Some Pics for y'all

Ask and you shall receive. Here is is, me, dressed from head to toe as a Masai. Wouldn't you pay at least one goat for me?

Fire Update

For those of you that were a weeeee bit worried, the break fire was successful. Crisis averted, adventure recorded.

Bees, Lions, and a Wildfire-- all in one night!

Tonight started out calm enough, with my host and I planning to do the usual, a veggie stir-fry and old episodes of some TV show. Then Gene the Machine reminded us that it was time to harvest the honey again, from the angry hive, the one that was the source of our swarm during failed honey harvest attempt #1. The bees proved to be no less angry in the dark and started to swarn again. However, unlike me, Gene the Machine was undeterred and proceeded to harvest about 15 pounds of honey. While this was going on, mind you it's pitch black, a male lion started to roar, too close for our liking. This continued, but my host felt safe because no lion is going to attack someone who has a swarm of bees around him, the logic went. Good thinking. All the while, a wildfire was quietly brewing on the hill, and as I type my host and Gene have gon in the land rover to figure out if the fire is something we need to "worry" about. I will admit, I'm a little worried about that wildfire. The whole hill is glowing, and I'm no southern Cali girl -- we don't have wildfires in upstate!

Update - host is starting a break fire to stop the first from burning the house. Oy.

Even the Maasai think I am frumpy

So I'm no fashionista, this much I know, but apparently my lack of attention to detail in the looks department is offensive across cultures. Yesterday, during the Ulysses like journey we took from the south west edge of Serengeti to the north, complete with a number of bizarre stops, occasional passengers, and roads that really don't deserve to be called roads, one of our stops included a visit to a local school. The details aren't important, but basically my host was representing an organization supporting this school. As a gesture of appreciation the parents of this school gave a gift to this organization, which apparently requires a gift giving ceremony. Of course everything is happening in Swahili, so I just observe, and I was getting a big kick out of the school officials dressing my host like a traditional Maasai clothing. I am giggling and taking pictures when all of the sudden I was ambushed! It started with a beaded necklace, which I thought was sweet, and it escalated into a full outfit for me too! Complete with head gear, a dress, a belt and several large necklaces. Then I was thrown into the picture too. The best part was that after I was all dressed someone said, doesn't she look good, and a Maasai man replied: "Well, better than before". Thank you very much. My bride price in Maasai land probably isn't even worth a measly goat.

OK, Picasa is annoying me

So I couldn't get many images uploaded, but here is a link to a few photos. Beware, the images are disturbing. I'm serious.

pictures here

Jiggy is feeling a little under the weather....

Sorry fans. I tried to post a picture, but it didn't work. Maybe if I feel up to it later I will try to make a picassa album. Jiggy seems to have eaten some dirty lettuce last night and is paying for it today. Boo.

Addendum

My host observed a man, leaving the scene of the elephant carving, on a bike, with the elephant liver strapped to the back of the bike.

Gross.

It's not all roses...

Ok, it's true, I'm sleeping in a comfortable bed and chilling in one of the whatever-number wonders of the world. But I went to put my bra on this morning (sorry Brad and Dad for that detail) and it had mold on it. Not green gross mold, just black dots on the inside. I mean, I haven't eaten food our of a refrigerator in a week, and my standards for the size of bug I will allow to be in the food I am eating has increased dramatically, so I shrugged and put it on for the day.

Too much information?

Sorry for the lack of photos kiddos, I don't have my cable right here with me, you will have to wait another 24 hours.

I'm listening to hyenas right now out my window.

It was like I was in the NatGeo special

First of all, can we discuss why National Geographic has changed their TV name to NatGeo? Why fix something that wasn't broken? It just seems cheesy and annoying. Anywho....

I'm writing this blog in the middle (and I mean smack dab middle) of the Serengeti. We came in this morning for some meetings and such. While driving through the village closest to the park there was some high dealing between my host and the local teacher in the village. After about 5 minutes of discussion my host turns to me and says, you want to see something cool. Uhhh... totally! So we start driving down a dirt road that takes us out of the village. About half way down, we turn off and are now driving through the high grass field, I swear that Serengeti is what the Great Plains must have looked like 150 years ago, complete with animal migration, but I digress...

