Back Home!!

Yay we are now back in Seattle, exhausted but very pleased with our adventure. 

Please stay tuned and give us a few days to organize our photos (we took about 2000).  We will post the best of the best from Dave's Awesome Camera. The pictures we've posted so far have all been only from our iPhones.

Sent by my iPhone from the future...

Which Animals Did We Spot?

I'll leave you with a list of animals we saw on safari:

Hippos (including a newborn)

Baboons

Crocodiles

Herons, Storks, Vultures, and tons of other birds

Wildebeests (aka Gnus)

Impalas

Lions!! (some eating a wildebeest and later a pair mating)

African Buffalos

Monkeys

Waterbuks (like a big deer)

Zebras

Warthogs

Greater Kudo

Lesser Kudo

African Wild Dogs

Hyenas

Monitor Lizard

Mongooses (three species)

Squirrels

Dik Dik (like a tiny dear)

Giraffes

Elephants

Giraffe Gazelles

Gazelles

Oryx

Hartibeast

Ant Lion (one of the Small Five)

Ostriches

Elands

Sand Snake

Geode Morgen from Amsterdam

It's the last day of our trip (we fly out this afternoon). No plans today, just brunch and packing. We may go to the croissanterie across the street again yum yum.

Yesterday I was able to visit the AMS branch for Expeditors. I meet Joep and his Distribution crew. What a treat to see our software in action.

Yesterday Dave checked out the Amsterdam Museum.

Since we've arrived we done plenty of walking around. This town is pretty neat with all the old architecture and skinny tall houses. There are water canals all around town and they use them like roads. We even jumped on a canal-bus and toured around the city that way too. And I must mention the bridges! With so many canals there are over 1000 bridges, large and small, to cross the canals. Each bridge is unique and some are pretty ornate.

We visited the old Heineken Brewery, they have set up this interactive tour deal but mostly we were looking forward to the free beer at the end. We met this neat US couple there that we chatted with and shared our travel stories. They showed us how to us the tram here too. Oddly enough we've met very few people from The States both in Africa and AMS.

We walked through the Red Light district. It's pretty surreal.

Later!!

The Plane, The Plane!

This is the kind of plane we used to get to the safari camp.

A view from our safari vehicle

Three Lions resting in the shade

Two Lions, one eating a Wilderbeast

Our Second Safari

Monday

We have returned from Lake Manze Camp in the Selous Game Reserve.  What an incredible experience.  The camp was a set of 12 tents plus a main meeting/eating/bar area that was covered with a thatch roof.  The camp is in the middle of nowhere as we had to fly into a dirt airstrip to get here.  As soon as we landed we saw a bunch of impalas and there was even a baboon walking on the runway!  A game guide and driver picked us up and we saw giraffes and hippos before even leaving the airstrip.  On the way back we saw a pride of lions eating a wildebeest, a pair of African wild dogs, buffalo, and more!

Our tent was this two room tent with the bed area fully enclosed (keeps mosquitoes out).  Nice comfy queen sized bed.  And the back room was the sink, toilet, and shower which was mostly open to the stars!!  Showering under the stars is a real treat.  :-)

There was a lake about 30 yards from our tent.  You could see a see hippos most of the time.  Grunt grunt!!  At dusk they creep up out of the water in search of food.  We saw their footprints and they are HUGE!!  At dawn they all slink back to the lake single file in their awkwardly graceful way.  

We had strict rules NOT to leave our tents after dark.  Any animal could show up at any time...from our tent we saw baboons, snakes, hippos, and impala.  The camp had several Masai men that were responsible for animal control and for escorting people to their tents.  The Masai carried no guns just a stick, club thing, long knife, and walkie talkies.  They were all dressed in the traditional red material.

One day we did a walking safari.  We did not see many animals but around every corner our guide showed us something interesting about footprints, poop, animal trails, or plants.  In the walk it was just Dave and I with our game guide, a game guide in training, one guy with a rifle, and another security type guide too.  We walked single file with Dave and I in the middle.

