Advertisement
Published: August 18th 2008
Lake Manyara Elephant
No zoom needed for this picture...Dear Family and Friends:
OOPS! HOW WONDERFUL THE KILI KIDS ARE
Poor Kate woke in the middle of the night after writing the last entry and realized that she had neglected to include at least a sentence or two about the children at the orphanage....you have to understand that the entries are always written piece-meal, sometimes over a week's time, often with someone waiting to use the computer, and, on some occasions, large amounts of text are lost and, when re-typed, end up shorter (as frustration increases, text decreases!)....so...we just want everyone to know that the REASON we left part of our hearts (I know, Mom, it's a dreadfully inaccurate sentence, but it beats "parts of our respective hearts!") is that the children are beautiful and wonderful and warm and good and eager. You want to take every one of them home in your suitcase. They are gracious and good to visitors and they are good to each other, always the older ones caring for the younger ones, and truly live in the best family possible, under the circumstances. This may have been omitted from the prior message because all it does is elicit more tears! You cannot imagine
Mud and Wood Hut
Mto Wambu Village the beauty in each of these children. We cherished every moment of holding, hugging, pushing (on the swing), playing soccer, teaching English, and sharing laughs.
WHAT WE MISS FROM HOME
We took a poll and determined that the only one to experience any homesickness so far was Sam and he reports that it was for only a few seconds. If we could afford it, I suspect we would gladly extend the trip another 3 months....What we miss: ice cubes and feminine clothes (Kate), lazy summer days and the Red Sox (Sam), seeeing friends, Red Gate Farm, and sleeping in (Lauren), and Buckland Rec, BBQs, fresh summer vegetables and strawberries, and the Red Sox (Ken). What we don't miss is unanimous: Mom's work phone, US mail delivery, the computer, and the tv! Kids have had virtually no access to tv the entire trip - the first place was Thailand which allowed them to see a bit of the Olympics.
TRANSPORTATION -
subtitle: "Millions Fail Cairo Driver's Test; Government Issues Licenses Anyway"
After using 29 different (!!) forms of transportation, this topic can be summarized as follows: we are truly grateful to be alive. It started in Switzerland
with all the cable cars swinging high over the green meadows. Kate was sure she would fall to her death. Then, there were the bike scooters barreling down the alpine road, usually out of control, where Kate shouted ahead to the rest of the family that she loved them, just in case. It all paled in comparison to Cairo, Egypt, however, where we were lucky to get a car with working seatbelts, the drivers tailgate constantly while they are speeding and honking their horns every 30 seconds, there are usually no lane markers and, when there are, they are two cars wide, resulting in complete chaos as cars create lanes and ride any faded lane markers there might be, and most drivers do not use their headlights at night except to flash to a car to get out of the driver's way, relying, instead, on the street lights (read that phrase a second time to let it sink in!). Add to this that there are only a few traffic lights in this city of 27 million people, so every major intersection is a game of chicken and not just between cars - add trucks, buses, goats, camels, donkeys, bicyclists, and
Our Private 4 star Pit Toilet
Always a cool breeze to help you along... hand-pushed carts and you now have the image! Oh, and the pedestrians who are out 24 hours a day and casually hang by the side of the road and cross a 6 (or 7 or 8)-lane highway without a thought. There were rides where Kate and Lauren just held each other tight and closed their eyes. Kate comforted herself with the knowledge that her estate planning documents had been updated the day before they left home.
Things did not improve in Tanzania. Still no seat belts, of course, in taxis. Then, on the safari, some worked and some did not, but why would it matter if your safari vehicle slides off the muddy road over the steep embankment to land hundreds of feet below to your certain death? The two days we drove the muddy road in Ngorongoro Conservation Area on the way to and from the Serengeti were the worst. The narrow, slick and steep road was barely two lanes wide and being on the outer lane horrifying (for some of us more than others). Of course, there were no guardrails, and, of course, our driver had to frequently drive in the other lane to avoid huge ruts/potholes,
which would be ok if there weren't fog and sharp turns ahead severely limiting his visability. Kate's thought at this point: at least people will say we died on the trip of a lifetime. We were stopped twice when we came down because of bus accidents in the mud and, once at the exit, discovered that all large trucks were being denied access due to the conditions. And, on our second to last day, the brakes stopped working on our car, so we drove using the emergency brake! Now you can understand why we let our children stand up in the safari truck with their heads out the roof opening as we drove 40 mph over the rutted, washboard roads. Safety smafety. We did think of you, Mom, as we counted a total of 25 hours of driving on dusty washboard and severely rutted roads. We drove quickly over it all, bouncing from side to side, and, to avoid some of the worst holes, had to leave our lane, cross over the oncoming lane, to drive up on the plains.
