SAFARI SERENGETI - PART THREE - ZANZIBAR

This amazing trip to Africa was booked more than a year in advance.  When I was sitting in my home half way around the world from Tanzania I could only imagine what the island of Zanzibar would be like.  The name alone conjures up an image of an exotic tropical island in the Indian Ocean.  I would soon discover that the reality far exceeded any image that I had in my mind.

To get to Zanzibar we had to fly from Arusha, Tanzania to the coastal city of Dar es Salaam, where we boarded another 12 passenger plane for our flight to Zanzibar.

The first few days in Zanzibar were spent in Stone Town, the birthplace of Freddy Mercury.  I stayed at the lovely Swahili House.  From the rooftop restaurant and bar you could see Stone Town stretching out to the ocean, within walking distance from the hotel.

Walking through the open-air street market is something I’ve done all over the world in the countries I’ve visited but each one is always fascinating to see with many products unique to the country I’m visiting.

After the street market I went to the old slave market site.  Reading and listening to the history in the museum was both educational and disturbing but walking through the underground cement bunkers where the slaves were packed in together in the heat and humidity that is year-round was beyond disturbing.

Stone Town itself is a maze of buildings and narrow alleyways going this way and that way; a place very easy to lose your sense of direction when navigating.  Thank goodness a local guide was leading the way or I might still be there trying to find my way!

After spending a few days in Stone Town it was time to go to paradise - namely a tropical place called Unguja Lodge.  The lodge is set in the jungle with the Indian Ocean at your doorstep.  Everything about the lodge and its location was absolutely breathtaking!  The villa my husband and I shared was like something we had once seen on International Househunters.  Most of the villa had a roof and partial sides but no walls so it was wide open to nature and the environment.  This included the bathroom, outdoor shower, and living room.  We also had a patio within about ten feet of the Indian Ocean where we could enjoy our morning coffee while watching local fishermen pass by.  The bedroom was the only enclosed room with four complete walls and a locked door to keep out the monkeys.

In fact, one morning while we were sitting on our patio drinking our coffee and enjoying a few cookies the maid had left for us, the monkeys decided to pay us a visit.  We tried to scare them off but they seemed quite intent on stealing a cookie as they made their way closer and closer.  Finally we retreated to the safety of our room to finish our coffee and cookies.

There are steps at the lodge that lead down into the Indian Ocean and the water is very warm and inviting.  The tidal change there was much greater than where I live near the Pacific Ocean.  It varies from low tide to high tide by as much as 6 -10 feet, which means the stairs to get down into the water are completely underwater during high tide.  

One morning our small group of ten set out on an old wooden sailboat for our day’s adventure.  Little did we know it would turn out to be a “Gilligan’s Island-like experience:”

“Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip

That started from this tropic port, aboard this tiny ship

The mate was a mighty sailing man, the skipper brave and sure

Ten passengers set sail that day, on a six-hour tour

A six-hour tour

The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed

If not for the courage of the fearless crew the Lou Lou would be lost

The Lou Lou would be lost”.

Yes, we were sailing about two hours from the lodge to snorkel a coral reef near a small island.  And just like the song the weather got very rough as we approached the reef.  The sky turned very dark, the wind howled and the seas were high and choppy.  All of a sudden the skies opened up and started pounding us with rain.  We all huddled under a huge tarp as the boat began to take on water. Quickly everyone strapped on a life vest over their wet suits as we were told we would have to jump into the ragging sea while the crew used buckets to bail water so the boat wouldn’t sink.

To say I was terrified is putting it mildly!  Some of the crew were already in the water with life preservers for us to hold on to, which is exactly what we all did. It was inherent that we not get swept into the reef where we would be shredded to pieces. I have no idea how long we bobbed around in the water while holding on to the life preserver for dear life.  Finally the skies lightened and the crew had bailed out most of the water so we were able to reboard the boat.  We headed for a large sandbar not too far away where tables, chairs, and umbrellas were all ready set up for a seafood barbecue.  We were all so relieved to be on dry ground again!  The barbecue was delicious and the wine flowed so that soon we were all laughing while we recalled our close encounter with the great unknown.  After lunch we enjoyed snorkeling a short distance off-shore.

The two hour ride back to the lodge was a relaxing end to an extremely adventurous day to say the least!

On another day we visited a spice plantation, a butterfly farm, and Jozani Chwaka Bay National Park where the red colobus monkeys roam freely and are sometimes quite close, even crossing the path right in front of my feet.

As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end, and before we knew it we had to say goodby to beautiful Unguja Lodge and the island of Zanzibar. 

