Africa Update

The first week in Africa has been interesting to say the least. I arrived in Nairobi, Kenya and a driver awaited my arrival with a sign leading me to the Heron Hotel. Unfortunately, my bags that I had checked in did not arrive. Not receiving your bags in Africa is never a pleasant feeling, especially when they contain your life. I knew that we would be returning to the airport a couple of hours later to fetch Erica's father from a later flight. When I spoke to the lady at the customer service desk, she infromed me that the bags would be coming in at 9pm. I would organize later. Getting off the plane from just about two days of traveling is like coming down off drugs, delirious and a bit out of reality. My first glimpses of safari vehicles and heavy diesel exhaust coming off of trucks were staple sights of Africa. I had been to Nairobi before, however, very briefly as a one day stop twice two years prior. I had flown into the Masia Mara with Seth and later would go on to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro across the border.
It was a lovely sight to see Erica in the lobby of The Heron. It had been at least five months since we had last seen each other. She showed me our Land Rover she had rented, so that we could drive ourselves on safari. We ran errands in preparation for our camping adventure. After a much needed nap, we went back to the airport to meet Erica's father and his girlfriend, we would all be going on safari together. I ran into the customer service desk and convinced a gentlemen to deliver my bags to The Heron. I would get them later that night at 2am and we were leaving for our trip at 7am. The timing was just perfect, but stressful. Our evening consisted of dinner at the Carnivore restaurant. This restaurant is unique to anything else, except for its sister restaurant in Johannesberg, South Africa, because of its menu. Guests sit down and receive an assortment of game meat until you say stop. Meats include pork, chicken, turkey, ostrich, crocodile, goat, and venessen. I felt the variety was better in "Joberg", but it was a fabulous dinner nonetheless.
The next morning we were off to the Masai Mara . The Masai Mara is an area of rolling hills, woodland areas, and plains with acacia trees that is the natural habitat of all of Africa's animals. The area is surrounded by the Mara and Talek Rivers, famous for the famous Wildebeest migration river crossings. The area to the far south extends into Tanzania's Serengeti. Fortunately, the migration was occurring in the Mara this time of year, which meant that the game would be plentiful. I was hoping to see a predator hunt and kill. The road leading out to the Mara would take us six hours, full of potholes and traffic diversions. When we got into the park, we set off to find our campsite and get our bearings. The drive to the campsite greeted us with Elephants and plenty of Ungulates (hooved creatures; Impala, Spring Buck, Gazelles, Zebra, Giraffes). As the sun was going down and a small herd of Elephant went by in the distance, I could only capture the moment by saying to myself that this was Africa. The feeling of the bush and animals all around you, it is absolutely breathtaking.
Our camp was cozy and everyone there was extremely friendly, including the other visitors. After preparing a meal and having some drinks, we could hear lions roaring in the backround to eachother, they were on the hunt. We decided we would have a local Masai, Edward join us the next day to guide us around the park. He had lived in the Mara for thirty years and spoke to other drivers who in turn would let you know about the days events, such as kills or leopard sightings. Our drives proved to be amazing. We were blessed to see plenty of lions, one pride finishing their meal, lioness' eating intestinal sacks. The migration would lead us to see the biggest herds of wildebeest I had ever seen, hills that stretched forever covered in black. We had pulled up to a river enbankment, and hundreds of wildebeest were on the brink of crossing, but they never went after waiting for hours. We had picnics along the river full of hippos basking in the water protecting their skin from the sun. Our highlight was spotting a cheetah with her two cubs on the hunt. They sat on a rock and were eyeing spring buck in the distance. We made sure to give them their space. After some time we had heard of a lion pride sighting and went to see them quickly. When we returned not too long after, the cheetah and her cubs had just took down a spring buck and were eating. Vultures circled in the air and others awaited in the wings. The mother and her cubs eat quickly, devouring their meal. I have included some of those shots, my favorite, the little cub with its bloody mouth. The footage I got was spectacular. We were lucky to see such a sight. On our last day we dcided to stay at a lodge called the Fig Tree. It was stunning, tented rooms with tiled showers along a river where animals came to graze. Five course meals breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I would drive us back from the Mara to Nairobi, I quickly assimilated myself to left-handed stick shift driving. We eventually made it back into Nairobi before dark, after making a couple of stops for Erica to throwup. Her stomach had become a bit upset, and she started developing a slight fever. The first thing we thought was hopefully it wasn't malaria since she isn't taking prophylactics. More than four months of taking anti-malarial drugs is hard on the liver. She had mentioned that mosquitoes had bit her a bunch in a village recently where they were doing HIV testing. I thought lets get her to bed, and hopefully the body is going into a fever to kill the bacteria and perhaps just food poisoning. Food poisoning is extremely common, just because one doesn't always know if things are coming from a clean water source, similar to Mexico.