After driving across the field we see about 75 people all standing around in the middle of the field, but we couldn't tell what it was because the grass was so high. We get close and see a HUGE elephant on the ground, headless, and there is a guy (sorry if you are faint of heart) hacking the tusk out of the elephants head with an ax. But these were no poachers, apparently this elephant, and his unfortunately brother which was receiving the same treatment about 1/2 mile away, was destroying crops and the village called in the game warden who shot both elephants last night. The villagers will get over 7000 kilos of meat from each elephant. Seriously something I never in a million years thought I would see. I have a some incredible pictures if you think you can stomach it. I also have a gruesome video. Oy.

It's really the little things....

Today we spent all day out in the villages meeting with some folks and doing a pilot of a survey we are going to implement. I am totally obsessed with rural agricultural villages, I guess I'm in the right field (pun absolutely intended).

In any case, on the way back we stopped to get something to eat in the largest town. At the restaurant my host decides that he would like to use the restroom. He goes, as directed, to the back of the restaurant, and sees that one bathroom is locked and one is occupied. Well, the lady cleaning in the back wanted to help this poor potty-less white guy so she of course asks the appropriate question: "do you have to do 'big bathroom' or 'little bathroom'". When he informed her it was only little bathroom, she directed him to the shower, at which point he peed in the shower at the back of the restaurant.

And for all of you following the beekeeping excursion with bated breath - tonight, in a blind taste test between 3 honeys I picked ours as by far the best.

I would like to revise my stance on beekeeping

Maybe I was a weeeee bit hasty yesterday, all sweaty from the outfit (yes there are pictures) and itchy from my bee sting. It turns out harvesting honey is amazing! I mean really really great. Tonight, we were determined to try again. So all 4 of the men in the office came back after supper, a team effort of 6 guys, to harvest honey from the second hive. It turns out Gene "the Machine" really is a machine -- a honey harvesting machine. With his friend Elias all wrapped up in the beekeeping suit, Gene the Machine jumps up on top of the wall, strips off his shirt, and gets down to business. Apparently the Tanzanian beekeeping suit is a birthday suit. Who knew?! In any case GtM was all over it, and we harvested an entire platter of honeycomb and some very very delicious honey.

She's baaaaaack...

Hey Kiddos! Have you missed Ms. Jiggy? I know I have! I was reading through some of the back posts from past trips, and man, Jiggy is quite the rascal. Such a pip.

So I come to you once again, not from Central America, but East Africa. Way better in so many ways. Like, here they haven't killed all the wildlife and chopped down all the trees. It seems that they have yet to discover the megamall - definitely a plus. They have however firmly situated themselves at the bottom of the used clothes food chain, which is charming as hell. For example, last night I went out to check for animals in the front yard and stood there silently and uncomfortably next to the two guards for the house. (Yes, two are needed, who is going to protect us from the lions?!) Anyway, as we sit there, I take a gaze at one of the guard's jackets. Naturally it's a jacket from some tire place, worn without any irony -- but the best part is that the name of the jacket was "Gene the Machine" which I found infinitely funny. I immediately started to giggle, to make the situation more uncomfortable, and then had to retreat to the house, because there was no way I could explain my strange giggling outburst.

I myself have come to enjoy a different garb... that being a beekeepers suit. My host has two beehives that he is trying to produce honey in, and because he is so tall, he can't fit in the beekeeping suit. I bravely agreed to give it a go this afternoon. For those of you that are sitting comfortably in your offices and fantasizing about the quaint life you could have beekeeping in VT, let me wake you up. It sucks. It was hot, and those bees apparently don't like it when people start taking apart their house and fishing around for their honey. They hate it, in fact. They get doubly pissed when you kill some of their brothers, and then they attack. My host sadly got stung 3 times, once inside the nose. I unfortunately got swarmed and had to walk around for 30 minutes trying to get the bees off me! Finally they went away when I crouched down by the fire and smoked them off. Phew.