Goodbye Term 1!

Today is the last day of school for the children for term 1. They are filing into the school in their party clothes: fancy dresses, jeans, ball caps, bright t-shirts, and unbelievable shoes. Corey and I came at 6am to decorate the school with all the balloons we blew up and tied together yesterday as well as with tinsel and a weird streamer thingie. I am amazed that the package of balloons actually said they were jumbo. Obviously “jumbo” in Uganda means something than it does at home.

I have Christmas music blaring from my library window (well, blaring, everything is relative… the neighbours can’t hear it and sing along so really it’s very quiet!) and the children are squealing as they arrive. I’m not sure how the teachers are going to keep them entertained for 5 hours until 1pm but judging by the amount of food the kids are bringing to share, several hours will be spent stuffing their faces.

It’s been an insane week and term. Year 1-6 wrote exams for 3 days. Year 1 and 2 only had 4 exams whereas the year 3-6 had 7 exams: 2 English, 2 Math, 2 Science, and 1 Geography/History. Each exam was 1 hour long. I sat with a boy who has just moved from Sudan and who can’t read in English. He has to count the vowels in every syllable so a word like “home” he counts on his fingers as he says “ha-he-hi-ho” and then “ma-me” to put it together. He understands very well but obviously 7 hours of written exams are not going to show his knowledge and are going to take days to complete if every word is read so painstakingly. 

Some interesting observations from some of the exams…

1. Two pictures of trees: one has no leaves and one is a palm tree. Which season does each tree represent (dry/wet). He writes “wet” for the tree with no leaves and “dry” for the palm tree. Next question asks “Why has the tree lost all its leaves?” His answer is that trees can lose all their leaves when there is too much rain. It’s true, the monkey tree in the high school compound has no leaves. And palm trees never lose their leaves no matter what season. So how does one mark that objectively?

2. Do you know who Boudica and the Iceni are? These kids do.

3. What do people do when it is sunny? Stay in their home. The Sudanese sun is very hot and staying indoors is important.

4. Do you know what the map symbols are for: A post office? A hospital? A round-about? A winery? How do you explain a winery to a Muslim ESL student? And what is it doing on the exam?

5. And what do you do when a student can’t read the term “racial discrimination” and that’s a key element in the exam?

By the end of the day yesterday, these kids looked exhausted. As you all know, I don’t believe in this type of testing (or homework either but that’s another matter) and when I see the exams, I wonder why we bother. What do we show except that children get stressed by exams (imagine your 5 and 6 year olds writing 4 hours of exams) and they can regurgitate facts about Boudica. Even my spell-checker underlines her name.

But now it’s over and the children are partying. I’ve changed my music to Christmas jazz just in my office because the grade 6’s are having a dance party and the music is Ugandan loud.  When they are on break and eating lunch I will put the children’s Christmas music back on. As a staff, we discussed having a Christmas tree and Santa (would have loved to see that – I thought Corey would have been good!) and presents but class parties were chosen in order to be accepting of all faiths. Everyone is wishing each other a Merry Christmas though so I’m not sure it would have been much of an issue to have a Christmas party. We seem to accept each other here without much difficulty.

  

While the kids are done school today, about 20 of them are heading to Mukono tomorrow for a 3 day trip at an adventure park. They are all sleeping in one dorm with the teachers and then doing things like rope courses, obstacle races and other games. I am not going. Sounds like hell. Bah humbug, I know.

The teachers still have 2 more weeks of work. This weekend they have to mark all their exams and next week they need to finish their report cards that will be collected by the parents on Friday. The following week is for the completion of schemes and project plans for term 2. Those are due on the 13^th and then the teachers are free until January 2^nd. On the 2^nd and 3^rd, they are having two days of staff training. I blogged about our August training and if you have read that post, you will understand why I volunteered to do the training for the primary staff. We will spend one day on reading and one day on writing. Anything to not go through what we went through in August!

