How beautiful is this? This is the beach resort where Scott and his friends stayed in St. Lucia.

Well isn't this a "lovely" photo to share. Someone asked about the Pit Latrine sign earlier so I thought I'd show what a typical one looked like. Note the ratty looking yellow bucket in the corner, used for washing up afterwards....yuck!

Well, I took the job at the liquor store and it seems to be OK. I'll just be part time for now, but it will be enough to enable me to start saving for the next holiday. I haven't decided where to go, maybe back to Africa, maybe to Turkey or maybe to Spain. One of the three. I recently read an article about a woman who was fired because of the things she said on her blog about her co-workers, so I won't be sharing any juicy bits of gossip here, although everyone seems nice and I doubt there will be any gossip to share!

Other than that, nothing new around here. Scott was in St Lucia for 10 days or so and had a fantastic time, hung out with the locals and had a good taste of the non-tourist part of the island. He and his friend were invited to some of the locals homes to meet the family, and to shop at their little local market and they really enjoyed it.

Weather has turned very spring-ish, snow is almost gone and mud is everywhere. The ducks and geese are returning to the lake so I am hoping that winter is OVER.

Happy St Patricks Day to all my fellow Irishmen out there. (My parents didn't name me Shannon for nothing!) Enjoy some beer or some stew or whack someone with your shilleleigh if they annoy you. Erin go Braugh!

Oops! I didn't mean to post this twice and now I can't figure out how to get rid of one of them...but anyhow, here is my "curious giraffe" for those who wondered where the other half of him was!

It never rains but it pours. So they say. When my job at the Railway Museum ended I said to myself one day: "I wish a job would just fall in my lap. I really don't want to go and look for work." Sure enough, I was in KFC one day and the manager came running out (yes! He really ran out) and said: "Hey! Are you looking for work? Would you be interested in being my assistant manager?" Now, to be fair, I have known him for years, it's not like I have this aura around me that screams out: "Look at ME! Assistant Manager material for hire!" I chose to not work there, it just isn't up my alley. I adjusted my wish to:" I wish a job that I knew how to do and enjoyed would fall into my lap." Shortly after that I was in a video store and the manager asked me if I was looking for work, he knew that I had managed a video store for 14 years. *sigh* I turned that one down because...well, I have DONE that for 14 years. I once more changed my wish to: "I wish a job that I was interested in, and that was easy to learn and reasonably mindless and fun as well would fall into my lap." Well, my friend Jan said I could work with her, cleaning and prepping new RV's. Simple, easy, mindless and I like Jan a lot. BUT, it's about 20 miles west of town and I didn't want to drive 40 miles a day. Quick adjustment..."no work west of town." My friend Tanis runs the Budget Car Rental (or is it Hertz? National? whatever) out at the airport. They needed help, simple, mindless easy help. 20 miles East of town. You can guess my new adjustment. I added a few wishes: "Somewhere new would be nice so that all the staff start at the same time and learn together. Somewhere small would be nice too. Part time would be excellent. Somewhere where they supply clothes to wear would be ok; it would save me some $$ on buying new things."

So. This week I was offered 2 jobs. One at the new Starbucks and one at the new liquor store. Both include all above wishes. How many times am I allowed to turn down a job before the wishes are not granted anymore? I think I am at my limit and I am pretty sure I have to choose one of these jobs. I'll keep you informed of my choice, I am leaning towards the liquor store...

School is out for Spring Break and the kids are so excited. In Africa, it's exactly the opposite, the children there are desperate for an education and even at a young age they realize the value of knowledge. These kids were just on their way to (or maybe from) school and they followed us with great curiosity and a little shyness. I brought out some stickers however and the shyness vanished in a second!

Ewww. I was going to write a bit here, but I went in the bathroom and there was a huge spider on the counter, then I came downstairs to use the computer and there was a huge spider on the light switch...and I touched it. Now I am feeling all creepy-crawly and I can't sit here. Here is a creepy-crawly from Haydom, the hospital in Tanzania.

I guess this is a little cuter than just a simple: "Bathrooms" sign.