Finally, in northern Thailand, we were stuck in the middle of oncoming traffic in a tiny tuk tuk, hardly
protected in the golf-cart/motocyle combination (the driver actually got a ticket from a police officer for it!). Then, were put in the back of a songthaew to drive up into the jungle. Picture a beat-up old pick-up truck, where the bed has been modfied to add two benches along the inside and a canvas roof. No windows. No seat belts. Lots of diesel fumes. You feel like cattle going off to market. At this point, Kate assumed we had already died and this was a taste of Purgatory.
By the way, the 29 types of transportation include (in addition to the obvious): horse & buggy, bamboo raft, hot air balloon, elephant, camel, tuk tuk, zip line, and monorail.
SAFARI - On Beyond Zebra (thanks to Dr. Suess)
On our way out of Arusha, some interesting shops we saw: Happy Son Shop, The Twins Shop, Godwin Loi Shop, House of Lubricants (oil change), Red Banana Hotel, Glory Shop, Elton Bikes & Spare , and The Number One Restaurant.
Our first stop was for a cultural visit to a tribal village in Mto Wambi. We had a fantastic guide walk us through their village, where we were free
Hippo Pool
Those are not rocks! to take photos. This was one of the few times we felt comfortable to photograph natives - we have very few from Egypt or other places in Tanzania, since it feels so intrusive. You see a fantastic image of a woman in native attire with a huge basket on her head, for example, but you cannot bring yourself to take a picture. The village we visited had square houses - from mud brick to cement (see photo). Mud brick houses, of course, are the cheapest to build, but often have to be re-built after the rainy season. The roofs made of coconut, rice and/or banana grass have to be repaired every 8 months. So, people buy building materials and build as they have the money (no mortgages!). A house may take 5 years to build, with piles of materials gathered on site and buildings in various states of completion. This village had rice fields, where a laborer would earn $2 a DAY. Teachers or government workers earn $180 - 300/MONTH. We visited the village school and learned about banana trees and zero-grazing (all livestock is keep in the village to avoid conflict with the nearby Maasi tribes who, apparently, believe
in "finders, keepers"). Many children asked us for pens (not sure why they are so coveted). We had a wonderful lunch of native foods deep in the jungle.
Our next stop was Lake Manyara National Park where the roof came off the safari car for the first time and just in time for a blue monkey and then an elephant 30 feet from our car! Elephants eat 16 hours a day, which sounds great to us. Then, we saw (in this order) baboons grooming each other, giraffes, Egyptian geese, velvet monkeys, pelicans (hundreds of them!), egrets, herons, and hippos (another appealing lifestyle, although the part about how they drop their feces on land to find their way back to the water is a bit tough to take), wildebeests, zebras, impala, buffalo, warthogs. dikdiks, and mongoose. We were in heaven. We camped that night at a private campground and had our private toilet (see photo). Dinner was after sunset, by candelight, in a private tent on a table with a red-checked cloth. The kids loved the leek soup, which was served before the breaded fish, mashed potatos, cooked fresh vegetables, and pineapple rings for dessert. The cook had a HUGE
basket of fresh fruits and vegetables and we ate like royalty at every meal. Even the boxed lunches were incredible, including lemon cookies and corn muffins somehow cooked over the propane stove. Also, barbequed chicken, cheese sandwiches, and hardboiled eggs.
