safari

Here is a little taste of the safari we went on last weekend to Ruaha National Park. If you want to see more, I put 87 of the 400 pictures on facebook.



This elephant really was that close. This is not using the zoom.



This lion wasn't really that close. I was using the zoom.

whoa, it's been a busy month

The blog doesn't say so, but it was a busy August. We still haven't gotten permission from the government and university to do the research that we were supposed to do this summer, but we had lots of other tasks, like visiting organizations and government officials, and furnishing the project house. Here are some events and pictures from August:

Three times we drove (Justin drove, we were passengers) south to visit other towns in the region for work. Njombe is a large town, far enough away that we had to stay overnight. Once, we broke up the trip and stayed on a farm in between Iringa and Njombe.

Lucky us, the staff made a mistake and upgraded us to a luxury cabin.



We took the day off and hiked around the farm, stopping to see their crops, cattle, and lakes.




On one of the trips to Njombe, we stayed with some new-found Danish friends, on their farm. They had tons of fowl, goats, sheep, and cows




as well as a bunch of pigs. These little piglets were just 4 days old.




Njombe has a club that was once the British colonial club, complete with a library of old books and a snooker table. It's a bit like pool, but the table is huge.



Part of our work-related travels were documented in a Tanzanian newspaper!






Back at home, we put our fireplace to use. Yes, it is cold enough in Iringa to have fires!




Juma roasted hot dogs over the fire, and invented a new dish: chocolate hot dogs. He claims it was good. Later, Justin has a metal worker make a grill for the fire, so we can cook lots of yummy stuff.




Since we moved into an unfurnished house, Justin has been having a carpenter build us furniture (Iringa region produces timber). Here's a view of the empty dining room



and now with our 8-chair table.



We also bought some tables that are serving as work desks for now in our once-empty living room. (We still don't have couches or anything.)






We also had beds made, then fancy mosquito nets.




Right now, we are in Zanzibar for the end of our trip. We got to see the new baby boy of our friends we met last year. Meet Nuh (Arabic version of Noah).

9 years old!

Happy Birthday, Juma! You have brought so much fun into our lives, and you are such a great kid to hang out with. You love to do so many things:

You are a board game champion,




you have a great imagination and love pretending to be different characters (here, a 19th century Hehe chief),




you are the best at being a silly head,




a great rock hunter,




a cave explorer,



iPad gamer,




an excellent rock climber,




and a budding biologist.



Happy Birthday, buddy!

another cutie picture of little Sarah

She is now in Pemba with her mom, meeting her grandparents for the first time. They are, of course, thrilled.

monkeys and bullfrogs and butterflies, oh my!

Iringa-Dar-Zanzibar

We finished up our short trip to Iringa, and took the looong car ride back to Dar es Salaam. We heard from various people that the car ride between Dar and Iringa is anywhere from 5 to 8 hours. It took us 10, door-to-door. Part of that was because we went into Morogoro town, partway between the two cities, to eat at a certain Indian restaurant that was recommended by someone on another project team. The food was fabulous, but they apparently had to prepare everything from scratch after we ordered it (actually, this is the norm for mid-priced restaurants in Tanzania; we should have known), so we were there for a while. The distance is about 500 kilometers, so we could make the trip in 5 hours...if there were absolutely no other cars or slow-moving transport trucks on the road, no construction, no pot-holed sections, no rain, and no stops. Which will never happen. Next time we go, which will be as soon as next week, we’ll call ahead to the Indian place to give our order, so it’ll be piping hot and ready when we reach the town.

Everyone kept telling how cold it is in Iringa, and giving their sympathies for having to endure such cold. To them, the heat of Dar is the default, the normal, so Iringa is not only cold, but too cold. But to me, the cool of Iringa is awesome, and Dar is far too hot and sweaty. The weather was downright pleasant in Iringa, and uncomfortable in Dar, even in the cool season that we’re in now.

We’re in a little bit of a waiting game on the project with some bureaucracy, so we decided to come to Zanzibar, our second home. It’s lovely to be back. We’ve already run across some people we know and visited a couple of our old haunts. We had a couple of meetings with people in the US today, so we conducted them via Skype from a rooftop restaurant while a great view of Stone Town and a lovely breeze, and then while having gelato at our favorite little Italian place just off the beach. Justin commented that it’s too bad we have to do work while we’re in Zanzibar; I said, “Yeah, but we’d be working anyway; might as well do it from Zanzibar!”

One our second day here in Zanzibar, we went to our oldest friend, Juma's, house. His wife gave birth to their first child in February. We'd been waiting almost 5 months to meet her. Since our Juma is named after big Juma, they named little Sarah after me!

meet Sarah Juma Hussein

Juma jumping (Iringa, Tanzania)

Disney

As part of a Beckham family reunion in California, we took Juma to Disneyland with his cousins. Juma is a perfect age for Disneyland, and had an absolute blast, especially playing with Rylee and Tristan.





Some of his other cousins were a bit young to quite enjoy it...but they were very cute all the same.

Juma at after school care with two of his friends

He created this and asked his teacher to take a picture of it.

birthday

I took Justin paintballing for his birthday. Hardcore fun.

new nephew

We have a new nephew, Cole, son of Cameron and Stephanie Beckham. He's in the NICU on oxygen, born a month early, but doing well and improving steadily.

cousins' weekend

Randall & Ashli and the kids came down to Baltimore for the weekend. We had a great time hanging out in Baltimore and in DC.

In Baltimore on Saturday, the kiddos played Wii while Jane napped.



Then we explored the Inner Harbor, downtown, and all its strange sites before hitting our favorite pizza place.




On Sunday, we drove down to DC where we saw the White House



and the Museum of Natural History.



By the end of walking all around the National Mall, the kids (and grown-ups) were pooped! Kate pulled out her classic "I'm so cute, give me everything I want" frowns.



And the rest of us sat down on the sidewalk and moaned.



But little Jane had sleep soundly in her stroller, so was as happy and refreshed as could be by the end of the trip.




Everyone was sad we had to say goodbye. But we only live 4 hours apart, so hopefully we'll do this again soon.