The next day we were off to Tanzania on a shuttle. After a border crossing and four hours of travel, we got into Arusha that afternoon. Arusha's climate is pleasant, not too hot. The house where we stay is in Kijenge with a view of Mt. Meru in the yard. It takes about twenty minutes to walk into the main part of town, a hill near the house reminds me of the stairs in Santa Monica as a workout, and a duka (store) down the way sells organic eggs. I would love to have a chicken that laid eggs, but Eduardo "Eddie", our cute mutt puppy would unfortunately terrorize the chicken so that it wouldn't lay. There is a plethora of animals, "Burrito" the original cat that looks like a Lynx, "Rocky" the other overly affectionate cat, and "Keelie" Eddie's mom, our amazing guard dog. We have fresh basil, corn, and chillies. I often times go buy fresh produce at Soku Ku, the main market in town to cook fiestas. I have befriended a produce stand and the local boys who harbor deals to get me everything that I want at a decent price. These guys watch my back and call me Franky when I enter their area- "simba's office". Aside from plenty of cooking, we also frequent the local Chinese restaurant "Dragon Pearl", "Big Bite" for Indian cuisine, "Nick's" a dive of charbroiled chicken and amazing garlic-broiled talapia, and "Stiggy's" a local Australian chef's speacialties. I often times drink Tusker, a Kenyan beer, which is actually really good. We still do Brian Kest's Power Yoga DVD.
I have been shadowing Erica and the work that SIC (Support for International Change/ www.sichange.org) does around here. A volunteer program was just ending so I had the opportunity to go to a couple of community days. These days are promoted for weeks and encourage people from the surrounding community to go and get free testing. Councilors are around so that people with questions may get information. Volunteers team up with teaching partners, so most of the students from the local schools come out. I befriended the DJ they hire and was able to play some Bongo Flavor, the local music of choice. All the kids go crazy and dance. We played a futbol (soccer) game last week and won. The next day my whole body was hurting, not as young as I used to be to play a full four-hour futbol match. Nonetheless, great time with the staff and the local high school kids. Everyday I push to learn more Swahili. My favorite thus far is "Tuko Pamoja"- We are together and "Parachichi"- avocado. The most recent community day was quite an experience aside from the HIV activities. A couple teaching partners took me to an area at the Matevas Masai market where they butcher goats. These guys kill the goats, skin them, cut them open and butcher them, and then another guy cooks the meat. I ordered two racks of ribs and ate some of the tastiest meat I had eaten. I did a short film called "Umbuzi" (Goat), the skinning, butchering, and eating of a goat. I hope to put this up soon.
In a series of meetings, I have slowly begun to develop ideas for a documentary on micro-financing. I have begun to conduct research on local people's business ideas and finding out about local institutions that foster these sorts of small business loans. One of SIC's staff councilors would like to open up a juice shop, which I have expressed much interest in. With some of the proceeds, HIV patients could be provided with juice and young coconuts. All in an effort to promote health. I have also spoken with the Kilimanjaro Film Institute, which provides training for local Tanzanians to become film makers, about helping produce some of these ideas. Moving forward, much love...

www.youtube.com/frankparadigm