The Nose of Kilimanjaro

After close to a week of watching the Big 5 through a Land Cruiser window, Bill and I were ready for a nice walk... Seven days were ahead of us which included a little camping, hiking, scrambling, with a touch of labored breathing. Ok, maybe a LOT of labored breathing, I have to admit even I was pretty winded in the last 6 hours of climbing. Luckily, the swelling of my face had decreased significantly, although you may still have mistaken me for the "elephant man".

The adventure started in 2003 when Betsy decided it a good idea to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro (19,334 FASL), currently the tallest mountain in Africa, one of the Seven Summits. She took the Machame route which is a south-central (Dr. Dre reference not intended but you may infer) route and is considerably difficult in relation to other routes. This sparked the genius idea from Bill that we take on Kili while they were here to visit. I, always looking for adventure, responded with an enthusiastic, "sure!".

Through months of planning and research with every company known to man, we chose Evan's Adventure Tours. They are a relatively small outfit with decent reviews and an array of new equipment designed to help you up the mountain. This was an obvious choice for Bill, now we just had to decide which route to take. Again, Bill consulted his Kilimanjaro guide book for the answer and it pointed to one distinct choice, Rongai Route. The Rongai Route is on the North side of Kili, the village situated at the gate is in fact a border town with Kenya. It takes a semi-meandering route, since the North side is relatively steep, to reach Kibo, the summit camp of Marangu Route. Being the rainy season, the North side of the mountain seemed like the logical choice since it receives less rain.

Saturday morning came and it was time to start our trek up the side of the hill. We said our "goodbyes" to Laura and Betsy, who were off to spend a week in sunny Zanzibar (rough), and were on our way to the foothills. Upon reaching the gate we realized that we had 15 people in our party not including Bill and I, we thought this number ridiculous! Ridiculous until we reached first camp when we found they had carried a porta-potty up to the first camp, apparently this was to follow us and our explosive-diarrhea (if we were to feel mountain sickness) up the mountain. It was embarrassing eating dinner in our very own mess-tent as the three course meal was delicious and we had a dedicated wait staff. We were wondering when the violins were going to enter the tent and begin the entertainment portion of the evening.

Both Bill and I were reticent to use the porta-potty, as there were pit latrines on the route. We felt bad for the poor guy who had to clean out the refuse when we finished... I think the feeling of remorse quickly subsided with Bill when he found out how difficult it is to use a squatty-potty, he is almost 60 years old! He took to the saying, "oh, toilet boy!", after he had done his business, thank god there is bleach in Tanzania!

After four hard days of hiking up the the mountain, we made it to the shared summit camp of Kibo. This is where Marangu and Rongai meet up to make a strike for the top. Till this point it was a pretty easy hike for me but I was still nervous about getting sick and feeling like crap, as I seem to get sick from just about everything here. Kibo is at 4700m, at this point I was pleasantly surprised that I hadn't had headaches or and sort of altitude sickness but was preparing myself for the worst in the morning.

After a sleepless night, where we went to bed a 5pm to wake up at 10:30pm, we got up to put on our winter clothing and set out into the darkness. Our headlamps lit the way as we trudged up the scree, at times we were the only ones on the side of Kibo which made the stars just radiate! This day, after the previous four, was relatively difficult for Bill, but as we ascended higher and higher, he seemed to become more and more determined to reach the summit (this is possibly the dizziness from the thin air or perhaps a cerebral edema - as Laura always puts it to me, "I don't want to make that call"). We finally made it to Gillman's Point (aka the crater rim) around 5am, with one hour to reach the summit before sunrise. Bill started to feel a touch better and we decided to push on ahead.

As trace amounts of light began to envelope the sky we were able to identify various landmarks and features of the crater. The ash pit was beginning to show itself, in what could only be described earlier as a looming black mass which stood ominously in the distance. We rounded the crater and felt a familiar "crunch" beneath our feet, it was snow, which made us realize we were close to the summit. As the sun continued to creep, I became anxious that we would not make the summit in time, so I forged ahead of the group. Coming around the last turn of the crater before topping-off, I could see the iconic Uhuru Peak sign just ahead. I arrived, minutes ahead of sunrise and was able to snap off a great deal of pictures (which will be posted in mid-May upon our return to the US). I felt surprisingly good on top and waited for Bill and our guides to follow up behind. We turned around towards Kibo only after a few minutes, which made a jubilant but exhausted Bill even more than joyed. After a hard 1.5 hours of descending down the loose scree, my quads burning with pain, we came to the realization that we made it!

