winter

I have recently returned from two weeks visiting family in Israel. When I left Dar, it was around 40 degrees and when I arrived in Israel it was zero. So, I finally got a little winter in my winter. Definitely did not have enough warm clothing and had a constant supply of tea entering my system to keep from freezing to death (okay, obviously a *slight* exaggeration). Despite the freezing temperatures, it was nice to see everybody. I hadn't been to Israel in almost three years. I also had the chance to meet some new people... my dad's cousin's daughters, a friend's five week old baby and a slight introduction to my soon-to-be new baby cousin who should be joining us in around a month but looks very cute in the ultrasound photos. Though I'm now living geographically a lot closer to Israel, the trip takes forever. The 5-6 hours at the over-airconditioned Addis Ababa airport plus an hour delay in both directions meant I spent a total of around 15 hours on planes and in airports each way.

Back in Dar, it seems that winter has arrived as well. Though it was insanely muggy when I first arrived, the weather since has cooled considerably and it's been cloudy for the last several days. Everyone keeps telling me "the rains are coming" in a slightly disconcerting way that makes me think I need to build an arc. I am finally starting to settle back in to life in Dar. After arriving on Friday, I was whisked directly off to the beach for the weekend. It was a really nice place and a very relaxing weekend. There's something about a hammock that defines vacation for me.

Then it was back to Dar where my room was being used by someone else so I had to move all my stuff down the hall until yesterday when my room opened up again and I had to move everything back up the hall and finally got to unpack and start to settle in.

That's all for the update... will try to post photos soon.

Happy New Year

I think this is the first time since moving to Vancouver that I was away for New Year's Eve. I marked it here in Dar spending the night on the beach with friends. Also spent Christmas Day on the beach. I really like celebrating winter holidays on the beach. Though I would really enjoy a day of snow out here once in a while. The holidays have come and gone but we've certainly had some fun. Chelsea has been here visiting for the last two weeks and we wandered the city a little but mostly just chatted and giggled and played cards and caught up on life. We infused some christmas spirit into the holiday by making home made decorations for the tree. We also got out to Zanzibar for a few days. The highlight of zanzibar was just meeting up with Natasha and Jen and having a mini-IPMP reunion. We also got out to a water park last Sunday which was so much fun. We got there early in the morning and had the place to ourselves for the first couple of hours. We rented these mats that make it so much more pleasant to slide down and I actually slide head first down a steep slide 6 stories high!!! So proud of myself. Anyway, have had a great vacation and don't mind going back to work knowing that in just over a week I'm heading to Israel for two weeks off. yay! holiday photos to come...

Busy Busy Busy week

It's been a surprisingly busy week here. After returning from the camping weekend, I could have used a nice quiet week but with the holidays coming up and so many people heading out of town it ended up being my busiest week out here.

Wednesday night was dinner at Addis in Dar - a high end ehtiopian restaurant - for a friend's birthday. The food was good but even more expensive than I expected... this place was expensive for a restaurant back home. Had a nice time though and went out to Karaoke night at Irish Pub after for a while.

Thursday night we had tickets to a play. It was a pantomime modernized sleeping beauty. Quite entertaining.

I spent much of Friday running around the city with Cathryn trying to find a few items we needed... it's a little frustrating how hard it can be to find items that I could get in ten minutes back home. Fortunately Cathryn has a car so we made pretty good time and were able to check a lot of places. In the afternoon I had a meeting with Amref - where I will be volunteering - to discuss what I can do for them. Getting started is turning out to be a lengthy process but I think it'll be an interesting opportunity. After that we went to see the Golden Compass which I was really looking forward to and was so excited that it was coming out here. The movie was okay... it was fun to see but somehow wasn't as epic as I was hoping. And after that I went out with a friend who was leaving town.

Saturday I can barely remember what I did during that day... I know there was cooking involved. That night we had Christmas dinner at a friends house. Something about a potluck in 30 degree weather just doesn't feel like christmas. Though we did have some fine christmas music going on in the background including Alvin and the Chipmunks!

Sunday and Monday were nice and quiet and tomorrow I have to deal with my resident permit and pick up Chelsea from the airport. Almost vacation time! and this weekend we will head out to Zanzibar for a couple of nights to get a quick taste of the place and meet up with Natasha and Jen who will also be out there this weekend.

Mikumi Photos

I had to reduce the quality in order to speed of the uploading a little... sorry.

Camping in Mikumi

I am very sore and tired this monday morning because we finally got to go on our camping trip. Eight of us spent the weekend at Mikumi National Park having a blast. It took about 6 hours to get there but there was beautiful scenery and a gorgeous sunset to enjoy en route. We got there a little after the gate closed (3 hours late) so had to do some driving around and negotiating to get into the park but finally got to our camp site, set up tents, lit a fire and got dinner cooking. Each morning we got up at 6:30, drank some coffee and loaded into the land rover for a game drive. There are soooo many animals everywhere. We saw zebras, wildebeest, buffalo, elephants, impala, giraffes, hippos, lions, baboons, jackals, warthogs, crocs vultures and eagles (We also had a whole lot of insects at camp, including army ants, which hurt like hell when they bite you-I got nibbled twice). One of the guys let me use his 50-500 zoom lens on my camera so I've got some amazing close-up photos.... although more often than not, the animals were so close we didn't need the zoom at all. I spent most of the weekend sitting on the roof of the land rover getting bounced around (hence the sore), listening to music and taking photos of the amazing animals and scenery. We had in our group a couple guys who worked for a hunting/safari company so they knew everything about the animals and the trees and so on. After a few hours we'd get hungry and head back to camp. Saturday we went on an afternoon drive as well (which turned into an evening drice as we ended up really far away and didn't get back to camp until after dark). Sunday we spent a couple of hours sitting around a hippo pool watching as one by one herds of different animals came to the water hole... there was some serious negotiation involved in accessing the water as there was a clear priority sequence and crocs waiting in the water for their lunch. Lions are not the most exciting animal to watch (didn't do much but lay around) but it was pretty cool to get so close up to them and we found four cubs as well. Anyway, beyond this description I think the photos will have to speak for themselves... I took about 400 pics so it'll take a couple of days to download and sort but I will post photos here soon. I had an amazing weekend and couldn't have asked for better company. All in all, a huge success and I could definitely have stayed longer.