It has been a steep learning curve for me this term. Build it and they will come has not been the rule of thumb but rather you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink. The first half of the term, I offered specific SMART board training workshops every day each week. The first week it was very highly subscribed but the numbers dwindled and by the end of the term, I had several days where no-one came. Okay, I thought, I will offer training on a more flexible basis and let them come to see me to schedule when they want to train based on when they are free. Teachers here have a ridiculous amount of prep time.

“Great! Wonderful! I’ll come to see you and schedule time!” 

Uh, no. Three teachers from the primary side, who work with me very day, are the only ones who have done that. They don’t need to make arrangements to train, they just see me in my office and ask if now is a good time.

“Oh sorry. I was busy with exams/parent interviews/ marking/ etc. Can I come during holidays?”

Really, it’s not a big deal because I have had many other hats to wear: deputy head, administrative advisor, mentor, coach, trainer, learning assistant, co-teacher, librarian… my days have not been boring. I am slowly cataloguing all the books in the library and marking them based on reading level so that the children know how hard a book will be. This is something they keep asking me. As long as the internet is working at a decent pace (hah hah) then I can get a pile of about 20 books done in a day. I’ve been pushing to get more books for the library and have managed to add about 100 books to the collection. I will get more over the holidays too from Better World Books, an organization that will ship books for free all over the world. Check them out, they do awesome work. The kids have been happy to see new books on the shelves because they want to read. The reception class even gave me a Christmas card to thank me for the new books.

I have a hard time accepting the need to fight for money for books as though they are a luxury item not really required for a school. I am particularly proud of finally getting some dictionaries into the library. I did ask for small sets for the classroom but never got a reply about that. Oh well, at least the school actually has a few dictionaries now.

Next term it looks like I will be doing a bit more teaching than this term as I will possibly take on the grade 3 English and Humanities lessons. I am excited about that because the unit in English is on myths, legends and fables. That will be a fun unit to teach and one that I can bring home and do with my own class. The topic for Humanities is Egypt and that brings back memories of what I taught in grade 7. It is only 8 lessons so it will have to be a quick and intense unit!

As Mum keeps reminding me, the only constant in life is change. If you were to look at our work contract and then follow us for a week, you’d see that we are only slightly touching what we have been hired to do.  But never mind, we’re busy and we’re enjoying it. And I am completely in love with my amazing students of course. They are precious!

Harvest Time!

As we near the end of November, the days are getting warmer again and the rain, while more intense, is coming less frequently. Apparently rainy season will end early December and we will move into a period of intense heat again.

This rainy season has made the land lush and green. The field next to us has grass so tall that the goats can get lost within it and the ducks and geese only walk along the paths they have trodden hundreds of times before for fear of getting lost on their way home and missing their evening meal.

All this rain has also brought the latest crop of tree fruits into season. I have been watching the trees with great interest as they start to produce fruit. I may be able to tell an apple tree from a pear tree from a cherry tree at home but here the tropical fruits are a mystery to me. But now I know that we have at least one mango tree, a sweet banana tree, two papaya trees, a very prolific jackfruit tree, and several types of avocado trees. We have reached harvest time for avocado, jackfruit and banana. Mango is not far behind.

To harvest avocado, you either have to climb the tree or use a long stick with nails bent into hooks to pull them off the tree. When you find an avocado that looks ready (don't ask me what that looks like, I have no idea), you hook the nail over the stem and pull. The fruit then falls to the ground and you collect it up. Don't try to catch the falling fruit... chances are you will get knocked out by it because avocado are very hard when they are still on the trees.

We harvested two avocado this week and are waiting for them to finish ripening. One can be eaten today. The other still has a day or two. The kitchen staff is coming and picking all our avocado so we need to go and get a couple whenever they forget the stick in our yard or else we'll never get to eat any!

Our banana tree had a lovely large bunch of green finger bananas and I thought they were going to stay on the tree until they were ripe. Now that I think about it, there are never yellow bananas on the trees. I think the birds would eat them all if they were left. I'm sure the plaintain eaters closely monitor the progress of the bananas and as soon as they even begin to ripen, they are on the bunches and devouring the fruit.

