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G-Man's Boring Lawyer Blog
May 24th 2007, 05:31 CEST by Gabe I'm kind of curious. |
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There is so much to say about my trip to Africa that I don't know where to start. It was a wonderful experience that exceeded my expectations. If you have the means and an inkling of desire I would encourage anyone to go. We were able to see everything that we really wanted to see as well as things we never expected to see (and were extraordinary lucky to be to see it in a relatively short trip). We were able to learn about the people and their way(s) of life. There so much to say that I'll break this up into some installments, like my DX blog. Just one note, I asked the guide which people were the biggest jerks, half expecting the Americans to be bad, but he said its the Germans. They tend to push the guide more. The guides are the ones with the local knowledge and it's best to listen to them because they will minimize your time sitting around. If you're too German (pushy) our guide says some of them have been know to drive in circles. We just listened to what our guide suggested and went with it. The hardest part of the trip is getting back and forth. Going there wasn't too bad as the flight to Amsterdam wasn't full and we had on-demand TV. The flight to JRO was packed, and there were no individual video screens, so you were stuck watching a monitor in the aisle way. All of that melted away when we arrived at Kilimanjaro airport and walked off the plane. The first thing I noticed was smoke that pinched my nose. I had smelled that before in Tahiti and learned that it was the locals burning their refuse. The air was cool, but humid, and there were stars. Oh my, were there stars in the sky. We avoided the crush of people getting a visa at passport control by sending our passports to the TZ mission at the UN before we left. Unfortunately KLM lost our luggage and didn't route them to JRO (we ended up getting our bags the following night, but make sure to pack all mundane electrical stuff, plugs & adapters, with the expensive stuff in the carry on. We would have been screwed if we didn't get our bags). We filled out a claim form and was picked up by a representative from Ranger Safari to take us to the Arusha Coffee Lodge. The road to Arusha from the airport is about an hour away. There are little villages along the way where you get your first glimpse at the poverty in TZ. It was a little incongruous to see a ramshackle store with Coca Cola and cell phone provider adverts plastered all over it. Without any streetlights along the road it was tough to see anything outside of the villages. Eventually we found ourselves at the coffee lodge where the security guard swung open the gate to let us in. The grounds were lit up and looked beautiful. We were given a facecloth and some juice to freshen ourselves up as we checked in. We got the key to our room, which in Africa is not our fancy western key cards, but a metal key attached to a wooden key chain the size of a postcard, and were shown the way (each key we got was like this). The coffee lodge has 13 suites that are essential private bungalows. The rooms are huge. In the back was a king size bed draped in a soft mosquito net that looked more romantic and functionary. In front of the bed was a bench, and off to the right a fireplace. The bathroom with stand up shower, separate tub, and double sink was to the left. Down a couple steps from the bed was a soft and a mini-fridge (no booze) that had the bottle water and milk for coffee. In the front were a set of french doors that looked out on to the coffee plantation. This room was unique in that it had a phone, no other room we stayed at had one. If you wanted a wake up call they would come and bang on your door. None of the rooms we stayed in had a TV, so no only were we net disconnected for 9 days, but no TV either. If you took a fine eye to the room there were some minor fit and finish details that would have prevented it from being 5 stars in the west, but given that it is in one of the most impoverished nations on the planet, it felt exceptional. There were some pangs of guilt from stating in such a nicely appointed place when there were people living in simple shakes only a few KM away, but we hoped that our tourist dollars would help some people out. We were able to go to the dining room for a snack and found all western items on the menu. We ended up getting a pizza and "Coffee Lodge" burger for 'snack' and some South African wine (Landskroon Chardonnay). This was when we learned that, for the tourists with money, there's no shortage of food in Tanzania. The pizza was a little bigger than a dinner plate and the burger would have rivaled