Easter Safari

We spent the last day of our long, four day holiday out at a local private game park. I do so hate having to drive around and look at animals and then eat a big, delicious lunch. Rough life, I know! Granted, a lot more rough for the animals we had for lunch, in this case impala, which was yummy in my tummy!

Impala like THESE impala. Yum! Only one of a wide variety of ungulates we spectated today, though the only one we ate, to the best of my knowledge.

Why hello Mr. Elephant! Thank you for patiently standing 20 feet away from our vehicle so we could take your photo. Nice of you to oblige! This park actually only has three elephants, this male, one female and a six-year old "toddler." We were lucky enough to get to see all three.

There is a zebra in this photo, I swear!

There are mom and baby!

Giraffes!

Non Sequitur

A collection of totally unaggregated random musings, with photos!

When you go to the health unit because you have a bunch of odd bites all over your legs, you neither expect, nor want, to hear "huh... that's interesting."

Your tax dollars at work: condoms in both the men's and women's bathrooms here at work. I am not sure how it makes sense to hand out free condoms to the locals most likely to actually have enough money to buy condoms, but there you go.

We were finally able to schedule the office carpenter to come to the house and hang pictures (cinder block walls are a pain to hang things and they really don't want you putting in a a ton of holes on your own, so you are supposed to schedule someone to come and do this.) Scheduled for the exact same morning when they are replacing our generator and doing some other electrical work and thus turning off the power. So, in one email from the same person coordinating both of these things I see: power will be off from 9-12 and the carpenter will come to hang art at 9. I call and ask, "ummm doesn't the carpenter need to use a drill... that needs to be plugged in to you know, electricity?" "Oh, yes." "How is he supposed to use said power tools when there is no power? "Oh." Sigh.....

Lemons! So many lemons! We have now made lemon ice cream, lemon bread pudding, lemon juice ice cubes to go in mixed drinks, chicken piccata, lemonade... I think that is about it, but we also will be making lemon sugar cookies as a project over the long holiday weekend.

Found at one of the local stores, totally randomly and only sighted once: crocodile bread! Someone got a little creative in the bakery...

In bad parenting news I managed to melt not just one but both of T's favorite toys. We had been out of the house all day, they spent a lot of time on the ground, I thought I would be a good parent and boil them, along with some other stuff, to get them cleaned up. Despite their rather sturdy appearance, the plastic did not withstand the boiling water and Mr. Butterfly and Mr. Caterpillar met their untimely demise. And, of course, they were both old K toys and one is only available in a set and the other no longer exists. And yes, I know she is 6 months old, has the attention span of a gnat and no real memory, but they made her so happy (see photographic evidence above). Hopefully the strange trippy green bunny she is getting for Easter will be equally loved.

Life is good when you have a flower the size of your head and feet!

Three three-year olds and a bucket full of water balloons. What could possibly go wrong?

K getting into the spirit of the big community Easter Egg hunt.

The closest approximation I can get to a "good" photo of K and T with me. This would be them "cooperating." You should see the bad photos!

Conclusion of our First Trip

I apologize for the lapse in posting. Work craziness, which is another story for another time. But I wanted to wrap up my thoughts on our big adventure of three weeks ago.

As I think I mentioned, we went about three hours drive south to a very nice little lodge. The drive itself was interesting. We were on what is ostensibly one of the biggest "highways" in the country, and while it was an ok road by Africa standards, there were still occasional spots with giant sinkholes, a couple hundred yards of random gravel thrown in for good measure and other fun, and often unexpected obstacles. We were going through some mountains as well, and there were a few more guardrails missing than I would have liked. And by "missing" I mean that someone had obviously plowed into them and gone over the side.

We were headed in the direction of the border with a neighboring country so there was a lot of truck traffic coming in. We kept joking that we should be on the lookout for our second car which was supposed to be making its way up to us along that route (it has since arrived, also another story for another day). We spent part of the drive behind two petro trucks, which was, quite frankly terrifying. Let's combine a bad road, sharp mountain switchbacks, evidence of occasional rock slides with... two trucks filled with highly flammable material. Wheeeeeee!!! I again emphasize that this was a major road, which makes it all the more odd that two trucks we saw on the drive down that were half pulled over, half still in the road, suffering from what appeared to be damage from a rockslide were still there two nights later upon our return.

The other fun challenge of the drive was the goats. Herd after herd after herd of goats. Very few with any obvious person minding them. They were just wandering in and out of the road to their little hearts' content. The baby ones were really cute, and I kinda wanted one or two. So I started wondering aloud just how much cash it would take to get a goat if we just pulled over and pointed at one (not much, I suspect). Then I started wondering just how fast a whole bunch of little village kids would appear from the bushes if we stopped and tried to just grab a goat and go (no doubt before we could even pull away, I suspect, not that we would really steal a goat, of course.)