Meanwhile, here at home, the weather is continuing to be nice, it gets a little drier out everyday, although today I took Gypsy for a walk to Idlewild park and as we were coming down a narrow path I discovered it was sheer ice. Total ice...like an, well, an ice cube. Gypsy's little toenails were scrabbling to get a grip and I had to sit down and hold her on my lap and slide to the bottom of the hill. Of course the ice was wet and I ended up looking like I:
A) Sat in a puddle of water.
B) Could not find a pit latrine in time.

Thank goodness no one was around to see me looking so undignified, but I have to confess to laughing out loud as I skidded down the hill on my backside. I guess we never outgrow some things.

A brightly coloured Tinga-tinga stall at the Mwenge Carvers Market in Dar es Salaam.

March came in like a lamb yesterday...it was so warm and sunny. I love the smell of spring, when the snow disappears and the earth starts to thaw and warm up. As you walk down the street , the melting snow has turned into rivelets of water that race beside the curbs. As a kid we always made tiny paper boats to race in these mini-rivers and we would run beside as they made their way towards the nearest storm drain...a dark and lonely death for the little ships. We'd peek into the drains, trying to see what was down there and as an adult now, I don't think I'd dare peek into a storm drain...not after reading Stephens King's "It." I know what sort of things dwell down there!

Today would have been my mother's 72 birthday. I cannot picture my mom in her 70's. I can't imagine her having white hair and aches and pains. She was so vibrant, with her red hair and vividly patterned clothes, she would have loved the ladies in Tanzania and the wonderful coloured markets. My mother was "bright."

Here I am, getting back to normal.I have been home a few weeks now and while I had no trouble with jet lag after the first day, all of a sudden now, 3 weeks later, I am exhausted. So much so, that I checked out the symptoms for all the odd diseases I may have contracted, like malaria, Rift Valley Fever and Sleeping Sickness. oddly enough, a symptom of sleeping sickness isn't tiredness,(plus, I don't think I saw a tse-tse fly anywhere) so I have come to the conclusion that I simply need more sleep. You know the old saying, if you hear hoofbeats, it just might be a horse. Or something like that...it was a good saying and I can never get it quite right. It might have something to do with zebras.

The only annoying coincidence that we had was a family of 3 (mom, dad and 18 yr old son) that kept appearing wherever we were in the airport. We first encountered them in the line up outside as we were getting out of the taxi. They had carts that were LOADED with boxes and luggage and they were taking up all sorts of space. As the line up started to move, we all knew that she was in front of us, but the line up was sort of crooked and she kept loudly announcing "No,no, you just wait a minute" if she thought someone was "line-butting." She said it to me once and I snarkily answered "We KNOW you're in front of us."

They kept loudly talking about how THEY had this holiday in Africa...excuse me? Are we not ALL standing in the Kilimanjaro airport? I think we are all here in Africa together.

She complained about the line up, complained about the security checks, complained about how long it was taking, complained that the other people they were travelling with were somewhere else (can you possibly blame them?)and so ad nauseum and complained some more about perhaps having to open her suitcases. Someone said (I wonder if it was me?) sotto voce, "I'd rather stand in line and have suitcases checked than have them let anyone in carrying anything they choose...."

Later, in the duty free as I was buying a few Cuban cigars for Steven she loudly bellowed: "I hope those aren't Cubans....you can't bring those back." I smugly (smugly? what's with me? I'm not normally smug) informed her that not only was I bringing back these 4, I just might bring back 50. (do any of you smoke a cigar? $4.00 Canadian for a Cuban in a nice sealed container...I SHOULD have brought back 50) I was annoyed at her because she didn't discretely mention to me that I might not be allowed to bring those into the USA, she announced it loudly enough that everyone would hear her and think: "Oooh, wordly travelling woman ahead." Then her 18 year old son announced that: "Well, we smuggled some back from Guetemala that time, remember?" and that quieted her down. I didn't even bother telling her I was Canadian and that I could bring them back, and to my surprise, the cashier didn't ask to see my passport or boarding card, so she might well have assumed I was a smuggling American and just let me go so as to annoy the Loud Lady.

