I'm back

Well I have safely made it back to Ohio and am already back to work at BGSU. My time in Kenya and Tanzania was wonderful and I look forward to further journeys in the future. Thank you to everyone who helped me along the way; I couldn't have done it without you. In the next couple days, I'll be writing a few recap entries so if you have any burning questions about my trip, ask me now and I'll see if I can answer them on here.

A few more pictures

Dad just e-mailed a few of the pictures he had taken on our safari so here ya go...

Winding Down

Well just a few days left for my time here in East Africa. I will be boarding a plane from Nairobi Friday night and will be touching down in Detroit Saturday morning. It's been a good time here and these last couple weeks have been great as I've been on safari with my Dad and now hanging out with some of my best friends, Sam and Amanda. They were sick for a few days, but thankfully they have recovered.

One of the little adventures we got to enjoy the other day was a Kenyan wedding. Why was it an adventure? Glad you asked. You see, the wedding was supposed to start at 8:00 AM, which here means more like 9:00, but it didn't really start until closer to 10. And this wasn't just any Kenyan wedding, but a Kenyan wedding time eight. That's right EIGHT different couple were getting married. Oh boy. I don't think we left until 3:00. That's a long time to be at a wedding for a bunch of people you don't know and one person you've met before. I'm still glad we went though as it's one more thing I've now been able to experience.

And remember a previous post when I mentioned my amazement at the Kenyans' language ability? The wedding was tri-lingual with the service bouncing back and forth between Swahili, English and Luo. One moment the past would be speaking English and someone would translate to Swahili, then the paster would switch to Luo and the translation would be into English for a minute and then Swahili the next and so on. There were probably a couple other languages thrown in too that I just didn't pick up. Crazy.

OK, so here's some pictures from the Safari that you've all been waiting for...

Lions playing with each other as the other eat their breakfast


Dad sporting a Lion's mane hat as he chills with some Masai


This was the first of several groups of "Tembo" we came across


Some of the millions of "Nyumbu" roaming the Mara


"Twiga" just chilling


Cheetah before the hunt....


...Cheetah after the hunt. Well, I think there's cheetah still there, or maybe its just the Wazungu.


A few lions having a nice wildebeast dinner


Wildebeast about to cross the Mara River.

The great migrations

Well Dad and I just returned from our safari. I don't have pictures yet, but they will be coming soon enough. It was a great time and saw more animals than I ever imagined possible. Around this time each year, millions of Wildebeast and Zebras migrate from the Serengeti of Tanzania into the Masai Mara of Kenya. With all these crazy looking creatures, the carnivores get excited. We saw a Hyena just throwing around a wildebeast by the entrails while the prey was still trying to kick away; Cheetah run down wildebeast in a flash; and several Lions having their breakfast or dinner on the poor animals exhausted from the long journey north.

The migration of the Wildebeast is not the only migration we witnessed though. There was also the great migration of the Wazungu. If you're not familiar with the Wazungu, it is a white-skinned creature that walks along on two legs and drives around the park in these silly little vans just waiting for something to happen. The instant someone saw a cheetah, all the safari guides were on the radio letting the others know. When we found the cheetah getting ready to hunt, it was witnessed alongside about 40 other vehicles all filled with camera-snapping Wazungu. Yes, I am part of the problem as I am one of the Wazungu who also migrated, but something just seemed weird about it all. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the Mara, I just wish there was another way to experience it all. More details to come...

Back in Kenya and other notes

Well I have once again successfully crossed a border and have arrived back into Kenya. Borders aren't normally my favorite spot, especially in the dark and in the midst of a 17 hour bus ride that you were told would be 12. Anyhow, I'm here and all is well. I'm having fun hanging out with Sam and Amanda who are living here for a year.

Unfortunately, something finally made it into my stomach that shouldn't be there. Without going into details, I've been making several trips to the toilet recently. I hope the medicine from the chemist (aka pharmacist) helps.

So my dad is currently airborne and will be arriving in Nairobi tonight. We will get to hang out for a day or so before taking off to the Maasai Mara and seeing the amazing animals.

And finally today I have a feature I've been wanting to incorporate for a while, but never got around to it: "You know you're in a foreign country when..." So without further ado, you know you're in a foreign country when a newspaper caption reads "the price of an AK-47 has dropped from 10 cows in 1986 to 2 cows currently". Wow!

Ok, that's all for now, gotta run.

Hakuna Matata, right?

Hakuna matata. That was a phrase I repeated several times yesterday. I told myself if I said it enough times I might just believe the Kiswahili phrase for "No Problem". I mean, it's not a big deal to lose your ATM card somewhere in Africa, is it? Oh wait, maybe it is. Especially when you just took a 2-hour ferry ride to an island off the coast. And when credit cards are pretty worthless here. Oh boy. Don't worry, hakuna matata. It has been found, but losing my card sure did make one hectic day.

In other news, my much anticipated diving trip did eventually take place, despite losing my card. I found a well-respected dive shop here in Zanzibar that rents prescription goggles, so not having my contacts was once again, hakuna matata. The diving wasn't the best I've done, but still a blast. I absolutely love being under the ocean swimming with the fish and just enjoying the water. To top it off, on the short ride back in to the beach we saw a beautiful Marlin jumping all over the place.

It will unfortunately be a very short trip for me in Zanzibar as I head back to the mainland and up to Nairobi.

Where am I?

Well after a couple weeks in Tanga, I decided it was time for something new. So I hopped on a bus yesterday morning and came down to Dodoma with my buddy Naftal. Staying at his place now for a few days. I think I'll be going to Zanzibar after here, but I am still frustrated about leaving my contact lenses behind and therefore making a possible dive in the beautiful Indian Ocean worthless. We'll see, well maybe I won't.

I can't believe I only have a few weeks left: a week or so here in Tanzania and then up north to Kenya where I'll get to go on a safari in the Maasai Mara and see "Samanda" (i.e. my good friends Sam and Amanda Parks). Then it's to the airport on August 17th to head on home.

For the safari, my dad and I will be heading to the Maasai Mara in southwest Kenya. Here we will see all sorts of wildlife including the "Big Five": lions, elephants, leopards, buffalo, and rhino (hopefully). We should also get to see some of the massive migration of wildebeest in which every year over a million of them form massive herds and move through the Serengeti in TZ into the Mara. It'll be quite a sight to see.