anything (size wise) at a chain restaurant in the US, but was actually good. [sidebar] As a tourist you will be fed, a lot. For breakfast there was always a cold buffet of pastries, breads, cereal, cheese, fruits and juices. At the Sopa Lodges the buffet include sausages, potatoes, bacon, mushrooms, and a griddle for eggs. At the coffee lodge, however, it was too small for a full buffet like that, so they cooked to order the eggs, sausage, bacon, potatoes and mushrooms. Lunch was a four course affaire of a starter, a soup, and entree and then dessert. Dinner was also a four course meal, though one night we did have a buffet. All meals are accompanied with a bread basket. What was interesting at the Sopa lodges is that they had a local dish prepared for dinner that you could order, though is you didn't they would offer it to you anyway to taste. It was usually a stew of fish or beef that had a light curry flavor with some coconut rice on the side. A couple of times we got a breakfast picnic and a packed lunch for us and there was more than enough food for 6 people, forget the 3 of us eating. It was all pretty good, though some monotony set in as all the places tried to be 5 star gourmet food it seemed to always be the same. Sometimes we wish we could get a burger like we had at the coffee lodge. Most meals were served at normal hours with breakfast starting at 6:00 or 6:30 until 9:30 and lunch at 12:00 and went to 2:30, but dinner service didn't begin unit 7:30 and went till 9:30. This mean you had some time to kill after arriving at the hotel to either shower and freshen up, or go to the bar. We usually got in later, so we went to the bar. The bars are reasonable stocked with vodka (Absolut), gin (Tanqueray), and the various whiskeys (JD & Johnny Walker). The beers are local, Kilimanjaro and Safari are brewed in TZ, and they import Tusker from Kenya and Castle from South Africa. The beers are OK. Better than a Bud, but nothing that will knock your socks off. The wines were all from South Africa which I've been able to find locally (we wanted to bring some back, but was cheaper to get local), with the main choices being Landskroon of KWV, which were both very nice. All but one place had beer and wine included, but I did notice on the menu that the prices for spirits were reasonable. Imported Gin was cheaper than a local beer. Local gin was cheaper than that (blindness free! (I kid, I kid)). The cost for a beer was about 2,500 Tsh, or about $2 after the exchange. A glass of wine would cost about 5,000 Tsh and bottles would start at 20,000 and go up to 50,000 Tsh (IIRC). [/sidebar] We retired to our room to find they turned down the bed and opened up the mosquito netting around the bed. The temperature had dropped as it was now after 10:00 and it was pleasantly cool. Even though the rooms did not have any air conditioning, the coffee lodge had a ceiling fan however, we did not miss it as it always cooled off at night given the altitude of the African plains. As we got into bed, so ended day two of our trip (traveling days) and were excited that we would soon be able to see Africa and Tanzania in the daylight. To be continued... |
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Just one note, I asked the guide which people were the biggest jerks, half expecting the Americans to be bad, but he said its the Germans. I can imagine what the answer is if a German is asking the same question. 2005 TOTY 10000 badge winner and proud carrier.
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He'd probably say the French. |
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Great post, Cheesy. Looking forward to the rest. Did you take pictures? |
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Yes, we took 705 pictures, of which we had 240 printed, and 2.75 hours of video. I started uploaded pictures yesterday, but still have a bunch more to do as well as upload some cute/cool video clips. Those I probably won't get to until next week as I'll be away for the weekend, but I'll still be blogging it then. |
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I'm already jealous, Cheesy. Keep posting! |
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#622 by Anonymous I can imagine what the answer is if a German is asking the same question. Slovaks, I'm guessing. They're notorious assholes and are also pretty stupid. You never see animals going through the absurd and often horrible fooleries of magic and religions. Only man behaves with such gratuitous folly. It is the price he has to pay for being intelligent but not, as yet, intelligent enough. --Aldous Huxley
DVDs |
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ooooh, burn on you. "Testiculos habet et bene pendentes" — "He has testicles, and they dangle nicely."