They were beside us on the plane too, but thank goodness she slept the whole way, only being woken by her husband at mealtimes, not unlike a zoo animal that needs to feed at certain times.

In the Amsterdam airport we had 3 and half hours so we wandered through the shops and had a nice lunch and I ended up in the duty free once again and bought a few more items. This time I had to show my passport and boarding card and all was recorded. We tried to make our bodies realize that it was 7:30 AM and that we had had a full nights sleep, when actually it was 11 hours earlier and we hadn't slept at all. A few hours time change is one thing, but losing a day just confuses me. There was a moment on the plane when not only could we not figure out the time, we truely didn't know what day it was.

In Vancouver we ran right to the luggage place and happily found our suitcases and then zipped over to passport control and immigration where we of course got into the line where the people in front of us were in trouble for something (they claimed they didn't know how Duty Free worked, and it sounded like they had bought a LOT of jewellery, and they were wearing it all, rings, necklaces, watches etc, it sounded a little odd and they eventually had to go back to the Duty Free store with someone.) We declared out things and the fellow ushered us out and here we are...home again.

We had a quick sit down and said our goodbyes and Nicole went to her gate and I went to mine, cannot believe it is all over. I flew to Calgary on a nice little jet, had a 45 minute wait there and then flew to Cranbrook in a tin can. One of those little ones that seat 12. Six seats on either side and no cockpit door. The co-pilot said "Take all the pictures you want now, just don't take any as we are landing because the flash reflects off the windshield and can cause problems." It's only a 35 minute flight and it was pretty rough, but before I knew it, I was back at home. Steven was waiting for me, it was icey and snowy and I was COLD! Glad to be safely home, but missing the warm African sun.

Last morning in Arusha.

Check out time is 11 AM, but we didn't need to go to the airport until 6 PM, so we figured we'd go to the bookstore before we had to check out, as it would obviously save us hauling around our luggage. We couldn't find Abdalah, but we did find Razak, our "old" driver so we asked him to take us to the bookstore...but for 3,000 TS, not the 6,000 we were paying him before! He was fine with that, but when we got to the bookstore it was closed and wasn't going to be opening for an hour or so, so the joke was on us as now Razak had us as passengers on a return trip to the hotel...a place that he would have gone anyhow, but it cost us another 3,000 TS so he got his 6,000 after all. (you don't want to hang around the bookstore and wait, there is nothing there but some creepy looking vacant lots and dicey looking stores.)

We took a walk to the supermarket and bought a few snacks and also stopped at the furniture/souviner place where I bought a couple of necklaces and then came back to check out. One of the bellboys informed us that the hotel had an excellent lock up for luggage even though we were not officially staying there anymore----yahoo! so we locked away our stuff, found Abdalah and headed off to the bookstore after all! We had a nice "browse", a coffee and some banana loaf...a HUGE warm slice, it was so tasty. Abdalah came to get us in an hour (man, I love this taxi system) and we went back to the hotel. We were just sitting in the lobby trying to decide what to do for the next few hours when I hear this jovial voice bellow out: "hello there!" and we looked up to see Anders, a doctor from Haydom and John, a carpenter from Haydom. They were heading back to Norway and just stopped at the Impala to lock up their luggage for a few hours as well. Anders announced that he would be pleased if he could buy us lunch. Look at us, having lunch dates in Arusha and our own driver as well. Cosmopolitan women!

We had a wonderful lunch and then after a rest and a read we decided to head out to the airport early since all the flights leave at pretty much the same time and we figured we'd beat the crowds. Lots of people were already lining up for the shuttle.

We had already arranged with Abdalh to pick us up and he was ready to go (although when we went around the corner to get him, one of his co-workers said: "Oh, he had to go to town, I'll take you." Ha! We know that old trick inside out by now!)

As we were driving down the highway (which is like a 2 lane country road here, "highway" in name only) we passed a small village where it was raining and there was a beautiful rainbow in the sky. Abdalah says it rains a lot in this little town, but not in Arusha which is only 15-20 km away. Odd.

