Wouldn’t Change A Thing

Africa, 2013

INTRODUCTION TO AFRICA TRIP

This website details our trip to Africa from February 2 to February 18, 2013. Our trip was motivated by 25 years of longing to experience the wildlife we had seen on television and in the movies, the fear that the wildlife species were progressively disappearing, and the possibility that the spreading of Islamic fundamentalism may soon make travel to Kenya and Tanzania unsafe, as has been the case in Egypt, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Turkey etc. We finally chose this time since the BEADS For Education foundation was opening a private residential girls’ high school in mid-January.  BEADS is a nonprofit organization that supports educating the most talented and brightest young women of the poorest and underprivileged tribal environments in Kenya from fourth grade on, and has been instrumental in curbing the ritual of clitoridectomy of young girls, especially among the Maasai. The itinerary was : Fly to Nairobi February 1/2/3, overcome jet lag at the Fairview Hotel, and lunch with graduates of BEADS,  who are now studying in graduate programs to achieve degrees in medicine and nutrition. February 4/5/6, travel to Insigna, Kenya,  1 ½ hours from Nairobi, visit the BEADS new high school, see the Top Ride Academy, a private coed high school that was an education site for the girls supported by BEADS prior to the opening of their own high school. Visit medical clinics and hospitals. February 6/7/8, travel to Amboselli National Park, visit with Patrick  Papatiti,  a Maasai chief who I supported through high school and college.  He enrolled to begin high school at the age of about 25 to help his Maasai people survive and compete in the world.  Also to meet James Tinayo, a local Maasai friend of Debbie and Bill Rooney.  His mother is the 70-year-old regional midwife for the Maasai, who agreed several years ago to perform the ceremony for the clitoridectomy process, but not the procedure itself, a landmark departure from thousands of years of culture. James would have a celebration for us including the sacrifice of a goat, and tour of his village. Feb 8/9/10/11, travel to Tanzania, see Tarangire National Park, Lake Manyari National Park, and the Ngorangora National Park. Feb 12/13/14/15, fly to Serengeti National Park, Tanzania, stay in Lemala Tent Camp. Feb 16/17/18, fly back to Kenya, stay in the Olenana Tent Camp in the Maasai Mara National Park. Feb 18/19, fly home. Six parks over twelve days. About five days into the trip, it dawned on me that this experience was going to be so unusual that I would want to remember nearly every moment. So many of the special details of previous vacations are permanently lost from my memory and never mentioned and re-experienced again.  I chose to keep notes in my journal and on the iPad, and send emails sharing our experiences and impressions. As it happened,  I had just begun the new book of short stories “Tenth of December,” by George Saunders,  and I felt that the rhythm and style of his writing was so free and unencumbered that I felt I would be a bit liberated in copying the feel of it.  I hate writing and find it very difficult.  Always trained to have complete sentences, organized paragraphs, correct chronological sequence etc.  I enjoyed writing for the first time, remedial as it was.

UNCERTAIN ROAD TO SUCCESS IN KENYA

  Feb  2,3  Arrived in Nairobi on time, 9:30 pm.  Taken to Fairview hotel, 30 minutes. Guarded, closed gates protect hotel, and it is across from the Israeli embassy, said to be the safest place in Nairobi, if not Kenya.  Pass through two iron gates opened with room key and walk about 100 yards to the room.  Check in to room which is simple, adequate, a few mosquitoes.  Glad we started our anti-malarial drugs two days ago.  To sleep quick.   Next am, up about 9. Big buffet breakfast.  Helpful eager staff, good quality. Tour the grounds, complete with waterfalls, ponds, pools.  All staff with crisp clean uniforms.   Next, lunch with three of the girls who graduated from the BEADS program and are now in graduate school programs for medical doctor, nurse practitioner, and nutritionist.  Two of them arrive promptly at 2 pm. Third is missing.  One hour late.  Phones confirm she has gone to Fairmount hotel instead of Fairview.  Took two buses and has walked five miles over five hours!  Thank you for coming.  Another has only walked five miles. Menus arrive. Waiter returns for orders and there is long silence from the girls.  We ask waiter for more time.  Lots of looking at menu but no discussion.  Menu contains what we would consider standard fare – sandwiches, pizza etc.  Turns out these are ingredients and combinations completely unfamiliar to them.  Waiter returns and long silence.  I suggest pizza and an avocado/chicken sandwich and they say okay.  Food arrives and they pick up their forks. They are reassured that the acceptable way to eat these foods is with their hands. There has never been money in their budget for dining out!   I am curious about what lies ahead for Kenya’s best educated high school graduates.  Though these girls pay tuition and take out loans to pay for it, when they finish, the government assigns them where needed, anywhere in the country, arbitrarily.  These young women frequently end up in tiny clinics or hospitals in very remote areas, sometimes as the only health care providers.  Tasked with emergency deliveries and laceration repairs.  Nearest backup hours away.  And no friends, family, or social life.  Monthly starting salary for doctors 600 dollars/month.  Nurse practitioner, less.  Nutritionist , less.  These hand-picked girls chose to leave their huts and tribes and their families at young ages to pursue a special education far from home.  Then they end up in Nairobi, again with no money and little support, for four to six years. And they never know where they will end up!   They seemed undaunted and positive.  We discussed the upcoming elections, AIDS, and the details of their daily schedules.  Delightful and very brave girls in my book.

SUPER BOWL MONDAY, FEB 3, PM.

  Checked TV schedule in vain to try to watch the Super Bowl at 2 am.  No go.  Nowhere on TV.  Check with concierge to see where there is a Super Bowl party.  There is one about a ten minute ride at a hotel, but I am informed that at 2 am there are roving bands of  carjackers who put spikes in the road and rob car occupants, and not just white tourists.  Discouraging.  Decide on sleeping instead. Feb 4,  not a sound about Super Bowl or Ravens win, which was  over about 5 am  here.  Staff doesn’t know it happened and don’t know what American football is.  After another unnecessary breakfast, we meet Simon out front, our guide for the next 6 days.  Head out to the giraffe park, $16.  Then to orphan elephant park.  You can pass on these two attractions but you can’t dislike baby elephants and giraffes. Pass one of Africa’s largest slums in the middle of town – shanty contiguous with shanty, tin roofs, no road, no vehicles, with a perfectly defined border, like a zoo.  No progression from moderate to severe poverty.   Stop to pick up tickets near Nairobi National Park for Amboselli park in three days.  Warthogs scramble through the parking lot almost underfoot! On way out we see a sign – “Warthogs and children have right of way.”  Next stop 1 1/2 hours to Insigna where we will find Debby Rooney at her newly opened school named “Tembea Academy,” meaning “to walk”.

DEB ROONEY

  Deb Rooney is cofounder of BEADS for Education, an organization designed to sponsor education for high school girls from the underprivileged tribal communities in Kenya.  We spent three days with her last week looking at schools of all types, private, public, high school, grade school.  For a number of reasons, she has chosen to start her own high school this year with 40 to 50 of her hand-picked best.  It opened about three weeks ago. Lest you think this is a high- brow group designed to finance nice safaris in Africa, this is what we found: We drove a couple of hours south of Nairobi and turned onto an unmarked path some might call a dirt road.  No sign for the school ‘cuz they get charged for it.  Travel two miles in and there is a wire fence, two concrete buildings, an open kitchen shed, and an outhouse, two opaque plastic greenhouses with zipper entries, another special outhouse for Debbie and sister Sue. Both buildings without running water or electricity. Debbie, Sue and some staff sleep in 4 beds in the library.  The only power now is from two small solar panels which will charge computers and cell phones.  Shower is by warmed water poured in a bucket hung overhead next to the outhouse. The kitchen is managed by one guy with two open pots and open fire.