Now it was a matter of getting down as fast as possible, which made it hard since Bill was definitely not feeling well. Although the thought of a nice hot shower was enough to almost get the two of us running, our legs dictated the pace more than our minds. We made the base camp in about 1.5 days and were back to Moshi before dinner time the following day. The camping was great and the fact that we both were successful in reaching the summit was even better! We are now able to put one more adventure in the books, don't worry, plenty of pictures will follow when we get the time and bandwidth to facilitate such endeavours.
-Ryan
ps- I want to give a shoutout to my two amazing sisters (ok, Brian should probably be included as well) Jenny for watching Frank, and Sarah for sending my boots, not her Boots, along with GUs, which really were the only reason Bill and I made it up the hill! THANK YOU!

5 things we learned by going on Safari

1. Ryan is not (severely) allergic to African wasps.

A second point he learned in the same instance was to always inspect pit latrines for wasp nests BEFORE going in to pee. Ryan learned this the hard way, and before escaping the choo (toilet), got two good stings in the face and one in the leg. Luckily, my dad's severe hayfever finally paid off, and there were plenty of anti-histamines on hand. He still looked like a proboscis monkey for a few days though. (Pictures forthcoming)

2. Monkeys' love of bananas is not just a cliche (and they are very adept at stealing them)

We found this one out when a vervet monkey ran in the back window of the land rover, through all of us to the front seat, opened up a lunch box, grabbed a left-over banana then hopped out the driver's window. He then disappered into a bush, only to reappear a few minutes later happily chewing a cud of banana.

3. The proper procedure in the event of a leopard attack.

Apparently, leopards only attack from the back (lions from the front), so if you feel something on your back, it's most assuredly a leopard. You are supposed to grab it by the legs, swing it over your head and slam it down on the ground. Then you grab its front leg, rip it off (apparently this is easy to do) and beat the leopard senseless with it. Yeah, right.....

4. Don't try to drive down a road that's become a raging river, and don't try to pull a stuck land rover out in a borrowed car. You CAN over torque and break an axle.

This one is pretty self explanatory. We were the ones trying to help.

5. Seeing a million wildebeest and zebra migrating across shortgrass plans dotted with acacia trees NEVER gets old.

What's your favorite Dish? I won't cook it, but I'll order it from Zanzibar!

Our whirlwind tour of Africa and Europe has started! 1st Stop:
Zanzibar!!! When Dr. Livingstone came here, he wrote of the island's
beauty....and of its odor, calling it "stinkibar" in his accounts of
it. In our estimation, he's about right. (He also could have called
it "Noisibar". The capital (and only) city, Stonetown has no less
than 51 mosques in a 1 square mile area, each with their own call to
prayer...5 times a day.)

Our tour of stonetown has been led by our great tourguide/hostess
Naheed, a friend of ours from USF who is doing research in Zanzibar.
(A common theme of our trip: Mooching housing off long lost friends!)
Zanzibar has unique food traditions that are very different from the
mainland, so our trip was mostly a tour of Swahili cuisine, punctuated
with a little sightseeing. We started off by going to the famous "Two
Tables" which is highly recommended by all the guidebooks. It's
literally someone's house, and reservations are made by calling up to
the kitchen window and telling them what kinds of foods you like.
It's quite 'authentic' to say the least as family members come and go
throughout the meal, people sat in the next room watching TV and
laundry hung in the hallway. The food included cardamom donuts,
lentil soup, fish in coconut sauce, okra curry and spiced bananas.
After 7 courses, they pretty much had to roll us out of there. The
next night we went to get "Zanzibar Pizza", which is basically the
best hot pocket ever. Ryan and I are hot pocket fiends (a little
known vice) and we definitely think that these are amazing!

We took a little break from gorging ourselves to go to the beach, at
Matemwe. All if Zanzibar's beaches are world class (sorry Florida,
but they put you to shame) and Matemwe is purported to be the best of
the best. It's reached by either a very expensive cab ride, or dala
dala. Since we are dala dala experts, we didn't think this would be a
problem at all. Oh, how wrong we were. Zanzibar's dala dalas make
Dar's look like a north American metro system - organized, timely, and
relatively calm. Rather than the used Japanese school buses that
populate Dar, Zanzibar's dala dalas are literally pickup trucks with a
bench around the bed and a sun shade. Also, the roads in zanzibar is
generally unpaved. The trip out took over 2 hours, and at one point,
there were 33 people on the dala dala, including 6 hanging off the
back, plus a few buckets of fish and local fruits and vegetables being
taken to the market. The ride was worth it though! The white sand
beaches go on as far as you can see, islands growing out of choral
reef atolls dot the horizon, and local fishing dhows sail to set their
nets. Since this is the low season for tourists, we shared the beach
with a few local women gathering seaweed. It was pretty hard to tear
ourselves away from the beach and go back (via dala dala) to the
hustle of Stonetown. (Luckily, I'll be back with my mom in a few
weeks!)