It's a 40 km drive to the airport and it takes about 55 minutes, there is a lot of traffic as it's the only route from the airport to Arusha and there are also a few villages on the way so between vehicular traffic and people on foot, it's a slow journey. Cars have to stop and show some sort of ID before they are allowed ointo the airport grounds. We pulled into the curb, unloaded our luggage and got into the line up and what do we hear? "hello there!" Anders and John once again, and they are with our old driver Razak, no less! What asmall and funny little world it is. Handshakes and hugs all around and then we started the whole boarding procedure. It didn't take as long as we had thought and when we got into the waiting room we were sort of surprised not to see Anders as it's not a very large room and he does seem to pop up all over the place,

I bought a few things at the duty free, incredible prices, I wish I had more suitcase space, and before we knew it we were boarding the plane. We left on time, to the exact minute--those efficient Dutch. As we settled in we decided to try and have a sleep although it wasn't for long as we had to land in Dar es Salaam in an hour. (it was over 80 outside, and this is midnight!) It was an hour stop, but we weren't allowed off the plane so we were trying to decide what to do, should we read? sleep? go to the bathroom? and then we hear this voice: "Hello there!" and up pops Anders, looking jaunty in a red sweater and a purple scarf. Turns out he is sitting right behind us. Really, what are the chances of that, 2 sets of seats booked months apart, on different continents and we end up 24 inches apart? So we had a nice chat once again and then tried to sleep.

About 10 hours later we landed in Amsterdam and said our goodbye's to Anders who is taking a different flight to Norway.

We headed to our gate area and decided to find a bathroom first, there are a lot, but they all had huge line-ups so we eventually found one a little bit out of the way and just as Nicole was going in, who do you think was coming out? Yup, Anders! Too funny! However that really was the last time we saw him, but his life seems to be full of coincidences, as he was sitting behind us in the plane the fellow sitting beside him turned out to be someone from his home town. I wonder if I'll ever see him again, I really wouldn't be surprised.

This is the Impala Hotel in Arusha, the scene of much hysteria as well as Major Lemere. Our best room was second from the top, second from the left.

As we were leaving the tribunal we had to sign out of the courtroom and just as I turned away i heard a voice say:"Excuse me." and a large man in a uniform said:"Is that the hand you write with?" I held up my left hand and tried to look a little humiliated and I answered:"Yes it is--left hand." and he laughed out loud. I said, jokingly: "Are you laughing at my writing hand?" and he replied, still laughing: "Oh no, I would not laugh at your hands." I laughed back at him and said: "oh yes you are!" and he was still chuckling as we got into the elevator.

The left hand is not used for eating or writing or pretty much anything else here...it's the hand you use to...ummm.."clean yourself" after a bathroom break, and it's considered very uncouth to use it for anything else. I tried to use my right hand as much as possible, but I was still surprised when this fellow mentioned it. I guess in the hotels and touristy places they are used to seeing us heathen North Americans.

More Tidbits.

Speaking of toilets, we have had bad toilet luck on this trip. Every place we have been to has either had horrid sewer gas smell toilets, or "running water all night long" toilets, toilets that don't flush unless you hold a lever in a certain position for a long time, and the best was the NgoroNgoro toilet that burbled and bubbled all night long. I actually thought that someone was in our bathroom having a bath, it was that loud.The bubbles were actual splashes. I guess we should just be glad that it was only water that was bubbling up. But it's little disconcerting to always be hearing noises and flushes and smells when no one else is around. It's that hotel ghost again.

The speed limit here is 80 km if you have a government car, but if you are a tourist, the speed limit is pretty much what you want it to be depending on your circumstances. If you are late, especially if you are late for a plane, well, then you can go as fast as you need to. How accommodating is that?