Yesterday, Ediga harvested the bananas. He shimmied up the tree with a machete and cut the whole bunch down. He then cut off two large bunches for us. I asked him if I should leave them in the sun to ripen but he said that no, I could just take them inside. We've hung them on the bars of the windows in the kitchen and they are already turning yellow. Apollo, with whom we shared a bunch, said that they would be ready to eat on Monday. One bunch certainly will be.

I'm looking forward to the mango being ready but I may steal a couple while they are still green to make Thai green mango salad. We've shared one jackfruit but this tree must have 20 fruits that are all the size of my torso. Unfortunately it is not the type of fruit that you can eat in large quantities.

Even our little garden is producing a crop. The beans that the year 3s planted are starting to produce and I have one ginger plant from a root I planted what seems like months ago. I bought a bag of onion sets when we were in the "downtown" part of downtown on Wednesday and Corey and I planted those today. The sets are everywhere to buy so it is obviously the right time. As we were trying to get ourselves out of the downtown core, I walked past a woman who had set herself up between two parked semi-trailors and was selling these bags for 1,000 shillings (about 40cents.) There must have been at least 50 onions to plant.

Although the dog did attempt to eat a few of the onions (but spat them out in my lap each time before proceeding to eat my hair - an immediate shower was required after planting these onions,) if they all produce, we'll have a great crop. I just have to make sure the kitchen staff doesn't get to them first!

How to pick up a parcel

Step 1. Receive a claim form that states that this is your final warning to pick up a parcel that is actually called an m.bag.

Step 2. Ignore the fact that you have not received any other notification about this parcel.

Step 3. Go to the post office (a feat unto itself but for another blog) and walk down the steps to the parcel claim area making sure to step over the final step that has been cemented up instead of down.

Step 4. Get told that this parcel is actually upstairs at the other parcel claim area.

Step 5. Step over the inverted step and go up two flights of stairs into the big parcel claim area, walk past the sleeping guard with a machine gun, and present your claim ticket to the woman behind the counter.

Step 6. Have your claim ticket looked at and then be asked for your ID.

Step 7. Have your driver's license closely scrutinized and cross referenced with the claim form and then get sent upstairs to get a photocopy made of your driver's license.

Step 8. Go up yet another set of stairs and tell the guard in the annex that you need a photocopy made of your ID.

Step 9. Be looked at in a funny way and be told that there is no way of having your ID photocopied there.

Step 10. Inform the guard that the woman at the parcel area sent you upstairs for photocopying then have the guard sigh heavily and say that you have to fill in the 'visitor's book' before proceeding

Step 11. Fill in book but leave section "person to see" blank because you don't know who has the photocopier only to be told by the same guard that there is actually no photocopier on the whole floor, no matter who you go to see.

Step 12. Go back down the stairs to see the parcel lady and inform her that there is no photocopier upstairs, see your parcel and suggest she just give it to you but get sent to the main post office to get the photocopy done.

Step 13. Go back down the stairs (careful if that inverted step again) and walk down half a block through newspaper sellers, knife sharpeners, boda drivers, and cars parked on the sidewalk to the entrance of the main post office building.

Step 14. Walk through the doors, stop to get patted down and have your purse checked then walk all the way down the hallway to the entrance of the post office shop (the door closest to the entrance is permanently locked) and ask for three copies of your ID so that next time you don't have to go through these steps again.

Step 15. Pay the 600 shillings (25cents) and walk our of the post office, making sure you exit from the other door and not past the guards who will yell and tell you to use the other door in case you might manage to let someone sneak past them when go out the wrong door.

Step 16. Reverse step 13.

Step 17. Give your photocopy to the lady at the counter and listen to her complain about the lack of photocopiers and how she can't be expected to send her customers all the way to the main office just to get a copy made.

