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EA'11 Revisited - Ann Dickinson

Page history last edited by Henry Hamburger 10 years, 7 months ago

EA’11 Revisited 

 

“It was great to watch how both lion and buffalo worked as teams, with many coordinated moving parts:  just like us on the trip, if I remember!”  This comment by David Newbury, upon seeing my game park video, reveals the dynamics of our EA’11 group.  Imagine two dozen AARP’rs on Survivor, the castaway reality show, where teams actually choose monikers like Lion and Buffalo, and you get the general idea.  On Survivor, people vote each other off the island (bossy ones first to go), something our group would never do!  OK, it’s true I got tossed off the bus for bossiness at the behest of my dear husband, but that doesn’t count since it was to my advantage: I got to join lion van to view animals in daylight, while buffalo bus backtracked to watch nighttime roadside welding.  In any case, no matter what we had to endure, we all survived...so here’s a salute to our group:       

 

To Betty and Sam for hosting a great welcome party, the memory of which sustained us through not-so-great times ahead, i.e., excruciatingly long border crossings. At one crossing Sam had the smarts to head back over the border for necessary paperwork, saving us from languishing forever in no-man’s land.       

 

To Mary Ann, on her first African trip, for expressing an enthusiasm that helped the rest of us see Africa in a fresh light.  To Gus for giving new meaning to the word unflappable (Gus would never get tossed off the bus).

 

To Andrea for proving that lost luggage doesn’t preclude being a fashionista.  Her Pan Am training (travel in a nice outfit with accessories in your carry on) paid off.  As did her stint as her sorority’s song leader:  her memory of singalong tunes seemed to shorten one of our many long nighttime bus rides. 

To Neil for bringing his New York savvy to Africa and for doing the polepole with Babu Paul up Mt. Meru.

 

To David and Kathy, armed with coping skills developed during decades in Africa, for stepping up during hard decision making sessions, and for helping us out of tight spots (roadside welding, etc).

 

To Jan and John for being good sports no matter how many inconveniences they encountered. 

To Patrick, whose energetic hide-and-seek with Sipi Falls’ kids enabled us to get a glimpse of African children in delight mode.

 

To Eddie, who once befriended a student, who in turn befriended us by arranging housing near the border, which spared us hours of night driving in buffalo bus to Kakamega. 

 

To Pat Gill for being a role model by tirelessly working to improve East African education.  With her cane-stool handy, she was up for all adventures and misadventures.

 

To Nola, my Rosary College-Nganza buddy, for continuing to teach homebound students full time in LV’s school system.  Her unforgettable trip is bound to come in handy when working with those students who all face difficult situations. 

 

To Bill (Puleeez!) for entertaining us with his witty insights and gymnastic feats, and in his more serious moments for encouraging reading...and exhorting roadside kids not to repeat biased words they've learned from rap songs.

 

To Pat Colby for bringing sunny California to our group with her smile and upbeat nature, and for graciously joining Bill as our spokesperson at the schools.

 

To Sharon, whose interest in Africa and its people (and the antics of her fellow travelers) kept her constantly at her notebook.  We await publication of her travel memoirs trusting that names will be changed to protect the innocent.

 

To Brooks for taking blame for every mishap, a leader’s plight.  It follows then that he take credit for our timely presence in Ngorogoro - our arrival much delayed by mishaps -  at the exact moment a lion pride decided to take on a buffalo herd, an encounter our guide claimed was the best in his six years of leading safaris.  

 

Finally, hats off to Jerry (Hello..o..oh! the guy whose hat never left his head), to Joan, to Teresa and Ray for arranging suitable transport into Ngorogoro Crater, sparing us from merely peering over its edge and imagining the wonders below.  My sense is that the young adults in that team weren’t as likely as us AARP’rs to simply complain and accept; they thought outside the box and Voila! we were all off buffalo bus.

 

To observe EA’11 action figures in living color, click on the links below (more videos will be released later).

 

Lions attack Cape Buffalo - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWOjkaeonaM 

 

Sipi Falls - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfwWYlOlpOo

 

Uganda roadside - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-U84bwTV4o

 

Life in Lira - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_wNR0D3D4A 

 

Uganda kids singing - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHg9q_6gUIc

 

Singers, dancers - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV39bhZtFI8 

 

 

 

Comments (1)

sllybeck@ca.rr.com said

at 6:47 pm on Aug 26, 2013

Thanks, Ann. A wonderful précis. I have no plans to publish with or without names. I was just writing to keep my temper! I look forward to our meeting in Minneapolis!

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