 Serves about the same thing every day to the 60 or so folks, not including the 20 porridges served to the 20 new nursery schoolers.  The cost per day to feed the 60+ is still being determined. The nursery school kids appeared almost spontaneously by word of mouth out of nowhere These kids are taught by Debbie’s graduates as an internship.  The nursery schoolers have come from over five miles away, walking, some of them by themselves!!! A tour of the several acre compound reveals a broken zipper on one of the greenhouses, not fixable without the company that built it.  One end of one greenhouse was dying for lack of water due to the grade of the hill.  A couple of recent crop plantings with stakes in the ground were dying for unclear reasons. The water tank has to be filled every few weeks from a truck from afar.  The cost of water per day has yet to be determined. If a well is drilled, starting cost about $13,000. The goal is to be entirely self-sustaining in the future. Food, water, power. Don’t think for a minute, however, that this group was anything but proud and excited about this endeavor.  There was not a single face not smiling anywhere. After the tour, we visited the students in the classroom where they sang their new school anthem to the tune of “Finlandia” with words written by Sue. The lyrics came to Sue like an epiphany under mysterious circumstances a while ago, and they were powerful. Debbie, Bev, Sue and I were brought to tears.  Debbie still cries every time she hears it. No easy day at BEADS for Education.

TOUCHING TOURS IN INSIGNA

Feb 4.   It was an emotional afternoon at Tembea, which included small presentations by individual girls about how their tribes in their villages constructed the huts which they all grew up in.  The girls come from six or seven different tribes.  They each sang a representative tribal song.  Then we all gathered in the open grassy area where everyone participated in dances and song, including the teachers and us! Lots of laughs and great entertainment. The schedule for the girls the rest of the night was dinner, study, then retire to their residence for the evening – a pup tent.  In back of the school house.   For us, it was a trip twenty minutes back to Insigna to the BEADS house, where Debby has lived for a few years while growing and administering the program.  There, there is sometimes good cell service and sometimes internet capability.    No electricity though!  We will spend two nights.  Dinner is peanut butter and jelly and boxed red wine by lantern and headlight.  PBJ is also my breakfast and lunch the next day. To bed early by headlight under a mosquito net that is a bit too small for our double bed. Add mosquito repellant. Glad I’m not in a pup tent though!

Tembea Academy Anthem (to the tune of Finlandia)

Let’s walk together towards a life of purpose-  our sponsors help will make our dreams come true.

  We stand upon our families firm foundations.  Great education lets us start anew.

Teambea, you have kindled all our yearnings.

Tembea’s path leads us to dreams come true.

What is my part in this, my great endeavor?  To do my best in all that I can do.

I  willl remember Tembea’s ideals that help to shape my character so true.

No one but me can chart the course I follow.

The door is open-   Now I must walk through!

 

BEING A STUDENT IN KENYA

Feb 5.   Today we did impromptu visits to two grade schools. Surprised the three teachers/principals in an office, and they agreed to let us peek in a couple of classrooms.  Debby let them know that she was on the lookout for exceptional students and teachers for her private high school. They were interested in this so admission was granted. Four classrooms had no teacher and 25 kids sitting quietly, looking at books. One classroom had a very bright and determined woman eloquently teaching 5th graders uses of adverbs with lots of interaction.  No windows no electricity and lots of flies.  Not a single sign of wealth on any child.  And not a single sign of disruptive or rambunctious behavior.  Debby said it’s because they would get a beating at home if they caused trouble.  Same deal at the next school.  Well behaved uniformed kids.  This time it was a boys’ school, all male teachers.  Met with the principal whose office was a railroad boxcar.   Next popped into the neighborhood medical clinic.  Now around 11 in the am.  Got a quick tour from a nurse.  No doctor around but four or five patients waiting patiently.  Doctor and nurse practitioners schedules seemed unknowable and unpredictable.  Didn’t see any medicine practiced but saw five or six empty offices.   Got back to the Top Ride academy and toured the recently completed biofuel “plant” which Peter the principal got started.  The design requires four cows to produce enough manure to be collected in a cistern to produce enough methane gas under pressure to keep the system functional and power a small generator.  Unfortunately, two of the cows were bitten by a deadly kind of tick and died. System down indefinitely until they can get the funds for two more cows — 1600 dollars.   Day ended with a fine show put on by Top Ride school students in Debby’s back yard.  Multiple skits, songs, and dances produced and directed by the kids themselves on two days’ notice. Performed with confidence and pride as the sun set.  We are then invited to Peter’s house for a home cooked meal Kenya style. Didn’t recognize a single dish but it was tasty.

SHOPPING TRIP.  HOSPITAL VISIT

 

Feb 6.   Our last morning at the BEADS house and Top Ride Academy.  Peanut butter and jelly breakfast.  Debby tells us it would be good form to bring gifts for Patrick, the Maasai chief, and his long time friend James, a Maasai warrior.  They will be hosting us in their villages and homes.  We should plan on paying them 100 dollars for the goat they will sacrifice for us in addition to the gifts for each of them.   We go to the local storefront in Insigna for staples and groceries.  It’s a 15 by 15 room with 3 guys and we buy 10 lbs of cornmeal, 5 lbs of salt, cooking oil, soap, Vaseline ointment, flour, and a bag of hard candy for the village kids.  Total bill $54. Then we drive to the regional hospital for a tour.  We arrive and it is strangely quiet.  We wander around the entry area and are finally approached by a gentleman who informs us that the nurses are on strike nationwide, and since there are no nurses, the doctors don’t come in and no patients are accepted.  The only patients here are the tuberculosis patients in their little bungalows apart from the main wards.  We go check these wards out and say hi to the three cachectic patients sitting around.  Then peer in to the ob ward, where there is a single bed with stirrups, an empty bucket on the floor below with a second hand tampon.  A few blood stains still faintly visible here and there. Concrete floors.  A sign outside gives the fees for various visits and procedures.  The administrator confirms that there is no emergency care anywhere around here until Nairobi, one hour forty minutes away.  Yikes.  Now we head to Amboselli,  three hours further from Nairobi.

 

JAMBO

  Jambo in Swahili is “hello.” “Mambo” means, “Any problems?”  Like ‘em so much they may be permanent additions to the vocabulary.   Fun to be on the other side of the cage here.  So open, there is no place to hide in the event of an angry or annoyed elephant, water buffalo, leopard or even an impala.  Not even a stick to grab!   Yesterday, we had the privilege of seeing two cheetahs lounge sleepily, one laying on another’s belly. They got slowly up, walking disinterestedly toward a Thompsons gazelle grazing calmly 50 yards away.  In a flash, they blazed toward the gazelle and all three disappeared in a large cloud of dust.  Gazelle toast.  Many experienced guests and their guides had never seen a cheetah, much less a cheetah kill!   Have a fine picture of me today holding the head of the goat we had for lunch today next to my head.  I’ll share with all at dinner sometime soon.  We had the barbecue in the same spot as the slaughter and the butchery, with fly covered carcass and entrails, covered with the goatskin only as a second thought!  This however is in preparation for tomorrow’s ceremonial goat sacrifice for us, at which I am expected to drink the first cup of blood from the jugular vein upon the initial slice of the throat.  I am going to allow Bev to take my place for this part. Then, the formal entire dressing out takes 45 minutes in their skilled hands. Then, instead of the fine buffet already paid for in my package, I will once again have goat meat, and probably not the nice filet mignon piece.  Priceless! Then I will go to the game drive at 4 pm hungry, since I’m definitely worried about their fruits, roots, and salads.   Simon our guide is amazing.  Can’t ask him a question to stump him.  Knows every large bird so far and lots of small ones.  Our list is up to about 40 already.  Favorites include the secretary bird, kori bustard, white brow weaver, chestnut billed kingfisher, lilac breasted roller. Check them out.   Jambo mambo

