03 23.281' S, 036 42.356' E

That is my GPS location in degrees, minutes, and seconds. If you type that into Google earth you'll see where I am. What you won't be able to see is our house, so I've included my own picture of our house. It has been relatively cold here. I'd say in the 50s at night probably mid 70s in the day, but I guess that is typical for this time of the year. The weather is much more like Colorado where the temperature fluctuates a lot from morning to afternoon back to night.

Back in Arusha

Hello everyone,
I'm back in Arusha, arrived last night. Turns out our meeting was postponed until December because there was some official letters that were required to make everything run smoothly. Hamna shida (no worries), we will still move forward. The drive from Dar to Arusha, was as with last time, long. We left at 9 am and arrived back at 7:30pm. We did take an hour plus long lunch break, but still. Below are two photos, one of a road diversion that has apparently been in place for years and the other of a corn field. As you'll see, the corn is mixed with local vegetation which is interesting because here the lines between people and "nature" are blurred. It just seems to me there is much more of a distinction between human residences/areas and "natural areas" in the States, but here they are intertwined. Many houses often have open doors and or windows with no closing mechanism to the outside and the agriculture is often mixed with natural vegetation. It also makes using Satellite imagery for land-use classification difficult because there aren't as many large swathes of agriculture land like we have in Iowa that are obviously corn. Instead you get mixed pixels with some corn and some trees and native species.

Off to Dar

I'm heading to Dar es Salaam in about 10 minutes. Four of us are driving so I won't have to endure a hot bus ride this time, but it is still a loooooooong drive. We have our big meeting with the hunting companies to really kick off Savannas Forever on Tuesday in Dar (hence the trip). I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Pole sana rafiki yangu

My friend fell (while running in flip flops) last Friday and here is a picture of her foot the day afterwards. It was really blue and all swollen. It still hurt on Monday so she went to get an x-ray. Getting an x-ray required first finding an x-ray machine because there is not one at each clinic or necessarily even the closest hospital. But, after asking a Tanzanian friend, we found a place. Stephanie went and at first they weren't going to x-ray her foot because there was no electricity. Then they decided to try to use the generator...but that didn't work. They were going to make her come back, but then --voila-- the electricity came back on and they were able to take the x-ray. Turns out she broke the little toe bone about halfway down her foot. She took the x-ray to the same clinic I actually went to last time for my malaria. The doc decided that she needed a cast, which ended up being a old school plaster cast that took 24 hours to dry. I took Stephanie back the next day so they could add the walking part to her cast and the finished product looked like....
Yes ladies and gentleman somehow the above is a walking cast. She can't really walk on it and in fact, she just informed me that right around the smiley face I drew it has already started to crack. The thing weights a ton and they didn't have crutches for her so she's been hopping around the house like a one legged bunny. There is actually a piece of tire on the bottom of the cast (from general tire) that was supposed to aid in walking, but it is covered with plaster so we are unsure of it's usefulness. The whole thing is very comical, minus of course the broken foot. Pole sana rafiki yangu (very sorry my friend).

Birthday Bliss

Here are some pictures of what Brad gave me for my birthday (I was good and didn't open it until today). It was just so cute I had to share.
It was full of fun little things: train wheels, messages, m&ms, those capsules that grow when you put them in water...
messages in a bottle and a pirate! :)
Don't ask. The best though was a message that said "Yes everything was washed before I put it in with the candy silly, who are we dealing with". What can I say he knows me too well.

Thank you to all of you who sent me a birthday card/gift/wishes before and after I left!