We did a boat ride too.  We saw at lot of hippos, crocodiles, and tons of birds.  We even got charged at by a hippo! He was too far away to be a real threat though (did you know hippos can't swim but have to walk on the bottom?).

The food at camp was decent.  All the other campers were friendly and from all around the world.  And thus is crazy...on the last day we met a gal who lives in seattle in the same neighborhood as us...and get this she lives on the SAME street, Mary Ave!!  What a small small world!!  We took her house number and plan to walk up there after we get back home. The staff was very friendly.  I tried to make use of the 20 Swahili words I learned ha ha.

Sorry it's another long post!  Next we spend two nights in Amsterdam before heading back to Seattle.  My company has a branch there so I get to take a tour today.

Mmmm Beer!

A toilet by any other name....

...is really just a hole in the ground.

About half the bathrooms we've seen here have no 'throne' just a porcelain bowl at ground level. I thought I would share this interesting tidbit.

Checking in from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Hello again!  Today we flew back to Dar es Salaam so that Thurs morn we can take another short flight to Selous Game Reserve.  We were scheduled to arrive at the game park early morn but a series of unfortunate events means we will get there a day late (grrrrr don't get me started in the frustration the lack of infrastructure and customer service causes here).  On the bright side we got to spend an extra nice night at Douglas' in Mtwara.  And we scored the Executive King room at this hotel in Dar for the price of a regular room.  The Indian Ocean view is beautiful...see pictures...kinda sad though as there is a dirty city garbage dump view on other side.

Nothing much new to report.  I bought some neat souvenirs from the ADEA gift shop.  We saw a Subway (only US type fast food place we've seen yet) so maybe we'll look to see how their menu is different than ours.  We'll probably find an Indian place for dinner.  

We have a new appreciation of things like hot water and showers and toilets and drinkable tap water and the unlimited food choices we have at home.

Kwahari for now!

Sent by my iPhone from the future...

Additional Pictures

More Interesting People and Places

On Saturday we did the most interesting thing as we went to two very rural villages and watched some cultural dances in the Newala district of TZ. We left Mtwara around 7:30am and drive 3+ hours to the first village.  They were from the Makua tribe.  Their costumes were these grass skirts, ankle bracelets made with mango seeds so they rattled, and this white paint on their faces.  They wouldn't let us take pictures of them (they believe false stories about people taking pictures and then getting rich off them).  Dave did manage to snap a few before they told us to put our cameras away.  The dances were pretty neat with a lot of fast leg moving.  The next village was another 2 hours away and that was with the Makonde people (famous for their carvings).  Those dancer's clothes were a little more modern (t-shirts with grass skirts and mango seed anklets) and they also used stilts in one of the dances.  They used masks in two of their dances as well.

On the way back we came to a large tree laying in the road.  Some men had cut it down and it fell on the road.  There was an ambulance waiting on our side of the tree because it was not able to go over or around.  The men tried to cut the bush around the right side of the road so the ambulance could pass but it wasn't working.  Along we come in our Land Cruiser and Dave shows the guy that was driving how to run the wench and soon the tree was moved to the side enough to let the ambulance and other vehicles through.  Yay for Dave!!

Oh I almost forgot to tell you about the rooster.  At the end of the Makua dance they presented Douglas (who organized the event) with a gift.  It was a rooster.  Neat.  We had to ride the rest of the day with the rooster in the back of the land cruiser. Someone put its bottom half in a plastic bag to keep it still and calm it, but later it managed to poke its feet out so then it was walking around with a plastic 'diaper' on.  Funny.  We named that chicken Noodle Soup.

It's Monday afternoon and I am resting. Life moves at a different place here so all I've accomplished today so far is to eat breakfast, shop at the market for dinner, and walk Tembo to school. At the stores/market with the sun overhead and needing to go from one table in one section to another...it just takes a while.  We did manage to pick up little ice cream cups for all on our way back.  