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There were some pangs of guilt from stating in such a nicely appointed place when there were people living in simple shakes only a few KM away, but we hoped that our tourist dollars would help some people out. India can be like that as well. The "native" visitor and "tourist" visitor can get such wildly different experiences when going that it's basically two different countries. I was absolutely amazed at the experiences my white friends had over there. It's not as stark as they show in A Passage to India anymore, but it's not that far off either. |
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Great post Cheesy. Let us know when you have photos ready for us to look at. I will watch the African Plains episode of Man vs. Wild tonight in your honor. Actually, the liberalism of the media - as a general thing - IS a major fallacy. What the media is, is a whore. -LP Johnsen Family
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It was a little incongruous to see a ramshackle store with Coca Cola and cell phone provider adverts plastered all over it Don't know if it's commonplace in Tanzania, but, in Kenya, Coca Cola sponsor a lot of signage that in the US or UK would be covered by municipal funds. They provide a good service. - words and stuff -
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Also, as others said, cool post. I want to hear more! - words and stuff -
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When I was in Russia in 1994, we went to this really remote place called Valaam Island not far from the Finnish coast. There were only two things on this island at the time: a village with no indoor plumbing and a monastery. A couple of us, along with my Russian professor, decided to hike the couple of miles up from the monastery to the village. As we approached this village that looked like it was stuck in time two centuries ago, our professor said that the Russians have a saying for Valaam Island: "God forgot this place." As we walked up to the village gates there was a stand outside clearly selling something. We walked up to see the walls of the stand lined with Coke and Sprite. I turned to my professor and said, "God may have forgotten this place, but the Coca-Cola Corporation clearly didn't." Current novel word count: 26,800 words (I'm hoping by putting it here it helps motivate me)
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Is there an amount of money above which one has to pay taxes on a monetary gift from a family member? I guess I'm asking G-Man, but if anyone has a link, etc... World of Warcraft is a pie eating contest where the reward is more pie.
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Depends on the size of the gift. Check here. You never see animals going through the absurd and often horrible fooleries of magic and religions. Only man behaves with such gratuitous folly. It is the price he has to pay for being intelligent but not, as yet, intelligent enough. --Aldous Huxley
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Gifts you receive (which is what I think you are asking about) aren't taxable income no matter how large they are. But this gets a little trickier when you aren't just receiving cash, since income you earn as a result of a gift is taxable (i.e. real estate, stocks, various bizarre assets that no one outside of a tax law fact pattern ever has - like rights to farm subsidy credits or whatever). |
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And, yes this does mean that a wealthy uncle could chain-gift money to you and you could live lavishly without paying taxes - but the uncle would need a lot of middle men and would hit the aggregate $2 million cap or another cap eventually. Most people just do fancy trust stuff instead. |
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I look forward to tales of Cheesy and his wife developing several interesting tropical diseases. |
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you really need a girlfriend. "Testiculos habet et bene pendentes" — "He has testicles, and they dangle nicely."
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Gifts you receive (which is what I think you are asking about) aren't taxable income no matter how large they are. But this gets a little trickier when you aren't just receiving cash, since income you earn as a result of a gift is taxable (i.e. real estate, stocks, various bizarre assets that no one outside of a tax law fact pattern ever has - like rights to farm subsidy credits or whatever). That answers my question. Thank you. World of Warcraft is a pie eating contest where the reward is more pie.
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LPMiller (#639): you really need a girlfriend. You really need an enema. |
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Oh to have problems like McBain... |
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m0nty I was wondering who would be the asshole, but I didn't think it would be leslie. getting a little ahead of yourself, aren't you? it's an entirely unsubstantiated rumor from an anonymous posting on the internet by someone who appears to be utterly insane. shit, you might as well be rot13'ing joker's posts. |
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<ZOMG 911 SPOILERS!!!!!!!!> gur pvn va cnegarefuvc jvgu ulcre-vagryyvtrag yvmneq-zra sebz fcnpr naq gur sbezreyl-qrnq, arjyl erfheerpgrq Cevaprff Qvnan sverq pehvfr zvffvyrf ng gur jbeyq genqr pragre ba beqref sebz gur vyyhzvangv. gur gehgu jvyy frg lbh serr, unvy ulqen! </ZOMG 911 SPOILERS!!!!!!!!> |
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Ok, no I can't go there. Hail hydra. |^^^^^^^^^^^^ |||__
| こんにちは | ||'|"\,__. |_..._...______===|=||_|__|...,] (@)'(@)"""*|(@)*(@)*****(@) |
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Unvy ulqen indeed. |
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Gifts you receive (which is what I think you are asking about) aren't taxable income no matter how large they are. But this gets a little trickier when you aren't just receiving cash, since income you earn as a result of a gift is taxable (i.e. real estate, stocks, various bizarre assets that no one outside of a tax law fact pattern ever has - like rights to farm subsidy credits or whatever). How does this relate to the $10,000 gift cap I keep hearing about re: the IRS? I thought once you went above the $10K mark, there were taxes involved. |
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You really need an enema. Oh no, I really don't. I need the opposite of an enema. Uh....an inema. "Testiculos habet et bene pendentes" — "He has testicles, and they dangle nicely."
