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!

50th Anniversary Cruise 

Hard to believe that this summer is almost half over.  This first half has been one non-stop whirlwind of travel, family, friends, and lots and lots of fun!  This is my first week with hardly any planned activities; giving me a chance to do some catching up with things I’ve let slide by.

My last blog entry was about my husband and I getting ready to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary.  Well, we did just that by taking a Holland America cruise from Venice to Rome.  We started the trip by spending two nights in Venice before we boarded the ship.  We had not been to Venice since 2005, so it was wonderful to be there again.  We stayed at the beautiful Hotel Bonvecchiati, which is just a 2 minute walk from St. Mark’s Square.  It is located on one of the smaller canals leading to the Grand Canal.

One afternoon we made reservations for the rooftop of the 4 story indoor mall.  The reservation allows you to spend 15 minutes on the roof taking pictures of the absolutely amazing 360-degree view.

On our second night in Venice we, as well as many other guests, were taken by private motor-launch onto the Grand Canal, where we motored up to a privately owned 16th-century palace, where we were met by a member of the noble family (she looked exactly like Lauren Bacall).  We entered the courtyard and to our utter amazement the piece of property went back approximately 125 ft.  The garden was so lovely with meandering paths throughout the well-manicured plants and shrubs.

Musicians dressed in Venetian gondola-style clothing played, while waiters in white dinner jackets walked amongst the guests carrying trays of hors de oeuvres.  There was also an open bar and tables with more food.  The guests were dressed in their finery for such an elegant evening which added to the special event.

Before it was time to depart and return to our hotel we got to tour the inside of the palace.  It was 4-stories and all the furnishings were vintage.  The views from every window facing the Grand Canal were extraordinary!  The lady who had met us as we arrived now said goodbye to us as we thanked her and stepped onboard the motor-launch, returning to our hotel.  It was an evening I will fondly remember.

The next day we boarded the Oosterdam to begin the cruise.  It went to ports in Croatia, Albania, Greece, Malta, and Italy. 

On a tour to Olympia, Greece, we visited the site of the first Olympics and saw where the Olympic torch starts its journey.  

We had a delicious lunch in the picturesque seaside town of Chania, Crete on the day of our anniversary.  When we returned to the ship and went in our cabin we were greeted by two towel swans forming a heart sitting on our bed, made by our delightful two cabin stewards, who were quite excited about us celebrating our 50th anniversary.  That night we had dinner reservations at the Pinnacle Grill on the ship.  It was a truly wonderful day and one we will never forget.

The day we were in Palermo, Sicily, we found our way to the largest of the three outdoor markets, where we had been two years ago while on an OAT trip.  We had a yummy lunch of arancini and wine, followed by a cannoli later on.

Our last port before we got to Rome was Naples, Italy.  We had been there several times so this time we took a jet boat over to the Isle of Capri and spent most of the day there.  We had a delicious lunch with a breathtaking view of the harbor far below.  Later the jet boat whisked us back to the ship in time to get ready for the last night of our special 50th anniversary trip.