does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy

When we got here there was the cutest little baby goat (I actually had to look up on the internet what a baby goat was called - I used to know things - I did). So, this kid, of which I don't have a picture because he was so little I thought he'd be around until the fall (until the Muslim holiday Eid, in fact), was just wandering around the compound (about two acres of high walls, beautiful gardens, kitty cats, guard dog, African Grey parrot, tortoises, quarters for workers, high shady trees, and small courtyard where I write blog posts from). Apparently, this was driving our Tanzanian mama and host, N, to distraction. Apparently, he doesn't just cut the grass but he also eats the flowers and vegetables.

The other day I wanted to head out and nobody could open the gate for me for a few minutes because they were dealing with the goat. eek! dealing with the goat! then the goat was carried out to a 4x4 by the legs with his head lolling back. I couldn't see blood though - because he was fine. He was going to N's aunt's farm! He'll be fine ... until Eid.

By the way, not unusual for random goats and chickens (even seen a cow but it was tied up) to be on the road side or in vacant lots. I don't know how everyone keeps track of whose is what but I guess they do.

mom's trip

My Mom and Aunt L came for two weeks in January. We did some stuff around Dar, a safari, and then had a finisher in Zanzibar (it was so blisteringly hot that I saw my Mom swim for the first time in 30 years). Here is her take on the trip:

L and I met on January 11th and flew KLM to Amsterdam where we arrived in the very early morning and spent 3 hours waiting for our flight to Dar es Salaam. There were many people going to Tanz to climb Kilimanjaro and many others going to various places there to do assorted volunteer things. About 8 hours later we arrived at “Kili” airport – I don’t know if I am allowed to call it that since I have not climbed it but I will anyway – and many more got on – those who had climbed it and were headed back to Amsterdam. It is “an easy climb” – not steep but the elevation and the cold are problems. The two men who sat beside me for the hour flight to Dar had climbed and had been on a 3 day safari. They were Spanish with almost no English but they told me the names of the animals they had seen – with the few English words they had and with assorted grunts and snuffles. I think one was a warthog.

We arrived at Dar about midnight and G and J were there to meet us – we went to their place by taxi – less than an hour at that time of night. Dar has almost 4 million people and many of them are very poor without electricity or running water but it is a friendly city with many, many very colourful street scenes. We had 2 days in Dar during which we recovered from our flight and visited. We went to an area called Slipway the first afternoon – it is on the Indian Ocean and is a shopping area with nice shops including one with furniture and home décor accessories made from old dhows which are the boats that are still used by locals. After window shopping and getting some Tanzanian shillings we needed to have a drink and some lunch sitting overlooking the ocean and the sand beach.

That evening we went out to dinner with Canadian friends of G and J – some of them lawyers working for a period in Dar and a girl from Shippegan, NB who works for one of the banks. Dar has all the various types of restaurants and this one was Indian.

J had to work the next day but G, L and I went to the Village Museum which has reproductions of 20 of the 120 tribal houses that exist(ed) in Tanzania – an African Upper Canada Village with a very good tour guide followed by local dancing and singing. We came home in a 3 wheeled thing called a bajaj taking a short cut over a dreadful rutted road. I don’t know how it would be passable at all in the wet season and probably it isn’t.

That evening the 4 of us went to an Italian restaurant on the ocean’s edge taking a taxi though a very busy street. There are often Maasai warriers in their red plaid blankets and their spears guarding the cars in the parking lots and here we saw the first ones. Apparently the advantage of hiring them is that they hire one and all their friends come to visit so they get lots of guards for the price of one. We watched the tide come in or go out – even 2 Maritimers couldn’t tell the difference - and crabs scuttled along the beach while we ate and then had a much faster taxi drive back.

Day 3 - We’re on our way to begin our safari today – very slow trip to the airport where our flight was delayed a couple of hours and then we flew to Kilimanjaro airport and were met by our guide; a Maasai warrier named Mollel – no spear and his red plaid garb was in the front seat and became very multi purpose – tablecloth, cape for him and a blanket to sit on under a tree [editor's note: here mom makes no mention of the intense interest she took in the black stick that all Maasai warriors have. It was disturbing]. Interesting drive from the airport to Arusha through a couple of villages and much Maasai land with cows, sheep and goats and people in red tending them. After a stop at the Safari Care office Mollel took us to our B and B and we went to dinner and had the evening to relax.