SAFARI SERENGETI - PART TWO - TANZANIA

This morning, after saying goodbye to our Maasai guide George, our small group flew in a 12 passenger plane to Arusha, Tanzania for the next part of our African adventure.

While in Arusha our group visited the Safe Water Ceramics of East Africa, which is a non-profit organization providing clean drinking water for the people of Africa.  We heard the story of how this business came into being, watched the demonstration of how these water filters are made, then saw the difference between a glass of dirty pond water and a glass of pure clean drinking water from the ceramic filter.  Each water filter comes with instructions plus a scrub brush so the person receiving the filter knows how to care for it.  The water filter costs $40 and lasts 5 years, at which time they can be exchanged for a new one for $25.  Our group was so impressed we purchased 11 filters to be given away as we continued on our adventure.

Later that day as we were traveling back to our lodge we passed a small village and two women walking there with water buckets on top of their heads.  Our guide asked if we would like to donate a couple of our water filters and we all responded yes.  While we stood around watching, Nixon, one of our drivers, spoke in Swahili and demonstrated how to care for the filters.  The younger of the two ladies wanted to make sure she knew what to do so she proceeded to repeat the instructions (in Swahili) back to Nixon.  Watching this interaction was very special and made me feel so happy that our donation could have such a positive impact on improving the lives of the people in this village who would benefit from clean water.

While in Arusha we also visited the “Albino Peacemakers”, a women’s sewing group for women with albinism.  We learned that 80% die of skin cancer by the age of 30.  Many women with albinism are rejected by their villages and families.  The building we visited provided a safe environment for them to work so they could provide for their families.  Some of the items they create on treadle sewing machines are double-sided aprons, tote bags, placemats, and many other textiles, all made with beautiful African fabrics.

While going on game drives in Tarangire National Park we stayed in a private camp at Lake Burunge.  One of the days was spent visiting a Maasai village, where we joined in their dance celebration, and also learned about their traditions.  I even sat with the Maasai women to bead jewelry using thin wire.  At the end of the visit I had an opportunity to buy some of the hand-beaded jewelry the women of the village had made.

Another important part of every OAT trip is a visit to the local primary school.  These are schools all over the world that The Grand Circle Foundation helps support.  We, as travelers, bring much-needed school supplies as well as make private donations if we choose to do so.  The classroom we visited was ages 10-12 and they sang a couple of songs for us in Swahili and then we sang a song for them. The children encouraged us to sit with them at their desks so they could practice communicating in English and show us some of their school work.  The school visits are always my favorite part of a trip because the children are so excited to see us, and of course that includes taking many, many photos which they love to pose for.

The next day, on our way to the Serengeti, we passed through the Ngorongoro entrance gates.  Before long we arrived at the viewpoint for the Ngorongoro Crater.  I couldn’t believe my eyes!  It was such a beautiful sight and absolutely enormous, with no sign of life whatsoever.  As I looked from one side across to the other side of this massive crater I kept thinking “this is the garden of Eden.”  I could see water at the bottom with a pallet of green colors throughout the crater.  The Ngorongoro Conservation Area Land is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The circular crater is 2000 feet deep and about 12 miles across.  We drove along the rim of the crater for a while as we made our way to the Serengeti far beyond the crater. 

The great Serengeti was a vast, open plain as far as the eye could see.  We traveled on rocky, dirt roads,  kicking up a huge plume of dust as we sped along.  Eventually the terrain changed to more hills and valleys, mountains and canyons.  Our tented camp was set up in one of these valleys surrounded by mountains and trees and bushes.

Each tent had comfortable twin beds, sink, toilet, and shower area, everything you needed.  Every night I heard the chilling sounds of vicious hyenas calling out to each other.  They actually terrified me more than the lions did.

Showers in the tented camp were fine for a Californian who learned how to take a “seaman’s shower” a long time ago in order to conserve our precious water.  Each day when we returned from the afternoon game drive there was one of the camp staff boiling water somewhere behind the tents for our showers.  We were each given 4 gallons of water to shower with.  There was a shower head with a chain to pull to start or stop the water.  I yelled out “tent number 3, shower number 1” and I could hear the water being poured into the top of my shower bucket.  By starting and stopping the water flow I was able to wash my thick hair as well as my body and still have enough water left for my husband to use when I was done.  He probably only used less than a gallon of his own 4 gallon allotment  to finish his shower.  

On one game drive we made our way far up into the mountains where we got to witness part of the “great migration” of the wildebeest and zebras as they made their way north.  It was truly a sight to see these animals running together kicking up enormous clouds of dust as they went.

