Africa 2009-Amboseli Game Drive- Part 4

LION WATCHERS
LION LOVERS
WHAT MAMMALS DO BEST BEER FOR BREAKFAST?
HAPPY TRAILS

The game drive at Amboseli starts promptly at 7:30 AM. We have no further brushes with squirrel monkeys or other varmints and after our coffee and cake we assemble in the trusty Toyota van to see what the rest of the park has to offer.

Our driver, Robinson, is a whiz at birds. On our way in to the gamepark, we spot a lilac breasted roller, a black bellied bustard and two spur winged plovers. I can’t tell one avian from another but I love the names!

One of our first sightings of the morning is two lions humping. Never seen that before! I'm reminded once again that on my 13 visits to East Africa, I’ve seen lions doing lots of different things, but I’ve never actually seen a lion kill anything. What’s with that? Where is ‘nature red in tooth and claw’?

In fact, as I reflect further, I’ve never seen any animal murders at all in my 20 years of visiting East Africa. It makes me wonder, why are real-life safaris so different from the usual serial killings that one watches on National Geographic specials or Animal Planet shows?

Rather than predator versus prey, mostly what we see on safari is lions making babies and lots and lots of breast feeding. We see baby elephants, baby wildebeests, baby zebra and their lactating Moms. Maybe Darwin and his followers have it all wrong! Maybe the survival of the species doesn’t depend so much on how great a hunter your Daddy is but on how great a nurser your Mommy is. That’s why Mammals are us. And Tyrannosauri are extinct. In which case, we humans would be wise to spend more of our resources improving the quality of our support for nursing mothers rather than beefing up our military might. Call it the “Boob Theory” of evolution! Just think, if Darwin had been a woman, perhaps ‘survival of the fittest’ would have a whole different meaning. It may be only a theory -- but I like it. Go mammals!

After the game drive, we arrive back at the Serena Lodge for a hearty safari breakfast. Gotta love those fresh mangos! There's no Kenya AA coffee for the young ones however. Seems like they've discovered the pleasure of Tusker for brunch. After breakfast, the expedition splits up – most of our fellow travelers head back to Nairobi where they will catch a plane to Kisumu and eventually meet the truckload of luggage in Esabalu village.

Next stop for John, Margaret, Rena and me is the Tanzania border for more safari adventures. A sign on the track to the border promises a bit of rough travel ahead! As does the sign on our Tanzanian land-rover – “It’s rough, it’s dusty, it’s an adventure.”

DAKTARI

Africa 2009 -Mugged by a Monkey- Part 3

SCENE OF THE CRIME- PATIO AT AMBOSELI
THE PRIME SUSPECT-LOOKING INNOCENT
SQUIRREL MONKEYS CAN BE SCARY-ESPECIALLY AT NIGHT!

“God, it’s still the middle of the night!”

As usual jet lag has me wide awake, brain humming at 5:00 AM.
Then I remember the young Masai warrior who showed us to our rooms last night.

“There is always fresh coffee on the verandah 24 hours per day and seven days in a week,” he proudly intoned.

“Just what your average Mzungu tourist needs to hear at 5 AM,” I think to myself.

Slipping into my standard issue African flip-flops, I quietly open the hut door and let myself out into the pitch black African night. Far away, a wildebeest coughs. Otherwise complete silence. Brandishing my outsized room key as a weapon, I flick the switch on my trusty pocket torch and stumble down the path to the main lodge.

“Ah, Heaven,” I exclaim. The hearty aroma of Kenya AA wafts from a steaming urn at one end of the patio. I remember what my grandfather used to say about Maxwell House back on the family farm in New Raymer, Colorado. “Hotter than the devil, blacker than hell and good to the last drop.”

I fill two earthen mugs with Kahawa moto (hot coffee), maziwa (cream) and sukari and head back up the path to surprise my hutmate. John passes me on the way back and inhales deeply.

“Fresh coffee on the verandah,” I say quietly, pointing toward the patio.