Anyway, this was how we amused ourselves for most of the trip and everyone was getting a little tired of traveling, especially after twenty minutes on a much less major, all dirt road and we kept repeating to ourselves that we just had to catch the ferry, then 10 more minutes and we would be there. Instead, to our dismay, we encountered the scene depicted below.

So this is where we were supposed to cross the river. Looks safe, huh! The marvel of engineering at the opposite side is the pontoon boat that is intended to ferry cars across. As you can see from the backhoe, and the line of cars parked on the other side, it was out of commission. I am not sure whether I was happy or sad that it was out of commission, as it didn't really look like it would work particularly well even when it was working.

Instead of crossing with our trusty truck and driving all the way to the lodge, we instead backtracked a few kilometers and went to a different lodge where we left the truck and waited for our lodge's boat to come and pick us up. I was terribly embarrassed by the amount of stuff we had packed for a two night stay. It didn't seem so silly when it was all packed up in the truck and we were going to drive it in, but when it was unloaded and then had to be transfered to a boat then it seemed a bit more foolish. But we really did use almost all of it, with very few exceptions!! And the boat ride was really fun and we saw our very first elephant on that ride.

On vacation, with amazing views of nature everywhere, including frequent appearances by elephants right across the river, and of course C and K are distracted by electronics. Nonetheless, this was the deck of our little hut. Possibly the best thing about the deck was that in the morning coffee magically appeared on a lovely little tray at a predetermined time. Ahhh!

C and K on the boat. They look like they just might be related, huh? She wore an expression similar to that for most of the weekend, and we were worried that she had a really awful time, but she has been talking about the elephants and hippos she saw ever since so I guess it made a good impression.

Me and T on the boat. This was pretty much the full extent of her participation. I would uncover her head every now and again to get a quick photo, but mostly she was hanging out and sleeping in the carrier.

This was the bar and lounge and covered dining area of the lodge. You can see C and T at the very end of the table. It was really lovely, and a lot of fun to get to interact with the other guests at breakfast and lunch. We had great weather, so dinner both nights was down on a lower, open patio. A dinner that I got to enjoy participating in because the lodge was happy to supply a "watcher," one of their night guards to sit outside the room and run and get us if the kids made a peep. A very handy perk indeed!

Here we all are at the end of the trip, about to get back on the boat. C and I are both happy. The girls both look skeptical. But I think, overall, it was a good trip.

Weekend Photos: Quickie Elephants Edition

Work has been crazy and things have just been hectic but I didn't want to let the weekend totally get away from me without taking the opportunity to rub it in a little that we saw elephants. Lots of elephants. Really really close to us. It felt a little like the elephants were clocking in... "ok, its my turn to go stand by the water, eat some grass and entertain the tourists." All in a hard days work for an elephant.

We will show this photo to poor T someday as proof that she "saw" elephants.

Hopefully K is old enough that she will actually remember them. She has spoken of them fondly quite often since the trip, so there is hope.

Classic elephant pose... you have to tip extra for that!

We're watching you....

Yup, that's pretty cool.

Sunday Photos: River Horse Edition

We just had an amazing long weekend at a camp in the south of the country, along one of the big rivers. There were some minor logistical bumps in the road, but we like to think of it as practice for all of our future adventures once friends and family start to visit. The accommodations were lovely, the food was delicious, and we saw an abundance of elephants and hippos. This first post is devoted to the the blog's namesake: the majestic river horse.

A family of hippos hanging out next to a sandbar. The gates to the major hydroelectric damn had been opened so the water was very high when we arrived on Friday. But the shut the gates sometime during the day on Friday so the water dropped close to two meters overnight. That whole sandbar was underwater the day before.

Another, larger family group hanging out. We went out on boat rides on Friday afternoon, and then again Saturday morning and afternoon. Each time we saw 5 or 6 big groups (hippo groups are called a pod, herd or bloat) like this. They were always very aware of our presence but did not seem bothered. They would sink under water and then pop back up snorting and shaking their ears to clear out the water. We saw lots of baby hippos, including a few standing on top of their mothers backs.

We also saw some solitary hippos, which were most likely young males who had been kicked out of their family groups but had not yet established their own families.

This small puppy was out on the river bank having a snack.

He was even kind enough to give us a profile shot highlighting his shapely legs and scary teeth.

Elephants, crocodiles, and, of course, the logistical shenanigans involved in this adventure still to come so stay tuned.

Sunday Rainbows

Happy Sunday everyone. Another good week here but nothing particularly exciting to report. I saw my first monkeys in Africa... at the Chinese Embassy, of all places! But there will be lots and lots of monkeys and other assorted flora and fauna next weekend because we decided spur of the moment to take a long weekend and go down to one of the game parks for a few nights. It should be really amazing and we can't wait to show the girls animals and it will be nice to get out of town for a few days. It does mean we had to actually trot out the anti-malarial meds and those puppies are really nasty tasting (and just might cause psychotic dreams, which sounds like a lot of fun for everyone!).