Step 18. Pay the 5,900 shillings and wait while she hunts around for 100 shillings change, asks someone in the back for the 100, and then finds a 100 coin on the edge of her computer.

Step 19. Sign your photocopy and write your phone number. Do the same in the log book.

Step 20. Watch your parcel get slid over about 8 feet to the customs part of the counter and wait for "that woman" who will come to remove your parcel from the giant rice bag with the zip tie.

Step 21. Wait.

Step 22. Watch as that woman finishes her tea and keep waiting.

Step 23. Close your eyes as that woman uses a very blunt x-acto to cut the zip strip and hope she doesn't slip and cut herself.

Step 24. Watch intently as she uses the same x-acto to slice open your parcel to see the contents inside.

Step 25. Take the claims form from the first woman who needed the ID who is waving it at you as if to say, "You forgot this you stupid mzungu."

Step 26. Explain to the customs lady that Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a series for kids while she flips meticulously through the book to decide if maybe you should pay duty or if maybe you are trying to promote immoral lifestyles.

Step 27. Watch as the package is taped back up with large strips of packing tape and hope that the actual books are not being taped shut.

Step 28. Politely refuse when asked if you want your package put back into the giant rice sac and sealed with another zip strip.

Step 29. Finally hold your parcel and walk 6 steps to the door. 6 steps. Honestly. Just 6.

Step 30. Show the guard, who is now awake and who has been watching the whole process since "that woman" showed up with the x-acto knife, your claims form and have him look at the form and the package to make sure that you didn't magically steal a parcel from anyone else in the parcel area despite the fact you are the only one there.

Step 31. Run back to the van and drive away as quickly as possible before they decide there is another step you have to follow!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Happy Wednesday!

This was written on Sunday but we lost power, then lost power again then lost power again. The only time I had power was intermittently at school and there the internet is so slow that there is no chance of posting anything. So this is a few days old but so what?

Happy Sunday from Home!

The laundry is spinning, the drobos and bulbuls are chirping, the wind is blowing and Ross is singing the same song at his keyboard to the Hallelujah masses. It is a typical Sunday. We’ve been here just over 4 months now and I feel like I am settling into, and seeing, real life. It’s like anywhere else that you move to where everything starts off as new and shiny and you don’t know where to look because you don’t want to miss anything. Then you start to remember patterns and locations like the furniture man who is across from the Barclay’s Bank and the I Feel Like Chicken Tonight that is next to the Kampala International University. Then you start to really see.

I’ve been to Uganda 6 times. I have seen  the poverty. I have worked with people who have nothing. I am not talking about having had blinders on to the way some people have to live (although that will get its own blog post because it’s not what you think) but I mean actually starting to see the day to day happenings within the community. I feel like Uganda is starting to reveal its nitty-gritty self to me.

Our weekly commutes always take us through the community of Kabalagala. This is an area where you can spend your money very easily. There are tons of bars, eateries, gambling halls, shops and other ways to spend your hard earned shillings.

I notice the same young men standing outside the gambling halls, waiting to bet on the football (soccer) matches. “Where do they get their money?” I ask Zipola, the office manager at the school. “They get their school fees from their parents and then don’t pay them. By the time the parents find out that the school fees haven’t been paid, it’s half way through the term and they have to find the money again or else their son gets sent home.” Lots of boda drivers also bet because they have small monies to use from their services. It’s all young men and they are there even before the halls open. I have even seen some young men sleeping at the door of these places.

I notice the same young women, scantily dressed, chatting up the men walking up and down Muyenga Road at all times of day. The same bars are still filled with people at 9am on a Saturday morning. The same men are staggering up the street with a half drunk bottle of Warangi (Uganda Gin) that comes in a plastic pouch with a straw.

And don’t even get me started on how they treat their dogs. That has to be one of the most difficult things for me.

These are not issues that are only in Uganda obviously. But these are things that I notice more and more as the surroundings become more familiar.