Back in the hut, Rena is not a happy camper, but she soon revives and starts packing a bag for the morning game drive. Binocs, camera, sunblock, water, hat, etc.
Suddenly a bloodcurdling scream issues from just outside our hut. Margaret and I burst from our respective rooms at the same time.

There’s John, drenched in coffee and shaking his fist at the rain gutter on our hut.
We look up to see a very small, very happy squirrel monkey stuffing pound cake into its mouth with both hands.

“I’ve been mugged by a monkey!” yells John. Choice but ineffectual epithets fly toward the little thief on the roof who shakes one fist and curses right back. Margaret and I are laughing really hard. No sympathy for poor John.

“Good thing lions don’t like pound cake, “ I chortle. “You might have been a goner.”

“I guess there’s no harm done,” admits John. “From now on I’ll eat my cake first, before I head back to the hut.”
DAKTARI

Africa 2009 - Amboseli = White Dust - Part II

KILIMANJARO
RENA RESTING IN OUR THATCHED HUT

OSTRICH FOR DINNER ANYONE?

'SWAMPY' THE ELEPHANT

SUNSET DE JOUR

ROOMKEYS - DOES SIZE COUNT??

White dust. That’s what Amboseli means in the local Maa language. As we go off road across the dried remains of Lake Amboseli, our van kicks up huge plumes of white dust. Lake Amboseli is 15 km long and fills with water in the rainy season. Now in the dry season it’s completely evaporated, leaving miles and miles of thick white dust. We pass Masai women wrapped in their colorful plaid blankets trudging patiently in this harsh environment. High in the background, floats the white cap of Kilimanjaro. It is positively surreal, tiny human figures in a lunar landscape. Where on earth can they possibly be going?

The white dust is deposited by glacial runoff from the snows of Kilimanjaro. Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa. It rises three and a half mile from the dusty Njaro plains. Its snow- covered volcanic peak is the second largest mountain in the solar system, only dwarfed by Olympus Mons on Mars for sheer geologic bulk.

“Wow! That’s some mountain !” enthuses John.

“So you say!” I demure. “It’s not even considered a mountain by the locals.”

“What do you mean- not a mountain?” John swallows the bait.

“Well, the name is a kind of an in-joke in Swahili.” I explain. “It’s a play on words. Lima means hill, the diminutive prefix ki- indicates it’s a small hill, and Njaro is the dust –filled plain we are driving across right now. Put it all together and you have ‘little hill on the prairie’ or Kilimanjaro.”

After the white dust of the lakebed, the Amboseli Serena lodge is an oasis.
Cute little monkeys frolic on the grounds as we are led to our individual bungalows. Each bungalow has a thatched roof, a hot shower and beautiful murals painted on the white-washed walls. How delightful.

We arrive late and take a curtailed game drive to see elephants belly-deep in swampy mud while the sun sets over the acacias. This sure makes up for a lot of white dust! The dining hall has murals too – John sits with his back to a wall decorated with a somewhat disconcerting mural featuring an ostrich’s derriere!

After dinner we sit on the verandah as groups of animals follow a game path from the watering hole to the savannah. The path passes not 40 yards from our table and floodlights from the hotel illuminate the most astonishing parade of antelope and zebra. Thompson’s gazelle, waterbuck, wildebeast, and zebra pass in a continuous, silent tableau – 20 or 30 animals at a time. A true “garden of eden” moment. We relax into primeval revery. East Africa – my 13th trip and always there is something new.

Returning to our rooms, we pick up our undeniably phallic room keys at the front desk.
“It would be hard to walk out of the hotel with this in your pocket,” I quip to John. “Wouldn’t want to embarrass the staff.”

“Or the animals,” John laughs.

Our fair lady wives just roll their eyes. But we’re in Africa and we’re having fun.
It’s rough! It’s dusty! It’s an adventure!
DAKTARI

Africa 2009- The Adventure Begins - Part 1

Margaret in need of a Shoehorn
Harriet & Irene at Kenyatta Airport- Sisters with Stuff!

