Ruaha part 1

Benjamin and I have some wonderful qualities.  Some of these wonderful qualities are unique, while some are identical.  We both tend to be a little cautious - we like to talk about things, dream about things, but we are a little bad about making dreams happen.  :)

Well, for our third anniversary, we decided to cross something off of our 'one day' list.  We went to the Ruaha National Park.  Eventually, I am going to post more pictures and tell about all of the trip, but for now, I will just wet your appetite with a few.  Here is a link to find out more about the park: http://www.tanzaniaparks.com/ruaha.htm

We took the bus to Iringa and stayed at a guest house for two nights.  We hung out with a friend, did some wholesale grocery shopping, mitumba (used clothes) shopping, relaxed etc.

We hired a driver and vehicle to take us to the park and show us around.  We left Saturday afternoon - the park is about a 2 hr drive from Iringa.  This was our view a short way before the park.  Look at those clouds!

We stopped to take a picture of the road and the view, then decided to pose with the Land Cruiser.  In the first picture you can see me and L.  She is a friend we met through A.  L lives in Iringa and teaches at an international school there.  We have loads of fun together.  :)

Here is a picture of Benjamin, L and our driver, M.  He has been doing this for a living for over 6 yrs.  Suffice it to say, he knows his way around the game park!

Here is the entrance to the park.  It was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hot.  Dry, dusty and hot hot hot!  But it made for good animal viewing.

We stayed overnight in the park in a government banda.  That was a horrible experience - mostly due to the heat.  The next morning we were up and in the Land Cruiser again just after 6am.  With the breeze it was a little cold, so hence you find me wrapped in a kanga in the picture below.  You are not allowed out of the vehicle in most areas of the game park, but our LC had a cool top that popped up.  We could all comfortably stand and look out and get pictures etc.  Unfortunately, if you are standing and the person taking your picture is sitting, you WILL end up with REALLY bad double chins... :)

More another time!

His wife the redneck...

So, it's no news to any of you that I struggle with headaches - a lot.  Probably over half are due to muscle tension in my neck and shoulders.

Well, when we went to Iringa, I was able to see a friend we have made here who is a physio-therapist.  She graciously gave me a neck and shoulder massage.  It was really such a blessing!  It really really really really really hurt, but it also really really really really really loosened me up.

At the end of the session, she asked if I was familiar with tape.  Hmmm... strange question.  Well, fast forward a little more and this is what you get.

Yep, that's me!  Apparently, this is a tape that supports the muscle and helps take the tension from it a bit so the muscle can rest.  You are supposed to leave it on for a few days until it starts peeling by itself.  The tape went from where you see down, across my shoulder to just before where the top of my arm starts (I am sure there should be a better way to say that...)  It was great!  Here we are on vacay and I am walking around town, meeting people, and getting comments like, 'Oh - I remember you.  I recognize that red strip...'  :)

And my husband took to calling me a redneck.  Thanks, honey.  I love you too.

So, if any of you were confused by the reference to the red tape on my neck in the previous post - now you should not be too confused.  Or something.

xoxo

My leg is on fire...

