What is so glorious about the whole little game drive (safari), whatever you want to call the experience, is that we were raised in South Africa.. (just two countries south of Tanzania)...and yes whilst we did the whole African thing on a daily basis, my sister has lived in London in the UK for 8 years... And her boyfriend is from the UK, born and bred... and although he has traversed the globe, this was their first 'African' experience.
Most foreigners kind of get this whispery hush tone to their voice. Almost like a joyful little secret, when they whisper "Africa". It becomes almost this mystical realm instead of a very real place of mud huts, donkeys, chickens and naked children. Normally their eyes get rather large and round and you can almost see the whites when they lean in to find out if you did indeed travel to hush hush "Africa"... And then the next question is "did you go on a safari?"... and are there really lions that live right there next to you?
But since my sister is actually as African as they come, I expected she would enjoy the little rendezvous and be happy, joyful, gleeful and simply revel more in her boyfriends first time experiences. And whilst his delight and curiosity about the continent were to be expected, what was not fully anticipated (perhaps it is blocked out for fear of the smell of Jacaranda blossoms in the gutter on a rainy day causing a crushing lump to rise in your throat, the heart palpitations, the vertigo and the swirling, and feeling so lost and far away from home....) was how moved my sister was by the whole experience. And how it simply yanked at her heartstrings to be at home in the mother land with the familiar sights, the familiar tastes, and no matter how rancid, the familiar smells....
On our first skype since their return my sisters boyfriend just wide eyed and innocently proclaimed his absolute adoration for the people that he met, the tour guides, the drivers, hes given them his card and number so when they come to London at least they will know someone. I mean he was smitten. And then my sister, more jaded and brazen, perhaps a bit hardened by having the rug pulled from under her feet more often by these dashing and charismatic African people... had to say "well in honesty, it will be very hard for them to do so with the exchange rate... Its just so expensive".
And that I think just sums up Africa. If you want the epicenter for diaspora it is Africa. Immeasurable wealth in the form of gemstones, natural minerals, oil, gold.. the wealth in the form of these beautiful people... Con-men up the whazoo.... People who will look you in the eye and smile whilst their 'cousin' carries your couch and tv out of your back door (another first hand experience)... My American husband had to be dragged out of there by the heels of his feet... He was so in love with South Africa. Its like on True Blood where you get glamoured... You start searching for the spirit of the great heart... You yearn for African skies...
And whilst we're all looking at photos of a pride of lion sleeping in an acacia tree on facebook... and checking out the cost of return tickets on delta.com... trying to needle and worm our way in like addicts, just needing one more fix... the rest are all desperately building life rafts, trying to get out.
Email from Ant sent 03-26-2012
Hello People
I know I don’t email you all nearly as much as I should but that way
you know when I do I have something important to say. As you know,
last week Sukhi and I were away in Tanzania. Every year Colt runs an
award scheme called The Inner Circle for those who performed well and
take them on a trip somewhere. I wasn’t nominated but two friends from
the group we socialise with were so Sukhi and I were special by
association.
We got on an Air Kenya flight from Heathrow which smelt like Kenya and
was about the same temperature and flew to Nairobi. From Nairobi we
flew to Kilimanjaro where we then had an hour’s drive to our hotel
Mount Meru in Arusha. I can’t begin to tell you how good it felt to be
back in the motherland, forget South Africa – go Tanzania! The people,
the drivers, the food, the hotels were all just amazing.
The next day we left the hotel at 8am on a 4 x 4 safari drive to the
Ngorongoro Conservation Area which has the largest concentration of
animals in Africa. Sukhi could not believe how much land and bush was
around. For me the vast open landscape felt so familiar yet so new
after 6 and half long years of being away. Our driver Robert was very
knowledgeable and stopped to tell us information about the place we
were at or the animals that we saw. We stopped at the crater which was
like something out of the Lion King but in real life, as the trip went
on we would find all the characters Simba, Nala, Timon and Pumbaa and
sing Hakuna Matata. After checking in at our hotel and having lunch,
we then went to a local Maasai School in Irkepuusi Village which is
one of 52 in the area. When we were on the Air Kenya flight, I saw a
cute, fat, black baby and I half joked with Sukhi that we should do a
Madonna and adopt one while we’re in Africa, I say half joked because
when we got to the school I wanted to give all these kids a bath,
clean new clothes, feed them and love them. They formed two lines
which we walked up while they sang to us and then watched a
performance from the choir and a parent. Colt built them a computer
centre and donated 10 solar powered laptops so we showed them how to
use the laptops, we were shown around their small empty classrooms and
the kitchen where the kids are fed porridge in the morning, one of
their two meals a day. The kids walk 10km to school, a further 2km to
get water and another 10km back home to their mud huts yet they are
happy, sing and dance. It’s easy to forget how fortunate we are. This
experience was actually one of the highlights of the trip. Most of the
group were very touch and there’s been discussions with our CEO to
come up with sustainable long term support. Some people from Amsterdam
were saying that there are more bicycles in Amsterdam than people and
when bikes with flat tyres are parked up for a certain amount of time,
the local council puts a tag on them before destroying them. There are
talks in place to see if we can use those bikes, repair them and send
them over. That evening we sat in the bar at the hotel drinking Crater
Blue cocktails and Kilimanjaro beer (if you can’t climb it, drink it
is what one of the drivers Jerry told us) discussing the experience so
far.
