A lot of things have happened since I have posted yet but before I get into all I have been doing I want to point out that on the left you can now click on "Picasa Photo Albums" to see a whole bunch of photos. Posting photos and then captions may be slow, but eventually you can peruse through all of those if you wish.
Last Sunday we went to church which was fun. It was a breakaway Lutheran Church near where we are staying. Our teacher here at the Center is a member and he translated part of the service for us. It was interesting to see the way they did the offerings for different things and went about church business. My favorite part by far was the choir who were very energetic and coordinating as well as sounding great. It was like the Temptations x 5 singing upbeat hymns if you can visualize that.
After church we went off in pairs to different homes. I was with one of our teachers, Yarrow, at the home of Gabriel, an older man about 62 and his wife. They served us hot fresh milk and a lunch of rice, stew, bananas and avocados. You know those statistics about how far your food has travelled before it arrives at your plate? This was an average of probably 75 meters: there was the cow, the avocado tree and the field of bananas.
The family also included a lot of cute kids and other relatives and we spent the time talking, sharing photos of our families with them, touring the small farma and entertaining the kids with our cameras. Though I am enjoying taking photos with the film camera I brought, I have to say nothing beats digital for instant gratification for elderly Maasai or tiny giggling kids.
The next day, after a cool stop in Arusha at a media center for music and some videos, we headed to the town of Karatu (below) where we spent the night. The next morning up at 5:30 for an early start for our day being tourists at Ngorongoro Crater. (I'd reccomend looking it up a bit to read about it and see a map if you have time before continuing). The drive up was foggy and beautiful before we stopped at the rim of this collapsed (and luckily extinct) volcano for another great view. Then we headed down to the plains inside to go wildlife viewing. You had to stay in your car to not destroy the wildness of the place (or get attacked) but the animals got so close that this didn't matter.
We saw a long list of the classic mammals featured in National Geographic specials plus many amazing birds from the ostrich to herons. So some photos below (also check out the extended album I'll post soon here) of some of the animals we saw. We got very close to two sleeping lions, plus some more a little further, were right next to small herds of zebra and got surrounded by wildebeest in a smaller but spectacular version of the Great Migration. We also had fun tourist watching. Finding a large clump of vehicles was also a sure sign of some wildlife - kind of like whale watching with the boats.
After a full day driving around, we headed up the crater wall again and stopped off at the Ngorongoro Crater Lodge to see the extreme of wealth brought here. The lodge was amazingly nice and had a fantastic view of the crater - even from the bathroom or tub in the rooms. Of course if you wanted to spend the night in plush luxery here it would cost you US$1,200 - per person, not room. Ouch. It was interesting to see this part of the tourism. The company was also South African owned, which we are quickly learning not to like because the tourism dollars don't even stay in the country. While we were there we did get about 15 meters from a wild African elephant though which was pretty amazing. On our way home we also almost hit a giraffe crossing the road. It then paused long enough for us to get some photos though which was also awesome.
Headed home back through Maasai country and back. Tomorrow we head off for three days at a Maasai boma (small village). It'll be quite the contast to many tourists' stays in 'cultural bomas' where the people live there just for the tourists and let's just say it is not the most authentic thing. Kind of said they have to sell their culture that way too.
Lastly, today we spent in a breif overview of HIV/AIDS in Tanzania at a visit to a home for AIDS orphans who cannot physcially do much for themselves, then at a school for HIV postitive kids, then talked to three women involved in an AIDS NGO here and who also were HIV postive. Good experiences to have, especially contrasted with our safari life.
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