Cheetah Pictures

Here are a few pictures I took of a cheetah that was found lounging under a tree in the Masaai Mara.






One thing I didn't expect on the safari was just how "tame" the animals were. I'm not sure if they are used to the safari vehicles driving around, or they just don't perceive them as a threat, but most of the animals wouldn't run away when a vehicle approached. In fact, some would allow the vehicles to get quite close. For some of the more popular animals (such as the predators), it was a common occurrence for a whole bunch of vehicles to be clustered around the animal. Once one driver found a popular animal, everyone else in the area would drive over to see it too. If you saw a cluster of vehicles off in the distance, it was a safe bet that they were all looking at a predator.

Here's a photo to give you an idea of what it looked like with the cheetah and how close the vehicles were to it:

Giraffe Pictures

I should be sleeping right now, but I just took my malaria medicine (I have to continue to take it for several weeks after my trip) and it made me extremely nauseous. Due to my traveling all day today, I definitely took the medicine too late in the day and my stomach was completely empty. It's the first time the medicine actually made me vomit. (I'm sure you all wanted to know that.)

So, anyhow, since I couldn't sleep, I figured I'd transfer some of my Africa photos to my computer. My mom's one request before I left was that I get her a photo of a giraffe, so these are for her.

These three pictures were taken on the two day safari in the Masaai Mara in Kenya. As usual, you can click on them for a larger view.

Back from Africa

I just got back from Africa. I'm now back home in a the US. I don't have much time to write a full update - I have to work in the morning. The trip back to Nairobi from Arusha was uneventful. Nairobi was pretty much back to normal. Being in the city for Saturday night was a dramatic contrast to how the city looked two weeks earlier on a Saturday after the elections. This time the place was bustling with people, even late at night and in the wee hours of the morning. Two weeks ago the streets were deserted.

It's nice to be back home - especially since there's a forecast for snow in the morning. I miss the winter weather.

Africa Update #4

This'll have to be just a quick update - I don't have much time to write today. Things are going well here in Tanzania. The country is quite beautiful. Arusha lies in the shadow of Mt. Miru (not sure if I spelled that correctly) so there's always a great view of the mountain from most of the city streets. The city has an interesting mix of the modern along with more of a developing nation environment. You can take a two minute walk from the city center where there are ATMs and other such modern conveniences and end up on some dirt side street with bustling markets that look like they haven't changed in hundreds of years.

We visited an orphanage in Arusha a couple days ago and dropped off some gifts for the kids there. It was nice to see the kids smiling and laughing as they played with some simple new toys.

Yesterday, while we were stopping at a small shop selling firewood on the side of the road, a couple of kids ran out to the car pointing, laughing, and yelling, "Mzungu!" Mzungu is a Swahaili term meaning "white person" or something similar. Apparently the kids hadn't seen many white people as they thought I looked quite funny. One of the kids even ran back to his house to carry out his younger brother so he too could get a look at the Mzungu.

Today we plan a short hike up part of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Unfortunately, a full climb would take several days and we don't have that kind of time. We drive back to Nairobi tomorrow (Saturday) as most of the group flies back to the US Saturday night. I fly back Sunday morning.

Africa Update #3

I think it's Monday today. Without a normal daily routine, I'm finding it hard to keep track of what day of the week it is. Sorry for the lack of pictures, but I don't have an easy way to upload them right now.

The camping out at a Masaai village was a great experience. The Masaai village was near the top of a small mountain or very large hill. It's probably the most beautiful place I've ever been to. Every direction you looked was just open fields, small patches of trees, and large mountains off in the distance. There was even anactivevolcano visible off in the distance. I know the Masaai have a hard life, but this place looked like paradise.

As I mentioned before, we were bringing a goat to the village as a gift. What I didn't know is they planned on eating it that evening! While we didn't have to join in on the meal (we had brought along our own food as well hired a cook to come along on our trip), we were invited to watch them kill and cook the goat. Being a vegetarian, I had mixed feeling about it, but figured it wasn't an opportunity to miss.