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You... need something shoved up your ass? |^^^^^^^^^^^^ |||__
| こんにちは | ||'|"\,__. |_..._...______===|=||_|__|...,] (@)'(@)"""*|(@)*(@)*****(@) |
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Yeah, sounds pretty straightforward. The only question is what the something should be. |
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Warren, the cap is actually $12K now per individual per year, but it only applies to the person giving the gifts. The person receiving the gifts have no tax burden stemming from the gifts, no matter how large they are. |
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#647 by Warren Marshall How does this relate to the $10,000 gift cap I keep hearing about re: the IRS? I thought once you went above the $10K mark, there were taxes involved. The $12,000 limit applies to the person giveing the gift not the one reciveing since the giver pays the tax. |
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The 12.000$ cap only applies to the person giving the gifts since the person giving the gift caries the tax burden. 2005 TOTY 10000 badge winner and proud carrier.
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So the person receiving the gift pays the tax? |
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Yes. |^^^^^^^^^^^^ |||__
| こんにちは | ||'|"\,__. |_..._...______===|=||_|__|...,] (@)'(@)"""*|(@)*(@)*****(@) |
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But what about the guy who is giving the gift? Does he pay a tax? You never see animals going through the absurd and often horrible fooleries of magic and religions. Only man behaves with such gratuitous folly. It is the price he has to pay for being intelligent but not, as yet, intelligent enough. --Aldous Huxley
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Yeah, sounds pretty straightforward. The only question is what the something should be. I just wish some days my intestine was more of a rarely traveled rural road then a 4 lane super highway. "Testiculos habet et bene pendentes" — "He has testicles, and they dangle nicely."
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But what about the guy who is giving the gift? Does he pay a tax? I don't think so. Well, up to the $21,000 limit anyway... |
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So you never have to pay more than $21,000 in taxes? fuck your song
and fuck your dance fuck your keeping me down and under |
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Only if you give the gift you received back to the original gifter. |
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What if you're a native-american giver? Do you still have to pay the taxes? Lady, people aren't chocolates. But you know what they are, mostly? Bastards. Bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling.
Blog. 203 lbs. 23 to go. |
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Not if you work in a casino. 2005 TOTY 10000 badge winner and proud carrier.
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#652 and downward made me laugh out loud. Thank you so much. I had a crappy day and really need it. This place certainly has it's moments! |
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Yeah. Of horror. "…a four-dimensional real vector space equipped with a nondegenerate, symmetric bilinear form."