It’s not all “bad” of course. There are also things I notice like the Cleaners Store  (that’s its name) down the street that has now become a dried beans seller. A new furniture salesman has popped up with some great looking furniture. A couple of new restaurants have opened. The wood carvings on sale on Gabba Road have changed motif.

And fruits are seasonal here, just like at home. Now maybe you are saying to me, “Of course Erika.” But when you are in a tropical country where it is always hot and there is an abundance of fruit and vegetables picked fresh daily for sale at the local stands, you don’t really see that there is a change in what is being offered. But there is and we are starting to be able to tell by the taste as well. For example, I can tell you that pawpaw (papaya) is getting to the end of its season. The ones we see now are ginormous and the last one we bought didn’t have much flavour. It’s like these are the leftovers that have been on the tree too long. However, mango, avocado and little bananas are now back in season. This means they are easy to get, less expensive and oh so delicious!

What’s interesting is that my perception of myself has changed as well. When we walk down the street in Buziga, our district, or along Gabba Road, or in the downtown core, I don’t feel like I am out of place. I don’t feel self-conscious anymore. And it’s even jarring when I see a mzungu walking along and there is a split second before I remember that I am a mzungu too.

People know us now and greet us. One man on Lumwu street downtown who sold me a back pack asks me every time he sees me, no matter where it is, how the backpack is. The DVD man on Lumwu always greets us when we come in. The ladies at Buziga market even smile at us and say hello. You have no idea what a big milestone that is.

The local tailor has hemmed three pairs of pants for Corey and it cost 10,000 ($4). Our rice cooker broke yesterday so we are going to ask about getting it fixed. We are heading to a local performance with one of the teachers this evening in a hall on the way to the airport.

These are the types of things that can’t happen in a 2 week stint. I am truly feeling like this is home.

The power has just gone off leaving us with one plug running from the solar generator. Can’t complain because we’ve had 2 weeks of almost uninterrupted power but this outage started at exactly 8:30. You can’t tell me that isn’t a planned brown-out! We’ll probably get it back by about 5:30 tonight so I’ll post this then.

Another Pineapple Cake and Two Matooke recipes

I have a "deeper" post muling in my brain but it's not ready to be written and shared yet. So I resort to kitchen posts that people have told me they enjoy. I do like getting comments... please be generous in your replies either on the blog or in an email or on Facebook. Some days I really need to hear anything from home.

I have three recipes to post, one that is feasible at home and two that require matooke, the green bananas that are a staple of the Ugandan diet. I think you could probably use plantain bananas if you really wanted to try but I can't be sure. Apparently there are many types of bananas and each is used or cooked differently. I will certainly miss the little sweet finger bananas and matooke. I have yet to meet a matooke I didn't like!

Pineapple Cake #2
I like this one better than the previous recipe because the pineapple is cooked directly into the cake. I'm sure you could substitute another fruit of your choice. This is a one dish cake too which is perfect for my kitchen tools.

2 eggs
3/4 white cup sugar (I use a white coffee cup so it's probably close to 1 measuring cup)
1 tsp cinnamon (or a good sprinkle over the batter)
1/2 white cup oil (again, my measuring cup was bigger so maybe 3/4 cup?)
1 white cup chopped pineapple
1/4 pineapple juice (or whatever is at the bottom of the bowl)
1.5 white cups flour (2 regular cups)
2 tsp baking soda


Preheat oven. Again, mine is a gas oven with no temperature so I turn it on high to preheat while I make the batter and then I turn it down to the lowest when I bake it.
In a wok (or other bowl of your choice) beat the eggs, add the sugar and cinnamon, pineapple, and pineapple juice. Mix well. Add the flour and the baking soda.
Pour into the 9x11 pan and bake 25 minutes. Test with a knife. Eat a piece, enjoy and take the rest to the staff at school. My goodness, we can't eat all these cakes I am making!

I'm sure you could use any other fruit in here. I had some papaya that I could have tried in this recipe last week if I'd had the recipe. The papaya wasn't the best, firm and little flavour, so it could have been ideal. I think we are coming to the end of papaya (or pawpaw as they are called here) season. But luckily we are moving into avocado and mango season!