There are no fences to mark the property lines off the highway. You know how there will be a farmers fence running alongside the highway at home to keep his land fenced in? Not here. There is a small cement post about 2 feet high and maybe 12" X 12" every 200 or 300 feet and on the front of the post it says "End of Road" meaning that if you are walking down the highway (as hundreds and hundreds of people do daily) then you can walk on the strip of land between the marker and the highway, but not behind the marker.

Men walk hand in hand here, a sign of friendship. I like to see that.

I finally got to try the local dish "ugaali" I think I mentioned earlier that it's a very bland sort of porridge type dish made from corn flour. It can be runny and soupy, or thick and gooey, or mixed with beans or lentils, or so thick that you slice it. It was very tastless and I didn't care for it at all, but I was happy to have a chance to try it. Our taxi driver, Abdalah likes it a lot.

I was sad that in Zanzibar I didn't have a chance to hear the call of the muezzein (sp?) but as we were getting ready for bed the last night in Arusha, I could hear the sound echoing through the fading twilight. We were on the other side of the hotel for the first time, and it's where the locals live and also where some of the mosques are. So that made me really happy! It's a haunting sort of cry, and I always wanted to hear a "real" one. However, it certainly didn't lull us into a deep and dreamless sleep. The neighbour had his TV on so loud that at 2 AM I had to phone to the front desk and ask them to phone him and have it turned down. I mean 2 AM?? That's a little excessive. Then of course at 3 or 4 AM the rooster down the road started his yodeling and then a few dogs had to chime in and before we knew it, it was 6 AM and time for Chad's wake-up call! Yikes, I was tired that morning.

The Mystery of the Bedside Lamps aka When Lamps Go Wild.

Before I go to sleep at night I like to read and I really like a nice, bright light to aid me in doing so. Not so much to ask in the grand scheme of things. This trip has been not so fun;, bed-side-lamp-wise.

In Dar es Salaam, in that beautiful hotel, there was NO bedside lamp, just a big floor lamp with a cord too short to reach the bed, so it was twilight all the time by my pillow.

In the Impala, in our many rooms (I think we may have been in 6) they have small wall sconces above the beds that had a 40 or 60 watt bulb. You couldn't move them at all, or take the sconce cover off. One room had a "real" lamp on the table beside the bed, but the slightest motion would cause the light to flicker and go out. Even a sudden sneeze in the direction of the shade would cause shudders and darkness. I even changed bulbs with Nicoles lamp (since she has some sort of otherwordly night vision and can read in the near blackness) but that did no good.

In Haydom we were simply afraid to turn on any lights at all, for fear that the flying creatures would know that we were inside and afraid of them...shhhh...

The 3 safari hotels had nice little lamps mounted on the wall above the bed, the kind that pivot and swivel, but they would pivot and swivel in every direction except over the pillow! I'd have to point it towards the wall and dangle my head off the bed and hold my book in an unnatural position and end up taking Advil for pain.

Finally, though, on our last night at the Impala I had a lovely & bright lamp beside my bed and I had a new book to read as well. "I can't believe I have such a great lamp." I said as I reached out to reverently and gently touch the shade. The shade promptly tipped over, the brass connection where the bulb screws in snapped in half and a huge blue spark flew out and the lights and the TV went dead. I won't even tell you the word that flew out of my mouth.

We called the front desk and explained, I think I heard Nicole say something about her roomate who just short circuited the room and possibly the whole hotel and maybe even Arusha itself and that fuses are probably blowing and burning as we speak.. A maintenence man was at our room in minutes as we hastily threw on some clothes over our PJ's. Right away he started to re-wire the lamp, which sort of worried us as it had broken in half and had bits of blackened, melted brass stuck to the bulb. We hastened to tell him we didn't need the lamp fixed, just the circuits so that we could use the other lamp and perhaps the TV as we were enjoying the BBC news. "Oh" he said "Is already fixed." and he went to turn on the TV, which Nicole had unplugged so as to save us from an electrical death. He bent down and had to reach past a suitcase to re-plug in the TV, he sort of had to rest his head on the suitcase in order to get to the plug into the socket. As he was fumbling around, we saw, to our HORROR that there was a navy blue bra on the suitcase, about an inch away from his eyes!! OUR eyes must have bugged right our of our heads at this huge faux-pas and as Nicole was closer she grabbed the blue bra and threw it on the bed. There was a moment of uncomfortable silence, then he plugged in the TV and quickly left. We looked at each other, stunned and then burst into hysterical peals of laughter. I won't mention who left a navy blue bra lying around so carelessly.