Next day - Big excitement – we’re off on safari! In a Toyota Land Cruiser adapted to use in the wilds of Africa. Just the 3 of us with our driver/guide. Our first park was Lake Manyara National Park and we were barely inside when we saw a monkey and some baboons – we were very excited. Little did we know that there would be many, many more and many other species. Lake Manyara is a large, shallow soda lake but the water is fresh enough for animals and the park is at the foot of the western escarpment of the Great Rift Valley. So many animals – by the end of that day we had seen giraffes, elephants, gazelles of several types, warthogs, zebras, hippos, our first wildebeests and many birds including flamingos. No tree climbing lions though they are supposed to be here.Mollel told us at the beginning of the trip that Lake Manyara would be the appetizer, Ndutu and the Serengeti the main course and the Ngorongoro Crater dessert and that seems to have been an apt description.

Ndutu – the next 2 days –part of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area; a very good time of year to go to this park because the animals are migrating – wildebeest (gnus) by the hundreds [ed. - of thousands] – they run a bit then they walk then they run again and there are usually zebras mixed in with them because the zebras are smarter and can show them where to go but the gnus are better at smelling water. We saw this several times plus giraffes, elephants, Thompson’s and Grant’s gazelles, hyenas, mother and baby cheetahs and 9 lions under a tree – sleeping off their latest feast no doubt. We went in a different direction the second day – and had more great viewing – many migrating gnus; some with new babies - they can run as fast as their mothers within 30 minutes of being born; elands, jackals, ostriches, rebooks, cheetahs, giraffes feeding on those flat topped acacia trees that seem to be symbolic of Africa and a couple of “parties” which is what Mollel called vultures, etc. feeding on a kill.

Our overnight that night was the first of 2 tented camps; tents that are fairly permanent but can be moved to new locations I think. They have bathrooms in them with sinks, toilets and showers which have a bag hanging outside into which the staff pour heated water and then say: ” shower’s ready”. Dinner is in a communal tent and the porters walked us back to our tent so the lions wouldn’t get us! Not G though – maybe lions only like old Mamas- the name that the locals call all old women. We heard gnus in the night but no lions.

And now the Serengeti: The Maasai named this and it means endless plain – we covered a lot of area and saw all the cats – cheetahs, a leopard asleep in a tree and lions – resting and without the male who Mollel said was at the legion and would be home late - buffalo and many birds. We ended our day at a huge hippo pool with lots of hippos doing their thing which seems to be wallowing and yawning. The second tented camp and this time hyenas saying what sounds like hip, hip hurray all night long. They must have found something yummy to eat!

Next: the Ngorongoro Crater; a 19 km wide caldera left when a huge volcano collapsed. Mollel said it would be dessert and it was impressive. There are only 20 or 200, depending on what you read and hear, black rhinos left after much poaching in the 1980’s but we saw them – they actually look silver coloured because they roll in the dust. The 2 we watched for quite a while and which G videoed were on a mission – definitely going somewhere. We also saw giraffes on the way down into the crater but it is too steep for them to go all the way down and once we were there, elephants, lots of buffalo, gazelles, the inevitable gnus, gazelles, zebras which Mollel calls pyjama horses, impalas and a group of sleepy lions – 2 were nursing their young and a serval cat. Mollel has excellent eyes and can see everything and L is very good too – all that experience finding 4 leaf clovers I guess and G is good too – thinks he might be able to spot 4 leaf clovers now. I would have done better had I had my cataracts done before I went. We had our picnic lunch in a beautiful spot beside a lake and that night we stayed in the very posh Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge. Here they escort you to your room after dinner because buffalo sometimes come to visit. We didn’t see any there.

The next day we were driven back to Arusha with a stop at a souvenir place and another for lunch and yet another for coffee and then to the airport and few to Zanzibar arriving at our resort just after dark – that means about 6:30 all year long. J was already there waiting for us. The resort was 4 kms. Out of town on the ocean with a lovely infinity pool.


We spent 3 days on Zanzibar – had a walking around tour, guided by J, in Stonetown - the historical old part of Zanzibar town, shopped a little and had spiced coffee before giving into the heat and going back to the resort for a swim. Back into town that night where we had dinner outside under palm trees and bougainvillea.

The next day we did a spice tour walking around a farm where they grow samples of many kinds of spices – you get to see them and taste them and hear all about their many properties. Cloves used to be grown widely here and along with the sultan’s trade in ivory and slaves were the source of Zanzibar’s wealth. In the 1870’s a cyclone devastated the clove plantations and the slave trade was abolished. So much for their wealth but the sultan’s rule continued til the 1960’s I think. The spice tour guide told us that each family was given 3 hectares of land and there are spice tours on many of these “farms”. Long ago and far away I did a demonstration on spices and I was surprised at what I remembered about the various spices. Lunch was served sitting on the ground – a spicy pilau and grilled meat and then we moved to benches and sampled a variety of fruits.

