Tickle behind the ear?

Yesterday I posted a photo of a pond on the Serengeti and mentioned that a couple of hippos were in the background. A number of people wrote me and asked to see some close-up pictures of these amazing animals. Also one commentor mentioned that he had heard that many native people had met their demise by hippos.

While watching some of these beautiful creatures, my guide had related some information on that subject. Hippos often move from one watering hole to another and often cross long distances by land to do so. In the water hippos feel safe and are delightfully contented with frolicking, grunting and sleeping. On land, however, they are especially nervous, vulnerable and irritable, especially when traversing with young, which are easy prey to large cats. Many a villager's presence, while bathing, doing laundry or fishing on a pond's edge, has inadvertantly blocked the access to the water for a migrating hippo. The animal goes absolutely bonkers when surprised and feels thwarted in its desire to return for a bath. Like with many animals, once an imagined opponent falls down on the ground, a more agressive instinct sets off and the victim is then kicked and bitten to death.

The top picture of a larger family was taken from the opening in the car's roof and through some bushes. As said earlier, it is incredibly poor judgment and not allowed to get out and go to the water's edge. I saw a number of huge crocodiles waiting patiently for anything that might casually happen by and it is certain they wouldn't be choosy about meeting a tourist.

I watched the animals in the second picture for quite a while. Like dogs often do, hippos look like they are fighting, but place their faces next to one another, nuzzle and grunt instead of biting. Sometimes they lie quietly for hours and suddenly, for no apparent reason, the pool comes alive with such play.

I included the third picture to remind myself that night on the Serengeti means a whole new set of circumstances and sounds which I hope to show tomorrow. Does anyone like cats?

Living on the Wild Side

Even though today I flew to Hong Kong on route to Jamaica for my 4th Amizade adventure, I have yet to tell about my days on the safari through Tanzania.

The above photos were taken in Serengeti National Park and are just a few of the thousand pictures I snapped. I had amazing good fortune on this trip, being the only passenger in a 12 person off-road vehicle and having an incredibly experienced guide who put up with me. He had to admit that I was the first tourist he had shuttled who forwent all the elaborate, expensive prepaid tourist accomodations and stayed and dined with him in tiny villages along the way. We established a close relationship and therefore he went the "extra mile" so to speak. (Actually we drove almost 1400 miles much on jeep track to find some of the more unusual animals.)

I am not sure exactly why I have chosen the above pictures. When I look at them now I ask myself what story do they tell. The top photo of the family of giraffes shows something of the immensity of the Serengeti, which means "endless plain" in Masai. This park is 14,000 sq. km or about 300 miles square and along with its neighbor the Ngorogoro Forest Preserve contains most of the remaining population of animals in East Africa.

I chose the second photo to show the diversity of the landscape. It is not all grassland but is dotted with swamp especially this time of year. This is the beginning of the rainy season and many animals use such spots to drink and cool down from the searing heat. By the way, it is not allowed to hike nor is it safe in most places to leave your car. Strange big things often are lurking in the grass! You wouldn't want to swim there either. What appears to be a log at the back of the pond are actually two hippos. ( I have hippo pictures from so close you can count teeth!)

The third photo of a baboon and baby reminded me how much fun it was to watch these families sometimes containing as many as 50 members. They provided comic relief on the long journey and bother everything that comes in their path. Most important for me though was feeling the freedom of these and all the animals of this wonderful park. In Swaheli it is called Uhuru and I will never forget it in their eyes.

Random Thoughts

These three photos from my first day in Mwamza represent memories of what now seems like weeks ago.