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Cheesy Sounds like pretty damn cool stuff. And now for my trip with less Africa and more NC. (really long, rambling) It was not quite as adventure filled, though had a lot more drama I imagine. We got to NC on Saturday, played around in the mountains a bit, recovered from driving through the night and hung out with my aunt. Did a similar thing on Sunday as we hadn't planned on going onto the AT until Monday. After having spent most of the day playing in the mountains and swimming at a place called Midnight Hole (beautiful place only about 1.5 mile walk off the road), found out the plan to get back from the other end of the AT (where it comes out at Fontana Dam) was a no go, and hence had to spend Monday morning getting a vehicle to the other end of the trail and then getting us all (my dad, my sister and her boyfriend, my cousin and myself) to Clingman's Dome (where we were meeting up with my two brothers who had started on the trail a few days back). Of course, we were then about 4 hours late meeting them and they just sat around... my littlest brother was pretty cool with it. Shit happens and all of that. My middle brother? Lost it. Turned into a complete jackass because he had to wait a few extra hours, started hollering at people, at me in particular (I was the one who made the original plan since no one else was doing it) and so on and was going to walk off the trail after we started and go home. Words were exchanged, he finally calmed down hours later (I didn't wait on him, just walked on) and by dark things were kind of all right. We all got to shelter in more than enough time and had fun making fire, eating out of bags and talking about the plan for tomorrow. Next day, same fucking shit. We did our first leg of the trek (about 6 miles) with no problem, then when we wanted to start the second leg of the trip (another 6 miles), my middle brother got all fucking pissy again because he just wanted to sit around. I was of the opinion we're here on the mother fucking AT so lets walk that bitch. To be fair, he had already spent three days walking most up at about 8-10 miles per day. That's pretty tiring. And the six miles we were wanting to continue on was arguably one of the hardest treks in on the AT (up Thunderhead and then Rocky Point. Two of the highest points in the park and on the AT). So after much talking and debating, most everyone but my middle brother wanted to go. He got all grumpy and claimed no one cared what he though...and get this, got mad at me specifically again. My second day on the trail, my second day of getting shit for the plan not being up to par or whatever in the fuck his problem was (he later claims his ankle hurt really bad, so bad he wasn't sure he was going to make it...though no one knew this at the time). He went off on me, I told him shush it and started walking, said he could catch up tomorrow if it was such a big deal. Most of us left at that point, then my brother caught up, gave me a few choice words and went along ahead of us. Not long after we started, it started raining...hard. Pack covers on, hats/hoods on, we trekked through it. Me, I loved it. I love the rain. I walked on the ridge of the mountain line, through a cloud that was raining on me. It was an amazingly cool experience. I got to stand up on the top of the rocks at one point and stick my head out of the canopy and see seven or so other ridges, the rain flowing across them and nature just being fucking awesome... So I'm pretty damn satisfied that night and everyone, even my middle brother, was pretty happy that night. Stayed in a good shelter, built a big fire, got our shit dried out, got really faded and basically had a fine time. Same thing the next day. We didn't have that far to go because we had done the hard part yesterday, so we toked it up and walked about four miles total on top of the highest ridges. Sat down on grassy hill tops and watched the clouds be sucked in out of of the trees, swirling and moving almost a dance like manner. Amazing. That night we stay at a campsite instead of a shelter, so we all put up tents, except those that didn't carry them...they slept under the stars even after offers of sharing. Next day, we all get up, bullshit, eat breakfast...it's now day 3ish in the wilderness and the packs are feeling lighter, life is good. The trail we're walking along is mostly along rivers and Fontana lake and we're all looking forward to it. Me in particular is the water is really my favorite part of NC :). We make a plan to walk out the 10 miles, mostly down, and stay at the Fontana Dam camp site (it has hot showers!). My dad and littlest brother are lagging and most of the rest of us are ready to go, so we head up with the idea they'll catch up later. That never happens. We started walking at about 10-10:30. We got to the half way point, where the lake starts (about 5 miles from where we camped) about 2.5 hours later, spend about an hour swimming and dicking around, still no sign of them. We though oh well, they are just fucking off, no big deal, so we walk on. The next leg of the trip has a lot more up in it, but overall isn't too bad. Amazing views of Fontana, beautiful forests, multiple stream crossings, and only about 30-40% of it was hard up. We make it to the end, get directions, rent a camp site (this off the AT, it's more like renting a regular camp site), start a fire, get tents