Matooke Recipes

Matooke is a staple here in Uganda and also in Tanzania. Maybe we'll see that it's a staple when we are in Rwanda in December and even in Ethiopia in February (or May). In my previous visits, I've only had matooke boiled and steamed for hours inside matooke leaves but this time we have had the pleasure of eating matooke in sauce. I've been taught how to cook matooke this way and have tried to make it using Mum's chilli egg recipe. YUMMY!

Both recipes begin with the same ingredients:

 6-8 matooke bananas (small or large - apparently smaller are longer to cook and as an aside to give you an impression of the rate of inflation, a large bunch of matooke was about 5-8,000 shillings in 2008. It is now 20-30,000 shillings. And yet wages have not increased....)
1 large onion, white if you can find it but red is common
3 medium tomatoes

Cook the matooke:

- chop off the end and use a sharp knife to slice off the peel. No, the matooke does not peel like a regular banana, the peel stays stuck and is a pain to slice off if you decide to try to be smart and peel it with your thumb like a yellow banana. As it is, matooke is sticky so using a knife is a lot better. Make sure to get all the peel off because if you leave some of the green pith(?) on the fruit, it will start to turn brown.
- put the peeled matooke in a pot of cold water as soon as it is peeled
- once all the matoke is peeled, dump out the water, rinse the bananas, cover in fresh water, cover the pot and turn the heat on high to get the water boiling. Leave them for a good 20 minutes while you get everything else done.

Make the sauce:
1. Ugandan Sauce

- chop the onion into chunks. Fry in a couple tbsp oil.
- chop the tomatoes into chunks and add to the onions once they have browned a bit
- add a tsp salt and a heaping tsp fish masala (a mixture of 16 spices - the first five are cloves, black pepper, cardamon, coriander, cumin...) or maybe just a stock cube...
- after the matooke is cooked (check like you do a potato), add a cup of the cooking water to onions and tomatoes
- gently add the matooke to the sauce and let simmer a few minutes

An alternative I've been told is to put the uncooked matooke in the pan, lay the onions and tomato on and around the matooke, sprinkle salt and masala over it all then cover with water. Bring to a boil, turn down heat and let simmer until most of the water has evaporated and the bananas are cooked.

2. Mum's Chilli Egg Sauce
- slice the onion thinly
- heat 1/2 cup oil in a pan and get the onions frying
- add 1 - 2 tbsp chilli powder (our chilli powder is actual ground chillies so I used less than it called for or else I doubt we would have been able to eat it) and fry the onion and chilli powder
- add the tomatoes, cover and let them become a sloppy mess
- stir in a stock cube (I dissolved the stock cube in a cup of the matooke water because our tomatoes are dryer than the ones we get at home)
- gently add the matooke to the sauce and let simmer a few minutes

Wish I could share this with you - it is really delicious. I will miss matooke!

Tanzania Highlights

We have been home from Tanzania for a week now and I've been promising to blog about it but haven't really known where to start. My 20 page photo book became a 36 page book because there was so much to say about a holiday that was only 5 full days. When we got home, Mum facetimed me and asked "what was the highlight?" I was stuck as to what to say. There was no highlight because there was absolutely no lowlight. I cannot possibly imagine what could have been done to improve any of the days or parts of the trip. But people like highlights so I will try to share one highlight from each day that we were there, excluding the travel days. The highlight of those two days is that the flights were smooth and we made it safely. Precision Air was good. Pretty much the highlight of any air-travel day.

Sunday, October 20^th

The day started with the chance to see Kilimanjaro "open" as the locals call it which means that the summit is visible. But even more fortunate is that the whole mountain was clear. That is not a common occurrence so we were very fortunate right off the bat.