 

DROUGHT AND DEATH IN AMBOSELLI

  In the drought of 07-08, 80% of all zebras here in Amboselli died.  Simon says a baby elephant fell over at the side of the road and died next to his truck in front of his clients.  He says it was “very embarrassing.”  James, our Maasai friend, lost all of his cows.  Since the number of cattle you have is a main measure of ones masculinity here, he felt like a nobody.   Debby Rooney,  who founded a girls education program here, bought him 2 cows.  For that, he reveres her and loves her, and named his first daughter “Debbie Rooney.”  His father lost 480 cows.   Dead animals were everywhere.  The government sent large trucks to hall off the carcasses of the many largest animals.  The zebra population is already replenished. Plenty of elephants too. In keeping with the philosophy here, no animals will be culled or saved in the event of such disasters.   Mambo jambo=

 

WHAT NOT TO WEAR ON SAFARI

  The Serena lodge at Amboselli is the top rated hotel in all of Kenya, and I would not dispute it from what I experienced. After check in and our afternoon game drive, we spent an hour at the bar area.  There is a large contingent of Chinese with us. One of them arrived in a head to toe leopard pattern outfit with expensive hat, bag and sunglasses.  Another came in a leopard top and zebra skirt with sparkling high heels. I never saw them in similar outfits again. The American group travelers with Tauk and Abercrombie and Kent came in proper upscale dining attire fit for Connecticut and Philadelphia high society. Then there were the Maasai dressed in their standard attire and beads, who were posted at several key locations.  One had a missing eye. All very thin.  I thought their purpose was to add atmosphere to the place and look noble.  Simon corrected me, explaining that they were to chase the monkeys away from the dining area when they became too brave. Then there was Bev and me, in average wrinkled and not always clean stuff shortly after the goat meat, liver stains still on our hands.  Bev is still annoyed at me for not allowing her to bring one dress. They seated us in the third and most remote room with the Chinese and the guides,  which was entertaining, as opposed to the first room with large long tables filled with the Philly people elbow to elbow, and a fat lady at the head of the table with a clipboard, announcing the plan to plant trees the next day. The server asked if we wanted to change to the other room the next two nights.  I said no thanks. You can wear anything you want at Amboselli. Jambo mambo

 

ROAD BLOCK    HYENA ATTACK

  On way to Serena lodge had to stop for these to cross road. Gazelle, sheep , cows, donkeys, camels, elephants, goats, baboons, zebras, ostriches. Guide Simon informed us that primates are only animals here that mate for fun. Today had goat liver cooked over open fire in chief Patrick’s back yard with six other Masaai.  Girls stayed in house ‘cept for Bev.  Liver is considered the premium cut.  The filet mignon section is for girls.  Low on quality hierarchy. Having beer and wine at sunset now looking out from stone deck upon zebras and gazelle and elephant on horizon.  No bugs.  White cloth table cloths and napkins at nite with great buffet. Monkeys everywhere and on the way to the room.  Cautioned not to feed cuz they bite. Dinner last night with Maasai warrior and goatherder James.  In fancy restaurant with James in full tribal garb surrounded by  rich white folk.  Wild. We were a spectacle.   He tells us this story:  Two weeks ago there was a sudden unexpected rain at dusk.  Patrick’s 70 goats and their guards could not get back before dark because the mud was deep. The hyenas attacked.  About 5 to 10 hyenas.  The herders madly tried to keep the terrified goats together and hurry but the hyenas killed 50 in one night.  Just for fun.  He started in 1999 with two goats.  One goat 100 dollars.

ANIMAL BITES

  I told chief Patrick and James about what kind of work I do and showed them some of the dog bites Rachael sewed up recently.  Patrick said, “Why do the dogs bite the face?  Here they just bite the leg and the foot.”  We explained.  Bev asked why they have dogs.  It’s because they bark at night and warn of the hyenas and lions approaching the livestock.   Asked Patrick about how many animal attacks and killings of humans each year.  Patrick was attacked by a lion himself at the age of 16 and killed the lion, for which he is quite famous here.  Didn’t get a number but said the brother of one of the tribesmen we were again enjoying goat meat with today was attacked just last week by a hyena in broad daylight, a very rare and unusual occurrence.  He survived.   He said there were two snakebites last year, one of whom survived. The other died the same day.   James gave us a lecture today in his village on different medicines today for different ailments, including snakebites.  Their medicine man gives them a concoction by mouth and they make a big cut on the injury site and then you’re ok!!  He tells me that the only problems they do not take care of in the village are broken bones and “surgery”.  That includes malaria, for which you drink a potion. You immediately “vomit green bile” and then you immediately feel ok.   Then I asked him about the details of the circumcision ceremony endured by all adult males around puberty.  He said it was “very bad.” No anesthesia, takes about 4-5 minutes.  You do not make a sound or even move your feet.  There is no repair of the defect.  They pour a “spirit from the hospital” on it and the wound takes two weeks to heal.  Thank god for the spirit.   James also showed us the tree leaves they use to boil in a cup of water to make sure they can satisfy their multiple wives, otherwise it would be impossible.  He called it “Maasai Viagra.”  Make no mistake, he was completely serious about every treatment he detailed today.   Though the 15 warriors (and Bev) that I had goat with today did drink the fresh blood from the goat throat, I did not partake, fearing hepatitis or African river blindness, which even the Maasai probably can’t cure.   Mambo jambo=

JAMES

James our Maasai friend spent four hours with us at his village yesterday. We were welcomed to the village with the customary dance.  We then learned the logic of the Maasai village design.  A circular outer wall of six foot high thorns. An inner circle of huts. Another inner circle of thorns to enclose the livestock.  Inside the livestock circle are pens for milking. Next we learned about the medicines which I mentioned yesterday.  It was a 15 minute, well organized presentation which you can see on video upon return.  I failed to tell you that all Maasai have a circle on each cheek burned by a hot wire at the age of 4-5. This has two purposes. First is to prevent an eye disease, I believe trachoma. Simon thought the logic might be that it distracts the bacteria to the cheek from the eye.  The second reason is so they can be recognized by others when traveling Next, James demonstrated how to make a fire from cow dung, leaves, twigs, a piece of five inch flat wood, a piece of wood with 4 different sized hole in it, and a long stick twirled by two palms and good elbow grease. It took a total of two minutes including dung collection. Next we met his mother, Esther, and she gave us a welcoming bracelet and took us in her hut for tea with goat milk.  Huts are made of cow dung, sticks, paper, rope.  They have a tiny room after a right turn and a left turn from the four foot entry.  Then another turn into a room with a shelf and two beds. Jame’s mother has two mattresses since she has some stature in the community, as does James.  Otherwise, no bed. Esther is about 70 and is the local midwife, and for many decades she performed the ritual clitoridectomy on the girls prior to child bearing age.  Debbie Rooney,  Esther, Patrick, and James were the group who first developed and executed the campaign to have only the ceremony without the clitoridectomy a few years ago.   Her daughter was one of the first to avoid “the cut,” and it is now quite accepted.  Esther gave us a long speech over tea, expressing gratefulness for the visit and requesting that we not forget her, James, and her people when we return. Jambo

SEX AND MARRIAGE IN AMBOSELLI

  The crowned crane, secretary bird , American fish eagle, and Egyptian goose all mate for life here. We have seen them all and they are worth looking up.   Among mammals, Simon could only think of the black backed fox (seen yesterday) and the dikdik a type of antelope.   When you see a lone animal out feeding– elephant , wildebeest, antelope etc., it is almost always a male.   A lion will mate every 15 minutes for four days when the female is in estrous.   The hyena, perhaps Africa’s best predator, makes a wonderful parent.  The mother takes careful care of the cubs for a year in the den. She travels great distances to hunt. Gorges on the kill or carrion, comes back , and vomits up her kill for the youngsters.   The male lion, however, kills every cub in the pride under a year old.   A male elephant penis can weigh up to 27 kgs.   During a recent aids awareness effort brought to James and Patrick’s communities, the first problem was that the men did not know how to put a condom on. This was demonstrated with a coke bottle as a model.  It was later discovered that some men were placing the condoms on a coke bottle prior to sex.

