Africa | Reflections on the Teche

Posts Tagged ‘Africa’

This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Africa

Posted in This Photo Wants to be a Poem, Travel, Writing, tagged Africa, Kenya, Mo Daley, monotetra, zebras on July 19, 2023| 8 Comments »

Travel has not been on my summer agenda, but I have been enjoying travels of my friends by scrolling social media. Recently Mo Daley experienced an amazing trip to Kenya with infamous Kwame Alexander. I held down my jealousy and let her photographs take me back to a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Tanzania in 2016. Mo’s photos taken from her iPhone were incredible. You should check them out on Facebook.

I was drawn to the zebras. On my trip with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law, we often talked about which animal was our favorite. It was so hard to choose. The tall majesty of the giraffe. The fierce calm of the lions. The gentleness of the elephants. But the zebras! Zebras feel like a joke from God. The contrast of black and white reflects our natural day to night rhythm. They were always seen in herds, with their friends.

I played around with the monotetra form this morning. Each stanza includes 4 rhymed lines, each line with 8 syllables, and the last line repeats the same 4-syllables. I took liberty to slightly change the repeated line. I think it adds more interest to the poem.

Monotetra for Zebras

For its black-white striped attitude,
God is laughing a beatitude.
I speak prayerful gratitude.
Erase bad mood. Embrace calm mood.
Margaret Simon, draft

Please play with words today and leave a small poem in the comments. Encourage other writers with your responses.

Read Full Post »

Tanzania Travel Journal #2

Posted in Travel, Writing, tagged Africa, animals, Overseas Adventure Travel, safari, Tarangire on July 11, 2016| 6 Comments »

I am writing a series of posts about my recent trip to Tanzania, Africa. You can find the first post here about ceramic water filters.

The second day of our tour led us to our first safari experience on the Tarangire. Tarangire means “river of the warthogs.” Geographically, it is classified as a wooded grassland savannah.

I was fascinated by the movement of the animals. They do not seem to care at all that their territory is being invaded by these monster safari vehicles. They just carry on with the business of eating and drinking.

The birds are beautiful here. Even the pesky birds that peck the ground at the picnic area are amazing. They are called the superb starling. And they are truly superb.

Superb starling

In the Tarangire, we witnessed a part of the great migration with zebras and wildebeests rushing to a watering hole. I captured this movement on video.

zebra with wildebeest

The guides communicate by radio. We would hear quick Swahili words then drive to something amazing. One of these sights was a python that had obviously eaten something really large. It lay still under a bush. We were told it would not be able to move for a month. Thank God. After that sight, I stopped drinking water. I was not going to have to go in a bush (water the flowers) for anything.

For these next few days we stayed on Lake Burunge. The dining area overlooked the lake where thousands of pink flamingoes waded. We had a nature hike to view these birds closer up. We were accompanied by a Maasai warrior with his spear in case we encountered any dangerous animals.

Lake Burunge sunset

flamingoes

Maasai guard

Our guide assured us that Maasai are trained at a very young age to defend their animals. We could hear hyenas in the distance and were told the following morning that our guards were awake all night chasing them from our camp. These tents were permanent solar-powered structures up on wooden platforms. I was not afraid. I trusted the guards would keep us safe.

Click on the video to view the zebras and wildebeests flocking to the watering hole, a family of elephants crossing our path, and a harem of ostriches. I thought about toying with the sound but decided to leave it in for you to have an authentic experience. Enjoy!

Read Full Post »