Next morning as we were packing I decided to wear my green bra and pack the pink one, the only 2 that I brought with me.

Honestly though? I have never laughed so much or so heartily as I have on this trip. We are always in fits of laughter and never more than a few hours go by when one or the other or both of us are uncontrollably hysterical. I'm sure people think we are a little insane with our constant cackling.




3

The trip back to Arusha took about 4 hours as we made a few stops along the way. One was to get this fantastic picture of our Lake Manyara hotel perched on the top of the cliff. The Ngorongoro looked sort of similar to this one, but it's cliff was much steeper. Look! I managed to post a picture of it--see the hotel so tiny at the top? More pictures to come, finally!

We also stopped to watch 2 giraffes that were wandering through a field full of cows, which was a strange sort of a sight indeed.

Then we stopped at a small market/souviner stall to pick up a few odds and ends. We had asked Hamisi to stop at a fairly reputable one and he said this one was good, but we would have to bargain hard to get a fair price, and as we are not good bargainers we were not too sure of how this was going to turn out. All we really wanted was a few small beaded necklaces and they had the type we wanted, but at 6,000 TS each and we didn't want to pay more than 2,000. We hummed and hawed and tried to leave, but the fellow kept following us and eventually we got him down to 2,500 each, so we were pretty happy. We had been told earlier that a merchant will never sell to you at a loss, so don't feel bad about trying to get them down in price, they'll just quit dealing if they are not going to make a profit, which obviously makes sense. When we were done dealing and paying, the fellow was all smiles and gave us a big handshake and a thumbs up. They love to deal and they get a kick out a hard bargain. We ended up buying 15 necklaces in all....it was fun.

We drove into Arusha town and Hamisi said we'd make a quick stop at the office first, which sort of surprised us until we realized that we were to have a quick meeting with Shabbir. He wanted to know how it all went, did we have any complaints and how our guide was and that sort of thing. It's actually a good way to do business because if you have a problem it's sort of nice to get it sorted out right away instead of writing and/or e-mailing and/or phoning once you are home.

Needless to say we had nothing but praise and positive remarks to make and he happily handed us the comment book where we left a nice little missive about our safari, and I'd highly recommend them to anyone. Shabbir smiled widely and we saw The Teeth once more, in all their shining glory and then we departed the Sunny Safari offices.

Back at the hotel the staff was happy to see us and asked us how everything had been and quickly ushered us into our room for the next 2 days. We freshened up and decided to go back to the tribunal so we went out front and found our new taxi driver, Abdalah and he took us over to the tribunal and said he'd come and get us at 2:30. We went into the guard house and were informed that the tribunal was on lunch until 2:30 so we raced out and just caught Abdalah as he was starting to drive away *whew*. So, back to the hotel, had a little rest and did some e-mailing and then headed out again at 2:30. We knew the routine this time and where to go and what to leave behind so it was much quicker to get into the courtroom this time, however the first 2 courtrooms were closed so we had to go up to the 4th floor. This time there were about 15 people there, mostly tourist-y type folks like us.

The last time was the Major Lemere case and a little bit of intrigue, but today's case was very sobering. The prosecutor was questioning (although one mihgt use the term interrogating) a young girl (who was behind a curtain to conceal her identity from the viewers). She had been raped by 5 Rwandan soldiers on 2 different occasions when she was still "a school child". She had to explain again and again as the prosecutor tried to confuse her and pick holes in her story. It was a pretty uncomfortable thing to listen to him telling her that she was a liar and that she actually belonged to the "Ebuka" which is, he said, a group where witnesses meet to fabricate stories to convict the Hutu and the soldiers.

She was claiming that the Ebuka is an association that defends the interests of surviviors and that she wasn't a member anyhow.

