused a lot of damage to vulnerable equiptment.
It is just an amazing place and everyone is so friendly, I guess because they are all there because they want to be, and they are all so proud of the work they are doing, and how they are changing the lives of so many people. Nicole and I were just in awe of everything we saw the whole time we were there.
After the hospital tour, we had lunch and Nicole had some interviews that she wanted to conduct, so Dr Olson had arranged a car and driver for a few of us to go to a small village in the Rift Valley about 2 and a half hours away. The Missionaries have been recently going to visit these people, and they still speak the Click language! There were 2 women from the Norweigan Embassy, a Congolese lady who I think was with the United Nations, a man who had something to do with hospital administration, a translator and me.
We drove a little while until we reached the escarpment at the top of the Rift Valley and the beginnings of a road that was built in 2000. It took 6000 people 6 months to build this road of 130km. It was all done by hand, using picks, shovels and spades, no modern earthmovers at all. When they came across a rock too huge to move, they would light fires around it and heat it until it exploded. And this was only 5 years ago. Now the villages and locals who live far away have an easier time getting to town and to the hospital, and of course the Missionaries can get out to see them, which I suppose is the main purpose. The village was amazing, but I am out of time for now.
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