Africa Pt. 3: Safari

This next installment picks up where the last one left off and covers our amazing safari to Lake Manyara and Ngorongoro Crater. We arrived in Moshi, Tanzania, and after spending the night at the Haria Hotel, we were picked up early in the morning by our driver Julius from DotCom Safaris (a company we would totally recommend to anybody traveling to Tanzania). There are all kinds of levels of safaris, from exclusive game hunting reserves to more budget oriented tours such as the one we did. The trip was arranged in advance by Gina and Luka, and the company took care of all the overnight lodging and food arrangements so basically all we had to do was sit back back and relax.

Africa Pt. 2: Nairobi to Moshi

This second installment of photos covers our first two days in Africa. We arrived in Nairobi at night and pretty much went to bed as soon as we could after traveling for 24 hours. In the morning we went exploring the city, walking around seeing sights and taking pictures, then in the evening we went to dinner at Carnivore Restaurant. The city felt much safer than I had expected (though at night it takes on a completely different character), and the restaurant, though enjoyable, was the kind of place you go to just to say you've gone (tourist trap?). The next morning we were up before sunrise to catch a bus to Moshi, Tanzania which happened to be two hours late. The ride was fascinating of course because we really enjoyed being able to see the transformation from city to countryside, and all the things one sees on the side of the road that are so telling about a nation/culture.

Africa Pt. 1: Food

After a few days back home, I have finally had a chance to start going through all my photos from Africa. This is the first installment of what will be many posts focused on different themes that emerged among the photos I took while there. To recap, Dave and I went on a two week trip to Kenya and Tanzania to visit his sister, Gina, who works in Nairobi interviewing refugees for US visas. We flew into Nairobi, then took a bus to Moshi, Tanzania, where we met up with Gina's boyfriend Luka and went on safari to Lake Manyara and Ngorongoro Crater. Luka runs an amazing outreach program in Moshi, Tanzania called the Salama Center which provides education and other services for orphans and their extended families. You can read more about the work they do at the Orphans International Interns blog. Though this kind of work certainly has it's ups and downs, it was incredibly inspiring to see how much of a positive impact they are having on the lives of these children. We spent two days at the Salama Center, where we mostly played games with the kids. After Moshi, we went to Mombasa, Kenya to relax at the beach and walk around the historic Old Town, then back to Nairobi for our last two days.

Three Day Safari, Back in Moshi

The past week and a half have been unforgettable to say the least, between witnessing the awe of Ngorongoro Crater to sharing a family meal with new friends at their home in Moshi. Tomorrow, Dave, Gina and I are off to Mombasa for a few days on the beach before heading back to Nairobi, then back to Boston via Amsterdam. Since the internet here crawls at the pace of a circa-1998 dialup connection, I will be forgoing any further posts until I get back on September 20. I have taken nearly a thousand photos and will likely take that many more before the trip is over, and I'm very excited to get home and see them all on a big screen and post them to the blog.

Day in Nairobi

Today, after sleeping off some of our jetlag and waking up at 10:30am, we headed for the foreign exchange bureau where we became thousandaires in Kenya shillings, then to get lunch at a coffee and sandwich spot in the Sarit Center mall. After lingering for a while there, we perused the aisles of a nearby supermarket, one of my favorite things to do in a foreign country. Then we headed for downtown in a taxi to buy our bus tickets for our trip to Moshi, Tanzania (we leave tomorrow morning). Along the way we got to see a lot of the city which is intensely crowded with people and vehicles. Most locals get around in buses called matatus, and some of them are brightly painted by the owners as a form of street art. We had several close encounters with these while we were in the taxi. After getting our bus tickets, we headed for the Kenyatta Conference Center, the 2nd tallest building in Nairobi, where we received an unexpected and very insightful tour from a guide who gave us a brief but informative overview of Nairobi's history. Photos were taken, then we got back down to street level and walked around Uhuru park, checking out some monuments and taking a little break from walking around. We decided it was time to head back to Gina's apartment and found a taxi. For a while we ended up behind what may be the stinkiest garbage truck I have ever smelled, and our driver wisely pulled a U-turn and took us another way. The drive took us about an hour though we weren't going very far. Traffic in Nairobi is infamous and would put anything in New York or LA to shame. Emission control on vehicles also seems to be unheard of. Overall impressions of Nairobi: Crowded, smelly, vibrant, exciting, pulsing, noisy. Tonight we eat at Carnivore, a famous Nairobi restaurant. Tomorrow we are off to Moshi, Tanzania.

Two Weeks in Africa

As some of you may already know, I am leaving today for a two week trip to Africa, specifically Kenya and Tanzania. Dave and I are going to visit his sister, Gina, who lives and works in Nairobi, and from there we are going to Tanzania to visit her boyfriend, Luka, go on safari at Ngorongoro Crater and spend some time exploring the area. This may involve climbing at least part of Mt. Kilimanjaro, exploring the town of Moshi, and volunteering at an orphanage run by Luka. Since I have never been to this part of the world, I have no idea what to expect and am filled with anticipation. We are leaving at 7 o'clock tonight and I can already feel the butterflies in my stomach. We are flying from Boston to Amsterdam and then on to Nairobi. Our suitcases are packed (mostly), our vaccinations administered, our fridge cleaned out and we are ready to go.

For a camera I am bringing my trusty Nikon D70 DLSR, which has seen me through several other oversees trips and, while a dinosaur by digital standards, is still very durable. I was considering buying a cheap point-and-shoot digital for the trip, but realized I would probably be unsatisfied with the pictures from anything less than a DLSR. Hopefully I'll be able to access a computer at some point to post pictures during the trip. I'm sure we'll have access to the internet, I'm just not sure how often or how long we'll have to use it, so do check here often as I will be posting updates as frequently as possible.
Off we go!

An Interesting Photo

Recently I caught a glance of this photo by Justin Sullivan of Getty Images in a newspaper depicting supporters and opponents of a California judge's recent ruling in favor of same-sex marriage in that state. The print copy was in black and white, and having found a color version (many thanks to my boyfriend Dave for tirelessly searching google images), I have to say the image looses some poignancy in color. Nonetheless, what struck me most about the photo is that it seems to present a geographical representation of the United States. Supporters of same-sex marriage are shown bracketing opponents on either side, almost mirroring the way liberally-minded Americans seems to be concentrated on either coast (with a few notable exceptions) while conservatives make up the interior.

The interplay of gazes is also fascinating; the two men on the right side engaging each other in a way that could be read as either congenial or contentious while the woman and the man on the left are looking off somewhat lackadaisically in the same direction. What a fascinating moment to have captured that seems to say a lot about the debate over same-sex marriage in the US.

Source: Getty Images

Making Waves

Dave at Steel Derrick Quarry, Rockport, MA

Ready for the 10s: Disco in the Year 2010

The Village People are well known for their 1970s hits "Y.M.C.A", "In the Navy" and "Macho Man", among other songs, and were arguably the first openly gay band to have mainstream success. Their music, resting firmly in the disco genre, was catchy, upbeat and emblematic of the sexually liberated 1970s. With song titles like "San Francisco", "Key West" and "Fire Island" they touted locations that were meccas of gay liberation and imparted in their music a sense of openness and hope in the future that quickly faded with the onset of HIV/AIDS in the 1980s and the decline of disco.