James is a serious, worried, and intensely spiritual man. That is not to say that he isn’t quick to return a smile or a greeting.  Always looks you intensely in the eye. He is brought almost to tears when he speaks of how much he loves his mother.  He is conflicted deeply now for several reasons:  first, I mentioned that the number of cows you own is the main measure of a man. He lost all of his in the drought. Secondly, he wants to send his children and sister to school, which costs money.  Then, his father who has five wives is constantly pressuring him to get more wives.  After many discussions, he has relented and agreed to get one more wife, because he cannot bear to disappoint his dad.  But they also cost money!!   He is pulled from all angles with no real solution.  If I’m correct, everything he does is for someone else, and his community. I think that since he can’t give enough, I don’t think he’s happy now.   By the way, if you want to have sex and have a baby at the town clinic, the sign says “skilled delivery- 18 dollars.  Unskilled delivery 5 dollars . C section 50 dollars” –and that’s by a nurse practitioner.  Unskilled delivery anyone?   So many ways to be a real man=

IF I WERE BORN A MASAII

If you believe as I do that it is an accident that we were even born, that who we think we are is a result of what we have experienced and been told, and it is a gigantic stroke of luck that we exist in America and have plenty of money by world standards, it is a good exercise to ponder how you would have fared if you were born a Masai, as opposed to a Jew or catholic or wasp or atheist in America.  I don’t believe we can change our stripes much, and we certainly don’t “deserve” what we have by any argument except reincarnation.  I believe a Masai baby adopted into a Jewish family at birth will be Jewish, and vice versa.

I would like to think that I would decide that the Masai way doesn’t make much sense.  I would probably tolerate the hot wire burning of the circle on the cheek around 4-5 years of age without much thought.  But since I began to rebel against going to the church of Christ, and the first baptist church around 10,  I  think I may have rebelled against the circumcision with no anesthesia at 13 as well. Especially since it is a big ceremony.  I’m not that fond of big ceremonies. Skipped high school and college graduation.

If I did end up in the ceremony,  I probably would have been kicked out of the tribe for lack of composure and stoicism.  Then I might have gone into the imported animal business, or set up a fine restaurant serving guinea fowl, gazelle,Egyptian goose and warthog.

And maybe I would have been successful, or perhaps I would have been miserable with no belief system  and no culture to feel comfortable in.

Guide Ami told us that Tanzania has had 2 Masai prime ministers.  He tells me they stayed in the presidential palace, and not cow dung huts.  He says there are many Masai he knows of that have become very rich.  Chief Patrick , however said that he had no relative in the US, didn’t know of any Masai in the US and new of none who had become world famous.

As for James,  I feel he has been extraordinarily unlucky,born into his lot.  I feel guilty that I was born with four aces by twist of fate.  Don’t know what to do about it though.

One thing confirmed: it is better to be lucky than good

Jambo mambo

SIMON SAYS

  Simon, our guide, is thoughtful, smart, easy going, articulate, always early.  We listen carefully.  Simon says:   There is only one dominant male impala per herd.  The male has all the 30 or 40 females to himself, and all the other males have to stay together in their own herd with not one female!   You can tell an impala from a springbok or antelope or gazelle by the “M” on their butt in black.   The only thing he has seen kill an ostrich is a lion.   A hippo is the most dangerous animal to humans in Africa,  because if you happen to be on their path between their grazing and the water, they will make a point of stomping and biting you to death out of irritation despite your attempt to flee.   A hippo can bite an alligator in half, and will, if one tries to take a bite out of him.   He once had a two cheetahs use his truck as a shield to sneak up on an antelope in front of his truck.  They not only killed it, but ate it on the spot and he had to wait an hour!   Hyenas are about the only enemy a lion has,  and will routinely steal the lions’ dinner. And they kill just for fun.   Entry gates to lodges here have hanging electrified wires to keep the elephants from entering via the road.  They don’t work because the clever beasts knocked down the giant posts on each side of the road and then marched in.   More another time on Simon, much more.

KENYA VS TANZANIA

As we crossed the border to Tanzania from Kenya, the average weight of the citizen adult went up probably 20 lbs.  here there are ATMs, Internet cafes, banks, nice stores in moderate sized cities.  Went to a shop rite for six pack of beer and box of wine.  Put sic pack in rue fridge in our giant truck outfitted with pockets and racks and 8 seats and 3 sections of pop off roof.  Here there is a mature democracy and mature capitalism.

Today’s highlights included 8 baboons at rivers edge drinking simultaneously, 6 giraffes drinking simultaneously from a small waterhole 30 feet from the truck, and yesterday we saw a large group of elephants drinking and bathing as well.  Tonights lodge is on a mountain coffee plantation with a pool and a soccer field, countless birds parading off our balcony, immaculate gardens.  An architectural tour de force.  A classy place by American standards but no animals and no wildness.  Heaven, but would never know your in Africa.  But lots better view than anything within 1000 miles of Linwood.

Not complaining!

BRAIN DEAD AT BREAKFAST IN TANZANIA

  Gorgeous morning, checking out of Maramboi camp today.  Startled an antelope on footpath walking to coffee at 0615, dawn.  Almost alone, on deck, large herd of wildebeests headed my way.   Beverly joins for breakfast 0730.  Order 2 eggs with cheese scrambled at buffet from cook. Go to meat station and spy bacon, decide to add that, and I pile some on to the eggs cooking.  Young girl cooking looks horrified and says “Noooo!!” Had added bacon to someone else’s eggs, who promptly arrives for them.  All good.  Many chuckles.   Leave Bev at breakfast battling starlings. I go back to pack.  Long trip to our tent along beautiful sandy path.  Admiring sunrise. Key doesn’t work in rickety lock.  Work 5 minutes.  See uniformed security guard and summon.  He tries unsuccessfully.  Goes to side of tent on front porch, unzips it and steps inside.  Great security here.  Success.  Look around and all the bags look strange!  Wrong tent.  Many chuckles and hollering amongst security.   Clean up and pack. Pick up pants and hear squeaking and grunting, intermittent. Confirm with bagman who has arrived.  Not sure what kind of animal it could be. Another bagman joins, and I carry pants long way to parking for unveiling of animal from pocket with camera shot by Bev.  Big picture with guide, bagmen and me.  Picture taken, pockets emptied.  No animal.  Was belt hinge squeaking. Many polite chuckles and communication among bagmen, security, staff.