I mentioned in my previous post that I had hoped to be met at the ferry landing by a tour guide. Of course, I stood in a flotsam of arriving passengers, taxi drivers, vendors and dock workers and saw no one assigned to pick me up. It wasn't exactly hard to pick me out of a crowdwith my white skin, backpack, camera around my neck, and pushing a carry-on. I waited for an hour and then, with the help of a policeman, decided to find a top-quality hotel. The front desk clerk made a few phone calls and after much confusion, located the errant guide. While waiting for him, the hotel manager introduced himself and gave me the royal treatment, showing me his hotel and even invited me to have a complimentary breakfast before leaving. The middle photo shows the manager and my guide, Peter. Most foreigners seem to take photos only of rural people and the poor and present thereby a stilted image of the country. Tanzanians, to whom I have shown my blog, have asked me to balance this bias by mentioning that there is a significant number of people of education, wealth, and refinement.

The bottom photo of some fishing boats on Lake Victoria was important to me because it conveyed such a serene view and I wanted you to see the lake. I thought of massive Lake Michigan that I had known from my childhood. Yet this lake is twice its size, borders three countries, Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya and provides jobs and fish, mainly talapia to millions of people.

After leaving the city I realized how much the countryside had changed. There were now low plains instead of the high mountains filled with bananas plants to which I had grown accustomed. Here there were people working in rice fields. The top picture, of a youngster standing on a patch of rice, may be one of those exotic photos foreigners seem to take. Children and women are seen everywhere working the farm land all day every day, while men on loaded bicycles or cattle-driven carts clog the side of road taking huge bundles to market.

Tomorrow I leave Africa . I don't want to think about the idea that I may never be here again. I console myself that I will always have my pictures and blog to keep the memory somewhat alive. Yet, even they are so far from the reality of this amazing place.

Bukoba to Mwamza Adventure

I am posting today from Zanzibar, an island in the Indian Ocean, having flown here, after having completed at 1200 mile tour of some of the most amazing countryside in the world. I hope in subsequent posts to tell something of the Serenghetti, the Ngorogoro Park, Olduvai Gorge, Ngorogoro Crater, Lake Myanara and the Great Rift Valley. Before I get to that many of you were concerned about me taking the night ferry alone across Lake Victoria to the city Mwamza where I was to meet my guide.

From the pleading of my family, concerned for my safety, I was dissuaded to book a steerage ticket, because, as expected, I was one of only two other mzungus, white people, who would be crammed in with almost 500 people and a boatload of cargo. When I arrived early in the day at the ticket office, I asked for a first class ticket which would provide me a room, but was told the few double rooms were already sold out. The ticket agent, taking pity on me, told me he would find a crew member who would sell me his private room for the night.

The bottom photo, taken from the crew quarters, shows my area, devoid of people, but housing a rooster tied to a winch, that crowed the whole night long. It was impossible to sleep so I roamed the ship and watched the people and the night sky, wondering whether I was dreaming or really on a small freighter in the middle of Lake Victoria in Tanzania.

The second photo, taken about 11:30 pm, of a port dock bathed in yellow flood lights, was a stop to load even more bananas, tea, sacks of dried fish and even more people.

I am sorry about the top photo being out of focus. Those globs of green on the deck are, of course, mountains of bananas. I arrived at 6 AM, having been up all night, so I probably forgot to find the right setting for night and movement. I was worried also that no one would be at the exit of the port to pick me up. I didn't relish being in a strange town unable to speak Swaheli and no one really to call. My fear was not unwarranted, but that it a story for another time.

Keeping life fertile

This is my last evening here in Karagwe with Amizade. Tomorrow I start traveling alone and have booked safari in the Serenghetti, after which I fly to Zanzibar in the Indian Ocean for some time on the beach. Hopefully, in about a week, I will again have internet service.

Today our group visited a private school where we were invited for lunch and to answer questions. The students were shy as expected. I asked if anyone liked to draw and the kids pointed to one handsome looking 14 year old boy who can be seen in the dark sweater. I pulled out my sketch pad and he posed for me for about 10 minutes. I did a decent likeness which brought quite a lot of interest and laughter. Then I posed for him. I sat like a statue for an equal amount of time, while he drew me. The youngsters gathered around and admired our tenacity. The above picture shows me praising his work and relating something about eyes being in the center of the head.

