January 31

Our last day in the Crater and we're shipping out. We have about 4 hours of travel from our lodge to the Ndutu Lodge on the Serengeti. We stopped at Oldupai Gorge ("The cradle of man") and Trent was frustrated when a guide wouldn't drive down into the gorge with him so he could get a rock for his zen garden. I don't see why not?

The talk given by the museum guy on the history of the gorge was very interesting. I watched Maasai with their cattle walk through the crater, we visited the museum there, and I bought a spear! Les said it was one of the best places to get it, and another person on the tour said she's been checking the price everywhere we went and this was the cheapest. So, I have a spear. Neat!

We also visited a traditional Maasai village. Now, it's not entirely traditional, because it was set up to have tourists visit it. They're not allowed to cultivate the land because they're living in the Ngorogoro Conservation Area, so they have to find other ways to make money. So they invite tourists into the village and give tours - and sell their wares. It was very interesting, and had many similarities and differences to the Samburu village we visited. The children were much more malnourished at this village, and everyone was asking for "tips". We got some great pictures, but didn't buy anything. I gtave their teacher the rest of our pens and crayond, and a couple of books - he was particularly excited about the one on the wildlife of eastern africa.

We watched the teacher with his kindergarten class, held under a tree - they sang us their ABCs! It was so great.

When I said thank you and goodbye in Maasai, the teacher offered 800 cows for me! He had a big smile on his face - he also asked to buy Emma, a 15 year old redhead in our group.

I had a little friend following me around for a while, he was so cute. About 2 years old with only a blanket on. I got some great pictures of him.

Just before we left, we also gave some of our medications to the group - medicated eye drops, creams, etc. Definitely not the most healthy group! What's weird is, we were told the Maasai hold great regard for "white man medicines", but they don't go to hospitals. Many don't even make use of the Flying Doctors who go to many of the villages weekly.