Assistance for the Geography-impaired
For those of you who would like to see where our Venture Crew is going on their mission trip come Wednesday, here is a map of Africa showing the location of Tanzania and a map of the country showing major cities.

Tanzania is on the East coast of Africa, just below the Equator.

United Republic of Tanzania

We will land at Dar es Salaam and fly cross-country to Kigoma. Dar is on the Indian Ocean coast. Kigoma is in the highlands by Lake Tanganyika, just South of the Burundi border. It's not rainforest, but the rainforest isn't far off. In between the Ocean and the Lake, much of Tanzania's interior is arid badlands in the dry season. But we will also be going to Morogoro, which is an agricultural area at the feet of the Uluguru Mountains. Lots of bananas and sisal grow there. And we will go to Mikumi National Park to do a game drive or two. You can see Morogoro just West of Dar es Salaam, and Mikumi SW of Morogoro. Our crew consists of two young adults (Nikki and Amber) and two *ahem* mature adults (me and collinsmom). We leave Wednesday. Your prayers for our safety would be appreciated.

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Parturient montes
I went and paid that silly ticket today. In filling out the response, I noticed that there was an option to enter a plea of nolo contendere (Latin for "kiss my ass"). So that's what I did, and that's out of the way, now.

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Getting psyched up to go
I've got a better camera this time, so I'm hoping to bring home some better pictures from Tanzania. These are from 2001's Trip of the Millennium. ( Collapse )

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Here's crud in your eye
Cuthbert, our kitty, has had a very sore eye for the past couple of days. I've been giving him artificial tears twice a day or so to flush it out, but it hasn't been getting much better. So this afternoon, I took him to the vet.

He didn't care much for the ride there, but he was a good kitty. He was nervous in the vet's office, too, but he behaved himself. He has a small ulcer on his cornea, just under his third eyelid. So we have atropine to put in his eye twice a day, and something else to put in there 4-6 times per day.

He doesn't like it much, but on the other hand, you can tell he's feeling better already, and he's being very companionable. He seems to understand that Daddy was helping him get better.

I mentioned to Dr. K. that he bites a lot, and he doesn't seem to know how to lick to show affection. Dr. K. pointed out that this is typical of an orphaned cat. He didn't have other kittens to bash him a good one to establish boundaries for rough play, nor lots of kitty-love from Mama or sibs washing him. But he's getting a wee bit gentler as he grows up.

And his fur, which used to be very blond, is acquiring a reddish glow. In the sunshine, he and Sassafras look like they have the same fur color.

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