Dave Ford Does Earth

Posted by Dave Ford

Let me preface this post by saying that I am on a five dollar per 15 minute computer on the rim of the Ngorogoro crater. This is satellite internet. It will be a miracle of God if this actually gets published.

This expert is taken directly from my journal:

After a day or two mucking around organizing our safari and experiencing the trials and tribulations of jetlag, we find ourselves in the thralls of the animal kingdom. Marv and I are traveling with Las Tours, a good company with a solid communication problem. Either that, or maybe I should have bought an English/Swahili dictionary. Nonetheless, our guide (Donald) and cook (Abdul) are entertaining, relaxed, and seriously interested in our experience. We seemed to have lucked out with our safari compadres as well. Stina and Julie are from Denmark and I think are about 20 or 21 in age. The duo have been backpacking together through Tanzania and plan to be here three months in total. For the last month or so they have been teaching English and French in Zanzibar, the predominely Muslim island off of the coast of Tanzania.

In the last few days in Arusha national park and Lake Manyara we have encountered giraffes, hippos, zebra, warthogs, and a huge male elephant that humped a termite mound right in front of us.

Ahh, I am beginning to feel “at home” again on the road. Although, this is not just because I saw an elephant to dirty things to a termite mound.

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Notes:

 > No spell check. No bueno. Please fergive any mispelings.

>The other night at  Masai Camp–a overland travel campsite/disco outside of Arushatown–I ended up talking to an American United Nations worker stationed in Tanzania working with the U.N. sancationed Rwanda genocide tribunal. The tribunal was put in place 11 years ago to prosecute the accused leaders responsible for killing over 1,000,000 people in Rwanda in 1994. When these sort of encounters happen I turn into a sponge for knowledge. In July of last year, I distincly remember watching Hotel Rwanda in my casa particular in Havana, Cuba and crying my eyes out. Now, I am here in Africa, drinking scotch with a guy deeply involved with the trials that will finally bring the conflict to rest.

> So far the weather has been fantastic. 85 during the day, 60 at night.

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