setup, etc. Basically, get everything order for my dad and brother to come out, drop off their shit and go eat a meal at the diner a few miles away... What do we get? Well, for one, they don't get out of the woods until 8:30 or so. It was pretty close to dark. It took them about eight hours to go 10 miles. It took us about 5.5 hours or so to do the same. Apparently they were going slow that a park ranger that was hunting bears saw both groups and said we were about 3 hours ahead of them...when they got to the half way point. They had been going incredibly slow. Here's the fun part, my dad goes off on us because we didn't stop at campsite #90 (the halfway point). Why? Because it was on the edge of the lake and beautiful. Had a big has fire pit built up with both the chairs around it and the pit itself built out of piled stone. Very cool stuff. But he somehow wanted us to read is mother fucking mind and predict he'd want to stay there instead of walking out as we all talked about earlier. To be fair, he did hurt himself...because he was going so slow when he got to the half way point they realized they would need to speed up to make it out by dark and he hurt something in his leg, so he was in pain...but still. Again, it was directed at me, this time because I stepped up and told him was being ridiculous and him getting angry at his for not reading his mind was absurd. That didn't stop him, of course, but at least he was mostly grumpy with me then. So out of the almost four days we spent on the AT, at least one member of my family was throwing a hissy. It was fucking That being said, I managed to not let them ruin shit for me and I still had a decent time. There is nothing like walking off into the woods and conquering about 35 miles of the AT with a 35 pound pack on your back. Very satisfying and helped me gain a better perspective on my life from an almost outsiders point of view. Came back a day early because I was tired of the bullshit, drove through with my dad, the asshat, and all was well. I don't know if I'll be going on any big family vacations, except with my kids and wife, again soon, but it was still pretty damn cool. Asshats aside. My intelligence, then, is not absolute but is a function of the society I live in
"I'm not sure it's possible to make a "subtle" jab at Matt's writing ability." - Ergo |
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Satan commands a pox upon the festering souls of the damned. |^^^^^^^^^^^^ |||__
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It cooled off a lot overnight and it was a bit foggy in the morning. Our sheet and pillows felt damp as is they were taken out of the dryer too soon. My wife, excited to be able to see the grounds under first light, got out of bed to see all the coffee plants. She was a bit startled to see a man out on the path, but he was a security guard to make sure no one trespassed on to the grounds. We showered and went to breakfast where we met up with a representative from Ranger Safari who reviewed our itinerary. He gave us our flying doctor cards as well as our plane tickets for the flight to the Serengeti. A key note was that the flight was due to leave at 8:00AM, not 8:30 as it was previously told to us. Due to airline scheduling we had an extra day to spend in Arusha, which proved fortuitous, as it let us explore the area and learn about it instead of spending the night and leaving in the morning on safari right away. It also gave our luggage time to catch up with us. Our plan was to visit a school and a village. We also had to include a trip to a grocery store to get toiletries that were lost with our luggage. Unfortunately we did not take any video of the village as we were afraid of using up all our battery power before seeing any animal, so we were only able to take some still pictures. I was able to get some video of Arusha when we were leaving though. We left the coffee lodge and were going to go to the school first since it was the last day before summer holiday and they had tests to take in the morning before being dismissed. However, the guide for the N’giresi village was already at the safari operators so we changed plans to go there. Our driver took us to pick up the guide and we had our first taste of daylight city driving. It was a lot more crowded in the morning than it was when we arrive at night. There were a lot more people than I expected. Driving was an exercise in controlled chaos as the road was a jumble of foot traffic, trucks, overloaded buses, and the occasional man pulling a cart. My wife noticed that there were no traffic lights or traffic signs, except for the odd arrow pointing to a destination. The smells of the various exhaust fumes combined into one noxious mess. We were able to see how poor the region was. I had expected to see some areas of wealth interspersed with the poor, but there were none. The odds house or market looked kept up, but the majority of it were shacks with corrugated steel roofs. There were no sidewalks in the poorer area, simply dusty dirt between the road and their front door. Arriving at the safari compound we were meet with another gate and guard that let us into a beautifully manicured compound. You would not have guessed the poverty that existed on the other side of the wall. We picked up our guide, John, who rode shotgun to the village. We made our way back onto the streets of Arusha and they navigated to a dirt path that I would never