DINING IN AFRICA

    Simon says that the lion kills by strangulation, then dines, whereas the hyena eats piecemeal while the animal is alive. I mentioned the single dominant impala male that looks over all the females, while all the other males hang out together in the other herd. Turns out that the head buck is so busy keeping the others away that he doesn’t eat, and has to fight for his position several times per week or more.  This weakens him quickly, and he succumbs to another challenger within one month on average.  He can regain enough strength over a few months to again win the top spot sometimes. The secretary bird is also called the walking eagle.  It is a tall, serious, angry looking thing that is famous for its snake killing talents.  It got its name because when it kills snakes it uses its very long legs in such a way that it resembles a secretary typing, according to our new guide “Ami,” short for a name that means “believes in god” and means “friend” in French. As I write, I am at the pool of our tent cap with a beer, 5 pm. Tanzania near Tangire Park, which means “land of the warthogs.” Vast expansive view with wildebeests and zebra in the distance and three warthogs about 20 feet away.  Everything in Africa likes to eat warthogs, including humans, except for the Maasai of course.  Just like a pig, I’m told. Today we witnessed a seen new to Ami:  six elephants enjoying a pile of their own dung, about ten feet from the truck.  Then a tiny baby elephant screamed and fought her way to the center of the crowd and started scooping it up.  The mother pushed the others away, the child still hollering,  and the others stopped and all turned to us with their backs to the dining baby.  Watching us, motionless.  Baby finished and then relaxed.  We deduced that there was some medicinal value for the baby. This am breakfast buffet included omelettes and pancakes outside on the patio of our camp.  Three honeybees were quickly sharing my pancakes and were not a bit afraid no matter how close the fork.  They were completely mannerly and left when done.  The supreme starlings, arguably among the most beautiful birds in Africa, were another matter.  Everywhere there was food left alone, they descended, sending the wait staff scurrying here and there in defense. It was a real battle.

GUARD YOUR VALUABLES IN AFRICA

  I spoke yesterday of how we locked our valuables in our tent with the room key for a normal hardwood door, only to discover that the sides could be easily unzipped by an intruder.  However there are Maasai tribesmen hired to stand outside all night long among the tents, the sky filled with mosquitoes and bugs of every sort, to prevent mischief by humans and animals.  Very tough guys.  By the way, James demonstrated the reason for the fancy cloths.  They don’t signify anything, and they are used to swat the insects when needed.   Today we visited a crater filled with 30,000 animals of many sorts, happy in their own stable ecosystem 12 miles across.

At the entry gate, Ami told us to roll up the windows and lock the doors if we wanted to leave the truck while he checked in, because the baboons would quickly invade the car and steal our lunches and anything else they liked.   Shortly after leaving the entry gate, a honey badger crossed the road and ran up the hill.  Ami was surprised, since they are nocturnal.  He explained that they are fearless, powerful and very mean.  They are a problem for the remote camps because they ravage the supplies for honey and jams and tear things up, including resisters.  But even worse, he says they have been known to kill a water buffalo by latching on to his testicles, causing him to bleed to death.  Clever fighters that know just where to strike.   We had our box lunch in the crater next to a hippo pond.  Ami told us to stay in the car to eat our lunch because of the kites.  What’s wrong with a kite?  Besides, a lot of people are strolling around taking pics of the hippo and the pond, having a fine time. The guide in the next vehicle beside us is angry with his client who has taken some lunch and tossed it out on the ground to get a picture of a kite.  Then I see the kites.  Hawk- like birds in the raptor family, flying about 40 feet in circles, diving furiously for any visible food.  Very fast.  Not like a pesky starling or pigeon.  I then notice all the people strolling know better and have no food in their hands.  We eat in the car.  Ami however joins two guides to bs.  Has a small piece of quiche in hand.  A kite dives, snatches the piece from his hand.  The guides leap back in shock and awe.  Amis thumb is bleeding from a small laceration.  He is very embarrassed since all clients are warned.  He tells me he has seen many injuries and tears among clients from these kites who collect every lunchtime in the crater.   Strangeness, thievery, and danger everywhere.   Mambo mambo

DAY IN THE CRATER, EVE AT KITELA LODGE

  Have now been to four reserves.  New animals today include a golden jackal, serval cat, lions, saddle stork, kites, African hoopoe (very cool bird with top notch), spur winged goose, and my favorite, the honey badger.  See details in the “valuable” post.   Every park is different in terrain, types of wildlife, field of vision, density of animals etc.  Same with the places we have stayed.   Summary:  all are A+ and we wouldn’t change a thing so far.

BREAKFAST AT KITELA LODGE

  Leaving Kitela lodge for the Serengeti park this am by bush plane.  Staying at Lemala tented camp. All meals, alcohol, laundry, and game drives included.  Maramboi camp notable for vast plains off the deck, zebras galloping past tent at 6 am, aggressive starlings and bees at breakfast, warthogs wallowing in mud a few yards from tent.   Kitela is a bird wonderland, many of which we have never seen.  Ten different kinds next to our back deck in a fifteen minute period, a constant parade.  Two lovebirds were playing on the soccer field here as we walked by.  A couple of weird sparrows have visited our table this a.m., quite politely.  Keep you posted.  Jambo

PLEASANT SURPRISES IN AFRICA

  It’s time to reflect on differences noted and not anticipated on our trip, since they might not be remembered or mentioned to you all again.  I’m writing on the bush plane and we just flew over the crater.   Just checked out of Kitela lodge.  Bill was 8 dollars because we had 8 pieces of laundry done.  No taxes or special charges.  No surprises.  Same at Serena and Maramboi camps.  All was prepaid, but still!!   Beer 3 dollars, wine 4 dollars, whiskey 2 dollars, coke 80 cents.  All camps and lodges.  No taxes. All even numbers.   Guide says business is good here– nobody going to Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Uganda anymore.   Everybody wants dollars.  Pay lodge in dollars.  Tip in dollars.   Everyone smiling. School kids along the road in old dusty clothes all smiling and waving consistently.  Kids in classrooms excited you’re visiting.  Are wide eyed and smiling.  Wave goodbye.  Maasai herders wave as you drive by leaving them in a cloud of dust.  Waiters and porters-same thing. Thrilled if they get a dollar tip.   Almost no one we’ve seen here smokes or drinks, not the Maasai the guides or the local poor.  On average obesity is very rare.   The birds here outshine American birds at every turn consistently.  Very dramatic and ridiculous variety.   If you are like me, you may have wondered if safaris are like fishing– you need luck or you won’t see anything.  Don’t worry.  Animals are plenteous, around every bend and in every tree.  You will be satisfied.   Bush plane trips.  There was no ID check, no passport check, no ticket, no one asked our name, we didn’t tell anyone our name. They had our name on the manifest and expected us and we got on.  Asked to sit copilot, and he said “why not?”  And I did.   Nothing about Africa has been a disappointment.   Jambo=

AMAZING THIRTEEN MILES IN THE SERENGETI

  Arrived by bush plane to Serengeti National Park. As promised, a land cruiser with “Lemala  Tent Camp ” on it was waiting, and Peter our new guide.   Peter’s plan was to take a slow game drive back to the camp, where lunch would be waiting for us. Sounded fine.  It was 11 am, and we were hungry.  Here’s what happened along the way and what we saw.  Unfortunately I can’t do the drive justice with words, such was the pace of sights and the flow of stories from our guide.   The lilac breasted roller is in the top ten most beautiful birds in Africa.

