On a lighter note, the circle of life...

Having just returned from Safari in the Serengeti, I thought now would be as good a time as any to give a brief up date on some unique things I have experienced up to now. On the off chance that you ever carried any noteworthy expectation for the quality of my writing, it might be better for us all if you just play this one by ear, because that's about the most that can be said about the effort that I put into writing it... whatever that means.

Going along with what I have previously mentioned, the comfortable living conditions of the missionaries has also included, at it's best borderline gourmet food, and all other times nothing less than what can commonly be found in American homes. However, outside the missionaries homes my stomach is a great reminder that I am still in Africa. In the villages the staple foods have been rice (this being the greatest because it was a really good year for rice) and ugali, a sort of thick cornmeal base dough (though much less of this and other corn products because it was a bad year for corn). with one or both of these staples accompaniments might include one or multiple selects from beans, boiled greens, cow chopped into small chunks (I describe it this way because they more or less skin the cow and then just start chopping, intestines, bones, traditional meats, fat) boiled in lots of oil and tomato, or the same might be done of a goat; at times we've received a whole fish to pick from (apparently the best meat is at the head by the way, which is saved for honored guest like ourselves); another item we often receive is a bowl of oil-boiled whole Daga, which most of you reading would probably know as minnows (tiny, bight size fish)-- and in case you were curious, as far as fishy smelling fish go, Daga are strong competition for first. With the tomato tainted oil base that almost all meats are prepared and served in, one either pours it over the big dish of rice, or with rice or ugali mold it in your hand to dip it the oil-- other than the rare occasion that we are given a spoon, everything is eaten with the Right hand, all things handed between people are also with the right hand (the left hand is for the butt)...yes, I am left handed.

Where drinks in the villages are concerned, there is usually some form of water around, but unless it is bottled there is always a questionable gamble about the safety of drinking it... most often the the gamble is stacked against you. Other than that we might receive some hot chi tea, but usually without milk.

As far as eating in restaurants go here, there is a strong Indian population here so I have had the opportunity to eat some great Indian food (great by my mouth's standards, however my bowels often beg to differ--as they do with the food in the villages).

On a related note, I have also killed (by way of decapitation) a rooster and a fat-tail sheep. the missionaries wanted the interns to have the experience of having to kill for food as is almost always the case with villages here, with few exceptions. However, when it came down to it I was the one that did the sawing. It sucks that we have to kill animals to give our body what it needs. some wouldn't understand this sentiment, but people attribute some sort of intelligent emotional system to their pets by observing how they react to the way we treat them, so why not animals that aren't pets? Moreover, I don't think it was part of God's original plan for creation, but that's another conversation.

Last but not least is my Safari to the Serengeti. For any who don't know, the Serengeti is a very large area in Africa where African wildlife still run free. It has been declared a sort of park with certain laws and guarded by rangers, such as no hunting, no getting out of the car accept in selected areas and no unlicensed entry, but there are no fences. So we drove through in a land cruiser with a roof that raises so we can stand and saw just about all the African animals one could as for, in their natural habitat. It is the time of season for migration so we saw maybe a million Wildebeest and hundreds of thousands of Zebras, and many of the animals had fairly recently had their babies as well so we were able to see young giraffe, Zebra, Wildebeests, lions, warthogs, crocodiles, antelope, elephants, baboons etc... We also saw hippo, cheetah and leopard, ostridges, love birds and some other really magnificent birds.

As a disclaimer, I feel really unable to here grasp in text (or even later in voice) my experience of being in the Serengeti, though for those of you for whom that just won't do, I will make a small attempt and hopefully throw in some pictures later.

I used the word magnificent ending with the birds because there were so many and I don't want to take the time to name them all nor am I able, though if I were to use one word to describe the experience as a whole, magnificent in its greatest weight of meaning would be it. At times I could forget that we were not in some sort of drive-thru zoo because the animals were so relaxed and just looking at us (they have grown use to cars to some degree), however the slightest thing would remind me that this was just life for them. Things like seeing wildebeest fight or cross the river; baby warthogs run behind their mom in a single file; a lioness hunting a herd of wildebeest; at sunrise coming across a few lions (males, cubs, and lioness included) right next to the road, relaxing and picking at the fresh kill they made earlier that morning and looking into the lion's eyes; listening to the near by sounds of wildebeest, zebra, hyena, and the deep roar of lions while resting in my tent at night; Even just seeing a colt giraffe running beside us for a few seconds as we drove past a whole family, seeing all of this was a magnificent, refreshing, reality check--sometimes frightening and sometimes borrowing--breath of life to me in ways I can't describe.