Serengeti

First of all,I need to do some corrections. The place we visited today was Oldupai Gorge - not Olduvai as I wrote earlier on Facebook. We found out that some European wrote the name incorrectly about 100 years ago in some scientific journal, and we Europeans have been saying it wrong ever since. Oldupai is the Massai name for a plant that grows in the area, so it is Oldupai Gorge. Got it? Next, I also said we'd be seeing the oldest human footprint. After looking around the little museum there, I learned that the footprint was the oldest humanoid footprint (not from homo sapien), was made about 3,000,000 years ago, wasn't even found in Oldupai Gorge (but a short distance away), and you can't even see the actual footprint because they re-covered it so it wouldn't erode! But we did read all about it, and we saw a plaster cast of the prints. There was lots of information and photos of Louis and Mary Leakey. As I walked through the museum, I kept remembering the National Geographic films I used to watch about the Leakeys in my fifth grade science class. The theme music kept running through my head.

Next correction - I got one of the Big Five wrong. They are lion, rhino, water buffalo, leopard, elephant. We have now seen three of them because we saw the water buffalo today.

Oh, and I forgot to tell some things about the place we stayed two nights ago - the permanent tents. Our tent was quite a way from the dining hall/reception area and the walkway was sand so our luggage wheels wouldn't work. The porters picked up our bags and carried them on their heads! It was amazing (I took a photo that I'll post later). Also, since there were wild animals around, the lodge hired Massai "warriors" to walk us to and from the dining tent, carrying a bow and arrow for our protection.

The hotels and lodges here have a wonderful way of dealing with tips for all the staff people. There is a tip box when you check out, and you are welcome to put as much money in it as you like. The tips are then divided up among all the staff. It is so much nicer than rummaging around for small bills to give to everyone. I wish we would adopt this in American hotels!

Last night was our favorite place we've stayed while on this trip. The Ngorongoro Farmhouse has a working vegetable garden, lush tropical plants, a coffee plantation, comfortable guest cottages and excellent food. We will get to stay there again, on our last night in Africa.

Today we drove through Ngorongoro Conservation Area (a lush, tropical rain forest) to get to Serengeti National Park (a semi-arid savannah). We could almost have been on two different planets today as much as the scenery changed! We drove for a few hours on the bumpiest road I've ever been on, saw a few animals, and then we settled in to our accommodations for the next two nights - a tent in the middle of the park. This temporary tented lodge moves every 3 months so it doesn't leave any permanent mark on the landscape. There is no running water, but they will get you a bucket of hot water when you want to take a shower. There is a toilet in the tent, but it's basically outhouse-style. Still, it's pretty luxurious for being miles from civilization.

Which brings me to my last point - how I'm able to blog. My husband got an international data plan for the iPad (owned by Church of the Resurrection) to see if they could use it on future mission trips to Malawi. Turns out, even out here in the middle of the wilderness, we are connected :-) I'm feeling a little guilty about it, but only a little. We're still able to sit here in our bed and hear all the wildlife around us. And I'll "rough it" enough later with my lukewarm bucket shower...