  It mates in flight high in the air, and rolls over and over falling to the ground, separating at the last second.  Our first bird out of the airport.   Discussed the honey badger seen yesterday.  Peter excitedly tells of the badger tipping over a refrigerator at a camp. Ate all the contents, then came back every night thereafter.  Have been known to kill elephants ,  and even lions run from them,  always plan to go right for the genitals.  No story of anything killing a honey badger.   We come upon a lion in a tree, escaping the flies and the heat. Peter tells of the most exciting lion kills he has seen in his four years. He saw a lion grab a wildebeest by the horn next to a muddy pond edge and hold its head and nose in the mud till it smothered.  Slippery mud prevented use of the beast’s leg strength. One baboon ran up a tree to escape.  The lion pretended to climb the tree and the baboon got so frightened it jumped and ran.  Caught. Dead.  Saw five lions kill a hippo.  Took one hour because they carefully avoid the head.   Next saw a “boys club” of impala–defeated guys waiting for their chance to take over a harem.   Arrive at small river with with two hippos and one crocodile.  At this exact spot Peter saw 70 wildebeests die in one day.  They jumped in the river, crocs feasted. Stampede and panic behind and they jump on each other’s backs, drowning each other. Lions get a couple.  Later, hyenas and vultures start cleanup.   Vervet monkey watches from a tree.  Peter says they love bananas.  Will jump in your truck and snatch one with you in the truck.   Pass two striped kingfishers singing to each other, followed shortly by two lovebirds shoulder to shoulder kissing . Valentine’s Day tomorrow.   A couple of minutes later we find a pride of 10 lions sleeping.

A herd of elephants come by, and they get up and move slowly away, watching.  They have big bellies from killing a baby giraffe yesterday.  60 lbs. of food at one sitting and they’re good for 3-4 days.   Lion in tree, standing, a little while later.   A giraffe grazes on a tree.  Turn a bend and find a big hyena sleeping under a tree 15 feet away.  Doesn’t bother to leave, which is rare.  Usually run away.   Next a grey backed shrike, also known as butcher bird because they catch a beetle and tear it apart in the tree eating it piecemeal.   Finally almost there, we pass a lesser kestrel, and a black shouldered kite, followed by a Pygmy falcon.   Arrive at camp and the giant marabou stork sits in a tall tree over the tents.   We are one hour late.  Two hour trip. Seventeen new birds.   Table for two is set for us in front of the camp.  Served cucumber soup, eggplant moussaka and fruit cup, with a Serengeti and a Tusker beer.   Perfect=

VALENTINE’S DAY

  Two months in bush, two weeks out for staff here at Lemala.  Lots of lions roaring all night. Coffee in bed at 06:00, breakfast 06:30, in truck at 07:00. Pick fire ant off Bev’s thigh. Giraffe at peak of hill 300 yards left.   Two white browed coucalls mating on Valentine’s Day. Happy, happy.  Both puffed up. Hyena prints in the mud, mongoose next to road at 3 ft. Serval cat walking on road hunting in grass while flappet lark flaps noisily and rattling coucal sings.   Coucalls  steal the nest of another bird, dumps the eggs of the mother out, lays her own eggs,  and never comes back to nest. The false mother hatches eggs and never knows they are not her own.  Coucalls are bigger than the false mother and it’s very hard work for the small mother to feed the large false kids, so they have to leave the nest early!!!   Pond w crocodile, 10 or 12 hippos and black crake bird in mud.   Tawny eagle above road in tree.   08:21 am now.   Black headed heron on stump by road.  Eats snakes, mice, fish. Red billed oxpecker high in a tree, 30 yards further a crested eagle 10 yards left,  right a small bee eater 10 yards.  Both very impressive.  Bee eater flies from bush, grabs bug and flies back five times in two minutes. Look these two up!   08:34   Red necked spur fowl on ground. Hippo out of water grazing left, pink face looks at us.  Rumbles back into water.  They graze at night, in water in day when sun is strong.   Three jackals in the road ahead. Red faced crombec in bush. White headed buffalo weaver on road.

  Buffalo weaver makes a nest for female, the female inspects it. If she rejects the nest he takes it down and builds another. May build 20 nests!!!  Comments?   Sand grouse on ground right side.  Another new bird. “Tire pressure check” now.  Means pee in back of truck. Bev swatting her ass as flies land in large numbers. 08:57   Small turn and very large eagle standing in road. Grand.  Much debate.  Decide sub adult fish eagle. 10 yards.  Rare to see any eagle less than 200 yards in America! Giraffe family with one small baby, seven feet high.  Oxpecker feeding at scrotum of male water buffalo with a broken horn from fighting.  Giraffes eat day and night.   Warthog rambles around, millions of flies on head and neck.  Jumps in mud sticks head in to escape.  Warthogs use giraffes as watchtowers. When they stop eating warthog knows there is real trouble.   Marabou stork ahead.  Sits calmly ten feet away.  0ver three feet high.  Closer than at the zoo.   09:52   Just six more hours to go.  Lunch boxes today. Black chested fish eagle and snake eagle hunt in the sky above, circling low.   Very fat hyena coming right at us in the middle of the road, very pregnant.

Goes around us in the grass and back on the road, ‘cuz walking on the road is much easier for them than taller grass.   10:16.   I’m only telling you the best stuff. Two lesser kestrels sit on a short bush.  Battery dead now so goodby.

DIKDIKS, BOUBOUS, AND HAMMERKOPS

  Feb 15. 0:600 am. 06:55 first edge of sun.   Got up at 03:45 and went out to hang out with the Maasai sentries and hear some sounds.  No one around and only bird sounds.  Head to mess tent to check on chargers of i pad/phones. Sentries in the couches snoring and mumbling in their sleep. Stayed outside til 05:00 when three of staff came down the hill in the dark to make our 05:30 coffee.  In the truck at 06:00 to go catch the leopard mom with her two cubs, which she had left alone when we first saw them.

No leopards anywhere,  worrisome since we saw a pride of lions yesterday pm crossing an adjacent field.  Hopefully they didn’t kill them, which they would make a point of if they were aware.   Southern ground hornbills. Three in tree. New bird. 2 1/2 feet tall,  night jar birds on ground in headlights scatter as we’re about to hit them.   Sun is up now, and the monkeys are starting to come down from the trees.   White backed vultures are in almost every tree.   A dikdik pair, the second smallest antelope  about 18 inches tall, is next to a tree very still, pose for a nice picture.

Sun grouse pair on the ground.  Special feathers on chest that absorb water.  They carry water to their chicks, that suck the water from the chest   Spur winged plover, one of the sharpest plovers, is next new one. We’re going to make a little book for you all attaching faces to these names..   Pool of 15 or 20 hippos, very busy. Two of them yawn  widely.  Lots of very loud grunting, back in water to sleep all day.  Baboons are grooming each other as 15 marabou storks observe from the banks.   African cuckoo. New bird in tree with two brown parrots. Then a bee eater in the next adjacent bush.   A hammerkop nest in a tree.  Nest weighs about 150 lbs. Has four chambers.  Other birds use its nest after it’s gone, like eagles that use the top of it. Pythons have been known to use it as well. The hammerkop came by and landed on the top of a post next to it so we could get a pic.  Head looks like a hammer.  After one use, never uses it again!  Takes three weeks to build.   Grey hornbill we come on next. Slate colored boubou???  Yep great name but plainest bird we’ve seen. Black creck, yellow fronted canary, Hueglins courser.   Thirteen new birds so far and it’s 08:34.   Hyena crosses road in front of us.  Alone, sleek, well-fed, loping.  Healthy  looking. Stopped at 0900 and had picnic breakfast presented by Peter.  French toast, muffins, waffles , bacon, sausage .  The following birds all arrived immediately.  Better than any aviary: spotted morning thrush, (15 diff songs it mimics of other birds) speckle fronted weaver, grey headed sparrow, gray capped weaver, black headed weaver, a Babbitt (ate Bev’s french toast), yellow fronted canary (visited and went inside our truck and explored).   The rest of the morning punctuated by a four foot monitor lizard in the road , a bateleur eagle, a family of baboons and a little fight, elephant family, giraffe family.   Got in 12:30–6 1/2 hours.   Meet us with cold washcloths.  Table is set for 1 pm lunch outside in grass.  May just take a nap.  Can’t go hiking, watch tv, use phone.  No communication here.  Not complaining.   Last night we were the only people in the camp. Eight tents here.  Had dinner with Peter who entertained us with more honey badger stories– unbelievable.   Great fire at sunset.  They call it “bush tv.”   Jambo