Her voice was so soft and quiet and when he spoke harshly to her you could hear a hitch in her voice as if she was trying not to cry. It was devastating to listen to.

There was a group of 5 women sitting behind us, I'm not sure where they were from, but they came in when we did and they all spoke English and they left before us and they tried to peer behind the curtain to see the girl and they giggled and laughed as they did so. We were appalled at their ignorance and embarrased for them.

We came out of the tribunal feeling quite drained and we walked across the street to where Abdalah was to meet us. We were a few minutes early and we saw a white taxi flash his lights at us, so we walked over and it was a strange taxi driver. We said: "oh, sorry, we're waiting for our driver." and this fellow said: "Yes, he is going to be late and told me to come and get you. Hop in!"

Now that we are wise to the ways of the taxi drivers, we said that we'd just wait a few minutes and see if our driver showed up and sure enough, Abdalah arrived exactly on time! We told him about the attempted "customer theft" and he nattered out this window to the "bad" driver who smiled and shrugged his shoulders, and gave us a big grin. It's all in a day's work!

Razak was charging us way too much (although it was still so cheap compared to what we'd pay here) and when we found Abdalah, Razak was "horrified" for the first day, but now he smiles at us as if to say; "Hey, I got away with it for a few days!" It's all a game and everyone is good natured about it.

Jan 25/2006

As we walked to the restaurant this morning we saw 7 baboons running around on the roof and hotel employees tossing rocks at them, hoping they would leave. I just get a kick out of baboons on the roof! Clever little beasts. When we had the monkeys on our sundeck, one of them kept pressing his little hand on our window and peering through the glass at us.

We gathered up our box lunch and headed out into the Serengeti for the last time. We drove for, oh, 45 seconds and spotted 3 lionesses walking down the road beside us, out for their morning hunt...within mere yards of the hotel. No wonder there are signs all over warning you not to leave the grounds.

There is a small airstrip near the hotel too, just a dirt road and a windsock, but a lot of people fly right in and start their safari from there. This morning there were warthogs running all over the airstrip!

We drove past the hippo pool again and looked at their big, gray backs, looking just like rocks in a tide-pool and we saw a couple of hyena's out for their morning hunt too, glancing at us and smiling at us with those hyena teeth.

We drove to yesterdays "leopard tree" and noticed one other vehicle there and Hamisi said: "Leopard!" and there she was, walking around the tree, looking glorious with the sun behind her. She jumped up on a lower tree branch and was poking at something with her paw and to our astonishment she proceeded to haul a small (and headless) red buck (or reed buck) up the tree! She nearly dropped it a few times but she eventually settled down and put her arms around it and proceeded to munch on her breakfast. We stood and watched her for about 15 minutes, in this tree not 15 feet from us, close enough to actually hear the crunch of the bones as she chewed. Hamisi was as amazed as we were, you just don't get to see a leopard this close, and with only one other vehicle there as well. It was quite a feeling.

We continued on our way, having to stop now and then for a herd of wildebeeste to cross in front of us. They are hysterical creatures; as they see you coming down the road they put down their heads and run as fast as they can beside the truck and then as they get even with you they put on this burst of speed and gain a little and then dash in front of the truck and as soon as they are safely on the other side they toss their heads and give a little fling of the heels as if to say:"Ha! Beat you, beat you!." And when one starts to run, they all start to run, and you can see this line of dancing wildebeests stretching out for miles. They mingle with the Cape Buffalo who simply stand there and stare at you, with a little touch of madness in their eyes.

The topi are the sentinals--you always see just one gazing intently at the horizon, scanning for enemies, often surrounded by the smaller gazelles who can't see as far. The giraffes just stand, stare and eat, looking morose and then they'll slowly turn and canter away looking so lopsided that you can't believe they are not going to tip over and when they run it looks like a camera has been turned on to slow motion.

There are no mosquitoes in the Serengeti so our hotel didn't have mosquito nets and we sort of missed them, they are so cozy to sleep under.

