Asante sana

Imagine this;

Early morning. The temperature is cool, yet warm enough for a thin sweater. You know the sun will overcome the thin morning mist any time now as you’re driving, along a dirt road, with all the windows open and no roof. Suddenly you notice the tall grass move on your left side and you stop the car. A small yet lumpy face takes a curious look at you from in between the grass, before it decides to get scared and take off. The face and its adjoining compact body makes a quick turn and runs into the bushes with a thin tail pointing straight up like a radio antenna on an automobile. You’ve just seen your first wild warthog…the laugh is spontaneous, and you cannot help grinning from ear to ear as you watch the thin erect tail disappear in the grass.

Let’s stick to this image a little longer…

You start the engine again and continue down the road until you reach a narrow path just wide enough to fit the car. The sun is out now and it is warm enough for you to take your sweater off. As you are struggling to get the jersey over your head you sense the car stopping again. The driver turns off the engine and everything gets quiet. Then suddenly you hear a roar followed by a light growl. The roar makes you a little uneasy so you hurry with the clothing, almost desperately tearing it off. What you see once you get the sweater off your head is something you’ve never seen before.

The car has stopped in the middle of a lion pride. The roar came from the dominant male who is sitting by a pond trying to drink. A young cub is climbing on him and was just told by daddy to “get the fuck off” (human translation). Everywhere around the car are lions. You count 11, one male, 7 females and 3 cubs. One of the females is only 3 feet away…and you sit there in your car feeling very small as you have eye contact with her…the window is open and all she has to do is sit up and lash out. But she doesn’t. She just looks at you. You can almost read her mind by looking into her beautiful yellow eyes.

“What are you? Why are you sitting in this metal thing? You bore me”.

You expect “daddy” to get uneasy about your presence. You expect him to stop drinking and move towards your car, letting you know your presence is unwanted. But he doesn’t. He doesn’t care that you are there. He is not afraid of you and it seems almost like he is completely unaware of your existence. The driver tells you how most animals view the car. Apparently the car is just another large animal…beings inside the car is just a part of the car. Simple as that. You drive away with a desire to leave these beautiful creatures alone…feeling smaller than you ever have in your entire life.

This image…or fantasy or whatever you wish to call it, is not a dream. Not anymore. This has been my reality the past week. I have had the incredible fortune of spending a week in what I now regard as one of the most beautiful countries in the world; Tanzania.

I knew little about the country before our arrival. I knew it was a poor country in Africa with an average income of $250 a year, making it one of the 25 poorest countries in the world. I knew there would be spectacular wildlife. I did not know how spectacular. I did not know how amazing the people would be. How generous and giving they would be despite of abject poverty.

The week went by so very fast…a week filled with smells, visions, sounds and tastes so very different from the usual ones.

It is hard to describe the feeling you are left with. Perhaps the biologist in me was hit way harder than the average non-biologist…but I have never felt more insignificant and unimportant than I have these past 7 days, and I have never felt better. It is a bit of a contradiction, isn’t it? Feeling insignificant yet happy and satisfied. It is a sense of happiness that comes from acknowledging your own bliss and fortune in life. As well as the feeling of joy that comes from witnessing some of the world’s true wonders.

(pictures: http://pixelsandstuff.blogspot.com/2008/08/tanzania.html)