HONEY BADGER STORIES

  The guys at the camp being raided by the honey badger had to do something.  One ran over it with a range rover, but it curled up in a ball and ran away unharmed, and returned to raid the supplies. The seven camp staff decided to beat it to death with some clubs, and one of them put a big sharp piece of metal in the fire, got it red hot, and tried to impale it, but the badger bit it in half.   One night Peter and his friend had a big piece of lamb they cooked in a heavy stove.  They left the leftovers in the stove for later dining.  The honey badger came and turned over the stove and ate the rest of the lamb.   They finally got the park rangers to come in and kill it because honey badgers have been known to trot nonstop for over a hundred miles.  And once they know where your food is, they will come back every night.  So trapping and taking them 50 miles away is not effective.   Jambo

FEB 16, COPILOT AGAIN? BUSH TV IN SERENGETI, LUXURY IN MASAI MARA

  Feb 16, Saturday   Leaving Serengeti today for Masai Mara.   Last night the bush TV was bizarre. Group of five from Malaysia/Singapore wealth management and finace and international law. Two of them finished Kilimanjaro hike yesterday. Seven days. Last day 40 below 0. Young couple.  Ian and Ruby.  Then two Indian couples traveling together, one from New Jersey squash players, other couple from Dallas. The two guys had climbed Kilimanjaro also.  Then a young couple from Canada about 30 years old on a three week trip, also squash players.  They are heading to Zanzibar next.  The conversation from the fireplace continued over dinner for three hours.  The head waiter had to herd us away with apologies at 10:30.  Interestingly, the Singapore group confirmed my expectation that the Las Vegas Sands casino in Singapore is indeed the centerpiece of entertainment and architecture there.  Kudos to Brad Stone here for creating it. It was fun to tell them that he laid out the blueprints for that complex on the hood of my car some ten years ago.  Great conversation from all directions, thirteen of us. Something in common with all of them.  Maybe see them again.   Elephants passed through back of camp 0600 this morning. Missed seeing them. Hyena loped by in front of camp over coffee.  Giraffe in the distance all alone in a big field over breakfast. Spanish omelette and cereal.   On way to airport now, lots of elephants, a leopard in the field with tail twitching, walking toward a gazelle in the distance. No time to stop and watch.  Moved our flight up.   Arrive for flight. Peter checks us in.  No one asks our name again.  No security or id.  We put backpacks in container on left wing, and I ask pilot if he is supposed to put gas in there.  He says, “You want gas? You fly copilot.” Back in the front seat with him again.  He’s a real jokester, with thick Indian accent.  “No smoking except for pilot. Women may have to push to get us started.”  Pretends to push the dashboard to get us moving.  It’s a twin engine twelve seater.  Lift off at 80 knots, cruising at 230 knots, 11,850 feet.  Zip by a plane on our right that took off five minutes before, a single engine going about 160. Gorgeous day. Fly through gap in two mountain peaks above us.  No sign of human life now as we cruise east to Arusha.  We took off ten minutes early.  Pilot reaches over and cleans off my Ipad screen as I’m writing this. Smiles and says “dusty!” To Bev’s delight.  I showed him this description. And he laughed and says, “That’s good.” 30 minute flight.   Three more bush flights, and we had crossed Tanzania west to east, gone north to Nairobi, and crossed Kenya west to east, and landed six hours later in the Maasai Mara on time. The airport here was lined with antelope. They have a guy clear them from the strip prior to landing.  Slow game drive on way to camp and saw a half-eaten antelope with its legs dangling from a tree.  Very macabre.  The leopard  will be coming back for seconds. Then found a big male lion resting by the road.  Rolled over several times and sauntered away into the bushes.   Next we came upon a black rhino feeding a couple of hundred yards away, our best view yet of one.   Arrive at Olenana tent camp, greeted again in driveway with welcoming party, including manager named King,  first name.  Cold towels again.  This is a real first class place start to finish.  Owned by Abercrombie and Kent, part of chain called sanctuary retreats.  Every wall hanging, light fixture, mural, chair, coffee table a work of art. Deck over the river and hippo pool.  All inclusive deal including laundry and room service by walkie talkie.  Escort to room after dark even though compound has electric fence and lighted walkway.  Jungle canopy covers walkways even though no jungle for a thousand miles.  Can’t wait to see the rest.   Jambo mambo, even if it means hello=

1000 WAYS TO DIE, HIPPO BATTLE, DINING AT OLENANA

  Just finished a Tusker beer at an extraordinary lunch in Olenana camp.  Some camp.  Watching the hippos and thinking about where to start with the night and day stories. May go to the tent where the veranda has a bed!! And overlooks a separate hippo pool on the river, completely secluded, as well as an outdoor shower.  Might get another Tusker beer by room service, free of course, to provide inspiration for writing.  Also have to mentally prepare for fine dinner in just four hours.  Consider this:  The saga of life and death in Africa doesn’t stop at dinner.   Maybe start with last night’s dinner. Very elegant. Tasted great.  Indoors.  Candlelight.  Bats fly through the veranda opening and dining room regularly in an athletic aerial display, deftly missing all diners and waiters by a comfortable distance as they snatch their pray.  A swallow will also fly through occasionally until dark.  These guys keep the bugs negligible.  Not a single bite tonight. They are aided by a dozen geckos on the ceiling above us.  They catch  the insects that collect high around the light fixtures.   We have coffee in room 7:00.  Breakfast 7:30 . Game drive at 8. First stop, an army ant procession just starting out, going to hunt termites, their only diet.  The group has a visible beginning and end right there in the road.

He says they will make a hissing sound you can hear as they go into battle on the termite mound.  The termites sound the alarm and the designated soldiers come to the top of the hive. The termites secret a substance that confuses the ants. The termites have big pincers that transect the ants, and the ants have tiny sharp talons that pierce easily.  First to bite, wins.  Ants chop up the termites and carry them in pieces back in procession.  Conclusion of lecture, a truck drives over the neatly organized procession we’ve been admiring.   Next we see the butcherbird I told you about, aka the common fiscal.  Guide says he’s the most studied bird of all.  Turns out he not only butchers the prey in pieces, he takes the pieces and impales them on thorns and barbed wire, storing them for the future.   We cut through a grassy road, and are surrounded by thirty or so beautiful wire tailed swallows, swirling and darting around the vehicle. Not anywhere else around.  It’s because we scuff up the insects in the grass and as the take flight from us, they are snatched.   1000 ways to die in Africa:  The dining room, the fiscal, on the road.   We find a pride of five lions taking shade under a single lone tree on a slight hill.  We stopped ten feet from them and watched for 15 minutes.  They just slept and weren’t the slightest bit interested.   Went by the tree where the leopard had half eaten the kill.  Now the legs were still dangling but it was skin and bones only today, no meat.   Stop at a hippo pool and hear a giant commotion.  We run to an observation area and two hippos are bellowing and facing off.