The second day, we drove to Ngorongoro Conservation Area and picked up an armed Maasi ranger named Loda to accompany us on our hike down into the Empakai Crater (Ken confirmed that the barrel of the gun, which the guide was holding towards Lauren as he sat in our car, was empty). On our way to the Crater, we passed several Maasi villages with their round mud and stick huts, all themselves arranged in a larger circle. Fences were made of sticks and leaved branches. Maasi people wear red blankets draped around them, often have stretched ear lobes, wear beaded ankle bracelets, and, if they wear shoes at all, they are often made of recycled rubber tires. Many Maasi villages migrate among huts every few months to follow the water. Sam and Lauren waved from the open roof of the car to the herders of the lifestock, many of them children who waved back enthusiastically. The cows grazed peacefully
Safari Truck
Toyota Land Cruiser. Way cool to be able to stand up for a great view and feel the wind in your face... along with zebras and gazelles.
Our guide estimated that only 20% of visitors to the park go to the Empakai Crater, as it is off the usual route. At the Crater, we walked down from the rim with our armed guard to the floor of the crater which is 3.6 miles wide. There, the only other person was a taphonomist. If anyone knows what one is, we are duly impressed! For the rest of us mortals: it is someone who studies the conditions and processes by which organisms become fossilized. In this case, she was collecting bones from dead flamingos (live ones line the shores of the lake in the bottom of the crater) to compare with fossils of old flamingos. Our campsite that night was private and, due to the elevation (approximately 7,500 feet), we froze! We had a shower set up, much like the toilet with the canvas walls, but now with a large bag of hot water hanging and a spiggot to turn it on and off. Our armed guard stood watch through the night. We were told to bring all of our belongings in the tent or else a hyena might take them...
The
Giraffes
We saw a total of 79, including 5 babies. next day, we drove into Ngorongoro Crater, often called the Eighth Wonder of the World. It is the world's largest unbroken and unflooded crater and, at 12 miles wide, it is 180 square miles in total size. There are between 25,000 and 30,000 large animals living there, including 13 black rhino. The floor was covered in endless dried yellow grass punctuated with occasional tufts of green shrubs and small brown termite hills. There were a few trees, usually the classic umbrella acacia trees associated with Africa. In the afternoon, we drove out of the crater and on to the Serengeti. Between the three parks, we saw 79 giraffes (including 5 babies), 75 elephant (including 9 babies), 2 black rhino, 33 lions, 4 hyenas, 8 jackels, 3 leopards (very unusual, since they are nocturnal), 1 cheetah, 4 crocodiles, and an infinite number of zebras, baboons, and wildebeest. One of the most special sightings was when we parked close to 4 female lions and 8 babies. One female was about 30 feet from the car and we got to watch 5 cubs fight over 4 places to nurse. Cubs may nurse from any female - it need not be their mother. We got this scene on video.
In the Serengeti, we stayed in a public campground and discovered how spoiled we had been previously. The bathrooms (Eastern style) were disgusting and there were no working showers. The cooks for all the groups cooked in one large screened, covered room - it was complete chaos - but we had our own table in another screened and covered room. On the second day, our support crew did a really nice thing by setting up our shower. Apparently, this is against park rules, but we loved it! On our second day in the Serengeti, we got up at 5:00 a.m. and took a one-hour balloon ride. It was incredible to be both a few hundred feet over the plains and brushing along over the top of the long grasses. The balloon was huge - 450 square feet - and the rattan basket divided into 8 sections to hold 16 people total. We started with the basket on the ground on its side and we each slid in, lying down like astronauts until take-off. After the ride, we landed in the middle of nowhere for a delicious breakfast on the plains.
A highlight for Sam on our last day was when, at the exit gate, the guard demanded to see Sam's passport - he was sure that Sam was over 15 and, therefore, should have paid the adult admission fee ($50). Sam will remember that for a long time!
Our guide said that most parents go on safari without their children, which we could not imagine! He was surprised to hear that so many Americans are overweight - I guess those who go to Africa are fit. We also noticed that we weren't seeing so many people smoking in Tazmania and our guide said that the government imposes such high taxes on cigarettes that only the rich can afford to smoke and then they do it privately.
What a thrill it was to spend 5 days on safari and see such magnificent animals in the wild. Tanzania was truly a highlight of our trip and we will certainly return.
Next up: The jungles of Chiang Mai, Thailand!
K4
Advertisement
Tot: 0.126s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 7; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0512s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
