Safari!

This past weekend our training group went on a safari at Mikumi National Park, about 3 hours south of Morogoro. It was absolutely spectacular. We were lucky enough to see most of the major animals. We saw elephants, zebras, wildebeests, water buffalo, monkeys, antelope, and giraffes. I tried to take a good number of pictures, but I found I enjoyed myself most when I had the camera turned off. Kinda seems silly to look at animals through an LCD screen when they’re right in front of you, and it’s not like I’m exactly going to compete with National Geographic. That said, I did manage to get a number of decent shots. Most of these pictures speak for themselves, so I’ll keep the rambling to a minimum.



Zebras were everywhere. Bold as can be too, they’d often walk right up to the bus.





One of the watering holes we stopped at was filled with hippos. Hippos are not small. They are also inherently hilarious. I couldn’t stop chuckling for most of the time I was watching them. They just kind of float around all day, and occasionally make a prehistoric sounding snort. They look really docile, and maybe even a little cute. It became abundantly clear to us just how dangerous the critters are though when the lone 15-foot crocodile in the pond bolted away in fear from one of the grunting hippos. Unfortunately, the hippos and crocodile didn’t come above the water for very long, so it was hard to get a decent picture of them. All my attempts came out looking like floating logs. So, instead you get this sweet picture of me fearlessly standing in front of the death pond! You’ll just have to take my word though that it’s filled with hippos and a croc.



This next one is my favorite photo.



This is an Acacia tree. The branches are covered in super sharp 4 inch spikes. Africa: even the trees are made to kick your ass.



Being the knuckleheads that we are, we of course resorted to sneak attack spiking one another with fallen Acacia quills. Hey, we can’t be mature ALL the time. Poor Allen here just incurred Conor’s wrath. Conor’s face of pure sinister joy is priceless.



A few random photos now:


Peace Corps Trainee Neil looking especially prepared to take on whatever the safari throws his way.


Chacos and Peace Corps service go hand in hand.


This is Kit, a very good friend of mine from training. It really is hard to take a bad photo in Africa.

We closed out the day by all relaxing in the shade of an enormous baobab tree. Standing beside an ancient African tree while watching dusk settle over the grasslands, it’s hard not to be touched. I was flooded with a great sense of peace. This last month has been incredibly challenging. It was really nice having all the built up stress and fatigue just kind of wash away into the sunset.