St.Patty's day.

This weekend I went with my friend Leonard to Mikumi. He is from Nigeria. We rode on a bus for 3 hours and went about 80 miles from Morogoro. We stayed with his friend Morris who is a manager at Kilembeo which is one of the biggest companies in Tanzania. They make sugar. Kilembemo is surrounded by sugar cane. It is everywhere. The are alot of South Africans there because I think they bought out the company. During the day we rode to Mikumi which is a National Park here. It was neat to be riding on the bus there and seeing giraff walking around. We saw lots of animals. Impalas everywhere, giraffs, elephants, wlid boar, wilda beast, water buffalo, hippos, baboons and Zebra. We did not see any simba though which is lion in kiswahili. The animals here for the most part just stare at you as you stare at them. The Wilda beasts however take off running. They don't like cars too much, i guess it is rare to see lion or lepord. I just blew me away to see these animals in there everyday habitat hanging out doing there thing. The giraffs were my favorite to watch. There just so odd looking. They get really close to the car to. They are huge beautiful creatures. Some elephants got very close to the car as well. The water buffalo spent there time hanging out in the mud. The hippos where in the water and occasionally poke there head out to get some air and see what was going on. I saw one baboon chase another one who had a banana.
Afterwards we went to the snake park. They have about 6 different cobras here in Africa. The black cobra got wild in his cage because the snake guy tapped on the window up and down very fast and the cobra eventually struck the window. The egyptian cobra did the same thing. They also have a red spitting cobra. Most cobras if they bite you, you only have 45 minutes to live. The black mamba is the most dangerous snake here. It can grow to 14ft in length. One bite and you have only 5 minutes left to live. THey typically strike the head or chest. I am going to start carrying around a black stone. Supposedly if a snake bites you, you should then make two veritcal cuts where the snake bit you and lay the black stone on it. The black stone will stick to your skin and draw the poison out of you.
St.Pattys night we hung out with the south africans and wacthed there rugby team which they won. Everyone celebrated and started drinking a lot. I made sure to have a guiness and a shot of baileys to celebrate St.Patty's day. It was a fun night with them. We also made a stop at Udyzungu Falls lodge. I wanted to hike the falls but there wasn't enough day light that day.
On Monday I rode with Fr Michael and others to Ifakara for the Ordination of a new dioceases. It is scarey riding with him. i thought we were going to die at least 6 times. His foot is always on the accelerator or brake. Never constant speed or coasting. I can't tell you how many cars we passed when it is always double solid line. That is the way here. On the way back I rode the very back or trunk with the fold down seat in a Toyota Land Cruiser. It was like riding on Excalibur for two hours. Which is a very rough riding roller coaster in Minnesota. Imagine driving on the bumpiest dirt road. Sometimes pot holes are a foot deep and always washboard ridges. We were going about 40 mph on the straight aways and 20 mph on the turns. I couldn't watch . My paretns would have had a heart attack. The rode is suppose to be for two cars but really only one can fit. The bigger car always has the right away because they can run you over. So it goes Semi trucks, buses, Suvs, cars, bikes and people are last. I would not bike or walk on the rode and everyone does here. It is incredibly dangerous and there is no thing as slowing down. They will run you over if you don't move out of the way. I thought Fr Michael was going to kill at least 3 people on the rode because I didn't think they were going to get out of the way and there is no slowing down. I also cant believe all the stuff these poeple can fit on there bicycles. All the bicycles here I think are fromt he 60's and 70's. Cruiser bikes. It is also fun to see all the stuff that people can carry on there head. Incredible balance. I don't know how they do it.
Cell phones are everywhere here. I fact most students here have 2-3 phones with different companies because it is cheapest to call fromt he same company and they buy minutes. The poeple here are constantly buyimng these tickets htat have minutes. They need minutes on there phone they buy more.
Gas is the same price as it is in the states. But poeple don't make as much here. I think the average income is about $2,000 a year. So gas is expessive for them.Diesel and Regular are the same price as well. So everyone for the most part drives diesel.
We had dinner at a place called the Arc hotel. I had "American Steak with Fries" I was curious to see what it was. It was a flank or flat steak cooked medium well with swiss cheese on top. It was good but I have never seen an Amrican steak like this. It cost about 6 USD.
I asked someone about crime and they siaid punishment here is very serious. Poeple take matters into there own hands. So if you some steals from you and you catch them. Everyone beats them until the police shows up. Not everyone survives in time for the police. I guess it is like that for all crimes. I thinkn crime is actually pretty low here. I haven't seeen anything so far.

Siku Enjema

Good day