Before it got dark, we first helped gather firewood for the evening. While looking for loose branches among the bushes and small trees, one of the Masaai warriors told us about the various uses of the plants we were encountering. There was the bark from one tree that could be chewed to get moisture when there wasn't any water, some other bark to help with stomach problems, another for aiding in pregnency, some leaves to get put under your arm pits for deoderant, some grass used for making tea, and bunch of other plants I can no longer remember.

Once we gathered enough firewood it was getting dark. We took a break and had a great meal that our cook had prepared. I've been camping many times before, but never had such a great meal. I wish I could hire a cook to come along with me on all my hikes! After our meal, we went to the area where the Masaai were going to kill and cook the goat. Only the Masaai men of a certain age were allowed to attend - the rest of the village would be allowed to come later after the goat was killed and most of it had been eaten.

For killing the goat, they layed out a bunch of leafy branches from a bush and then forced the goat to lay down on it. Then, while one warrior held the goat down, the other covered it's nose and held its mouth shut. After a minute or so, the goat had been suffocated. Then, the warriors began to remove the goat's skin. I won't go into all the details, but nothing from the goat was wasted. For example, after removing all the goat's organs, they even drank the remaining blood that had pooled up in the chest cavity. (Sorry, I didn't take any pictures of the whole goat killing and eating business.) After the Masaai had their goat dinner, they performed some tradition songs and dances around the fire. After the singing and dancing, we headed to our tents for the night.

We set up our tents a few hundred feet from the village huts. It was quite windy up there on the hilltop, and it got windier and windier as the night progressed. I have never before been in a tent in such strong wind. It was so windy that the tent poles were being flexed enough to force the roof of the tent down into my face as I tried to sleep. I occasionally felt like I was going to be slowly suffocated like the goat. Fortuntely, all our tents held together and no one flew off the mountain during the night.

In the morning we went for a hike further up the mountain to an area where the Masaai gather water. Along the way we stopped at a different Masaai village and were invited in to have some tea in one of the huts. Once we got to the water source, we were shown how they can make a fire using just two sticks and a bit of donkey dung. We also got a lesson on throwing a Masaai spear and got to each take our turn doing some target practice. We then headed back to camp, presented some more gifts to the village and then headed back to Arusha.

All in all, it was a great experience visiting the village. It really made it clear how little one needs to survive in the world.

Africa Update #2

Just another quick update... I have about 20 minutes of time left on my Internet account.

Tomorrow morning we head to a Masaai village to see what life is like as a Masaai. For those who aren't familiar - the Masaai are a tribe in Africa who continue to live a nomadic lifestyle herding cattle and goats. At least, that's my possibly flawed understanding of them so far. I'll definitely know more tomorrow. We will be camping overnight in their village out of in the middle of the wilderness - or so I've been told. It should be an interesting experience.

A heartfelt thanks to everyone who sent me an email or left a comment on the blog these past few days. Sorry I can't reply to you all individually. It's really great to hear from you all. Although I am traveling with 8 other people, I only really know one of them well, so oddly it gets a bit lonely here at times. Given they are all family and my lack of an outgoing personality, I occasionally find myself feeling like the odd man out. So again, thanks again for all the responses.

Cheers!

Update from Africa

First off, we are now safely out of Kenya. This morning we left the very very bad situation in Nairobi and are now in Arusha, Tanzania.

I'm in an Internet cafe with a somewhat flakey Internet connection, so it's a bit slow using my usual web interface for posting blog updates. This leaves me a very short time to write. Please parden the typos and occasional poor grammar as I won't have time to proofread this- only ten minutes left on my cafe time slot.

We were in Kenya for the first 5 days of our trip. The capitol Nairobi was unusually empty when we arrived on Saturday night due to the tensions from the deciding of the election results. People were avoiding the city. All businesses had been closed since the 24th of December and then because of the increased tensions, the businesses remained closed. Some places were running out of food because stores had been closed for so long.

For Sunday we tried to avoid any trouble in the city and went to a waterpark near where the embassies are. It was a pretty safe area and it was good to just relax after losing more than a day from travel. The next day we left Nairobi in the early morning and headed to the Massaai Mara to go on a two day safari. The safari was awesome and I hope to share lots of pictures when I return.

