32/365: Trash to Cash

32/365: Trash to Cash, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

On our last full day in Tanzania, we visited Shanga, one of the few facilities in the country for training the handicapped. It's run on a shoestring, but that may be why it is successful. The deaf, the blind and people with various mobility issues use traditional looms to spin some of the best cloth items we saw in the country. The workers not only get training in making their crafts, but play a big role in the design of their artwork. But my favorite workshops were the outdoor forges where old bottles and broken glass were melted down and repurposed into glass beads, artwork, new glasses and jewelry. The workers were friendly but shy about having their pictures taken. So I took this picture of an old wheelbarrow -- probably reclaimed from somewhere -- and the sorted broken glass that will be pounded to small pieces, then melted down. If you find yourself in Arusha, do all your souvenir shopping at Shanga Workshops. It's a beautiful place with rolling green lawns where you can sip a beverage from their cafe and watch the work at the outdoor workshops.

31/365: Chillaxin' Lion Style

31/365: Chillaxin' Lion Style, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

Just in case you are thinking you could sprint across the veldt and escape a lion by climbing a tree, you should know that they can climb better than you can. And they are very comfortable hanging out in trees and dropping on unsuspecting prey. On our last day in Africa, we were able to observe these two lionesses hanging out, African style.

30/365: Tanzanian School Visit

30/365: Tanzanian School Visit, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

A magical visit to a Tanzanian school to end our safari. The children were shy until I started taking their pictures and showing them the shots in the viewfinder. That quickly evolved into seeing how many silly faces we could get in one shot.

The story here:

leftcoastcowboys.com/2013/01/30/cultural-hits-and-misses/

29/365: Day of the Jackal

29/365: Day of the Jackal, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

One of the surprises of our African safari was seeing jackals up close and personal. I'd always had negative impressions of jackals, but I think I had them mixed up with Hyenas. In reality, they are really cute -- sort of like bushy tailed terriers -- they have cute little yips and they mate for life. I'm a new fan of jackals and I'm sure Oscar and Lucy would welcome one into the pack.

28/365: King of Beasts

28/365: King of Beasts, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

On our safari, we came across a pride of lions who were relaxing and snacking on a large Cape Buffalo kill. This guy was clearly the top cat -- with a harem of 6 lionesses, some cubs and a few juvenile males. They had eaten their fill and were relaxing by the carcass under a tree for a nap. But his guy was prowling around -- not more than 20 yards from where our Land Rover stopped so we could observe them. Mr. King couldn't have been less concerned. The end of his tail had been bitten mostly off, so clearly he was a veteran of combat. But on this day, he was pretty sure no one could touch him.

27/365: Daktari Frank

27/365: Daktari Frank, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

Came down with a massive case of Shaka Zulu's Revenge and spent 8 hours in a local clinic being rehydrated with an IV drip. Luckily it was a quite famous clinic run by the inestimable Daktari Frank.

The story here:

leftcoastcowboys.com/2013/01/27/daktari/

26/365: Maasai Bonfire

26/365: Maasai Bonfire, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

At one of our safari camps, the Maasai who guard the place made a bonfire for us using traditional methods. Which involve only a stick, some dried grass and elephant dung and the point of a spear.

Frankly, I don't know, at this point, when these pictures were taken. My camera is stamping my pix with a San Francisco date -- which seems to be a day off. Flickr is ignoring that and stamping my pictures as being taken the day they were uploaded. So I'm just punting and guessing that I've got the right picture for the right day for Project365.

24/365: Angry Elephant

24/365: Angry Elephant, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

This was the largest elephant we saw in a day full of elephants. And, yes, for those of you who are still twelve, he does have a semi-erect penis. For those of you who wonder about such things, it does get bigger and he can use it like a trunk. It's part of the reason he was so mad at us.

The story here:

leftcoastcowboys.com/2013/01/24/elephant-encounters/

23/365: Under African Skies

23/365: Under African Skies, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

The African adventure begins:

leftcoastcowboys.com/2013/01/23/of-old-soldiers-and-eleph...