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.