Dragon, Dodo, and Safari

Sorry about the amount of time since the last post. So much has happened! Two weeks ago, we were on safari in northern Tanzania, and I think I can safely say that it was one of the best trips any of us has ever taken. We stopped briefly in Arusha, a northern city, and then went to Serengeti National Park, then to the Ngorongoro Crater, then to Lake Manyara, and then back to Arusha for a couple of days before returning home. It was wonderful enough that I don’t really know how to begin to tell you about it, so I’ve decided just to provide a list of highlights. In no particular order:

1. We saw a lot of animals, and some of them walked right by our safari vehicle. It must have been the season for baby animals, too, because we saw families of lions, elephants, zebras, cheetahs, warthogs, and wildebeests. I may be forgetting a few. The baby elephants in particular were very cute, since they were so (relatively) tiny, although there’s something to be said for baby warthogs, which look exactly like regular warthogs but are about half as big. And the baby zebras were adorable (see below).

2. Every time we saw a baby zebra, Eleuthera said, “Oh, they’re so cute!” Eleuthera also explained that she identified with the baby zebras, since they are brown and velvety when they are younger, and Eleuthera herself used to have light brown hair which is now much darker. Very zebra-like.

3. Bree, Eleuthera, and I all really liked the way zebras stand next to each other facing in different directions (presumably so that they can see predators coming). We practiced standing next to each other zebra-style.

4. In other zebra-related news, Tim wandered off one evening and Bree postulated that he had been eaten by zebras. Eleuthera sang “Got eaten by zebras” to the tune of “On top of spaghetti.”

5. We went camping! It was my first time camping, although everyone else had been before, and it was amazing. You should all try sleeping under the stars in the Serengeti. The sky was one of the clearest I have ever seen. We think we saw the Milky Way (not sure though) and the Southern Cross, and I saw a shooting star. We were actually in very warm tents, which was good because it was cold and damp at night, particularly in Ngorongoro.

6. We were accompanied on safari by a high school girl named Lillian, who got booked on the same tour with us, and by a guide and cook who we thought were named Dragon and Dodo. When they wrote their names down at the end of the trip, we discovered that Dragon’s name is actually Reagan or something similar, but Dodo’s name really is Dodo. They took terrific care of us and we would highly recommend them to anyone who is going on safari in Tanzania.

7. Dodo was a terrific cook. Our food on safari was actually better than our food here in Dar. It was also accompanied by his commentary. Dodo’s English was pretty good, and he would sometimes use unusual phrases that made us very happy. On our first night, he told us to wait because soon it would be time of soup. The soup turned out to be great (something involving leeks, I think), and we tried to get him to say “time of soup” whenever we could. He also once told us that before he cooked, he had to go wash his bod. Basically, he was a sweet guy and really good at his work, in which he took obvious pride. We were impressed by the range of food he made while we were on safari, and every night we got bread and soup as well as a main course. We think he should open a restaurant in the U.S., on the theory that people would come to hear him talk as well as to eat his food.

8. Dragon (sorry, I can’t call him anything else) was equally terrific. He had to have a variety of skills in order to do his job—he had to drive rough safari roads, speak English, and know enough about the animals to find them and tell us about them. He spoke Spanish as well as English, so Eleuthera and Tim wound up speaking Spanish with him. Just a very nice, mild-mannered guy. We miss him.

9. I should mention at this point that we were in a real safari vehicle with removable roof panels, so we spent a lot of time standing on the seats and standing halfway out of the truck, looking around us at the trees and animals. It was sort of like being in a convertible but much more so, and it made the experience that much more vivid. (Parents: Dragon was a very safe driver and we were totally okay.) 

10. We camped out on the lawn of a hotel one night, and we wound up talking to some of the salespeople who do business with tourists. They were interested in whether or not we knew American athletes and musicians. Tim told one guy that he knew Elton John and had rice and beans at his house. Another man asked me if I knew Snoopy.

11. Yet another man offered Tim money for his socks.

12. In general, the salespeople wanted to trade us for things from the U.S. We didn’t have much, since it was near the end of our trip and pretty much all we had were dirty clothes and bug spray—although one guy offered to trade for my bug spray.

I’m running out of time, so I think that’s all I can post for now. There will be more updates later, since more happened on safari and in the meantime we have started our jobs and been to Zanzibar.

Also, a very happy birthday and lots of love to my Aunt Connie.

~Caitlin