In such a challenge, they open their mouths as large as possible to intimidate and check measurement.  If one confirms or thinks his mouth will fit INSIDE the others mouth, he will turn tail. One hippo has the high ground.  Another the low.  There are 30 hippos in the family, all turned to watch the showdown.  Eyes and noses above water and backs to us, as battle is on far bank.  Much more bellowing and gnashing of teeth and almost bites.  Low ground guy tries to flank high ground guy on an easy slope on the side.  Higher guy throws saliva around with open mouth.  Hollering.  Low man turns around and goes in water with splash.  All eyes still on high man.  Seems king.  Another hippo comes out of water and up the hill to capture the flag.  So much noise you’re sure life and death in the balance.  New guy accompanied by two youngsters who crawl subserviently onto mud.  Lots more bellowing.  Youngsters will be crushed if challenger falls on the slope of the bank!  The top guy gives a holler, then dejectedly walks away!!  It turns out that high man is a male hippo trying to join this family, and was rejected.  He walked entirely around the river bank, head very low, passed another family nearby, and went on.  The hippos in the family then turned away and went on with their routine, all heads random.   So as not to end on a sour note, I want to tell you what a process and spectacle a hippo taking a poop is.  Bev is now on our deck and calling to the hippos to get their attention and get some excitement going.  Sure enough, one responds,  hollering, raising its butt out of the water,  and lets go with a large continuos stream–his tail flaps back and forth rapidly, faster than the fastest windshield wiper, but working exactly like the best of them, making a very rhythmic splash very loud, heard two hundred yards away.  Butt goes back in the water.  Bev wonders if her call caused this and takes it a bit personally.   To clear your minds, think of me going to the pool here, ordering a Tusker beer, taking a nap, protected by bats lizards and swallows, river rumbling in the background.  Did I forget to tell you that a giant rat at least 2 1/2 feet in length ran across the outside deck next to us during dinner?   Wild stuff.  Jambo=

LAST DAY IN AFRICA

  Feb 18   8 am start. Brown capped swallow. Lesser striped swallow. New one: Cape buffalo. Warthogs , topi, impala and we’re not to the main gates of the park yet.  Clear sunny day, no wind, what the animals like.  While driving en route, I might as well tell you one more honey badger story.   Peter’s friend saw a honey badger encounter a puff adder.  Big showdown, fight to the death.  Honey badger eats the puff adder head first and the suddenly falls over motionless.  Ten minutes later, he pops up and runs away perfectly fine.   Guide hears of big pride of lions so, we go try and find them. No luck.   Warthogs hang around the topi in the tall grass so the topi can look out for predators and warn them.   Just found the lions. Family of five just finishing a meal, one carrying a thigh bone.  Not much left now. They are cleaning one another, sneezing, and quarreling now and then.  Most of them each have their piece.   They apparently don’t know that there is a badly limping topi in a field just 300 yards away that we passed. Won’t last the night.   Hammerkop nest, then a mangrove kingfisher. Looking for leopards now along a creek ,  driving slowly through the grass.  Swallows and bank martins join in for the insect feast again.   Check tire pressure, 1016.  Looking 360 degrees we have a brown snake eagle, warthogs, elephants, impala, saddle ill stork, waterbuck, warthogs in that sequence, all within 200 yards.   Find a hippo lying in a big mud pool right next to the road.  Very unusual.  Gets up and runs a few yards, then limps away.  Injured, maybe sick.  Should be in the water now. No family nearby or water.  Bad future.   Next scene is 250 cape buffalo with cattle egrets and oxpeckers riding their backs, surrounded by grey herons, warthogs, and a troop of baboons, all in a giant open flat space.   Went to the airstrip with King today at 3:30 and found a big hyena next to the road picking over leftovers where the lions had been earlier.  Then we saw a group of lions within three minutes’ drive of the air strip, so we went by ‘cuz the plane wasn’t due for eight minutes.  Nice finish.   This is indeed the most interesting and exciting trip ever.  Something surprising and new 100 times a day.  Wonderful people at every turn.  Special thanks to Bill and Deb Rooney  who inspired me to go and did real extra work to make it happen in the perfect sequence of stops.  They introduced us to many special people as well.   See you all soon, I hope=

FEAR AND LOATHING IN AFRICA

  Just remembered an important final story told to me by King, the sharp and talented manager at Olenana Tent Camp, our last and most elegant stop.  He had a group of relatively elderly Americans come through, very well-prepared with their new iPhones with video capability, etc, etc.  They were taken to a local Maasai village for the demonstration of the traditional dance and tour.  There was a commotion, and the visitors all converged together in a huddle, much discussion. The village chief joined in to offer any help.  Turns out, they were having difficulty figuring out the video function on their phones or iPads!!! The chief showed them how to work it all and everyone was quite pleased, if not embarrassed.   And while I’m inspired to write by the seven hour layover in Heathrow airport, I will share thoughts about recommending this trip to someone, as it is not for everyone.  I quizzed all the guides fairly extensively, as well as seasoned travelers we met, to come to my conclusions. It boils down to things we fear or loathe, to borrow a phrase from one of my favorite authors.   As for fears, the realistic common ones include flying, severe sickness, injury by animals, and local crime.   Things we loathe might be severe heat, poor sanitation, racism or cultural resentment, bad food, surly service, exorbitant costs, horrible weather, very long travel times, long bumpy roads, and insects.   Here is my take:   Not worth it if you’re afraid of flying.  Exorbitant if you upgrade to business for all legs of the trip – maybe $7,000 each, but can sleep all legs. Great way to use miles if you got ‘em.   Severe sickness is rare if you take precautions.  Travelers’ diarrhea is seldom a disaster, usually fixable, minor.  Malaria is rare with precautions and curable.  It’s an occupational hazard of the guides, and they regularly take a course of meds, and they are fixed. Don’t do this trip if you have a bad back or can’t sit for 6 -8 hours a day on very bumpy roads with lots of dust.   Crime. Nairobi is known to be a dangerous city at night and should probably be avoided after dark. Bags at the airport do go missing rarely so try to prepare. In no location, at any time did I feel uneasy or worried, any feeling of resentment or dislike, or unwelcome.  I did not hear any rumor or story of money or items missing or stolen or of any crime.  Granted, we had a driver for every moment of our trip, and generally were at higher end places.   Sanitation at the public toilets was not worse than the lousy places in America. At all the places we stayed everything was immaculate at all times, even the vehicles, washed daily like mine. All staff had not a wrinkle in the uniforms, including the guides.  Always looked better than Bev, and sometimes better than I.  All had bottled water in the rooms.  Very proper British feel.   I never had an add-on charge surprise or felt a charge was very high.  Every minor tip was accepted graciously and gratefully, though they were small by our standards.  I cannot think of a country where the service was so consistently good, sincere, happy, and grateful.  At Serena Lodge at Amboselli, Maremboi Tent Camp, and Kitela Lodge at the Ngorangora crater the  meals were good but not surprising.  At Lemala and Olenana, they were both extraordinary and surprising. A real experience, such as spiced warm sunflower seeds and batter fried peanuts.   Which leaves weather and injury.  If you travel in the well known dry months (January, February, June, July, August, September,) you are usually rewarded with some of the best weather in the world.  Lows of 60 at night and highs of 85 are the expected. It never gets as hot as New Jersey in the summer, or as cold as the spring or fall here, contrary to what you might expect on the equator.  Injury would be really unlucky, and will not come from an animal since you are not allowed out of the truck except to check tire pressure briefly. I should insert here for you ladies –it is a valuable talent to be able to pee in back of the truck.  Don’t worry, you are never hiking through dangerous terrain. And insects?  The flies were a nuisance sometimes, but tolerable.  The mosquitoes were minimal and less than at home in summer.   And very importantly, you must think carefully about whether you want to be in a group tour or travel privately.  I must say I was constantly thrilled not to be the seventh person in the seventh seat of the second vehicle, with no choice of when my game drives were starting.   Bill Rooney, if you have additions, deletions, or corrections, please post to all.  Veteran of 20 plus extended trips.   To sum it all up, one must balance the fears and loathings against the trip that offers 100 surprises per day, and more.   Signing off.  Jambo