While on safari we were keeping up with the news of the unrest due to the undecided election results. When it was announced the current president won, we were told that was going to be bad. We were traveling in two safari vehicles and they had a two-way radio network with all the other safari tour drivers to keep track of what roads were safe for travel and which were not.

At one point when things were getting really bad we made contigency plans to just get the heck out of Kenya and head directly for Tanzania even though we had left most of our luggage at a hotel in NAirobi while we were on safari. Fortunately, things calmed down enough to risk the trip back to Nairobi on Wednesday.

The news said that Thursaday there were plans for a big rally in Nairobi to protest the election results, so we decide to head out early early in the morning. On the way out, we gots to see lots of armed soldiers surround the main park where the protest was planned, and lots of police in riot gear. It was definitely a good idea to get out.

Our drive to Tanzania was very uneventful and we are now planning on staying the remainder of our time here. We fly out of Nairobi, but if the situation remains bad there we will consider catching a flight from an airport in Tanzania direct to the Nairobi airport to avoid any trouble. On the drive out of Nairobi to the first safari, we drove through the aftermath of one of the riots and it wasn't a pretty sight. Based on the footage I've seen in the news, I don't want to be anywhere near it. Fortunately, the Nairobi airport is south of the Nairobi, so it might be safe to take the drive from Tanzania direct to the airport.

On a the lighter side of this update, the safari in thE Massai MAra was awesome and I saw (and got pictures of) just about every major animal you might think of when thinking of African wildlife. It's amazing how many animals there are in the open plains. It's interesting to think that that's what the world used to be like before people came along and created cities and all that.

Well, gotta run. I already added more time to my account to finish this, but I must reallyl go now. Hopefully I'll have more time to write a more coherent summary of what we've done so far.

Cheers!

On to Africa

I leave for Africa later today; specifically, I'm going to Kenya and Tanzania. A few minutes ago I came across a travel warning on the US State Department web site regarding Kenya. Here's a snippet:

The Department continues to recommend that private American citizens in Kenya evaluate their personal security situation in light of continuing terrorist threats and increasing incidents of violent crime. Terrorist acts may include suicide operations, bombings, attacks on civil aviation, and attacks on maritime vessels in or near Kenyan ports. Violent criminal attacks, including armed carjacking, kidnappings, and home invasions/burglary, can occur at any time and in any location, and are becoming increasingly frequent, brazen, vicious, and often fatal. In January 2007, two family members of a U.S. Embassy employee were killed by armed carjackers. Kenyan authorities have limited capacity to deter and investigate such acts.

Hmmm... sounds delightful. Well, not much I can do about this now, other than be a bit careful, I suppose. I guess a question would be whether I'd have still bought my plane ticket had I read this warning earlier. I dunno. Probably not.

Oh well. It'll be an adventure.

My worst commute ever

Today I had my worst commute home from work ever - or at least the worst I can remember. There was a weather forecast for 6 to 12 inches of snow, due to start around noon and continue until mid-evening. Because of this, just about every school system in the state let the kids go home early, and many businesses (including where I work) let their employees work just half a day. Unfortunately, this led to way more cars on the road in the early afternoon and combined with terrible road conditions, it was a total mess.

Before I knew we were able to leave work early I took a short drive to get some lunch around noon. What was normally a 5 minute drive to get back to work took me about 30 minutes! Then, when I got back to work I learned we could all leave. Having just experienced the terrible traffic jams on all the city roads and looking out the window and seeing the highway a parking lot in both directions, I was in no hurry to leave. I figured I'd wait it out a while until things got a bit better. The only problem was, they were officially closing the office at 3:00, which meant I really couldn't wait it out too long. Then I realized since it was actually snowing, and snow tends to accumulate, the roads probably wouldn't be getting better any time soon. (Ha, I'm really getting my money's worth out of this college education. I can use logic and reasoning...) So, I finally decided to head out at 2:30.