I look at the clock.  4:30 AM.  My leg is on fire.  I can feel the heat searing my ankle, sucking the moisture out of my calf, almost igniting my light weight pants.  I shift slightly and try not to think about it.  I rub my neck.  The rough texture of the neon red tape on my neck and shoulder is like a giant cat's tongue.  Without thinking, I start to peel away at it.  I stop.  It is sticky and gritty.  The adhesive from the tape mingles with my sweat and the ever present dust.  Yuck.
4:32 AM.  S.e.r.i.o.u.s.l.y.  I look out of the window.  The scenery is beautiful in a desolate, sun baked, brown dirt and brown trees kinda way.  I think the sun is burning my arm that I have resting in the window frame.  I should have put on sun screen this morning.  I notice a dust devil form and then swirl away.
I look at the clock again.  Should I bother to tell the bus driver or conductor the difference between AM and PM?  'Cause they totally have it wrong.  I wonder when they changed the time?  When we boarded the bus, at around 9:40 AM the clock said 4:10 - Swahili time, only about 30 minutes off of that too.  Maybe after seeing the two 'sticky-outy' wazungu on a bus full of Tanzanians, they decided to change it for our benefit.
My leg is still on fire.  I feel extra sorry for my wonderful husband.  BOTH his legs have to be on fire.  There is a hole in the floor where we are sitting.  It must be near the exhaust pipe or something that the engine is using that is EXTREMELY hot because the air coming from it feels hotter than the air that comes out of my hair dryer.
We talked a few hours ago about the possibility of the bag under his chair combusting.  Thankfully the person must not have had anything too flamable in there - but if there were any veggies in there - they are roasted now.  No doubts in my mind about that.
We're still about an hour from home.  I've read two books from start to finish.  I wrote the first paragraph of this post about 3 times in my head already.  I glance at my husband again.  I have given up looking at the clock - it just isn't going fast enough...  What a wonderful man!  He let me take the window seat.  This means BOTH of his legs are on fire due to the placement of the hole in the floor.  This also means that he is the one getting jostled, and hit, and shoved, and fallen on.  He is the one dealing with the posteriors of the people standing being right in his face.  I think he is also playing kick war with the person behind him.  The bag under his seat - the one that hasn't yet caught on fire - doesn't really fit there.  The person behind him kicks it forward, then after a little while, Benjamin kicks it back...  I should trade with him, but my glasses are safer this way.  And such a picture of sacrificial love, should be admired anyway.  Besides which, I offered to trade a while back and he refused.
So far, this trip back from Iringa is a lot better than the one to Iringa.  On a good day in your own vehicle, it should take a little over 4 hrs.  On the bus, maybe 5, but there is construction now.  AND on the way there, they kept stopping to try to fill up the bus.  AND in Africa, the bus is NEVER full.  Bags under every seat, in every aisle.  Speaking of aisles, people sitting in every seat and on the bags in the aisles - and anywhere from 4-7 people standing by the doors in a space that would better hold 2 IF any were supposed to be standing - which they really aren't...
To get from the main bus stand to Uyole (14 km or roughly 8 miles) it took us almost 2 hrs.  The bus just wasn't full enough to proceed.  Oh!  And the driver got out and bought a bag of onions.  Later on, he bought a bag of potatoes.  I wish I had thought about grabbing either the potatoes or the onions and pelting him with them to make him keep driving.  I was over half way through my book, yet not even 30 minutes from my own home...  It took us 9 hrs to get there.  We were hot and tired and dirty.  I had to go to the bathroom for about the last 5 hrs of the trip.  Needless to say, we were also dehydrated and had stopped drinking liquids a while ago.
So, yeah, the trip back was MUCH better.  (Read - 3 hrs shorter).  Except for the billowing constant furnace of hot air lustily licking our legs.

Other last of our house...

So, the purpose of this post is to try to help clear up confusion - and maybe to give you a better idea of the layout of the house.  I know it is hard for me to describe - and it is just a little weird in some ways... hmm...  Well, these pictures were taken walking down our hallway.  Hope they help a little more.

This first picture is of what I was trying to describe in my last post.  This was taken in our bedroom, facing two of the three doors.  The door on the right goes into our hallway.  The door on the left is that weird room (can you even call it a room???) thing and the doorway you see in it goes into our master bathroom.  My FAV thing about this - when mom and dad came to visit, if I had both doors closed, mom kept forgetting how to exit our bedroom.  She would open the door with the towel on it, effectively walking into a dead end - then act surprised that she wasn't in the hallway. :)  More than once...  Love you momma!

So we can see the progression here, this is a similar pic, but with the hallway door open.  There is a little towel closet there, then the hallway makes a turn.  Sorry about the lighting.

As you exit the bedroom (using the correct door...), you can see the spare spare bedroom - this is the one with the whole in the ceiling that Ben fell through.

Continuing on - same spare spare bedroom on the right, the guest bedroom is straight in front of you.