have guessed was a road. The village is near Mt. Meru and is on the rainy side so it was quite lush. This past season was very wet and they had a bounty of coffee and banana. Alongside the road was a market. The guide explained to us that people don't have refrigerators and would come to the market 3 times a day to get their food supplies, assuming they could afford it. We passed people riding/pushing bicycles coming down the hill to sell milk from their cows. Even at low speeds the road tossed us around the 4x4. The locals call it the east African massage. We passed all sorts of people and shacks along the road on our way up. The children were excited to see us, waving their hands and alternativly yelling "Jambo" (hello!) or "mzungu!" (white people!). Their genuine surprise and excitement made us feel like we going off the beaten path to experience the road less traveled. It took us 20 min of rumble and tumble to get to the village proper. We first went to the village elders house (for lack of a better term, I call him the village elder. Better than chief I think). He appeared to be the richest man in the village and was the first to get electricity two years ago. Inside they had a TV and a Sony mini system. He met with us and told us that they use this program (it cost us $25 each) to fund their schools and were able to build a secondary school with the money. Instead of 20% of the kids continuing their education, the new school ensured that 80% would be able to do so. We had some coffee and left with John to go on a walking tour of the village. The tour took us about two hours. We saw a house under construction using the traditional methods of a wood frame with stone that would be covered in mud and dung. We learned that most of the families practice subsistence agriculture. There were some Masaai people that married into the village and brought their ways with them (I think the dominant local tribe is the Warusha). They were easily identifiable by their roundoval houses. We met young children covered in mud that were excited to see us. They talked to us (through our guide) and one kid grabbed my hand and held it as we walked. I took a picture of them and showed them themselves. Our guide told us that it was probably the first time that they have seen themselves. They all crowded around me as I showed them pictures of their village. We waved goodbye to the kids and made our way to the primary school for the village. We were told that, like the other school we were to visit later, they had year end tests before being dismissed for the year. They kids were outside playing soccer with a 'ball' made out of tightly wadded up bags. Others were milling about talking and looking at us. I felt weirdly uncomfortable with my camera draped around my neck in an ostentatious display of wealth. I discretely took it off. All the kids wear uniforms. We met with a teacher and talked a bit. His English was OK, but we soon ran out of questions to ask. We were shown a typical class room and it was small with simple wooden benches. We were told that they typically sit 4 students to a bench. The walls were bare save two posters and there were a couple of holes in the ceiling. Our visit over at the school we started on our way back to the elders house. We took a different path and stopped at one of the Masaai style houses in the village. We were invited inside to see the simple way in which they lived. It was a sharp contrast to the elders house that we had seen. Light came from a simple kerosene lantern that couldn't have been more than two candle power. In the house they keep their cows at night and the calves until they are three months old. This house had one calf inside of it. It was quite warm due to the lack of ventilation. They sleep on cloth over some simple mats. A fire is made in the middle of the house for cooking. They had some modern steel and plastic pots for food and cooking, but nothing extensive. Maize is a staple that they use in most every meal. This particular household was part of a polygamy family. The husband had another wife that had her own roundoval house next to the one we were in. In addition there was a traditional framed houses next to the roundoval that housed that wives respective family. We made our exit and we went back to the elders house. Before going inside John showed us the beehive they keep for honey (some type of stinger-less bee) and how they make methane to cook with. A program from Univ. of Co. (or Ca. I forget) came over and showed them how to use the cow excrement to ferment in the ground to make methane. Inside the house John showed us the "stove", a simple burner that looked more like it was used for camping or science class than something inside a house. It was very crude to us, but by their standards very advanced for the people in the village. We met the elder again and shared our experience with him. He had a great big smile on and was eager to hear about what we thought of the village and what we saw. We told him and he was pleased that we enjoyed ourselves. He also asked if we would like to donate some money to the school fund, which we did. It's hard to say no, so we gave (another) $40. We left the village going down another road that was bumpier than the one we came in on. We dropped John off at Ranger Safari when we made our driver go to a store so that we could get some supplies. First we had to go to a Banque de Change. I have no idea