Two Weeks To Go

Jambo, Rafiki!

It's difficult to believe that my departure date is less than two weeks away. I think I've settled in on what I'm taking with me, keeping in mind that there are some limits on weight and size of bags. I will be able to have one soft-sided duffel (my football gear bag, reassigned to travel duty) and a backpack. I've purchased extra memory cards for my camera, and have practiced taking photos and short videos of animals during my zoo volunteer hours. Even though it's a little older, my Fuji digital still takes great pictures. I'm hoping that the zoom will be good enough for what I'm going to need. I used it to take the video below.

One of our critically endangered African Black Rhinos at Brookfield Zoo:

My new passport has arrived and I have all the travel documents, flight times, etc. The overseas part of the trip is on Ethiopian Airlines, and they are flying the new Boeing Dreamliner. I'm looking forward to seeing the latest in air travel. Visas will be purchased as I enter each country.

The traveler's medical issues have all been taken care of, with jabs for Yellow-Fever, Hep A,  and Tetanus/Diphtheria, a regimen of pills for Typhoid all finished, and prescriptions for Malarone (malaria prophylactic), a Z-Pack, and Imodium all filled and ready to go.

I was able to meet with Chris Panek at the zoo, and he seems like he'll be really great to travel with, and it's even been worked out now for us to have our own rooms in most locations. There are sixteen people going on the main trip to Tanzania and six of us going on to the extension trip to Tsavo West and Amboseli National Parks in Kenya. Most of us are meeting for a dinner together in Washington, DC, the night before we depart. I'll be interested in meeting them and seeing the other personalities that will be together for a couple of weeks.

Isis, BZ's beautiful lioness

I've been reading everything that I can get my hands on about the areas that I will be visiting, and have watched every TV show and YouTube available about big cats, elephants, cape buffalo, rhinos, etc. I've really learned a lot. By the way, one of my favorites has been the Big Cat Diary, originally a BBC series that is re-run every morning on Animal Planet. These folks give us a great idea, especially over a period of time, of what life in the Serengeti (actually, they're in Masai Mara, but close enough) is like for the lions, cheetahs and leopards they follow on a daily basis. You can tell that they really love following their favorite cats.

On the literary side, I have started reading Hemingway's The Green Hills of Africa. It's clearly from an era different from ours today, with little enlightenment toward conservation issues or tolerance for native cultures. Ol' Ernest is not an easy read, almost all dialogue, but I'm managing, finally, to make some headway. It's little hard to identify, though, with someone who is trying the kill the rhino with the biggest horn, especially when they've already killed one rhino. He's not interested in the ivory, just the trophy.

The details of my visit with my old pals from Jefferson Middle School, Maureen and Joanne, have all been worked out, and I'll be staying that night at the same hotel just outside of Moshi where they are going to be, rather than trying to run back and forth to Arusha, which got complicated and expensive. I'm hoping that all will work out and that our van going from Arusha to the Kenya border crossing will not forget to pick me up the next morning. The Stella Maris Hotel at Mailisita is right on the same road on which they have to travel, so it really shouldn't be a problem.

If you need to contact me while I'm gone, please use email, or, for texts, because normal texting rates to Africa are so nuts, please use my new TextNow number, 972-876-7905. Thanks.

Next report, hopefully, May 23, from Arusha Serena Mountain Lodge, Tanzania.

Until then, Kwaheri, and Asante Sana for following my blog.