We all made it to East Africa -hour 23 of our trip

One ton of Luggage in a two ton Truck

I am so psyched. First, of all to be blogging again after a long hiatus (nothing since May 7th). And secondly, to be writing about my favorite continent Africa. In the next series of blogs Rena and I will be touring Tanzania and Kenya searching for wild game, world peace and the Garden of Eden. We’ll be joined by our good friends and travel companions, Jon and Margaret, Lowell. (You may remember them from our expedition to Santorini last fall!) This adventure takes place June 8-22, 2009. Enjoy.
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Our trip to Africa begins 12 hours ahead of our scheduled departure with a little time zone confusion (i.e. jet lag). This is to be expected when traveling 1/3 of the way around the globe. But usually it occurs after a long jet flight and not before.

Anyway, our limo driver shows up at 6 AM and politely stands on his horn to alert the neighborhood that something is up. I have already gone to the office to tidy up my desk for a long and potentially dangerous journey to the wooley wilds of East Africa. (I always imagine I’ll feel better coming back to a clean desk. It never happens but one can only hope. A man’s reach should exceed his grasp, etc.)

Rena runs downstairs in her jammies to confront the driver.
“We asked for the limo to come at 6 PM,” she expostulates.
“It doesn’t say that here – it says 6 AM,” the disgruntled driver replies waving a piece of paper.
“Well, that piece of paper is wrong,” Rena starts laughing. “Come back in 12 hours please.”
The interview ends with an unhappy limo driver trying to peel rubber while backing out of our driveway in a Dodge Caravan. Hopefully he will be more gruntled next time (if there is a next time). What if he doesn’t come back?? Oh no!

Our trip is off to a very early start! By the time I arrive home, Rena, Jon and Margaret are up and preparing a nice breakfast. The rising sun is shining on the back-deck overlooking the pool and the Powow River. The River provides a suitable lush jungle backdrop for our departure to Africa. A pair of Great Blue Herons adds to the primordial ambiance. I’ve always dreamed of having a remote controlled submarine in the shape of a full-size hippo that I could launch from my dock to patrol the river and surprise hikers and kayakers as they pass by. Now that’s what I call ambiance! Maybe I’ll get working on it after I retire.

The limo driver’s partner shows up at 6 PM sharp and we load the Caravan with 12 bags plus carry-ons and us. The luggage barely fits – poor Margaret is crammed in the back with all that stuff and may need a snorkel just to breathe.

The reason we have so much is that we’re traveling on missionary airline tickets which allow three 50 pound bags for each traveler. We are packing medical supplies, school supplies, gifts and lots of kids shoes donated by the Timberland Kids, Company. That’s 1200 plus pounds of passengers and luggage.
There is no question of peeling out in these circumstances. We barely chug up the hill to the main road!

“What the hey,” I ask rhetorically. “Did either Stanley or Livingston travel light? What’s good enough for Teddy Roosevelt is good enough for us.”


Check-in is a bear! I win the contest for the piece of luggage closest to the limit – 49.5 pounds for my black duffel with the school supplies.

The trip is roughly 8000 miles beginning with an overnight flight to London. In Heathrow’s brand new Terminal 5, we meet up with the rest of our expedition- eight more travelers with another 1350 pounds of luggage. There’s a tense moment as final boarding begins. The last member of our party, Kimberly Edwards, of Boulder, Colorado hasn’t arrived from Denver! Kimberly joins me just as the gate is closing. All aboard!

At last we’re on our way: a daytime flight across the Alps, the Mediterranean, the Sahara and the Rift Valley to Nairobi. For scenery, it’s my favorite flight of all. With luck we’ll see the glaciers shining in moonlight on 17,000 foot Mt. Kenya as we make our final approach. The next stop is Jomo Kenyatta Airport.