So let me tell you about dinner tonight...it's going to be Noodle Soup that rooster.  Yes, it's true, Tembo took care of the ummm prep work this morning so tonight we will have chicken cooked in Douglas' little crock pot (gift from me last year) since I guess the chicken meat around here is usually real tough.

Here at Douglas' place Dave has managed to wire up the offices and set up wi-fi.  Douglas is tickled pink!

One more thing...around town here there are these little three wheeled taxi things called bujaje (baa-ja-jay).  It's super fun to ride around in them..I'll post a picture.

I hope all of you are doing well.  Tomorrow we return to Dar Es Salaam and then head to the Selous Game Reserve for another round of safari!!

Sunday Morning Church

We went to church this morning in Mtwara.  It was a 40 minute walk and was already 82 degrees!  But since we were late (imaging that) we ended up taking a taxi half way there.  The service was nice and had lots of singing.  Of course it was all in Swahili so we didn't understand much of it.  There was a nice man from Germany there that offered to translate the sermon for us though.  So we did get most of the high points.  

Enjoying some down time in Mtwara, Tanzania

Hello Everyone!

Right now we are at Douglas' place in Mtwara.  This building is also where the main ADEA office (i.e. one room) is along with a gift shop.  Douglas has also set up a little museum here with very interesting items including Makonde masks. The town of Mtwara is in the very SE corner of Tanzania really close to the Mozambique border (do not worry, Avis, we will not go there).  There are a lot of shops and markets but it's very different than the states of course.  And it's really dusty.  This area doesn't seem as poor as others we've visited, however, it seems there isn't much opportunity for incomes for people.  There seems to be issues with consistent running water (there has been none this week).  Douglas says the electricity is consistently on (better than it used to be a few years ago).

Douglas' place is a little oasis of civility of course.  His bedroom is decorated beautifully.  There is a fancy bed that he bought from someone (it was being stored outdoors) and then painted it black...now it looks great!  Everything is decorated so nice - you feel like you can escape here especially in his little patio area where there are nice plants and decor.  Even the walls are painted a cool green shade.

Tomorrow we will travel out to some villages to see about 25 groups doing traditional dances.  It is an event that Douglas organized.  

Today I bought a piece of fabric at the market and one of the artisans here will sew it into a tablecloth and napkins for me.  Neat!!  Dealing with Tanzania schillings is interesting because the numbers are so high...one US Dollar is worth 1600 TSH.  Today I took 400,000 TSH out of the cash machine...crazy!

Sorry no pictures this time...we'll try to post a few next time.  Thanks for reading our blog!!

P.S. Happy Belated Birthday, Marina!

Watering hole

A watering hole where we saw giraffes, elephants, and zebras.

Sent by my iPhone from the future...

Grace

Amy and Grace ( Nikoirisha) is her real name) resting in between interviews.  They offered us hot tea at almost all the bomas (collection of houses) which seemed so out of place by a hut.  Tea (it's called chai here) is usually served with the milk and sugar already in it here.

Sent by my iPhone from the future...

Zebras!

Zebras on the road!  I made a little video of this small herd scattering as we drove through...crazy!

Sent by my iPhone from the future...

Dancing with the Masai

At the last house the Masai people broke out into song and dance.  Douglas said 'well that's what the Masai people do - they dance!'.  

Douglas (blue shirt) and Tembo (brown shirt) are also in this picture.

Sent by my iPhone from the future...

Dave in action!

Dave using his photography skills in the bush.  We helped Douglas to capture some pictures of the ladies involved in the beadwork project and their families

Sent by my iPhone from the future...

Giraffe Pix

Giraffes (twiga in Swalhili)!!

Sent by my iPhone from the future...

No longer feeling guilty/spoiled

Wow. The last few days have been incredible!!  Thanks to Douglas for what he had planned for us.