if I got ripped off or not. I gave them $40 and got 5 10,000 Tsh bills. In Arusha there is a large UN presence thanks to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda going on in the city. Thanks to that and all the money they bring into the area, plus some ex-pats, a nice modern supermarket was built. We went in, past the now obligatory guard, and found a store that reminded us of home. It had a dozen aisles with separate sections for dairy, meat and produce. We also found punk college kids on 'holiday' that reminded us too much of home. We picked up our supplies and checked out. The items were cheap, a tube of toothpaste cost only 1,000 Tsh (less than $1), but I wondered how long it would take the cashier to make as much as we bought (about 16,000 Tsh). [sidebar] For either culture or economics you'll find that the local population doesn't believe in deodorant/antiperspirant. Sometimes you'll get a strong sniff that you'll feel like passing out. Just hope that it won't be your server at dinner time. [/sidebar] We went back to the hotel for lunch and took the time to freshen up with our new goods. We had time for a brief nap before our afternoon excursion. We were due to go to a school in the city, but since we had already seen a school at the village and there would be no kids there to see, we drove around Arusha and saw the sites. We went by the Rwanda tribunal courts and saw the Arusha clock tower (halfway between Capetown and Cairo), as well as the monument to Julius Nyerere's failed Ujamma program. We went to a post office to get some stamps to send postcards home. We thought the kids would like it and it would be a neat race to see if we got home first or the post cards. The driver showed us the main open air market that the locals use for their shopping, as opposed to the supermarket we went to earlier. For whatever reason he thought it would be a good idea to go for a walk through the market. So we go out and everyone wants to talk to us and follow us. They asked us in their rudimentary English where we from and I instinctively say, New York*. As soon as I say it I realized I said that I must have been saying to them, "I have a lot of money, let me buy anything from you." Butchers we passed in stalls hanging shanks of meat wanted to sell to us. One vendor tried to sell us spices, as if we needed them. We made our way through the market with some hangers on and others just staring at us slack jawed (my wife said she felt 'eye raped') as we walked though. To say we felt uncomfortable was an understatement (I wonder if this is what celebrities feel like?). We're probably better for doing it, but it really removed us from our comfort zone. We got back into the Ranger Safari 4x4 thankful to be inside with our safety. It was nearing 5:00 so we went back to the Coffee Lodge and bid our driver good bye (and a $10 tip for the day). We went to the bar and wrote out our postcards and snacked on cashews (these were awesome) and drinks. I had a 0.5L bottle of Kilimanjaro beer, and my wife had some wine. We went back to the room and freshened up for dinner where we had an excellent 4 course affair. The only thing marring the evening was an annoying Norwegian family at a table near us. After dinner we were pretty tired and went to sleep right away. I was startled awake with a phone call from the front desk to find out that our luggage made the flight from AMS and was at the front desk for us to pick it up. I went out and a couple of the security guards brought it back to our room. Soon my wife and I were back to sleep, excited to be going out on safari tomorrow where lions and elephants awaited us. [sidebar] In Africa there is no shortage of manual labor. Someone (or two) is always waiting to help with your bags and take them for you. If you go bring a lot of $1 bills. We brought 50 and we ran out of them the last couple of days. [/sidebar] Part III to be continued... * whenever we travel abroad we tell people we are from NY. It's easier than explaining what NJ is, and we're close enough to be true, except that one time we were in FP and some guy from the states asked us where we were from, say NY, and it turns out he was from Staten Island. |
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Nice, Cheesy. Thanks again. You never see animals going through the absurd and often horrible fooleries of magic and religions. Only man behaves with such gratuitous folly. It is the price he has to pay for being intelligent but not, as yet, intelligent enough. --Aldous Huxley
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Great posts. More about the food please. Actually, the liberalism of the media - as a general thing - IS a major fallacy. What the media is, is a whore. -LP Johnsen Family
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More about the food please. Unfortunately I don't think there's more to tell. For lunch that day my wife order a pizza (I think this was chicken and avocado) and I had a steak and egg on a baguette with fries. The food they serve tourists is all western so it's not some great food blog that Italy might be. Our driver guide (the one we spent the week with on game drives) said that there are about 120 tribes in Tanzania, and while they are slowly integrating (with the Masaai the most resistant), there's no one type of cuisine you can point to and say, that's Tanzanian cuisine. |
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