Happy Halloween.

In honor of Halloween...

I decided to be a Tina Turner mazungu, but nobody got the joke. I took my hair out of the braids yesterday and Rose laughed very hard when she took this picture. I learned that Halloween is a very tricky holiday to explain in another language.

Watoto kilamahali!

Well, it seems as though I have been anticipating rain for the entire month of October. I thought this might have been just an African-ism that it is expected without arriving, but actually the rain is late this year. However, it seems every day at least one person tells me that the rain is near now- either because they see a certain bug, the sun is particularly hot, there are a lot of flies in the house, they hear a certain bird, they notice many frogs at night, the night is still and not windy, etc. etc. However, from my limited experience, it seems that when babies start to be born is when the rain is actually near. Not sure if the weather has duped most animals on the ranch, but there sure are a lot of babies right now. The warthogs especially seem to be multiplying. There is a mother with three piglets (not sure if that is the correct term), but I was treated to the presence of these little stinkers last week. Not a great picture, but there are four babies and when I first saw them at the waterhole, I had to look twice to make sure they were babies. I have never seen them so small. Since that sighting, I haven't gotten to see them again. Perhaps mom realized her babies were having a difficult time navigating the waterhole. Good thing, I wouldn't want them to drown in an elephant footprint.

Jacaranda

In looking back through my posts, I realized that I talked about a Jacaranda tree and you couldn't see it very well in the picture posted. Therefore, I went outside and took these pictures of one of many such trees on the ranch. They are beautiful. It is as though the leaves disappear and are replaced with lavendar blossoms. I find it ironic that Jacaranda trees are nicknamed Christmas trees here. In fact, I laughed out loud when Rose told me that. Fact is, they blossom before Christmas so it makes sense, although they are so far from the image conjured up in my mind by the term "Christmas tree."

Pikipiki!

This past weekend I fulfilled my goal of learning how to drive a pikipiki (motorbike). We rely on pikipikis in this part of the world. Hiring a car is too expensive and they can't go as fast through narrow paths to get to where I live. When I go to town by my own means, the first step is to walk across the river to Rose's house where I have to arrange for a pikipiki to pick me up and take me to a bigger village where I can catch a daladala. Before I came here I was actually really scared of motorcycles and I think anyone who drives them is a bit of a daredevil, but being on one is actually really enjoyable. Like riding a bike without the work. Anyway, I have never been one to back down from a challenge and when the opportunity presented itself to learn to drive one, I took it. I wouldn't say my driving is flawless... I still have a tendency to rev the engine and shift down when I should shift up. Its confusing to shift with your foot instead of your arm! However, if given another chance, I think my head has had a chance to wrap itself around the concept. You never know when such life skills could come in handy.

Fungo

Although I have yet to see an aardvark, I was very lucky last week to see an African civet. I was with the owner of the ranch coming back from town in the dark and as he was giving me a lift to my house, the headlights found a civet on the road. The owner of the ranch has lived in Tanzania for 30 years and worked as a safari guide and he was amazed. Apparently this was only his third sighting! Yay. I got to see something rare... even if it isn't an aardvark. Here's a picture scrapped from the internet (http://www.stanford.edu/~siegelr/RSA/civet.jpg):

Muhanga

I have become rather obsessed with seeing an aardvark. I spent one night walking around near the treehouse in hopes that I would see one with my Maglite, but no luck. It seems every time I go for a run I notice a new spot where the aardvark has been leaving a print where its tail is used to balance while he digs for bugs. If only I wasn't so attuned to going to bed at 7:00. I may need to alter my schedule so that I can take a walk around 9:00. This seems to be when the game drives are successful at seeing them. Picture bummed from the internet (http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGS/Shared/StaticFiles/animals/images/primary/aardvark.jpg)

Kama harusi

I was invited to a "Bariki Ndoa" a few weeks back. I asked multiple people to explain to me what it was we were to be celebrating at this party. I heard it explained a few different ways, but the best explanation was that this askari wanted to have his "marriage" blessed, because even though they are finished having kids, they never had an actual wedding. However, this is not to be confused with an actual wedding, but rather having God bless their marriage as they acknowledge before they were living in sin, but they want to be recognized as a married couple in the eyes of God. Everyone was so surprised that this is not a common practice in America. So even though this was not a wedding, all the guests were invited to the Catholic church on a Saturday morning at 10:00. I was told to come to the house at 2:00, and I arrived in African fashion at 4:00. Its a good thing I decided to walk with some ladies that had tight skirts on and could not be bothered to move faster than a snail's pace, as we arrived just when the guests of honor arrived in the midst of a parade of Masai singing and dancing.

There was a ton of different delicious food, a church choir, and a "DJ" who actually acted as an MC. After the guests of honor (the not-really-newlyweds, and what I can best explain as the best couple) stood in front of a makeshift shelter all decorated with pink flowers, white sheets, and pink balloons, all the guests greeted them in receiving line fashion while the other guests sat and watched. The MC called out on a microphone for certain relations to come forward bearing their gifts. Some of the ladies really got into singing and dancing as the processed up the isle to greet the couples.

I was beginning to think this was it when the cake cutting began. It was cut into bite-sized cubes which were pierced with toothpicks. After the couple fed each other cake while their actions were narrated by the MC, he called out for the pastor to stand and the couple to feed him cake. After the pastor went the parents, and then the MC thought that I being the only mazungu must be rather important so I too was fed cake. I believe my cheeks turned the shade of the flowers decorating the cake. I try my best to blend into the crowd so that I am not stared at here, but when I am the only white person in a huge gathering, it is absolutely impossible.