The second photo of a sunset taken near the gate of our lodging seems to evoke a feeling of the landscape where I have been living for over two weeks. The clouds in the distance look like the shadow of a banana plantation. This reminded me how in nature large and small forms are forever repeated.

Last is a shot from the Chonyonyo water project which will provide water to a small village and eventually a new school. Funds have come from European philantropic organizations and through the generous contribution of AllPeoplebeHappy, a foundation created to help worthy projects in honor of my cousin's late son, Eric Tang. I have visited this site several times during my stay and the work is amazing. Also today, with several other Amizade members, I hiked down into a canyon in the searing heat to a spring. Along the way I met villagers carrying full 10 gallon containers of water up the hillside. The trail was at least 2 kilometers long and really steep. I was dripping in sweat when I came back to the top and I had only been carrying a camera!

I am actually anxious about leaving. The journey here has been long and the stay has had plenty of personal challenges. Yet the intensity of the experience is addicting and leaving here will give me a sense of satisfaction and loss.

Days Like This

The last several days have been filled with some amazing experiences which I am so eager to share but have had such scarce internet time. Even now I am writing these thoughts in Notepad and will paste them into blogger when I am lucky enough to get online. Since I am leaving the project on Friday morning and will spend the next week touring the country without the slightest change of connectivity, I can only give a brief description of my days.

While walking on a lane the other day I spied this lad pushing an old bicycle tire with a stick. Of course he was quite startled to see me and stopped to collect himself. While taking his picture, I think he conveyed to me he was on his way to his grandmother's house with some rice, but of course I could be mistaken. I have wondered what appealed to me about this picture. Maybe for a moment I could feel the simple pleasure of his age. I felt lonely at the time too and somehow this picture lightened my mood.

The middle photo was taken at a Women's Day event at a small village near the Rwuanda border, which was chosen to host this event There was amazing dancing, singing and drumming. This was an event that no tourist will ever see. I was the guest of the district governor who gave the keynote speech and sat with him and other dignitaries. All the school children and all the local people from the surrounding area attended. I recorded music and took videos with my camera. Most important again was the realization that no matter how much American dancers might practice these local dances, they are missing a key component, being one with the sound and moment.

The top photo is of an exhausted little old Jewish guy working at bending tin sheets into gutters. The Amizade volunteers had a work session the other day on a water harvesting project I reported on last week. The tank was finished but gutters needed to be fabricated and attached to the house. Water pours from the roof, then is caught by gutters, which subsequently transports it by downspouts into the tank.

I should be able to post tomorrow, but you never know around here. In any case my fondest thoughts are with all of you from East Africa and look forward to visiting again soon.

Going bananas?

These three photos describe the highland reaches of Karagwe, Tanzania, where I have been living these past two weeks.

It is banana heaven! The economy depends on growing this luscious fruit and exporting it to the lower regions of a country, the size of Texas. I understand there are many species of banana plants, but certain ones are used to raise cooking bananas, dessert bananas, plantain, and banana liquor. Incidentally, I have yet to have sample banana beer, banana wine or banana whiskey, but I may have that opportunity this evening.

I am not sure when bananas were first introduced, but newer more productive strains have been arriving for years. I know its presence has transformed the landscape. I keep on asking what this area looked like before it went "bananas" and what happened. Apparently, most of the native trees were cut down or burned up through huge wildfires. Earlier peoples mismanaged their crops and soil and then moved on to other places. Also this area and its environment was heavily impacted by large numbers of refugees fleeing neighboring Rwuanda and Burundi who, having no means of sustaining themselves, had to plunder the land and its animals. The distant hills, seen in the last two pictures, are barren and the ground suffers from terrible problems of erosion. There are also no animals roaming about and no monkeys are welcome in banana plantations. Yet, on once lonely soil there are now groves similar to the first photo and there are verdant homesteads everywhere.

Nonetheless, local people are being educated by local organizations on land management, and there is great will on a community level, to improve the environment.

Over time I may forget much of what I have learned and seen here, but I know that every sweet banana I eat at home will point me to my days in Tanzania.