A Drive in the Darkness

I’m not sure the following story will do my experience justice, but I’m going to try anyway. Last night, at about 10 pm I (along with Susan) drove Leela (an SF student) to her friend’s home. Obviously it was already dark and simply driving at night is eerie enough here. Things are just darker, no city lights, streetlights, or well painted roads and reflective guides to show you the way. Image the darkest dirt road you have ever driven on and keep it in mind as you read the rest of my story. Okay, after driving through town and into the outskirts for about 15 minutes we came to the turn off, which was dirt, but looked mild enough. I was thinking Leela’s friend lived just off the road, no problem, but alas not so much. The road swerved (because the “finished” part of it wasn’t fully finished so we had to go around the “work”), then it split, then it started getting a little bumpy. Next thing I know there is a deep crevasse in the road and Leela says “no, wait go over there, see those tracks, okay now swerve back to where you were and you’ll get around it”. With the dark driving image in your mind, place yourself in rural Iowa (there was lots of corn), but then give it the contours of the foothills of Colorado and you’ll get a sense of where I was driving. Next thing I know I get a “wait, stop this doesn’t look familiar” as we come upon what looks like dirt bike hills. I turn around (not an easy task considering the contours and gullies), backtracked a little, and then see a car coming from where we were so we then knew we had been on the right track. We go through/over/around the dirt bike hills and start one car width incline with large rocks in the center, erosion gullies, and big bumps (think Colorado 14er four-wheel drive road minus the steep drop off on the side). Once getting up the hill the road leveled off, barbwire fences appeared on both sides and we dead end at someone’s mud house. Susan and I had long ago lost faith in Leela’s ability to find the way to her friend’s house, especially since she had only been there once and we had been traveling on these back roads for about 15 minutes. However, we had passed a gate and she thought that is where we needed to go so we backtracked and sure enough, we found the house. Leela offered to drive another car down to help us get home, but we said we were okay (this whole conversation taking place as Susan and I look back into the back seat where Leela is sitting. She got out of the car, Susan and I turned around to look forward to drive and there in the darkness had appeared an askari (a guard) in Maasai dress carrying a bow. Both Susan and I screamed out of surprise and then laughed at our reaction. We began our way back down the hills and dirt roads and miraculously enough managed to find our way back to the main road.

Happy Birthday Brad!!!!!!

Happy Birthday to Brad!! Today is Brad's 27th birthday, so I thought I'd send him a birthday hello. :)

Things here are going well. I locked my keys in the car this afternoon, luckily we were close to home so someone brought me the spare key. I've been meeting with hunting companies with Susan this week and working on logistics like getting a car motor vehicle registration, getting a driving license, etc. I hope you all are well.

Reunion

Yesterday (Saturday) I went back to my host family's house. I drove our SF vehicle, a stick shift, which was interesting, but by the return home I was comfortable shifting with my left hand, and weaving in and out of lanes (a must in this country). Anyway, Esther knew I was coming, but I asked her not to tell the kids and it was so great and wonderful to see Peter's eyes when he opened the gate and saw me behind the wheel of the car. First it was curiosity, who would be stopping by with a car, then surprise that it was me, and then excitement that I had stopped by, all in the flash of an eye, but what a great moment! Everyone was happy to see me and I them. Apparently Hosianna and Erik began asking June first when I was coming back (I told them before I left last time that I would return sometime in June). The Swahili came back (somehow it is a lot easier speaking with them than others, I'm just used to their accent I guess, that and they speak with words they know I know). I brought some gifts which were fun to give because they were very personal this time, like an old maid deck of cards b/c I had taught the kids how to play with a normal deck and we played almost every day last time (and of course we played a few games yesterday). Esther planned rice and beans for dinner (my favorite) and I ended up sleeping there for the night b/c by 10pm I hadn't left and I felt more comfortable staying the night rather than driving in the dark. That and I wasn't ready to stay goodbye anyway. Esther is really huge, she is due within the month. She knows the sex, but wouldn't tell me because she doesn't believe the doctor. I miss not staying there, and I'm sure I could, but with wireless at our new house and all the craziness going on with setting up SF it just makes more logistical sense to stay in Njiro (the new house). Anyway, I hope someday you all can meet my African family, they are so great (I'm still hoping at least one of the kids go to college in the US so I can return the hospitality and have them come for breaks, summer and/or holidays).

I'm Back

Hello everyone. I've returned to Tanzania, just got in last night. I'm at our new house in Arusha that Savannas Forever rents and thus I can stay for free. It is great, esp. because I have wireless internet here, yea!!! The first part of my trip is for our big kick off meeting with the hunting companies for Savannas Forever (for those of you wondering what SF is...go to www.savannasforever.org). However, we don't know exactly when the meeting is, it was the 3rd, then the 15th, then the 7th and the latest news is it will be the 20th so I'm just waiting to see. I hope you all are doing well and stay tuned for more updates as I get my summer adventure underway :)