Happy Birthday, Grandpa Jeff!

We’re so glad we got to spend it with you. 

Christmas at Plaster House

After all of the normal Christmas morning festivities of coffee, stockings, coffee, and presents, presents, presents, the kids and I went with the Banks family to visit Plaster House.  The Plaster House is a home for children from around Tanzania to recover in after they have had corrective orthopedic surgery, plastic surgery or neurosurgery for a disability. The children are brought here before and after they have surgery until they are ready to head back home to their village.  We went and brought small presents (balls and trucks that all of our kids wrapped), a gingerbread house, and small cookies and candies.  We had warned our kids ahead of time that a lot of the kids don’t look normal due to surgeries, birth deformities, burns, whatever and we told them to just ask us if they had any questions about what was wrong with them.  I must say that all of the kids at Plaster House were very polite and all seemed very happy.  The kids were so great about handing out presents and candy (especially Anderson, Ashlyn, and Birch) and singing a couple of Christmas carols.  I was so proud of them.  On the way home all of the kids had lots of questions about how the kids got burns and what their deformities were from, but also how it felt good to give to them.  It also prompted some unexpected questions.  At bedtime we were talking about how lucky we are and about how we had lots (!!) of presents and were healthy. Ashlyn then asked me how come Santa didn’t bring the Plaster House kids presents when they were so good.   Didn’t see that one coming, but we talked about how you have to believe in Santa for him to come and the kids there didn’t even know about Santa.  She now thinks that we should just tell all the kids about Santa so that he can come for them next year. 

Much thanks to Joey for organizing the expedition and buying all of the presents.  What a great way to spend a little time celebrating the true meaning of Christmas. 

Christmas Eve with family and friends

Spent a nice evening having a huge meal outside with friends.  I’m really starting to enjoy these warm holidays.

(Amazing when the only picture we took actually turned out well.)

Heri ya Krismasi na Mwaka Mpya

Peace.  Love.  Silliness.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Sunday morning adventure with a dead genet

We thought finding a dead genet in the yard was exciting enough for a Sunday morning, but we didn’t realize how exciting it really would be. 

Here is the dead genet in our yard.  It was killed by our dogs. I then (per usual) posted it on facebook.

One of our dear Arusha friends (Lara) posted that her husband, Charles (self-proclaimed mammal geek and animal researcher), would love to get a DNA sample from it. All we needed to do was get a 1/2 inch piece of it’s ear.  Hmmm.  The kids did already bury it but that wasn’t an insurmountable obstacle, so we stepped up to the challenge (and I’m using '”we” loosely because all I did was dig it up and then document).  Birch, with Tierney assisting, was the real hero of the day.

I now have a genet ear in the freezer [why only get 1/2 an inch when you can get the whole ear].  I hope we got what you needed, Charles. 

 

Hadzabe

From National Geographic:  “The Hadza:  They grow no food, raise no livestock, and live without rules or calendars. They are living a hunter-gatherer existence that is little changed from 10,000 years ago. What do they know that we've forgotten?”

We’ve been to this campground at Lake Eyasi two other times.  The first time it was just our family and we did a family visit to the Hadza.  It was amazing, but really made me want to go out on one of their early morning hunts.  The second time we camped here the guys got out, but I missed the opportunity and have been kicking myself ever since.  This time I was not going to let that happen and Mirjam and I called first out for a hunting trip. 

Even if you take out the cultural experience of the Hadza as well as the whole hunting aspect, it is an amazing way to spend a morning.  A bit early to wake up at 5:30 am, but well worth it when we started ‘hunting’ with the group by 7 am.  It was basically a 3 hour fast hike/jog in the bush.  It was gorgeous.  I’ll basically let the pictures speak for themselves, but the Hadza are still primarily living the hunter-gatherer existence that they have for thousands of years.  They will basically eat anything that they can find with the exception of reptiles (snakes!), dogs, and cats.  They ‘gather’ fruit from bushes and trees (including baobab), dig for root vegetables (look like a potato, but have lots of water…almost like a water chestnut), and look for wild honey.  We were primarily hunting birds and squirrels, but they would have been ecstatic with any small game.  Baboon is a big prize, but we heard that this time of year they are very far away.  You can see that the “shirts” they are wearing are made from baboon hides. 

They live in small groups called bands.  We met this band at their current camp for a quick intro before we took off.

Hadza house and hides of dik-dik and impala drying.

 

Making fire with two sticks and using the fire for their pre-hunt marijuana hit.  We asked how old they were, but they have no idea.  We guessed that they were approximately 14 years old.

Finding honey from stingless bees (to us they look like ants that make honey).  It took some work to knock it down.  They ate everything that was in there…honey, pollen, eggs, wax.  I ate some yummy honey with wax mixed in.  It was really good!

They saw some mouse tracks and started digging; this eventually sent the mouse scurrying under a bush.  You can run, but you can’t hide.  “Special for baby”.  Mmmmm. 

The bush could get quite dense in places and I ended up with more than a few scrapes on my arms and legs.

 

Some successful hunting (some of these pics are from Matt’s trip the next morning).  Birds, squirrel, mongoose, and don’t forget about the mouse.

Fruit from the baobab tree.  We had tried it before and I thought it had tasted very bitter, but now I know to look for the seeds with fruit that is white.  Much better tasting and Mirjam and I definitely had a few between us.

Happy hunters.

We saw some really cool plants, too

Back to camp and we sat with the mamas for a little bit.  Mostly to see this cute little one. 

Group photos at the end of a great morning.  While they must think that we are crazy to go out and buy food when they can just walk from their camp to gather or kill it, I was excited to head back to camp for some leftovers and coffee.