J had to go back to work so she flew to Dar Sunday at suppertime – planes don’t fly in or out of Zanzibar after dark and we stayed on a for another day of sightseeing – had a tour of Stonetown led by a local university student. It is a labyrinth of narrow streets and alleyways with old mansions with beautiful doors and tiny shops and a market divided into fish, meat and fruit and veggies areas plus a kanga section. Kangas are the large pieces of very colourful cloth that the women wear wrapped around them. There are 2 kinds of doors – Indian with spikes in them for protection against the elephants (there were none on Zanzibar) and curved at the top and Zanzibar which are ornately carved and square at the top but have no spikes.

Part of the tour was the area where the slave market had been and where there is an Anglican cathedral built in the 1870’s after the slave trade was finally abolished. There was an excellent guide here but what a sad, sad story. There is a sculpture in a pit of 5 black figures with an authentic chain around their necks shackling them together and 2 of the cells where the slaves were kept waiting their sale are open for viewing – dark and dank and horrid. One held 75 women and children and the other, 50 men. The church was built on the site of the market and the altar is on the site of the whipping post that was used to determine the strength and stamina of the slaves before they were sold. Dr. Livingstone was a big advocate of the abolishment of the slave trade but he died before it was achieved – his heart is buried where he died but the cross in the church is made from wood of the tree under which it is buried. I think the rest of him was taken back to England.

There are historic buildings and a garden on the waterfront but by then the heat was getting to us and we opted to sit in the garden and wait for our driver to come for us – then back to the resort for a final swim and relax before heading to the airport for our 25 minute flight to Dar in a very tiny plane – a bit like flying from Thunder Bay to Dryden. Very slow trip through unbelievable traffic with many stops during which boys/men try to sell all sorts of things – pillows, cashews, soft drinks and window washing fluid for example - to J and G’s .

Two days left – we went to a carvers market in the afternoon – interesting assortment of things in addition to many, many carvings of black wood. We all did a little shopping with J doing the requisite and expected bargaining. 20,000 Tanzanian shillings are worth about $7.00 [ed. - $14] Canadian. Our last day we went to Oyster Bay out past the Canadian and American embassies and had a wonderful all day breakfast. Looked in a couple of stores and then went to Seacliffe where we had out last Tusker baridi (cold beer) and watched
the Indian Ocean and the beach for the last time . Home in another cab and after a rest out for pizza with the couple who own J and G’s place and then off to the airport and our long flight home through Amsterdam.

A wonderful trip – great host and hostess and a fascinating country.

Answers to FAQ’s
How is G? Fine and very brown.
Was it hot? Yes
How was the food? Great
Did you feel safe? Yes, but you do have to be careful – poverty makes people
desperate and G and J live in a locked place with a doorman who lets you in day
and night. I think my aunt in Halifax does too!
Did you mind the flight? Yes.

whale sharks on mafia island

Two weeks ago we went to Mafia Island. Mafia is an island off the coast of Dar about equidistant from Zanzibar. It is less touristy than Zanzibar but generally awesome. We stayed at the Mafia Island Lodge on Chole Bay. Chole Bay is a marine reserve that has the bluest water I've ever seen. It was fantastic to boat out to our dive sites. We did two dives (scuba - whale sharks are a snorkelling adventure because they don't dive deep). I struggled on both dives with equalizing my ears but eventually made it down. We saw some tiny reef sharks, schools of barracuda, and wonderful, brightly coloured fish. Add in the "sunset cruise" as we rode back to the lodge and it was a great day.

Here is your primer on Mafia.

The next day we hung out in bandas with our friends KO'S and AK. We had a nice dinner together before retiring uneventfully. We found out the next day when we returned from our whale shark tour that AK had actually come down with malaria in the night. She was sick for a couple of days but recovered enough to take their scheduled flight back to the mainland.

The whale sharks were amazing. I'm a cynic and had just been on safari in the Serengeti so was kind of expecting to be underwhelmed after so much hype. The whale sharks are in this neck of the woods for about three months of the year (similar timeline to the wildebeest migration in Ndutu) and Mafia is the place to see them. Even at this time of year some people go and don't see any or two. We saw nine or ten (maybe some were repeats?). At first it's a little terrifying because the boat pulls up and the guides yell at you to jump in the water and then you do and you realize that this thing, even if it's not a real shark with teeth, is 9 yards long.