We wanted to learn a bit about the people and cultures of Tanzania so we had a one day hiking tour of Materuni village in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro. By this time the mountain was "closed" but the landscape was stunning. Tanzania is at the end of its dry season so it was dry and dusty but in the foothills of the mountain, everything was lush and green. The Chagga tribe lives in this area and grows coffee as it has been grown for generations. The coffee trees produce coffee for over 100 years because they are shade grown and fertilized with manure. There are no chemicals used so the plants have a lower yield but a higher quality and the trees last longer. Chemically fertilized trees only produce for about 10 years.

Richard took us through the process of making a good cup of coffee starting with dried green beans to a delicious cup of steaming coffee. We watched as he sang and danced all the coffee songs of his tribe that go with each step and then we were able to buy that same coffee to take home. Of course, we didn't think of the fact that we don't have a coffee grinder and we have a pound of delicious coffee beans but I think Corey could imitate Richard's song and dance while he grinds the beans in his mortar and pestle. It would be just as good and highly entertaining. He's not convinced and is hoping to find a grinder sometime in our shopping excursions.

Monday, October 21^st

Our first game drive was in Tarangire National Park. This is a smaller park but with lots of animals to see. Our guide, Godlisten (pronounced exactly as it looks), took us to a watering hole that was mostly mud and aquatic plants. It was surrounded by baboons and filled with birds. A large monitor lizard came crawling out of the surrounding grasses and started rooting in the mud for frogs and other yummy snacks. A hammerkop caught a frog and was trying to kill it and eat it before a stork, trying desperately to sneak up quietly, stole it for his dinner. While we watched what was happening in the pond, Godlisten was watching in the distance with his binoculars. “Cheetah!” he exclaimed and we all grabbed our binoculars to see the cheetah move from under the tree on the other side of the pond and into the grasses further away. What had disturbed him? The large herd of elephants that were coming to cool off in the mud. There was an old matriarch, adult females, and several babies from “tiny” to teens.  They drank and sprayed water over themselves and rolled in the mud. “Some people believe that elephants can’t get up if they lie down,” Godlisten told us but we saw that wasn’t true. They were rolling around and having a grand time covering themselves in the mud that would cool them and protect them from insect bites. They frolicked, as only elephants can frolic, for about 20 minutes and then they moved off and vanished in the grass. I am always amazed at how elephants can easily hide.

Tuesday, October 22^nd

After a fantastic night at Rhotia Valley Tented Lodge (there is nothing like hearing a large wild animal moving next to your tent in the middle of the night while the baboons scream in the distance), we drove to spend the day at Lake Manyara National Park. This is supposed to be a great location for birds and we certainly saw many species. It is also a great place for monkeys. We had stopped to see a group of vervet monkeys playing in the trees when a large male elephant crossed in front of us further down the path. We laughed that as we were watching the little monkeys next to us, something so big could just appear and disappear back into the trees. As we were driving away, a second male walked across the path behind us, just where we had been stopped. Godlisten reversed the jeep and we moved back to see if there were more. Corey and I stood with our binoculars looking into the forest (remember how elephants can hide?) and I suddenly noticed a large set of grey legs moving closer. We all froze and waited to see what would happen. A huge bull elephant came lumbering out of the trees and stopped about 20 feet away from us. We held our breath. He looked one way and the other and then came walking toward the jeep. Corey and I both had our cameras ready and aimed at the elephant as he continued toward us then moved around the back of the jeep. As he got to the far corner, about 3 feet from us (really it was only the back of the jeep between him and us), he stopped, sniffed the jeep, looked at us, and the continued on his way into the trees. We just stood there for a few… seconds? …minutes? while the enormity of what had just happened sunk in. Godlisten said that he knew we would be okay because we were both so quiet and calm so the elephant didn’t feel threatened. I always tell me students that if they want to see something spectacular in nature, they need to be quiet. It’s too bad no elephants come lumbering across the path at Brandt’s Creek in Kelowna!

