Tanzania

Thought I'd give you all a quick update on Tanzania....I had a picture of a monkey all ready to put on here, but the internet is so slow, it's not letting me put it up, so you'll just have to wait. But yes, there really are monkeys all over the place. In the morning I can look out my balcony and watch them playing in the trees. They are very cute from a distance, but I'm content with just looking at them. I guess they get so populated and they all carry rabies, so once a year they go through the town shooting monkeys to reduce the population.

For the past week and a half we have been traveling to different villages and vaccinating and deworming animals. In the past three days alone we saw over 3,000 cows. It's quite a site to see all those cows gathered in one spot, and they can tell which ones belong to which herd. Most of the cattle are a mixed breeds, but the majority look like Brahma (they have the hump over their shoulders) but much smaller. And for all of you familiar with the song "Away in a Manager" (which I realize is probably everyone), I got to experience firsthand what they mean by 'the cattle are lowing'. I don't think I've ever heard the dairy cows back in Wisconsin make this sound, but gets pretty loud once they get going. I haven't gotten to see any of the 'exotic' animals yet-that might have to wait until I get to Kenya next month. We've mainly seen cattle, chickens, goats and some dogs. The cows are our main emphasis right now-Tanga is to Tanzania what Wisconsin is to the United States...this is their dairy region. They don't quite have the same production results though...one person I asked said their cows usually give about a liter of milk a day.

Last weekend I went to Amboni caves, which was pretty much what it sounds like-a bunch of caves. And of course had bats flying everywhere around my head. (For those of you that are wondering, yes, I did the Goonies thing and started screaming, "Rabies, rabies!" I'm cool like that. :-)

Today I went to a place called Tongoni ruins, which are ruins from the 14th-15th century. Again, it looked like it sounds...a bunch of falling down buildings, but apparently they are somewhat famous.

Tanzania is very beautiful this time of year-it reminds me of Hawaii in the winter. It has been around 80 degrees, there are palm trees everywhere, oranges, pineapple, you name it. I can't say what it looks like in country, but here on the coast is very lush and green at the end of the rainy season.

Like I mentioned before, the internet here at the hotel is pretty slow, and I only get online on the weekends, so I will probably have to wait to post pictures up here until I get back to Djibouti in a couple of weeks, but they are coming.

Update

For those of you that are wondering, the creature in the picture is a roadrunner. Don't ask what the stream of 'water' is that it's sitting next to. And you really don't want to know what I was doing outside of camp that day (it's not a story for the faint of heart or stomach).

I discovered last night that it does indeed rain in Djibouti. I also discovered that the seal under my door is not very good, because the small amount of water that actually came down all went under my door and onto the floor of my room. Apparently God was telling me I needed to mop. :-)

And, for the big news, Jay and I each are proud owners of the new iPhone. He waited in line for hours to get them (thank you baby). So that means my cell phone number has changed. I'll give that to everyone a little later after I actually get my phone (yes, it works in Africa, unlike Verizon. However, it's like $4 a minute, so don't call until I get home. Unless it's really important....like they finally figure out the whole Favre situation! DON'T get me started on that one!!!!)

Last but not least, I'm going to be headed out to start our vet missions in other countries soon (I could tell you exactly when, but then I'd have to kill you :-). I have heard that the internet capabilities aren't really dependable, so it may be a couple of weeks before I'm able to email or add any updates. But as soon as I am able to, I will add new pictures.

"Keeping it in the Family"

As this site has had some success, I have undertook a new project for the entire family. Since it was Joleen's idea, I have to give credit where credit is due! For the latest News, Scores (maybe?), and Weather (who knows, it could happen!) turn no further then this great new website:

www.thestratmans.com

It might not look like much now, or even anything at all (?!?!), but I will be slowly plugging away at it and assigning everyone (for the most part) Author permissions. I think I will use the same type of site as this one here, so as to minimize confusion with the technology. Further updates will be posted to the site.

For Jay

I don't know if it worked or not, but I tried to put a link on the right to Jay's website. He does a much better job at playing webmaster than I do with pictures and videos and making it look nice, but I'll do what I can. This is one of my favorite pictures of us, and I wanted to share. I love you and I miss you baby.

Happy 4th!

So since I don't have any good pictures of Africa or of fireworks for the 4th of July, I thought I would put up this picture of Eliana, since it looks like a good example of what I wish I was doing on the 4th of July! Instead, I get to work (at least the office is air conditioned). It's nice and humid today, so I guess that's typical no matter where you are for the 4th (except maybe Colorado...it's NEVER humid there. I miss CO!) Nothing too exciting happening here yet. I spent all this week in different classes for orientation, so it's been pretty boring. The real work starts when I go to Tanzania soon for a 3-4 week VETCAP (Veterinary Civil Action Program). Hopefully then I'll have lots of good Africa pictures for you all to look at. Anyway, hope whatever you do to celebrate you have fun. And Jeff......Happy Birthday!