Not Dead Yet!

Well. I'm back. The sky is yellow-grey outside, thunder is rumbling off the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, and it is freakin' pouring buckets of rain outside. My experience with electricity this trip has not granted me great faith is the Tanzanian electrician. It is with trepidation (and faith!) that I continue writing, because it's been a while since I was able to sit down and actually use the internet.

pause for anecdote

Cousin Kevin, an Electrical Engineering major, works for Catepillar. My father, also an EE man, has been wiring various things around the (American) home for thirty-plus years.

Dad: Youch!

Kevin: Wow. The entire frame of this washing machine appears to be carrying current! But you only get zapped where the enamel's worn off!

Dad: Yeah, I noticed that...

Dan: I had the same problem in an Internet Cafe in Iringa. And, come to think of it, the same thing happened with an inverter we were using to power this drill.

Dan, lacking the proper degree, demonstrates his lack of appropriate jargon. He worked for an electrician, once

Dan: I think it has something to do with a leak from hot to ground.

Dad: No, it couldn't be that. That amount of current running to the ground wire would blow the fusebox.

Dan: Ummm...Dad...That's assuming they actually ran a ground wire to the ground. I've walked around this house a few times and I haven't seen one.

Dad: This system's not grounded?

Kevin: I don't understand how people don't die all the time from all these blatant code violations!

Dan and Jeff, in unison: No, no. People do die all the time from these blatant code violations. If there's really a code...

end anecdote

So did I mention it's raining? I think hurricanes are hitting the East Coast of Africa or something. It's the wettest and longest "Short Rainy Season" they've had in a long time. Which made our safari in Ngorongoro crater quite, quite fun. :) We played in the mud with a Land Rover and a Land Cruiser. The mud gods were pleased. I drove the hairiest bit in the 'Rover, and grinned like a banshee all the way. Good, good times...

Well. Synopsis:

a) Settlers and Risk are fun and all that--but. The game of the year is definitely Bohnanza, the bean-farmer simulation card game! It's wicked cool!
b) Bottle-cap poker is now a family safari tradition. Cokes are worth one, Fanta are five, Stoneys and Sprites are tens and beers are twenty!
c) My beer-tasting tour-de-force has concluded. First place: Tusker. Of course. But it's good to know the reputation is well-earned. It even cured a nasty upset stomach. Close seconds: Castle Lager's Milk Stout, a surprisingly good twist on Guinness, and Savannah Dry Hard Cider, with points for the most aesthetically pleasing bottle.
d) Tarangire Safari Lodge has a breathtaking view. And breathtakingly good food. When they weighed me at the doctor's office the other day, I was "only" down to 74 kilograms...still a few pounds over my pre-Tanzania weight, after a week under the tender ministrations of some exotic intestinal houseguests. I attribute it entirely to that amazing buffet.
e) 4100 Tanzanian Shillings (about $3.80) got me a doctor consult, lab tests, and two prescriptions to put an end to the digestive tyrrany of both (yeah baby! go big or don't go at all!) soldier worms and bacterial dysentery. I've always like the way "dysentery" sounds...rolls nicely off the tongue. I spent the first week of the new year abed (or atoilet) with all sorts of exciting sympoms. Good times. Now I have two more diseases to chalk off my life list!

I would upload pictures, but they're not working. And dusk is falling, and I don't have a lamp for my bike. Cheerio!