Now on to Arusha for Safari!!!

Betsy

There are Two Posts Today, Read the One Below as Well...

As the dala-dala wars have waxed and waned, we’ve had ever more exciting times with transportation in Dar. Yesterday we went to Kariakoo, a large section of Dar es Salaam with TONS of random wares as well as a fruit and vegetable market with our main goal to obtain the later. We caught a dala-dala, which is really convenient because one runs from our hotel door directly to the market, and were off on our daily adventure. Since Betsy’s research has begun to wind down, we’ve already conducted most of the key-informant interviews she needed in Dar, we have had to struggle to maintain sanity while keeping ourselves busy. One of the worst things to do is to ride a dala-dala to its terminating point, I would not suggest it. However, riding them in general is quite entertaining as a pseudo-masochistic approach to life in Dar.
Being that our hotel is close to the starting point for the Kawe-Kariakoo dala-dala, we were able to secure seating. About half way to Kariakoo, the bus was filled and a larger woman was standing next to me. Trying to be chivalrous, I stood up and offered her my seat, to which she adamantly declined. The man standing next to her was more than willing, but seeing that she was uninterested, I returned to my seat. At the next stop we must have picked up a great number of riders because it was instantly packed! This didn’t work in my favor, as I had the large woman’s breasts firmly planted in my face. Normally, I probably wouldn’t mind this situation, however, she smelt of rotten-eggs and the bag of milk she was carrying was dripping on my leg. Helpless to do anything about the dripping milk, I tried in vain to hold my breath until losing consciousness, which I felt was a better fate than what I was dealing with at the moment. Trying not to be overly dramatic, as I am now, I exited to the dala-dala to see that Betsy was laughing hysterically; she had been sitting a couple rows behind in full view of the unfolding events to which she most eloquently stated, “You smell like eggs.”
That being said, we head to Zanzibar today, and our journey takes an abrupt turn towards tourism. I can’t say that I’m disappointed, since this was the main reason I came along with Betsy, but it’s sad that we probably won’t be able to truly convey our experiences with people who weren’t with us. The gestalt of our experience was one of good, bad and ugly, although in retrospect most of our blog posts tended towards the negative and uniquely bizarre. In all honesty, there were plenty of “good” times, we were predisposed to omitting these because they were average and bordering mundane but I digress.
We hope, in the next handful of weeks, to continue our blogs as we travel the country-side with Betsy’s parents, however spotty our internet connection may be. Although not as anthropologically interesting as our previous 6.5 months, I’m sure the pictures from the wildebeest migration in the Serengeti as well as photos atop Kilimanjaro will satisfy.
-Ryan

Beep-Beep, Move out the Way!

It seems as though I just won’t be able to shake the idea that I’m Chinese within the remaining time we have in Tanzania. We were asked yesterday what our indigenous language was, most Tanzanians have what they call “vernacular” which is their tribal or regional tongue, because they could not understand how I could speak English so well being that I am from China. As my hair becomes longer, it seems that Tanzanians are increasingly convinced that I’m Chinese, even though I insist otherwise. Luckily, Clement, our safari guide from Haydom, knows I am not Chinese, or so I think, which means that he can relay that on to other Tanzanians we meet along the way… oh well, I’ll be in Italy in a month where they think I’m Italian, so I’ve got that going for me.
Speaking of foreigners, they have EXCELLENT Indian cuisine here, it’s purely amazing! We have, as well as every other wazungu in Tanzania has (hello Alex, Bhog 56 anyone?), found “our” Indian restaurant which we frequent almost on a weekly basis. Our favorite place use to be Ladybird’s, as we exclaimed in a previous post, but it was shut down and we now discovered Purnemia. They dole out the strangest combination of sweet and spicy-hot I’ve ever had and we love it!
I continue to order the same thing every time we go there, little fried balls which are packed with the most wonderful fillings! One ball has an anise filling which has a slight taste of black licorice, another has what seems to be sweet-potato but they (the cook) insists it’s not, and the third, well, that’s hard to describe aside from delicious. If I had to articulate what they were, I could only describe them as falafel type of food. Along with these delicious balls come sides of spiced coconut milk with shavings and a spicy mango salad. After eating the mango salad, which is medium spicy, I thought that the coconut milk would help out my mouth… as you can imagine, the sweet, cool flavor of coconut going down your throat is great until the spice kicks-in! Fortunately, Betsy was prudent enough to remember water.
After having lived in Dar for about a month now, we’ve started to unearth new and usually better locations to acquire goods. We both love wheat bread back home but this is almost impossible to find here in Tanzania! We were purchasing bread from a local bakery down the street which only sells white bread; although, they are good at tricking you into thinking you’re buying something exotic. They have about twenty different shapes of bread, from standard loaf, baguette, bun, twisted pretzel, roll, misshapen loaf, lumpy loaf and last but not least, the mini-loaf. Betsy was insistent that we try every “type” of bread just to be sure there wasn’t a diamond in the rough. Needless to say, we never did find the elusive wheat loaf but we were able to sample a GIANT German style white-bread pretzel!
On our way home from the bakery today, we were almost run-down by a trash cart. Two men running down the road pushing an improvised two wheeled contraption, fortunately for us they had verbal warning system which mimicked a car horn and we all narrowly averted calamitous disaster.
-Ryan