Sorry it took so long for a blog entry...it's not for lack of trying. We have been to some extremely rural/poor areas the last few days.  We've also had some mishaps which has stolen away some of the spare time we might have otherwise used to find an internet cafe.  Here is a summary:

Sat 9th

Left Mombasa, Kenya and headed to Tsavo West National Park, Kenya.  We ended up with a new driver because Bosco's (previous driver and company owner) brother had died.  It was a bit stressful as we had some problems negotiating the payment as we had expected to pay the last 2/3 at the end but Bosco wanted it NOW (which didn't make sense to us).  We agreed to pay one more third and pay the last third at the end of the 5 day rental...and it's a good thing we did that (keep reading to find out why).  On the way out of town we checked out this super old Portuguese fort.

A note on riding in a vehicle in this country...it is not safe.  People ignore all kinds of laws.  The roads are terrible. It's frightening.

We got to the park with enough time to see a lot of wildlife.  Elephants, zebras, impalas, warthogs, giraffe, gazelles, water buffalo. mongooses, ostriches. this funky little thing called a Giraffe antelope, and more!

Tembo, the young man that Douglas has 'adopted' got to see an elephant for the first time in his life (the word Tembo is Swahili for elephant)!  Tembo is an amazing person with an interesting and inspiring story.  

The room we stayed in was actually a big fancy tent.  We had electricity and warm running water.  And a mosquito net.

During the night I heard crashing around near by - it was elephants!

Sun 10th

We woke up early and had another amazing game drive.  New animals seen included hyenas, baboons, and this huge owl.  I can't wait to share our photos.

Lunch at the lodge then a dip in the little private pool behind our tent.  While out there we saw gazelle and baboons just a few yards away.  Then we headed east to try to get to Rombo, TZ.  It was not far to go but the roads are terrible.  And the van broke down on this road that goes right through the Tsavo East Park.  So while Douglas and I did Lion Patrol the other guys looked at the car..fan belt was broke.  There was no spare...well we may have had one but for some reason they suddenly couldn't get the back door of the van open (you know where all our luggage and extra food was). It got dark quickly and we needed a new plan so we ended up squeezing into a small SUV with these Columbian folks (Douglas and I practiced our Spanish) that happened by to the next town, Taveta.   Tembo stayed with the van and Chipper and they ended up chaining up and towing the van behind a big Coke trunk arriving a few hours after we did.  Imagine doing this on the dustiest, worse road you can imagine...and in the dark...and in a park with wild animals.

We arrived in Taveta late but were able to find rooms (~$11 each) in this dumpy guest house.  First day of sleeping in our sleep sacks vs actually getting in the sheets. Our sink faucet didn't work but the shower did...sort of.  We did have electricity.  We were starving and while we ordered a meal from food place in guest house, it never arrived.  Long story.  We had Clif bars for dinner.

Mon 11th

Then van made it to town and was fixed and running by 9:30am.  We then headed north to Rombo, TZ.  Three hours on crappy washboard roads, yay!!  It was at this point driver we discover Chipper did not have his passport to get to Tanzania (where we were headed).  This was a problem that had to be solved and added more stress to our journey.

We made it to Rombo and meet Tumiena, Douglas' Masai friend.  He had a little house right outside 'town'.  No running water or electricity...but cute place.   We stayed in his guest room...which was much like camping.  Tumiena is this amazing and charismatic fellow that has a passion for his Masai culture.

We spent the whole afternoon visiting five different Masai boma.  A boma is the traditional way of building huts around a livestock corral (fence or just a circle of thorny brush).  To get there we drove the van on these ridiculous, washed out, rocky dirt roads and later off roaded then walked the rest of the way.  These were people living in traditional Masai ways.  It was surreal.  The women we came to visit are ones working on a 'winter disk' beadwork project that ADEA is sponsoring.  We interviewed them and took pictures.  These people are living in super primitive conditions yet the are so joyful.  They sang and danced (they made Dave dance too) and have us each beadwork (bracelet for Dave, earrings and necklace for me).  It's hard to explain, however, we are still processing the whole experience.