This is where the hallway turns again - hope this makes sense.  On the right is still the guest bedroom, but you can now see the little hallway thing with the door for the shower  I don't think you can really see the bathroom door b/c of the curtain, but anyway, it is there.  So, that is the little bathroom hallway that runs parallel to the main hallway for just a small space.

Just rounding the corner - the shower is straight ahead, you can see a small part of the white sink sticking out from the 'bathroom hallway'.  On the left is the door to Ben's study.

When you make the corner again, the shower/bathroom/little hallway thing is on the left.  Straight ahead is the shelf Ben built.  The the left of the shelf - that doorway leads to the back hallway to the back door - the one with all the fungus growing on it.  The door on the right, which is harder to see, but is there by the shelf - leads to the living room.

Here is a picture of the back door fungus hallway and how it connects to the kitchen.  You can also see the pantry in the back corner.

Thanks for taking a walk down the hall with me.  Hope this helps you figure out how our house is actually connected.  AND if I ever tell the story of moving some of our furniture in, you will understand why it was such a pain to get it around corners in the hallway...

Have a great day!!!

Finally - the last of the house!

Have I kept you all on pins and needles enough??  Here are the last pictures of the inside of our house.  Mabye one day I will post the outside, but that is not all that important, right? :)

This is our master bedroom.  It is quite large.  Again, there is a 3 door fetish - as demonstrated in other rooms in our house.  But we didn't actually take a view that will allow you to see all three doors... sorry.  From the above picture, on the right are two doorways right next to each other - one leads into the hallway, the other leads into our bathroom (sorta).  Hard to explain (again - have I ever mentioned how random the house is in its layout in some areas??) but the door opens into a little room probably a door wide a one and a half doors in length.  I don't know what the purpose of this is... from that little 'room', another doorway leads into our bathroom. (There is a picture of the bathroom down below.)

A lifetime of regrets?  Pretty close - you can see, I forgot to make sure all the shoes were lined up.  Yes, you will also notice our special color palette.  Our curtains are burgundy, our closet curtains are orange.  BUT for the most part it works with our sorta Moroccan inspired bed spread (which we got as a wedding present in the US).  I do wish that I had had the curtains lined when I had them made.  I think it would greatly help the room in multitudinous ways.  Firstly, it would keep the room cooler.  Secondly, it would keep the room a little darker - which would be nice for naps, sleeping in, or migraines.  Thirdly, I have this feeling that my curtains are going to fade in a very special way... I think looking at this picture, you can imagine that too...  Fourth and finally, I think the burgundy picks up the burgundy seaming in our bedspread when it doesn't have the backlight of the sun - so it matches better.  But in general, the colors are cozy and we like it.

One thing on the wish list to change?  This is actually two twin beds in one bed frame - you just can't get big enough mattresses here.  Next furlough I would like to buy a king (or whatever it is) mattress topper and some king sheets.  I think that would make it feel a little more like we sleep in the same bed.  We have separate bottom sheets, but use a queen sheet on top.  Since neither of us like to sleep in the crack, we tend to fight over the top sheet just a little...  One day we will have a bigger sheet, then we will share... :)

Here is our master bathroom.  We pretty much only use the bathtub to wash our feet in.  The hot water heater that you see in the top right corner is only for this bathroom.  Neither of us are much inclined towards baths, there is no shower curtain, and even if there were, the shower head hits you at chest level - so you would have to hold it for most of your shower.  All in all, glad we have it, if you visit, let us know and you can use it...  Again, notice the beautiful floor to ceiling tile.

Finally!!!!  The pictures you have all been waiting for!  This is the picture of the Master garage.  Why is it called that?  Well, quite simply because the door for the Master garage is located in the Master bedroom.  Benjamin built the sawhorses you see hanging in the right corner.  He also built the thingy to make them hang.  He's pretty good, huh?

Well, I think that is it.  Thanks for hanging in there with me patiently through these posts.  One day I will write something a little more exciting.  Life is a bit busy right now and we are pretty tired.  Love you all!!!!