Virtual Information Project: Out to "Africa"

Giraffe feeding

Jeremy & Moses (notice the elephants in the background)

As Jeremy’s four year old son Moses asked when Jeremy told him we were going camping in Endumet (on the slopes of western Mt. Kilimanjaro), “Are we going to ‘Africa’, Baba?” How right he was! In order to truly experience and engage in Honeyguide’s community-based projects, out into “Africa” we went. Cruising along the highway north of Arusha, we turned off onto a bumpy dirt road. After 2 ½ hours of rough terrain (remember of course that Danielle is 30+ weeks pregnant), we arrived at our campsite just in time to set up camp before dark. Experienced Honeyguide staff transformed the underbrush of a giant acacia tree into our home for the next few days. In less than a half hour, they unpacked the vehicles, put up 5 tents (plus a designated “ladies” toilet tent), started a fire, and were boiling hot water for tea. We rolled out our bed mats and sleeping bags and suddenly caught each other’s eyes – two inexperienced “muzungus” from inner city Boston setting up camp in the bush! We laughed until we had tears streaming down our faces!

camp at night

As the sun set fiery red over the endless expanse of wilderness, we breathed in the fresh Tanzanian air and sipped our hot tea. “There is no place on earth like this!” Terri exclaimed. As darkness overtook us and the fire glowed strong in the middle of our campsite, Erik our cook prepared a delicious meal of pasta and vegetable curry for our dinner. Damian, Honeyguide’s co-founder, told us tales of Honeguide’s history and of his passion for conservation and working with local communities. As we chatted, Danielle spotted something reddish crawling in the sand underfoot… a ‘not-so-friendly’ scorpion! Damian removed himself calmly from his seat and swiftly stamped the life out of the scorpion with the butt of his beer bottle. He gallantly assured us not to worry; we would never find one in our tent. We accepted this – because we really had no other option – and the lively conversation continued with the dead scorpion laying in the dust. Some impala snorted in the brush nearby and we took another sip of tea. In the words of 4-year-old Moses, “We were in AFRICA!”