DAKTARI

Update on Norman - May 7, 2009

Thumbs up from Norman

Treading Water

Swimming

Fishing for the Big One

You may recall the story of Norman, who received open heart surgery for a valve replacement thanks to Dad's generosity. (See "Memories of Dad -part III") Here's the latest photos of Norman 8 months post surgery together with a report from Patti at Capstone Ministries.

"On the 23rd of December I put a mark on the wall inside our pantry to measure Norman's height. On the 25th of April I measured and marked again. Norman has grown 1 1/2 inches in 4 months!! Another boy who has been part of our family here since early 2002 is Bennard. "Beno" (a former street boy) is schooling in Mombasa and comes home during the school breaks. He has been home since early April. He and Norman have really bonded.

Beno loves to work in the yard, so he and I had a lot of "remodel" projects in the past few weeks. After class time Norman would help. He was able to carry large rocks, push the wheel barrow full of cow dung, he transplanted flowers and used the hoe. I'm amazed at his strength. He is such a happy boy now.

I hope Norman will participate in working his father's shamba the same way he helped here. I just pray that his father will work WITH him and not just send him out to do the work. Norman loved going out and helping my husband Dan with harvesting the moringa trees....his joy is in the fellowship which makes the work fun.

Norman's father Alex still needs counseling to come out of a dependancy attitude (so common to Kenya). When Alex was here last he told me that I had promised him many things. I had to clarify that when we talk about hopes and dreams, about what is possible,...these are not "promises". Capstone's purpose and vision is to restore the child back to the family and to help the family to function together ...NOT to promise them things.

Alex somehow had the impression that we would put in a well for him. I told him that if he needs a well then it's up to him to proceed, to do what he can and if he finds a roadblock then Capstone will consider how to assist...but that is not a promise. This is one of our greatest challenges and the reason that Dan and I often remain in the background.... when people see the mzungu (white people) they think there is a lot of money so automatically the hand of begging goes out. We are here to empower - first spiritually - and to assist physically if necessary but NOT to create a greater sense of dependancy.

Another cute story.....Norman decided he wanted to try his luck at catching a talapia (fish) from our pond. Beno set him up with a hook, a line and a piece of styrafoam for a bobber. In one day he caught 4 large talapia. Talk about a boy in heaven!! The next morning he went out early and caught another one....but then he realized he didn't ask permission to fish again so he threw it back and came and asked me if he could fish. I really laughed that he was so faithful and tried to undo his mistake. I think he finally caught the same fish again. Now it's time to restock the pond.

So, thats some of the inside info on Norman. Norman will return to the Doctor in early July for another ECHO on his heart. Then we'll see him again for the Capstone Camp in August. I envision Dan and I taking the "grandparent" role and having Norman visit during the school breaks. We won't go to visit him in his home because our presence will create problems among the villagers who see the white people coming. Home visits will be made by the Capstone staff. I've really grown to love this boy. I grow to love all our boys as I get to know them at the Transition Center but with Norman it has become a very special bond. I try to guard my heart and not become too attached but with Norman that was impossible...I'm attached."

Patty

(quoted from Patty Schmelzer's email with permission)

WORLD AIDS DAY - December 1, 2007

Samantha Gets Wrapped

AFA President Li in Kenya garb

Saturday was World AIDS Day and I was attending a course in “Fundamentals of Grant Writing” at North Essex Community College with my young friend Samantha.
That’s Sam getting wrapped in a Kanga during an opening day ceremony at the new Bailey/Whaley Health Clinic in Esabalu, Kenya. Sam turns 21 this week and last year she and her friends raised over $8000 to buy school uniforms for 400 AIDS orphans in Amesbury’s sister village of Esabalu. Then last January, Samantha, Jackie, Colleen and the others distributed the uniforms at three primary schools in Esabalu and at the Ebukuya Deaf School, where many of Esabalu’s deaf children attend special school. Even though primary education is free in Kenya, a child can’t attend if she doesn’t have a uniform to wear. Imagine what life would be like if you were that child with no parents. Every day you see the other kids on their way to school. How lonely and hopeless you feel. What can life possibly bring for you? Sam & Friends are changing lives from hopeless to hopeful one kid at a time.