The next day the game drive or safari as the Brits call it continued.
The driver stopped and told us to look at the cheetah. Even with the
binoculars, zoom lenses on the cameras it took about 10 minutes to
find the spot on the mountain he was talking about – how did he drive
and manage to see it? As we watched more 4x4’s joined us and as we
were discussing moving on, the cheetah got up, looked at the cars and
casually started walking down the catwalk ever so elegantly. It was
like she waited for just the right amount of attention before putting
on the show. She walked down the mountain, marked her territory on a
rock, rolled around and walked down straight passed our car – if we
stuck our hand out of the window it would be gone, that’s how close
she was. We saw lions and cubs, elephants, rhinos, and everything you
could expect before having a picnic buffet lunch in the middle of
nowhere. The heavens opened up, thunder roared and we got a bit
drenched but the sun came out shortly afterwards.
One evening we were treated to a traditional Maasai performance at
sunset. At first we couldn’t see the dancers and one guy from the
group thought it was monkeys making the familiar
lelelelelelelelelelelelelelele
just great. We had a very long drive on the dirt roads to the
Serengeti – the drivers called it an African Massage and I just wished
I had taken a sports bra. We stopped along the way at look out points
and to use the hole in ground. We stopped at a Maasai village, got
shown around the huts, I’m still confused as to why the buffalos are
so well fed and yet the village cows look gaunt. I forgot to mention
the head banging zebras, when they walk their heads bop and it looks
like they have ACDC playing in their ears, when they stop they rest
their heads on each other’s backs – head banging must take it out of
them. On route we saw 4 lions in a tree next to road, truly
spectacular. There was one drama queen in another 4x4 and apparently
she had a temper tantrum and demanded to get out of the car – what a
silly cow. Another fascinating thing to see is how the wildebeest stop
and stare at the 4x4’s when you drive past. We were joking and making
up comedy sketches as to what might be going through their minds.
Bilila Lodge in the Serengeti was an amazing hotel. The chalets are
designed like tree houses and as well as having your own private
balcony, the bath has a framed view of the Serengeti. The main pool is
an infinity pool that backs onto a watering hole so while you are
splashing about the elephants come and drink from the watering hole
not far from you. That night we went for dinner in the bush followed
by more dancing which even the drivers joined in. One of the big
mafuta ladies pushed Sukhi out of the way with her bum and made me
“shake, shake, shake” with her which was hilarious. We sang Jambo,
Jambo Bwana all night long. Back at the hotel I got violently ill from
the malaria tablets… I was having muscle spasms, vomiting and when I
did try sleep I wasn’t sure if I felt nauseous in my dream or real
life and then started panicking about how I get out of the mosquito
net in the pitch black quickly if I need to. It was not a pleasant
experience and we were up at 4:15am for a hot air balloon ride which I
desperately wanted to do. Fortunately the event organisers gave me
pills for all of my ailments and I made the sunrise/ balloon ride.
Donald from Indiana was our pilot and he has been hot air ballooning
for 40 years. Its surprisingly so smooth and you can get so close to
the hippos. It was truly delightful and apparently it costs £800 per
person because you can only go once a day in the mornings. After the
balloon ride, Robert our driver took me back to the hotel so that I
could rest while Sukhi and the rest of the group had champagne
breakfast and basked in the sun by the pool. By the evening the
stomach spasms were more sparse, the nausea had subsided but I was
still scared I wouldn’t make it to the bathroom in time. Regardless it
was our last night and I was going to make the most of the gala dinner
followed by a disco. The waitress that evening was explaining the menu
and told me that there was “food for the Indian people”, I think she
was talking about the curry haha.
On our last day we relaxed by the pool and reflected back on the
experience. We left the hotel for the last time, drove to an airstrip
where we went on a 16 man plane. When we landed we had another hour
drive to Kilimanjaro airport – they don’t have any cashpoints yet they
have electronic finger print readers haha. We then flew to Nairobi
before flying home.
I reckon the whole trip must have cost Colt about £5000 per person but
it was truly amazing. Sukhi absolutely loved it and is convincing the
Balu’s to go next. Since arriving back on Wednesday, I only managed to
get a doctors appointment today at 3pm to see what I should do since I
stopped taking the malaria tablets – good old NHS strikes again!
That’s all the news I have, 264 of the 1429 photos are on facebook.
Next stop, Ansbach Germany with Sukhi, Mommy Long, Airman Long and
Kate!!! Can’t wait! Roll on Easter.
Lots of love
The African Dream, Anti
xxx
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