So what to cover in today's blog was really not a hard decision. We decided to let you know about the "out-takes" of the trip. That is the "caca that happens" that we weren't going to cover so the naysayers couldn't jump on it and say...."I told you so."
Out-Take #1 Louise throws down the gauntlet, day 1 in Uganda
After a series of flights through the night that take us through Kigale Rwanda, Entebbe and Kihihi Uganda, we arrive at our first African destination Mahogany Springs in Bwindi. The check-in goes smooth until they take us to our suite, which is not the President's suite that we reserved. Louise immediately and firmly expresses her displeasure to the poor hotel clerk and we are given two separate accomodations. She really drives home the point and all Diane and I could do was listen in silence. By this time, we just want to relax. That evening for dinner, the hotel manager comes and sees us and profusely apologizes for their error and will move our stuff in the morning to the two bedroom, two bathroom President's suite. By now Louise has cooled off to a simmer and the manager in recognition of our inconvenience offers us a bottle of wine of our choice from the wine list, on the house. We choose well. After we get the wine, both Diane and I compliment Louise on her strength of conviction and I simply ask her, "Louise, it's not like you to be so forceful. Why did you feel that you needed to say something?". She quickly responds "I didn't want you to make a scene". I am stunned and find myself speechless. She might as well have kicked me right in the cojones.
Out-Take #2 Louise suffers a foot injury
While at Katara Lodge, I took a picture of Louise and Diane on our outdoor open balcony overlooking the Great Rift Valley and then asked Louise to take one of Diane and I. Without looking, Louise walks over to get the camera from me only to stumble on my hiking boots and slashes her left foot open. She berates me for leaving the boots in the middle of the balcony and Sister Sledge joins her in criticizing me (a French coup d'etat). It goes without saying that I don't take it well and Louise bleeds like a pig all over our floor. She somehow manages to get to her banda (hut) limping where she has this unbelievable elastic foot bandage that slips over her foot that she brought for just such an occasion. Talk about being prepared. Anyways...Louise is no worse for the wear and is now the proud owner of a one inch scar on her left foot that resembles a smile.
Out-Take #3 Diane get ticks
No kidding. She wakes up one morning in Olduvai and said she felt itchy in the middle of the night and thought she had something thorny stuck in her abdomen. I look closely and sure enough, she has a few blood-sucking little buggers attached to her tummy and back. I freak out but she surprises me with a pair of special tweezers that she brought for just such an occasion. And I thought Louise came prepared! I pluck them out for her with these special tweezers accompanied by the occasional yelp. We believe it was a result of hanging our laundry on low hanging branches of an acacia tree at our previous camp at Dunia. I'm still not convinced that this is a permanent remedy so I seek out a Masai warrior named Luwinda who had holes the size of silver dollars in his ear lobes. Luwinda accompanies me to our tent and while Diane has already changed for breakfast, we convince her to allow him to provide her some Maasai treatment. He breaks off a piece of an aloe vera plant and immediately a syrupy yellow sap (not clear like our North American aloe vera) starts to drip. We lift her "white" top and he liberally applies this very yellow liquid to her stomach and back. You can imagine what her shirt looked liked after. Bottom line is everything cleared up fine and the stains in the white shirt washed out.
Out-Take #4 Greg gets sinus treatment from a Maasai medicine man
It seemed the minute we arrived in the Serengeti I reacted to pollen in the air and my sinuses were overflowing. By the time I got to Olduvai, I was going through a 1/2 box of tissues a day. Pascal our driver, convinced me to visit a genuine Maasai "medicine man" who just happened to be sitting under a tree next to our Land Cruiser the day we trek to the Olduvai Gorge. The guy couldn't speak a word of English and he looked like he belong at the hostile on George Street in downtown Ottawa. I'm kind of stuck amongst several Maasai warriors and this medicine man so I put on the brave face and say "sure...yah....why not....ha....ha". So money exchanges hands and this scarecrow of a guy takes my water bottle and from a cheap plastic container start filling it with a concoction of bark, saw dust-like stuff and roots from a variety of acacia trees. He then shakes it somewhat vigorously and then hands it back. Kitende and Kone who had accompanied us on the trek also give it a shake and then hand this amber coloured, loamy water to me to drink. Remember, I've got four of these Maasai, my driver and the two women staring at me in silence. So I drink it. Gawd. It takes me about 15 minutes to drink all of it and they turn around and re-fill it! I'm thinking this would be a good time to find religion. Anyhow, I struggle through another whole bottle of this quite dirty and gritty concoction and await the much anticipated reaction. Whether purely in my head or real, my sinuses clear up that night. I stopped short of another medicinal treatment that they wanted me to take that involved cow's blood.
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