From Mwagusi to Minnesota

Jan 27 2016

Kari and I awoke monday morning to the sounds of the African bush in Mwagusi Safari Camp in Ruaha National Park in anticipation of beginning our journey back to Minnesota. The rest of the group had already gone on a morning safari so Kari and I had breakfast with the camp ccordinators and some other guests. One was Carol, who works for the Wilderness Conservation Society on a project in Ruaha: she is studing the vultures which we happened to see the evening before near a lion-kill. Three fun-facts about vultures are: 1) they are very social creatures, 2) the highest recorded ariplane-bird collision was a vulture riding a thermal at 10,000 feet! 3) an expanding vulture population is an indicator of increasing elephant poaching as the vultures feed on the carcasses.

On the ride to the airstrip in Ruaha, we passed a herd of elephants that were only 5-10 yards off the dirt track. The flight to Dar was uneventful, but Dar was warm and muggy--reminded me of our stop over in Dar 3 weeks ago and our trip to USAID and to Kampala International University Medical School (and the visit to the cadaver pit).  We took Phil's suggestion and visited the center-city fish market then found a place by the Indian Ocean to drink cool liquids until time for dinner with Grey Saga and Gloria. It took 90 minutes to get from Sea Cliff to the airport in the chaotic Dar traffic.

The flight from Dar to Amsterdam was uneventful. On the flight from amsterdam to Minneapolis, I ran into a flight-attendant who is also a  patient of mine (breast cancer--an occupational hazard for flight attendants) and Dr Michael Westerhouse and his wife Amy who were returning with students from their Social Medicine course held annually in Uganda.

It was 27 degrees F upon arrival in Minnesota--not too bad for this time of year. It is realy difficult for us that first evening back to stay up much past 6pm so we were in bed early and, of course, were up very early in the morning (2-3am!) As I was driving to Lifetime Fitness at 5am this morning, I saw some remaining holiday lights in the yards of neighbors--nothing more poignantly reminds me of Minnesota in the winter then holiday lights and snow.  One of the yard displays included a familiar message to us Tanzania travellers in little white lights: "Joy to the world."  To this I can only add ..."and joy to you and me."

Randy