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A grey headed kingfisher!

A day in the life of Tanzania weather

With all the heat in Chicagoland these days, and with all the talk that's been going on about the weather, it seems a fitting time to recall our group's daily experience with the weather in Tanzania. Keep in mind that northern Tanzania is near the equator, so the sun rises at about 6:30am, and sets at about 6:30pm. Also, many of the places we visited were at some altitude.

6:30am: Wake up FREEZING. Snuggle under blankets for a while, then get ready for the day, being sure to grab a long-sleeved shirt or sweatshirt.

9:00am: Still sort of hazy. Still sort of cool. Maybe it'll be a cool day?

11:00am: STILL sort of hazy. And still relatively cool. Feel pretty confident that it's going to be a wonderful, 75-degree day.

12:00pm: Hrm. The clouds are gone and the sun is pretty intense. Getting warmer. Ah, but it's noon at the equator. It's supposed to be hot now. Figure that it'll be hottest now at noon, and cool to the end of the day.

2:00pm: Wow. That sun is HOT. My skin feels like it's burning, and I'm pretty sweaty. Turned out to be a hot day after all.

4:00pm: Holy hot sun. This must be what hell is like.

6:00pm: Well, now that the sun is starting to set, the day is feeling pretty nice.

8:00pm: Ahhh...nice and cool. Hrm. It cooled off pretty quick. I wonder if this means that tomorrow is going to be a bit cooler than today.

Sometime in the middle of the night: WOW I'm COLD! Where did I stash my socks and sweatshirt?

Repeat this pattern EVERY SINGLE DAY. You'd think that we would have learned. But every day, right around 10:30 or 11am, we would be CONVINCED that the cool morning meant a cool day. Ha.

However, on all of these hot humid days here in Chicago, I think I'd much prefer the cool mornings and even the hot afternoons to this 24-hour hot, humid stuff we're dealing with right now...

Peace,
Melissa

Camels

A happy camel, supplied by the Heifer Project, at a boma near Ketumbeine

I was doing some reading online today about the Naapok Bead Project, and ended up stumbling into a blog post about the camel project that we visited on our second Sunday in Tanzania.  Here is an excerpt from a blog post called "The Camel Project" from the blog Asante's Alaskan in Tanzania:

A couple of years ago, women from a boma in the Ketumbeine area wanted to join with NAAPOK bead group. Since the group already had 56 women, they had to be turned down. Bethany's husband, Steve (the missionary doctor) knew something of Project Heifer's camels, so he investigated that project. The result was that the women were selected to participate in an experimental camel project. They received 30 camels, which had been walked down from Kenya. The Maasai community was, at first, reluctant to embrace the idea. Then came the terrible drought of 2009. During that drought, many of the goats and cows died; children had nothing to eat except for thin corn based gruel -- no goats meant no milk. The camels, however, not only thrived, but calved healthy calfs. A total of 16 calves have been born. During the drought, the camels continued to produce milk for the children of that boma, and provided milk for the women to sell.

After that drought, the camels were embraced as a good project! Bethany is hoping to see more bomas and Maasai communities participate in camel projects. One of the provisions of Project Heifer is that 1/2 the calves must be given away when they are old enough -- so many new women will receive camels and training. Camels make such good sense -- they are well adapted to the arid, scrubby conditions; they continue to give milk in droughts; and they are more environmentally responsible. And if you have never been up close and personal with a camel, they are huge! I wasn't prepared for them to be so big; and their eyelashes are so long; and the calves are adorable!

Home sweet home

It is official.  Our time in Tanzania has ended and we are now safely back home, ready to sleep in our own beds, trying to beat the heat as we remember what it was like to fall asleep to cool breezes and wake up chilly (and then get all hot and sweaty when the sun blazed down at noon, since we were near the equator!).

Now is the time to watch the blog!  Pictures, stories, thoughts, memories - this is one of the places where we will share our experiences and remember our time together halfway across the world.  Tomorrow, when I'm awake and a little refreshed, I hope to start posting a few favorite pictures and stories, so stay tuned!

Peace,
Melissa