“Hi Mark,” said Sam as we seated ourselves in the NECCO College classroom. “I brought you a present.” And she handed me an AIDS pin – made in Kenya by our friends in Esabalu. That flashed me back to January of 2007 when she and I and 13 other members of Amesbury for Africa were visiting Esabalu. So here is my story for AIDS Day 2007.

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Through an organization called Sister Cities International our small town of Amesbury, Massachusetts (pop. 13,000) has been linked to the small farming community of Esabalu in Western Kenya since 1987. For the last 20 years New England Yankees have been exchanging home visits with Abaluhyia farmers in Esabalu and their husbands. Our visits are usually 2-4 weeks and promote individual friendship and cross-cultural understanding. We call this rather unique relationship “a friendship-based development partnership.”

Last January 15 of us including Sam and Amesbury for Africa President Li were in Esabalu at the opening of the new health center. Before the speeches, singing and dancing, Li and I were chatting and a woman of perhaps 40 years old approached. She looked me in the eye and addressed us in very good English.

“You don’t remember me do you?” she inquired.

I looked at her closely and all of a sudden I saw something familiar. “Nancy, is it you?” I flashed back even further to 18 months earlier – June 2005

It was my first visit to Esabalu in a year and I was spending my first two days visiting all the compounds where a family member had died. People of Esabalu bury their dead in the yards of their home compounds (shambas) and not in cemeteries. That way the deceased are still part of the family. Visitors stop first at the graves of the newly dead for half a minute to pay respects, before they move on to the front door and greet the living.

So I walked with some friends from shamba to shamba looking at fresh graves and having sad thoughts. It was painful to do it but very bad manners not to make these obligatory visits. There were so many calls to pay because of AIDS. People in the rural villages like Esabalu knew that there was now treatment for the disease but no one knew anyone who had received it yet.

Nancy Otwoma was still among the living but just barely. Nancy had been one of the founding members of the Esabalu Health group back in 1991. She was so energetic with loads of enthusiasm and had become a trained community health worker. Now it took two people to get Nancy out of her bed in the morning. She was short of breath with slight exertions. Her smile was as bright as ever but the rest of her was melting away. The HIV virus had changed her from a fat jolly sparkplug to a thin weak skeleton.

I thought at that time that this was the last time I would ever see Nancy. Before returning to the states, I left a card and some money with the family for the funeral. And now here she was greeting me at the dedication of the Health Center which had been her dream since she started the Health Group so many years ago. We hugged and laughed. “Mlembe mno, mno, mno, mno, mno,” is what you say in Kiluhyia. “Greetings again, again, again,again” We said it over and over.

It seems that shortly after I said my last goodby to Nancy in 2005, the Global Fund and the Gates Foundation in cooperation with the Govt. of Kenya had established a network of 400+ clinics in hospitals all over the country to diagnose and treat victims of HIV for free! Nancy had been one of the first. It was truly a miracle! Now thanks to their efforts everyone is under treatment at one of three hospital clinics near the village. More people know their HIV status then ever before and the rate of new infections is below 1% per year. Kenya is one of the 10 hardest hit countries in the world which are being targeted to roll out these programs for getting control of this horrible tragic epidemic. Fewer orphans, not more uniforms is the real solution to HIV!

So on this, the 20th World AIDS Day, I give thanks every night for Bill and Melinda and their family members; also for Bono, Nelson Mandela and Bill Clinton. They have brought new life to my friend Nancy Otwoma. Thanks also to Samantha, Colleen, Jackie, Irene, Annette and the Amesbury High School Interact Club for providing AIDS orphans in Esabalu with a uniform and hope for the future. Best wishes on World AIDS day,

Daktari

To see more about Esabalu go to the Internet at www.amesburyforafrica.org