Tues 12

We woke up and went outside ~6am to try and see Mount Kilimanjaro.  Only the two peaks were showing this time.  It's so tall! 

Next we visited a local school that ADEA helped to build (walked after road became impassable).  The kids are so cute!  But their clothing and faces reveal some real poverty.  Later we walked about 1 hour to visit the parents of one of Douglas Masai friends.  Road was nonexistent. On way back we stopped by a marker for the border between Kenya and Tanzania.  It was in middle of some fields.  We stepped across the border just for fun (we were to be headed to Tanzania via our van that night).  We also stopped to try to catch a lost baby goat.

We visited one of the 'offices' for ADEA and Douglas did some business and we looked at some Masai items in their mini-museum.  

We headed to Tanzania and while our driver's paperwork was in order the van was missing some papers so it could not go into TZ.  Oh no!!  So we had to give up on Chipper and head out on our own.  But what to do?  It wasn't like there was an Avis Car Rental anywhere near.  So we were just about to hire an army of piki piki (mostly unemployed young men using their motorcycles as taxis) to haul our luggage and selves to the first town in TZ when Tembo was able to find a border official named Samuel to drive us as a favor for 5000 schillings.  Yay!!  We didn't really want to stay in that first town because there was no running water or electricity in the one-and-only guest house. So when we got to town we talked Samuel into driving the hour to Moshi (our intended destination) for 65000 schillings (about $45 US dollars).  What a steal!  How great that hot shower felt when we finally arrived  at the Zebra Hotel in Moshi.

Weds 13th

Took 10 hour bus ride (it was supposed to take 7 hours) from Moshi to Dar es Salaam.  We got two rest stops and a 20 min lunch stop.  One of the rest stops was just alongside the road.  Everyone just piled out and went to pee in the brush...even the ladies!!  

Thanks for reading!!!

We are in Mombasa, Kenya enjoying ourselves...

...sorry it has been a while since our last update.

 

I feel a little guilty as we have been spending these last two days in this "resort" along the coast of the Indian Ocean.  It's not quite roughing it, however, it's making for a nice transition.  It was a timeshare donated to Douglas by one of the members of our church (thank you sooo much Renee and Tim).  Yesterday we went snorkeling and had a grilled seafood feast on this sandbar.  Wow.  We also visited some ruins of an old Arab city called Gedi.

 

After checking out this old fort (Fort Jesus) in Mombasa we will head west to Tsavo National Park.  We will stay in a lodge there.  Then after a morning game drive we will head to Rombo, Kenya (at the foot of Mt Kili) for a few days.  I think that's when the resort/lodge amenities ends and we'll experience rural African life.  While we are there we will help Douglas as he interviews some of the women artisians in the upcoming "Winter Disks" ornament project.  I will explain that more next post if I can.

 

Both of us are feeling well and eating well.  Douglas is a fantastic cook.  His "son" Tembo helps too.  We are all getting along swimmingly.

 

Stay tuned!

Uh Oh!!

I sure hope we don't run into any Romulans in the cloak room!!!

We made it to Nairobi!

It is a about 9pm here (Kenya is 11 hours ahead of Seattle). We've spent about 17 hours flying so far.

We are waiting for a third flight to Mombasa, Kenya where Douglas will pick us up. Thank goodness this flight is only one hour.

Lala salama!

P.S. On the plane we had a delicious meal...or at least that is what the packaging said.

Wow..a LOT of stuff!!

So we've converted the spare bedroom into 'Africa Central'. We have so much to bring.

A large portion (two suitcases) is for Douglas and his nonprofit (printer ink, printer toner, ribbon, plastic containers, a used Macbook, Quickbooks software, dry food mixes, etc). We are also bringing some treats that include a lot of beef jerky for the Masai people that Douglas knows. He said they love it!

As far as our personal items, we plan to get through the three weeks with one backpack each. Yikes! Wish us luck.

Only three more days until we leave!!