Oh, a baby related update as I am writing this! T just rolled over for the first time that I have seen (for all I know she rolls around like a log all day long but the nanny is too nice to tell me). It doesn't count as a first until mom sees it is generally my rule of thumb. She rolled back to front and then got stuck on her tummy and was highly displeased with her situation. Wait, why am I excited about this, that means she is one step closer to being mobile. Damn!

So stay tuned for what I hope will be lots of really fun photos next weekend. In the interim...

Uh-oh, someone is learning to fight back! T has started pulling hair (mine, K's, any unsuspecting victim foolish enough to wander into her grasp zone) like a champ.

But it's ok, everyone is happy in the end.

Especially mommy and daddy because their beer pong table fits nicely in their ridiculously large living room.

We are transitioning from the hot, rainy season to the dry, cool season, but while the weather has cooled off very nicely, apparently the rain gods didn't get the memo that it was time for them to start wrapping things up so it has been a very dreary, damp weekend. But we did get a very nice rainbow right around sunset on Friday. Actually, it wasn't just a rainbow, it was a full double rainbow (just for you, Shauna).

Sunday Baby Crocodiles

Another week has flow by! Work continues to be good, if hectic for both C and I. The girls seem to be adapting well to the new schedule and I have finally moved T into her actual crib in the room with K and the transition has been remarkably smooth thus far.

We always try to get out and do something fun during the weekend, and this Sunday our plan was to go to one of the local hotels for brunch. Not just because we like brunch, but because it has a pond in the courtyard with baby crocodiles. I can report that we were successful in seeing baby crocodiles, which was fun, but the brunch part of the equation was less successful. It was a perfect case study in eating out here. We sat down and ordered a smoothie for K and lattes for C and I while perusing the menu. Seemed reasonable enough. We wait and watch the crocs... wait... wait... wait... and finally the server brings out K's smoothie (strawberry instead of the requested banana, but who am I to squabble over a minor detail like that).

But no lattes. Which isn't unusual for a coffee beverage to take so long as the locals take their coffee seriously and take a year and a half to throw together a mocha. Not to say they aren't good, they just take an inordinately long time. And there is no such thing as a coffee place where you can just walk up to a counter, place your order, pay, get your coffee and leave. No. Even for take away coffee you must sit down. Someone brings a menu and then scurries off before you can order. The eventually wander back and you order. And wait. And wait. And then your coffee comes. And then you ask for a check. And the check eventually materializes. And then you wait for them to bring change. And finally, at long, long last, you take your coffee and go. All of this happens on a good day. Wherefore art thou Starbucks!

We continue to wait for our lattes, and the server does swing back by and we ask if they are serving food yet, as it is a bit early. The response C and I both swear we heard was, no, only on the other side of the restaurant and only for the guests of the hotel. Ok, no big deal, we will just have drinks and seek food elsewhere. If our drinks ever come. Finally a different server wanders over and says something along the lines of the handle is broken, so you can't have, would two cappuccino be ok instead. Sure! Anything with caffeine will be fine at this point!

So we continue our baby croc vigil while waiting for the drinks. We also notice that people around us are totally being served food. Er. Um. Ok. Whatever. The coffees finally arrive, and they are beautiful and tasty, I will give them that. But K is getting antsy so we ask for the check. And wait. And wait. And flag down someone else and ask again. More waiting. Finally, a full 30 minutes (I am NOT exaggerating!) later we finally get the check. And this is not unusual. I don't think we have ever managed to have a meal out where everything we tried to order was available. Inevitably there is something they don't have that day, or the cinnamon rolls are still baking (at 9am on a Saturday), or some piece of equipment is broken so they can't make something. It is always interesting to see just which item will be unavailable because it is almost always a totally random surprise.

But the story has a very happy ending because we found the Indian place in town (there are many, all pretty good) that does Sunday Indian brunch buffet. Yummy! And we did get to hang out with baby crocodiles for an hour.

Big and scary looking, huh! Its all about scale, he is really only about two feet long, if that. Baby crocodiles!

K very much enjoyed her reptilian friends. In fact, she wanted to order food for them off the menu. When we wouldn't let her do that, she instead started pointing out potential snacks to her new friends: "look alligator (there was some confusion on this point)! Mr. Froggy is over there!" How quickly she turned on poor Mr. Froggy!

There are four crocs in this photo. Can you find them all?

Gratuitous smiley T! Not rolling over, but almost sitting up, just like her sister at this age.

And K is using a lovely carved thing... vase? bowl? spittoon? as a repository for her play doh. Obviously that is the precise use for which the Afri-crap was intended. A little known fact about Afri-crap: it reproduces spontaneously. Possibly through budding, possibly through some other process, but inevitably there is more of this stuff than you thought you had, and we have only been here a few months!