One morning we awoke before sunrise to take a hot air balloon ride over the Serengeti.  It was an amazing ride, so peaceful as we drifted along the river, watching the hippopotamus below.  Afterward we enjoyed a champagne bush breakfast in the Serengeti.

After leaving the Serengeti we traveled back to the Ngorongoro Crater again, only this time we took a narrow, winding, one-lane rocky dirt road down to the very bottom of the crater.  Once down at the bottom I could see all the many different species of animals grazing alongside each other, something I couldn’t see from the top of the crater.  We spent many hours on the game drive at the bottom since the area is quite large and spread out.

When we finally left the Ngorongoro Crater we drove to Arusha to take a flight to the island of Zanzibar, where Part Three of my adventure concludes.

SAFARI SERENGETI - PART ONE, 

MASAI MARA GAME RESERVE

I’ve recently returned from spending the month of February in Kenya and Tanzania, with the last 6 days of the trip on the island of Zanzibar.  It was an amazing trip with many unique experiences along the way.

The trip started in Nairobi, Kenya, and from there I traveled to the Masai Mara Game Reserve for the next 4 days.  Our guide was George, a Maasai warrior.

Going out for the first game viewing drive in the Mara was not what I expected.  The Mara was covered in tall grasslands that swayed in the wind and there were clumps of trees and rolling hills, with green everywhere I looked.  It was a serene and peaceful sight.

The wild animals I had come to see were plentiful.  Even though this was my second time to come to Africa the exhilarating feeling of seeing something so wild and dangerous and beautiful still took my breath away.  By the second day our group had already seen the “Big Five”, which is not an easy thing to accomplish.  Some people that visit Africa and go on game drives never do see the Big Five.

Here is the Wikipedia explanation about the big five:

“In Africa, the Big Five game animals are the lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and Cape buffalo. The term was coined by big-game hunters, and refers to the five most difficult animals in Africa to hunt on foot, but is now also widely used by safari tour operators.”

The safari vehicles on this trip to Africa were quite different from the vehicles on my prior African trip 8 years ago.  These Land Cruisers were closed-sided with sliding windows and seated 6.  The roof hatch opened up about two feet so each passenger could stand on their seat and view the animals and take pictures.

The roads were all rock and dirt so driving was continuously bumpy and very dusty.  The drivers call the ride “the African massage”.  It’s definitely not for someone with back issues.  If you were seated in the farthest back two seats you really got “massaged”.  Hence the need to rotate seats after a few hours riding in the back.

During the early morning game drives the vehicles would stop somewhere for a mid-morning coffee break.  We all looked forward to these.  They’d set up small tables and have thermoses of hot coffee or tea and always some yummy cookies the cook had made and packed for us.  One day we even had a brown bag picnic lunch out on the Mara.  These breaks were a good time to stretch our legs and visit with each other about what we had seen on the game drive since each of the three vehicles went there own way.  When one of the drivers spotted an animal the others would like to see they used something similar to a CB to communicate back and forth so the other two vehicles could find our location.

On one of the afternoons at our lodge we gathered together for a talk by our Maasai guide, George.  He told us about the Maasai culture and what he had to endure to become a Maasai Warrior.  One custom was the burning of small circles on his bicep when he was still a young boy.  This was to prepare him for his circumcision when he reached puberty.  In order to become a warrior he had to show absolutely no pain whatsoever when he was circumcised.  This was done with a knife, in front of the males in his family and tribe, without any anesthesia or pain relief medicine.  He could not even flinch his eyes or grimace.  Of course George’s story had most of us squirming, especially the men in our group.

Part of our talk was the presentation of a female Maasai.  George told us about some of the customs for the women, including stretching of the earlobes several inches and the removal of the bottom two front teeth.  He also explained about her jewelry and clothing.  The large circular necklace was made for her wedding, as well as her leather belt.  After the talk by George, the local Maasi women performed a song for us.

The next morning we left early to drive to a small dirt airstrip to board a 12 passenger airplane and fly to Nairobi, Kenya.  From there we traveled in safari vehicles to Arusha, Tanzania, where we began the next part of our African adventure.

ACCURACY OR PERFECTION 

Over the years I’ve tried very hard not to be such a perfectionist about my quilting.  For one thing, I don’t make quilts to enter into shows.  So what if my seams don’t quite match up to the next block.  Or my free motion quilting isn’t as even as it should be.  I keep reminding myself that there aren’t any quilt police, and most people won’t even see my mistakes if I don’t point them out.