We drove out of the Serengeti and up the hill to the top of the Ngorongoro Crater, a 3 hour drive and then we descended down the to the crater floor by a steep, steep road that was switchbacks all the way down. There is one way down and on the other side of the crater is the road up. It's too narrow and twisty to have traffic going both ways.

The crater is 265 sq. km. and has a small lake in the middle, lower than usualy because of the drought. It's odd because everything looks SO green and lush, you'd never think there was a water shortage, but apparently everything should be much greener and much lusher. And the roads are very dusty...we were so covered when we arrived at the hotel that we were embarrased to wipe our faces with the cool, damp cloths they give you, we almost made mud!

The scenery is amazing. The area around the the lake is flat and spreads to the edge of the crater wall. On one side is a forest called The Lerai Forest. There are no giraffes down here as the foliage that they eat doesn't grow here, and no female or baby elephants, just the males. Other than that there is the greatest concentration of wildlife in Africa, which seems funny because it looks so flat that you can't imagine there is anything other than the herds of wildebeest which are, as we all know by now, everywhere!

As we were driving through the forest Nicole spotted an elephant coming through the bush, and then another and then yet another and then a female and a baby! Hamisi was astounded, he has never seen a female down here before and has never heard oof such a hting, but again, because of the drought, a lot of the animals are changing their habits.

We stopped at a little lunch spot to eat our box lunches and Hamisi asked us to eat in the truck and just to go outside to use the little bathroom since there are vervet monkeys all over and they are quite aggressive and apparently their bite (or their saliva I guess) has something in it that is poisonous, and the nearest place to get treatment is in Nairobi. I'm not sure how correct this is, there are vervet monkeys all over Tanzania so you'd think they'd have some sort of medication, but I sure wasn't going to question his decision.

We continued on and saw more amazing sights- a mother cheeta and her cub, mama was making a half hearted attempt to stalk a gazelle but she eventually just sat down and decided to rest.

Zebra's are all over the place here, and much less skittish than the ones in the Serengeti and Lake Manyara, so we got some really good photos. Nicole even got a little film of 2 males fighting each other, kicking and biting while running through the shallows of the lake.

We saw more hippo's, but these ones were quite active, rolling over in the water, what a funny sight to see their huge pink bellies and frantically waving toes as they force themsleves to turn over in the mud. They were roaring and yawning and shifting places with each other, it was quite a treat to see them doing something other than imitating a big gray rock.

We saw a jackal sitting beside a rock, his ears perked up looking just like a pet dog waiting for his master to come home, and an eland, a huge type of an antelope. and then we headed up the ascent road on the other side. Yikes! It was STEEP and the drop-off beside us was too close for comfort. The only good thing was that we knew no one would be coming around a corner towards us going down. It was a little nerve-wracking, but I just kept telling myself that all sorts of vehicles take this same road all day long....breath...breath....

The hotel perched on the top of the cliff and overlooked the crater floor, an amazing sight. Each hotel has such a different view and each one was so perfect that I couldn't possibly pick a favorite, although if I HAD to I think it would be the Serengeti simply because of the proximity of the wildlife.

Since it was our last night we each had a glass of wine, I had a red that was made in Africa and it was very good (I guess, I know nothing about wine, but I liked it) and after dinner there was a local acrobatic troupe who put on a show. Quite an extravaganza, but nervewracking to watch as they used no nets or safety devices and the floor was cement. They did some pretty fancy balancing acts; balancing on chairs, tables, bricks and each other...all at once!

The deck had one of those huge telescopes so you could look down and try and spot some wildlife. You could se the game trails and the pepper specks of wildebeeste and I spotted (with my bare eye I might add) an elephant near the forest.

In the morning I watched the sun rise and saw the shadows of night move down the crater wall and across the floor as the rays of sun lit it up. It only took a matter of minutes and it was daylight everywhere. We ran into Hamisi as we were making our lunch for the ride back to Arusha and we took a few pictures of the 3 of us and off we headed. It was a little sad, I am always a bit melancholy when I leave somewhere.

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.

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.