Once you sight your whale shark, you kick your fins as hard as you can for as long as you can so you can just to be close to this magnificent creature in complete awe. It can get a little crowded as everyone (the other 6 people on your boat) have the same idea. But eventually the herd thins and you are alone with the fish. Sometimes you're really lucky and you get to swim for two minutes with just you, the fish, and on the other side is your girlfriend. And that's a moment you'll cherish for a long time. Sorry, but you will.

Another great moment was being between two whale sharks for a couple of minutes when they decided to pull a u-turn, coming back to me. Flippers are not conducive to reverse gear. I was suddenly face to face to two whale sharks about five feet below me and I thought worst case, I'm going in someone's gigantic baylene mouth and best case I'm being pushed up and out of the water. Neither of these things happened, they just turned and continued underneath me. I managed to stay with one of them for another few minutes.

You schedule a morning for whale sharkin' but if you're lucky and you see as many as we did, you are completely spent for your slow boat back to reality and you don't mind that you left 45 minutes early.

Two of the guys in our boat got jellyfish to the face. I saw one of them happen. They were fine.

dog chases monkey

We were sitting in the treehouse at this inn on Zanzibar when we heard the pitter patter of little feet running up the stairs. Then a monkey launched himself into a tree as a dog hit the top of the stairs. It may have been the several Tusker baridis that I had but I thought this was pretty great.

Our three day layover in Istanbul is off. The terrorists have won (frankly, it doesn't feel like they have won and I'm not really afraid but we're still not hanging out in all the tourist spots right now).

the short happy life

I've just read Hemmingway's short story, The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber. It's a story about a man who goes hunting but runs away in fear from a lion. It has inspired me to relay stories I've heard about simba.

Man-eaters

"All that is found when a ranger is taken by a lion is his boots and broken beer bottles." There are terrible stories of people being taken by man-eating lions. However, most of the time when someone is taken, it is the town drunk.

"Whatever you do, don't run." 

J has a former hunting partner that he has vowed never to hunt with again (J doesn't hunt anymore either ...). They were on a hunting trip that had already gone fairly badly when they happened across a lion about 100 yards away. The lion moseyed away from them and J therefore didn't end up shooting it. He watched this happen through the scope of the rifle and when he spoke to his partner there was no answer. He looked around for him and he was about 100 yards away in the other direction still running. This endangered both of them and J was furious.

Camping 

When you are camping, do this:

• do up the fly of your tent. Really. This makes a difference. A lion will go through an open fly but not a closed one. And men used to get pulled from tents when the British army had those tents with a 6" gap between the tent and the ground. 
• if you need to leave your tent to go to the bathroom, you will be safe(r?) if you can open your tent and look around and really focus for two minutes. If you can't do that, you probably don't have the wherewithal to determine if you are prey or not. 

story: Our friend moved to Africa from Ireland. His family was skeptical of all this but his brother was willing to make an effort. He came, they went on safari, the first night he was alone in his tent when a lion let out a full-throated roar beside his tent. He lived but they left the sleeping bag behind.

story: A few years ago J was asked to shoot a lion that was cruising around the beach of a resort up the coast. He said he did not want to but he would be the second. The two men spent a couple of nights up their looking but found nothing. On their way out they discovered that the lion had been taken by a local hunter. J inspected the animal and determined the animal had been shot from 10 yards away (at night). Also, the man had only a single shot gun and two shells. And some balls.

story: A bunch of wageni (tourists) were on safari and sitting around the campfire. Suddenly the guide stopped the conversation and told everyone not to panic. When he took the flashlight and shone it around the perimeter, there were nine pairs of eyes looking back. They had happened along and pulled close to the fire to enjoy the heat. One of the tourists asked if he could take a picture and the guide slapped him across the face.

lions, tigers, and bears - oh my!

As I mentioned before, we're living on a compound. There are, of course, lots of plants that we don't have at home. We have mango, coconut, and pomagranate trees; aloe plants (of which josey used a leaf to soothe her arm after a french press accident); and a bunch of other stuff that I've never heard of.

There is a lawn, despite the fact that our hostess had never even seen a lawn until she went to England as a grown up. Now we have a lawn that is cut by machete by the men or with garden shears by the women. The machete is sharp enough to cut down trees that are 10" in diameter. I don't even know if there is an axe - why would you get one when these are so versatile?