So, having said all that, what was I recently doing with my seam ripper in hand painstakingly taking apart the small quilt top I had spent hours carefully (or so I thought) sewing together at my last weekend quilt retreat.  For one thing, I was not happy about how it looked when I got it all pieced together, even though my friends at the retreat thought it looked good.  Several weeks later I took the quilt top out of the closet and looked at it again.  I couldn’t believe how bad it really looked.  I love the fabrics and the pattern but oh my goodness the piecing was just awful!  I knew that there was no way I could live with it looking like that.

As I attacked those mismatched seams with my seam ripper, I tried to figure out what possessed me to do such shoddy work.  I came up with some possible reasons that made perfect sense.  I mentioned that I was at a quilt retreat with friends.  Part of the fun of being at a retreat is talking and laughing.  And maybe some wine drinking too. And on top of those things, I had to do all my piecing with a walking foot on my sewing machine.  I had remembered to pack everything I needed for the retreat except for one very small, but critical thing - the shank that attaches to all the sewing feet used on my machine.  It was at home sitting in a cute little bowl on my sewing table.  I had removed it at home to use the walking foot and never replaced it when I was done.  Trying to accurately piece a 1/4” seam with a walking foot is just not the same as using a 1/4” foot made specifically for that purpose.

After the entire quilt was taken apart I repressed everything and even recut a few of the pieces.  Then I started piecing each block back together using a 1/4” foot, diligently pressing seams and carefully measuring each block as I went along.  What a difference that made!  As I sewed all the blocks together I was quite pleased with how much better they all matched up.  At this point you’re probably saying, duh, even beginning quilters know this.  Yes, I did know this, but I only recently starting piecing quilts again after spending years creating and making art quilts.  Guess it was time for a “piecing 101” refresher course. 

All said and done I learned a very good lesson redoing this quilt. As the old saying goes:  "Anything worth doing is worth doing well" sure rings true.  You can call it being accurate or being a perfectionist.  I call it a quilt I'm proud to show.

TALES OF AN OBSESSED QUILTER

All I have to do is walk into my sewing room and it’s like I’ve entered a time machine where big chunks of time go whizzing by while I’m lost in another world.  The same thing happens to me whenever I start designing a new quilt pattern on EQ8 on the computer, which happens to be sitting right next to my sewing machine.  Yes, entering that room definitely has an affect on me.

Ever since summer ended and there are no more pool and beach days to take up my free time I’ve noticed my pace has picked up in whatever I’m doing.  Seems the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer are gone for another year and I’m trying to make up for some lost time.  At least that’s my theory for why I’ve been sewing and designing at a fever pitch recently.

Which brings me to the present time of writing something for my blog, which I realized I’ve sorely neglected in my designing/sewing frenzy of the past two months.

Now don’t get me wrong, I certainly don’t spend every waking moment at either my computer or sewing machine.  The gym is still top priority every morning.  An hour workout is what gives me the energy to do the things I love in life.  But my key to getting out the door in the morning is to NOT ENTER THE SEWING ROOM!!  Honestly, if i just walk in there to peek at something, it’s another hour before I leave for the gym. 

Then there are the things we all have to do such as shopping, errands, doctor/dental appointments, lunch dates, etc. etc.  Some weeks there’s not a lot of free time left, while other weeks there’s lots of free days.  And I’ve been making sure I get as much done as I can whenever I’m able.  So for the past two months I’ve managed to design and sew quite a few of my projects.  I’ve also quilted a few UFOs and shared them at my monthly quilt guild meetings recently. 

 

In fact, yesterday at our monthly meeting I shared another one of my projects.  That one sat has sat for almost a month waiting for the binding to be done, while I worked on more interesting things.  Then this past Friday I decided I really wanted to finish it so I could show it at the guild meeting.  All I had time for on Friday was to cut the binding, piece it together, iron it, and get it sewn on the front of the quilt.  Later that evening I folded it over to the other side and put clips on it, but that was as far as I could go.  My right eye was so bloodshot and sore from the 16% humidity that I had to stop any close up work.  So the next morning I was determined to get that quilt binding done!  

My husband and I always enjoy having breakfast together each morning.  Some mornings it’s more rushed because one of us has an appointment, so it wasn’t unusual that I was in a bit of a hurry yesterday morning.  I finished and went to shower and get ready for my meeting.  I had rushed enough that I had one half hour with which to get that binding sewn on.  With no time to hand sew it on I did what any quilter in my position would have done…….I sewed it on using my sewing machine.  I got it done in less than a half hour too!  When I walked downstairs I proudly announced to my husband, “I got my quilt done so I can bring it to show and tell at my meeting.”  He looked at me, smiled and jokingly said, “You really are obsessed!”

And I did show it at my meeting yesterday, even though it had threads hanging from it.  Seems I needed one half hour more to bury all my threads.  Yes, I admit it, I am obsessed with what I love to do!