New roommates

We've been slacking on the blog posting lately, but truth be told, we've been really boring. My research has pretty much wrapped up since the one person in the government who deals with adolescent nutrition isn't too helpful, and no one else that I've talked to deals with adolescents at all. So, now our schedule as of late has consisted of working out at the gym at the embassy in the morning, then vegging in the airconditioning in the afternoon.

A friend of mine from ISU has been in Dar for the past few days, preparing to leave Tanzania after living in the forest listening to chimps for 19 months. His daily trips to various government offices strewn about Dar es Salaam makes our COSTECH/Immigration issues look like a cakewalk! I guess I'm glad that anyone off the street just can't import kilos upon kilos of ape poo.... but it makes me glad I
work with people.... Anyway, the community of poor graduate students in Tanzania is small, and welcoming, so through a long string of a friend of a friend of a friend-type acquaintances starting with my ISU friend Alex, we were offered a free room in a house rented by an American professor. Of course, after hearing 'free' we jumped at the opportunity, and packed up all of our stuff, loaded it into a cab and headed over. Of course we've never met the professor, and until yesterday when we showed up in the cab, had never met her student who was staying in the house. Emily, it turns out, is very nice.

We're also sharing the house with the professor's cat, who seems to survive just fine without anyone around to care for it for months at a time. Yesterday, we saw it chase a bird, bat it down mid-flight, and eat half of it. The other half, he proudly brought it into the house and left in the middle of the floor as a snack for later. The other roommates are, unfortunately, the bravest and most outgoing bunch of African cockroaches I've ever seen. Bugs are obviously a big problem in a tropical area such as Dar, and with the people gone, the roaches seem to have taken over the house! I'm not a fan to say the least, and generally just freeze and become completely worthless when I see them. Alex thinks that killing them will just make a mess. So, he's taken to grabbing them with his hands (gah!) and tossing them out the door. Ryan's taken a different approach, and chases them down and beats them with a broom. The cat and Emily just ignore them.

So, we've learned that paying for your housing gets you things....like insecticide and air conditioning....but we'll deal with a couple of bugs for a few days to save a few bucks.

"People with heads worth protecting wear bike helmets" -Bill Danforth

We’ve been settling in to our routines here in Dar. Which mostly consist of banging our heads against various government ministries. We’ve made some headway with Ryan’s visa renewal this week. After submitting his application, a million passport-sized photos, a copy of his resume and college transcript, then being told to return on a federal holiday when they were closed, returning the next day to find that they had ‘misplaced’ his application, and didn’t want to take the time to look for it, we returned yet again. This time, they had miraculously found Ryan’s folder and let us pay for the visa!! That was a major step, as we got a receipt! And they glued it to his application! This is progress! They told us to return in 4 working days, and THEN the visa will be re-stamped into his passport.

Other than immigration, I’ve been trying to interview people about Tanzanian health and adolescent policy, and learning that although people may be nicer at other ministries, they run at about the same efficiency level.

In our many travels, we see TONS of bikers. It’s probably the most common mode of transport here. Bike helmets aren’t sold in Tanzania and we’ve only seen one biker with a modern helmet. (Thanks to my dad's constant chiding, and several traumatic junior high years as the ONLY kid who had to wear a helmet, I pay pretty close attention to this.) The rest of the bikers who are concerned about protecting their heads, have to get creative. We’ve seen: baseball batting helmets, motorcycle helmets – worn both forwards and backwards, construction hats, and one guy wearing a WWII-era German military helmet.