There are also animals. Brownie, the dog, we never see. He stays in his run during the day back where the men sleep (there are three guys that have quarters in the back - one of the tasks that they share is opening and closing the gate. They do this whenever you come home -- if you're coming home late they like you to give them a heads up). At night, once the last vagabond has made it home he is given free reign of the compound. It is not unheardof that a meat bone, after getting finished at a barbecue, gets tossed into the garden where Brownie walks at night. A little treat for him. It's kind of fun to listen to the tick tick tick of his toenails on the patio in the late evening. He is pretty timid and never barks. He looks like a sweetheart but a flea-bitten sweetheart. So we don't hang on the couch or anything.

There is a parrot. He can mimic:

• skype messages coming in
• the car alarm
• our host calling his wife
• the wife calling the help
• <latest> josey calling the help (this hasn't happened, I swear, but it's great because josey sat in front of that bird saying things like "josey is pretty" because she wanted the parrot to talk about her. yeah karma)

Our host took the parrot because it belonged to people close to her previously and she wanted to hear their voices again. For real.

There are two tortoises that live right beside the parrot. The first time I rolled up to say hello those little heads retracted right into those cute little shells (shells aren't that little - they are about a foot long). J told us a funny story about another tortoise that took advantage of a security breach and ran like a son of a gun for an hour and made it 20 yards before someone came along and put him back in his cage. These guys eat food waste that would otherwise head to the compost.

Living with the parrot is a pigeon. I was having trouble understanding but I gather that our one footed pigeon had its foot taken by a witch doctor and was going to be killed. Our host took the pigeon. I don't know if it was compassion, fear of bad luck, or both. He is a cute bird but a little more shy than our parrot friend. I don't blame him. "I got close to people once, it didn't work out."

There is a mongoose. I saw this one for the first time yesterday. I didn't have any idea what it was. It was far away against the wall. I was not alarmed until I found out that they are like gigantic rats. It will be a while before these guys take care of him.


These guys have been growing like weeds since we got here. They are pretty keen on people. One was just playing with Mzee while he watered the garden (with the biogas water - "it smells like farts"). One is more shy than the other. The shy one thinks his gregarious sister has lost her mind. They sleep like cats. Unlike Canadian cats, they look for shade.

party time

Saturday was a going away party for our neighbours. It started at 8. So we made our plans to go to the gym, have lunch, stroll home by 5. Then josey could bake a cake and we could go to the party. It was at 8 Tanzanian time. And that doesn't mean 8:30, 9:00 because appointment times are just rough guidelines (which they are). It meant 2pm. Here is why: the traditional clock in Tanzania is to have 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of night. So, at 7am you would say, 1 morning. 6 would be noon or midnight. So, we, and the cake, missed the start of the party by a few hours.

While we were at the party we heard many raucous stories. Not the least of which is about an elephant that charged this man's Land Rover. Back in 2006, he had been in Tanzania for 4 months when he and his wife drove to Mikumi National Park. They drove along and saw a herd of elephants 200 yards away on their right. Safely away they kept going, came around a corner and an elephant that had been hidden behind a tree was their. Full trumpet, ears out, trunk high (these are apparently what we would call *warning signs* with !!!). Car goes in to reverse, backs up 15 yards. And they are being charged from the side by another elephant. Car goes into a forward gear and just as they take off they get hit in the rear quarter panel (I think this is roughly akin to the elephant fouling off a pitch). The back end is demo'ed but they can still drive. And drive they do off to safety.

Once they were safely home they got to deal with the insurance which apparently was quite fun. Sketches on maps of herds and arrows, was the other party injured? unlikely.

Now, something like this happened to J, our host, when he encountered a mama elephant with her calf (which is likely what happened here). They came around the corner and found a very unhappy mama. They killed the engine and didn't make a sound. The mother made three fake charges at them, by which time the rest of the herd had gathered around the vehicle to suss it out. "Now unfortunately it ruined the entire trip to Africa of my sister but me? I was just busy switching to the wide-angle."

So, there was some positing that what the original story-teller should have done was not moved (backed up the 15 yards) because it was just a warning. A fake charge might follow but not a real charge. Then J suggested when they had backed up they inadvertently charged the original herd and then the gloves were off.

Interjection by pompous Englishman (who was pompous and not because he was English; ie. the Americans were cringing at his brash arrogance): "everybody knows that there is a fake charge, just stay still and get it over with, all the experts say it's a classic display, blah blah blah"

Rebuttal: "Yes, but _____ ________ (leading elephant researcher in the world) says, there are so many dead elephant researchers because even the elephant doesn't know what he is going to do next."