Day 6, 7, 8?

Starting to lose track here.  The day after our safari was uneventful.  Did some internet, did some shopping, and took Saids family to dinner.  We went to the local Maasai market where the stuff is mostly hand made.  I got something very nice for my family after bargaining the guy down to the point that even Said was impressed.  China prepared me well.

Then the next day we drove to Kijabe.  It was two hours from Arusha to the border between Kenya and Tanzania.  The land in Tanzania is just stunningly beautiful.  Endless green pastures, rolling hills; looks like Microsoft Windows wallpaper. 

Then its two hours once in Kenya to Nairobi, from the border.  Kenya is much more barren and unforgiving.  Lots of quasi desert almost.  Very dusty, very hot.  Humans are the only mammals that have sweat glands over the whole body, and standing upright allows us to minimize sun exposure.  Being in Kenya makes me understand how we could be persistence hunters.  That is, early humans just relentlessly chased prey in the heat of day.  It's essentially a contest to see who succumbs to heat exhaustion first.  But the prey animals are covered in fur, can't sweat like we can, can't carry water, and have more sun exposed surface area.  But its not until you feel that sun and notice a complete absence of water when you really see why we won that contest. 

Then after two hours to Nairobi, it took probably another four to get to Kijabe when it should have taken one, because like I posted before, the traffic was just PAIN.

Today was our first full day in Kijabe.  The hospital here is part of AIC international I think, which is a Christian missionary group.  The children's hospital is under a special international designation too, but I forget exactly what.  We toured it today with a Vanderbilt and UAB-trained pediatric surgeon, Dr Hansen.  He is fresh out of training and actually moved here with his wife and four young kids, and they will be here at least two years, possibly more.  Dr Hansen and his wife had Colleen and I for dinner tonight at their house, which is all of 60 yards from the hospital.  It overlooks a gorgeous valley, and they get balloons in their back yard.  Excellent meat loaf and salad tonight.

Kijabe is very high in altitude.  It is thus cooler, esp at night, and very windy.  In fact I think Kijabe means windy in Swahili.  But that is good, because its much easier to sleep, and fewer mosquitoes.  Although today a huge cargo container arrived from the states full of stuff for the hospital.  We spent 2-3 hours moving I think, and it was more tiring than it should have been because of the thinner air.  Or maybe I'm just old and out of shape.

Tomorrow we are actually going back to Nairobi to watch Dr Hansen do a couple quick ped surg cases in the Coptic hospital there.  Hopefully we will get out before rush hour!  I don't want another 'Nairobi Headache' which is what happens when you breathe that much exhaust.

Pictorial inconsistency

The problem now is that I have email, but not internet access.  Bizarre I know.  So I can update the blog by sending an email to it, but not actually look at it.  I had a chance to glance at it after dinner tonight.  And I noticed that I mis-labeled three pictures from before. 
Anyway, I'm just going to post pictures and you figure them out.  Maybe ill correct things when I get home.

Photo update

1.  Colleen and I at dinner with our gracious hosts our last night in Arusha.  Saids wife is Mama Kay, his son Juma, and daughters Kay and Adija.

2.  At St Dymphna school.  The children sang some songs for us when we got there.  That same day a few new volunteers had arrived from Australia and South Africa.

3.  The sky in Africa always seems ridiculously big.

In Kijabe, Kenya

Made it to where the hospital is after a grueling drive, which included Nairobi at rush hour.  Said took us in his car which was nice, since we weren't so crowded and I had my belt on. 

Nairobi traffic at rush hour was one of the worst experiences of my life.  It was insanely slow, and we were constantly surrounded by either diesel trucks and vans, or cars without catalytic converters.  The carbon monoxide will take a week to blow off.  I might as well have ran a ventilator mask from our exhaust pipe.  Might have been better.

The other thing was, we would be at a dead stop and then finally start going, only to run into another dead spot just up the road.  This had the effect of constantly messing with your head.  You think the jam is over and its time to breathe again, and nope, stasis just around the bend.  This must have happened 10 times.

Anyway Kijabe is up in the mountains and seems nice but it was dark coming in.  It's cool tonight with a breeze.  And, good god, there are more stars in the sky than I have ever seen in my life.  I can see the Milky Way.  It's amazing.

Masaai land, and a market

Safari

Day 5: Lake Manyara Safari

On day 5, which was yesterday as of posting this (I'm catching up), Said took us on a safari to a local park. It was a 2.5 hour drive or so. Saw baboons, giraffe, elephant, black-faced monkeys, zebras, gazelles, wildebeest, buffalo, hippo, and antelope. Absent were lions, hyenas, cheetah, and leopard. Damn. I guess that means I'll have to come back. Was still a good trip.

Actually, one of the best parts of the safari was driving to the park. We went through Masaai land to get there. I'll post pictures of that too. The Masaai are always richly dressed in red garbs and usually herding animals. They live in small huts built in clusters. Thirty seconds left on my internet cafe time, gotta go!

We're going back to Kenya tomorrow.

Walking up to the hills (day 4)

Day 4: Arusha road

Our fourth day was Easter Sunday. A very relaxing day, we woke up and started walking up the road that Said's family lives on. The road went up into the hills and was flanked by dwellings and friendly people on both sides. The cool thing about the day we went up was that, since it was Easter, there were multiple tiny churches along the way packed with people singing African Easter music. We have some of that on video, but I'm not really sure how to put that on here. It was extremely hot and humid and I got the worst farmers tan. After our three hour walk I had a beer and then passed out.

Later that evening Said's wife and daughters went to a local wedding. I should have taken a picture of them. That brings me to one of the other things about Tanzania that I love. Everyone here dresses so well. Seriously, they make people in America look like scrubs by comparison. The men usually have neatly pressed pants on, rarely jeans, never shorts. They usually wear nice button-down shirts. This is even when they are doing manual labor, walking down the road in a hot day, et cetera. Women are the same way.

Walking up to the hills part 2