Initially, at least for the first few minutes, the drive wasn't bad. The roads were fairly empty and snow covered, but I have all-wheel drive, so it was easy going. Easy going until I got to the highway on-ramps. I have a choice of going either north or south and either works due to some other highway splits along the way. Usually if I see the highway slow going one way, I'll just take the other ramp. Unfortunately, this time both ramps were completely backed up and didn't appear to be moving at all.

Not being one to enjoy sitting in traffic, especially for what looked to be a several hour ordeal, I decided to try getting home via back roads. I figured the drive to the onramps had been fairly smooth going, maybe everyone was stuck on the highway and the back roads are clear. Well, that turned out to be wrong. That initial strip of clear road was the only bit of clear road I'd see the rest of my drive home. I felt like I was in one of those "end of the world" movies where everyone was on the road running away from something. The only difference was there were traffic jams in every direction. Whatever this end of the world disaster was, there was no clear agreement on where it was coming from or where we should be running to.

So, what normally takes 30 minutes, instead took me over 2 hours. I know my friends living in the Los Angeles area will think this is nothing - they have to deal with stuff like this every day. But for someone who has been spoiled by a fairly easy 30 minute commute, taking over 2 hours to go 20 miles is a bit of a pain.

The one positive of all this is got a lot of experience driving my Rav4 in the snow. I had bought it back in the spring, so I think I only drove it in a small amount of snow once before. The all-wheel-drive seems to handle things fine. I never found myself slipping or sliding when accelerating. In some cases that was a disappointment - it's kind of fun sliding around corners when pulling out of a side street. Now, the car instead starts beeping and cuts the power to the accelerator, activating some sort of anti-skid traction control. Bah! Darn highway safety....

Edit 12/17/07: I recently spoke with a friend from karate class and his commute that same day was the worst I've heard of so far. It took him 7 and a half hours to get home from work!

My body is teeming with microorganisms!

I haven't noticed any adverse side effects yet, but my body is teeming with microorganisms right now. Tonight I received five vaccinations - one each for yellow fever, polio, typhoid, hepatitis-A, and the flu. I'll be going to Africa - Kenya and Tanzania more specifically - in a few weeks. In preparation for the trip, I visited a travel clinic at a local hospital to find out what was recommended for preventive medicine.

The clinic was pretty informative, although it took way more time than I expected. I had a 5:00 appointment, but didn't finally get out of the hospital until some time after 7:00. In turns out the clinic consisted of an initial group seminar led by a doctor who explained all the different vaccinations and medicines , their benefits and risks, which ones are needed based on travel destination and so forth. The doctor then asked each of us in the group which of the vaccines and other preventative medicine prescriptions we wanted. I opted for getting pretty much everything that was recommended, including a prescription for anti-malaria pills.

The yellow fever vaccination was kind of scary to read about. I had to sign a waiver for it and the doctor warned me there was a chance I could die from it. Seriously. It's only a small chance, but still, it happens. The vaccination is required for entry into Kenya and Tanzania, so I didn't really have much of a choice. And yellow fever sounds pretty nasty, too, so I was happy to get the vaccination. Fifteen percent of the people who contract yellow fever end up with really awful symptoms within 24 hours - including vomiting blood and other such nastiness. Of those who get these terrible symptoms, half of them die within two weeks! There's no cure for the disease once you contract it, either. Your body has to just fight it off on its own. So, here's hoping the vaccine works as advertised....

The choices for malaria drugs were interesting. I don't remember the exact details anymore, but there were three options - one drug had side effects that included causing bad dreams and depression, another lacked any significant side effects but had to be taken once a day and cost $15 per pill, and a third option was more reasonably priced, but caused sensitivity to sun. I was tempted by the idea of a drug that causes bad dreams, but instead opted for the sun sensitivity. The $15 per pill option (Malarone) had to be taken for a significant number of days after the trip, so the complete dosage would have cost me about $300. Yikes!

As it was, including the costs of the vaccines, this trip to the doctor cost over $350. The good news is most of these vaccines are good for 5 or more years, so it's not like I'll need to get them again any time soon.

I'll be sure to post a followup if I develop any super powers from this combination of vaccines and medicine.