Wednesday, October 23^rd

We had another fantastic night and very peaceful morning at Rhotia Valley before heading to Ngorongoro Conservation Area. We left for Oldupai gorge at noon because it costs $300US per 24 hour period to be in the area and if you are there a minute longer, they charge another $300. We were spending the next morning in the crater on our last game drive so we wanted to make sure we had enough time to really see it well. As we drove through the park, we saw many animals including giraffes, zebras, ostriches, buffalo… all grazing alongside the cattle and donkeys of the Masai. We arrived at Oldupai Gorge at 3pm to see our birthplace as human beings. Corey said that for us atheists, this is like our Mecca or Jerusalem!  Godlisten said that it was rarely visited because there isn’t much to see. The museum is small and dusty with a lot of information about the Leaky family and the footprints that they found but people are often disappointed in the $20 they have spent.

I had read that it was possible to take a guided walk into the gorge so while we were looking in the museum, Godlisten arranged for a guide to take us there. We spent an hour and a half in awe (you are wrong Oprah) as we picked up fossils ranging from 20,000 years old to 2 million years old. The archaeologists and anthropologists don’t even bother with the animal fossils anymore and Lucas, our guide, showed us a prehistoric elephant that is starting to be exposed by the wind. There are 700 archaeological sites that focus exclusively on humanoids: skeletons or tools. As we were walking along, Corey picked up a round green stone and asked Lucas what type of stone it was. He started telling us but as he turned it over, he said “This is a Homo Habilis chopper.” One side had been broken to make a sharp edge to chop whatever they were chopping at the time. I have no idea what type of stone it was. The fact that it was something made by our ancestor, 1.8 million years ago, took precedent over anything else! The tool will be collected and catalogued and may end up in a museum somewhere near you. How cool is that??

Thursday, October 24^th

During the night at Rhino Lodge, where we were staying, a pride of lions killed an old buffalo on the other side of the lodge from us. We knew nothing until the owner told us about it at breakfast. The carcass was left and we were told that it would probably be all gone within 3 days. The lions would be sleeping close by so it was important to stay within the lodge area. We were gone by 6:45 anyway so there was little chance of us encountering the lions but it’s unbelievable to be so close to something so powerful.

Ngorongoro Crater is a large, flat, open area with a salt lake in the middle. There are large herds of zebras, antelope, warthogs, gnus, buffalo, hippos, as well as lions, ostriches, other birds, hyenas, jackals, and the 22 black rhinos that exist on Tanzania. Corey spotted one! There are a few treed areas around the perimeter of the crater so we were driving through slowly, having just seen 5 lions (2 males and 3 females) when Corey yelled “Stop!” He thought he had seen our first hippo of the trip. Anyone who knows me knows that I love hippos and I was starting to despair about seeing any. Godlisten backed up a little and Corey said “It’s a rhino!” and it was. He was in the trees, walking peacefully along. We all watched him with our binoculars as he moved into the trees. Apparently rhinos have the same ability as elephants to easily hide. Godlisten did a little clap of joy at seeing the rhino. It is a quite a rare sighting. 

  

Other exciting sightings on this day included a secretary bird, a kory bustard (not to be confused with a corey bastard,) a spoonbill, and more lions. One beautiful male lion decided he wanted to move into the shade so he walked across the path in front of our (and 5 other) jeep but again he stopped and looked to make sure we all noticed he was there. He was gorgeous and proud. We spent 5 hours in the crater before we had to move out and get to the park gate.

So those are highlights for each of the days. They are really only one highlight per day when the days were filled with highlights. The birds, the people, the food, the scenery were all incredible. Godlisten, our guide, was incredible. I was sad to leave because I felt like I was saying goodbye to a good friend. Our tour company, Tanzania Journeys, was amazing from the very first inquiry I sent. I kept adding things to our itinerary based on what I had read and Fran adjusted the schedule to maximize the time we had there. If you ever think about doing a safari, forget Kenya. Tanzania is the place to go and Tanzania Journeys is the company to go with. And of you are lucky enough to get Godlisten as your guide, you will experience the most amazing holiday of your life. 

 

Videos of the elephant and the lion are here.