Christmas Eve in Africa

Up close and personal with a Cheetah

Tanzania is beautiful. Paradise. It's hard to believe more people don't come here, or that roads haven't been paved throughout. Mostly there are "traditional roads"-- deeply rutted dirt or red clay lanes. As we enter the crater on the one-way descent road, there is an accident ahead. A group of British tourists, in two cars, have had one car roll. They are obviously shaken but work hard to reassure us. The descent road is steep and their hired driver is inexperienced. An older British woman tells us the ambulance is on its way and we can go forward if we move slowly. We feel guilty as we move into the crater, but they assure us there is nothing we can do for them.

We spend most of the morning standing in our seats, peering out of the jeep top to view animals. And they are everywhere. We see every animal on our list, including the two hardest to locate; cheetahs and leopards. We eat lunch next to a pond filled with hippos and sit in the jeeps to eat so the birds won't swoop down and peck our hands away with our food. We spend the afternoon at the lake watching Flamingoes, then in the forest where we spot the leopard. He is standing by the path as we round a bend, but he runs quickly into the bush before I can make a photo. We wait a few minutes and see him surface again, but a large, male Water Buck immediately chases the leopard deeper into the bush until all we see is his tail. Ben is convinced no one else in the crater saw the leopard today. But in my mind's eye, I can still see the leopard's tail poking up above the bush and curled forward, stark black spots on the stark white fur. Lovely.

On the way back to camp, we're in desperate need of a little civilization, so we stop by the Serena Lodge and have a Coca-Cola Light in the bar. We shop in the gift shop and begin to feel human again. As we drive to camp, Ben plays a cassette tape of Christmas music, some in English, some in Kiswahili and some in both languages. We drive through the Masai area where donkeys, goats and sheep roam the pastures and stand by the roadside, watched over by a Masai in red. No one is talking, though Ben and Bear, our driver, sing. The sun is getting low in the sky and the Christmas music is soothing. The Masai dotting the fields do not know it is Christmas Eve. For them it's just another day. I want it to be just another day for me, too, so I don't miss home.

Ben said his family does not exchange gifts and Santa Claus does not visit his children. Christmas for Ben and his family is about getting together and eating traditional food such as coconut rice with banana stew. Sounds like Thanksgiving in the U. S., a relatively stress-free holiday. Driving down the red dirt road, the sun lowering, the animals grazing, the music sweet, I feel such peace.

Ole Dorop dines with us in our mess tent decorated with strands of silver bells. I watch as each dish is passed to him and he puts one food directly on top of the previous. We have Chicken curry with rice, sauteed zucchini and carrot salad. Ole Dorop has been to New York and San Francisco, so he's familiar with western culture and specifically the U.S. At my request, Ole Dorop explains how they bleed their larger cows and bulls, to mix the blood with milk as a traditional Masai dish. Being nomadic and pastoral, they eat mainly meat. Ole Dorop says my name in Ma means "red soil." This pleases me greatly since I grew up on Georgia red clay. We say good night to Ole Dorop and he walks home under the guidance of the full moon.