7/6: Weekend Plans

Who would have thought our plans could change so many times within a few hours? We’ve been planning all week to go to Gombe National Park, the park where Jane Goodall set up her institute to study chimpanzees in the early 70s. The trip requires a little planning, though – you have to hire a boat to take you there, make sure you have enough money in US dollars (all the TZ national parks operate on US $), and buy all the food and supplies you need to cook it while you’re there because there’s no food in the park. We managed to take care of the food and the money, but hiring a boat was very difficult.

First we started at the Jane Goodall Institute, trying to see if we could borrow one of their boats, but everyone was out of town. Then Dr. Godfrey said he’d try to arrange a boat for us, but that didn’t work out either. So then we had Betsy and Molly’s colleague call a number they got from some Irish doctors they met in Kasulu that have gone to Gombe. Betsy and I met with him this afternoon (Friday) to negotiate the price. He told us the boat he usually takes to Gombe is gone for the weekend, but he has another boat that we could take. He promises us that it can easily take five people, is safe, and will only take two hours to go to Gombe, but we decide to go and take a look at the boat just to be sure. Good thing we did. His boat was nothing more than a glorified canoe – I didn’t even see a motor on it! I took a picture with my phone so that the other’s wouldn’t think that we were just being picky. We later found out the boat has holes in it too.

With it being 7pm on Friday night, we figured we should just admit defeat and realize we’re not going to Gombe this weekend. It’s Betsy’s last weekend, so we were bummed that she wouldn’t be able to go. But then we were hanging out in our room and saw a boat outside, and thought it wouldn’t hurt to see if we could hire them for tomorrow. After talking with them for a while, they agreed to bring the boat over the next morning, and we could decide if we wanted to take it or not.

Even with this new prospect of going to Gombe, we actually came up with another plan – hiring a car and driving to Burundi, a small country juts a few hours north of here. It would get us out of Kigoma, into another country, and be an adventure. With a new plan in tact, and time to arrange a boat for Gombe the next weekend, we were happy with our plans.

For dinner, Terry had bought a chicken in the village and brought it (still alive) back to the hotel. The kitchen killed it (I’m used to the sound of dying chickens because if I’m near a place that serves food at dinner or lunch time, you hear a lot of squaking for about five seconds and then a big chop!) and cooked it up for us. I had fish but tried a taste – not too bad. It’s a little tough and chewy, and I guess it’s because the chickens are so muscly here from all the running around.

We hung out in our room drinking Zed (pineapple alcohol, we’re not sure what kind) and juice, listening to music, and getting excited about going to another country tomorrow.