Spongey Injera From Teff

Planning a safari.  I’ve done my share of traveling.  But I have never done this before.  I’ve written a half a dozen they have there in the Lonely Planet and settled on a few to discuss with.  The photos of mythical places like the Serengeti or the Ngorongoro Crater are astounding.  It’s hard to fathom being in a place where these enormous animals simply plod about as they always have.  The prices quoted by these companies are also rather astounding.  Everyone wants to be paid up front for the full trip.   

Our first stop as we head south will afford us three days in Addis Ababa. It’s hard not to repeat those two words over and over in one’s mind, the way Winston Rodney for example reverently do so.  I’ve read at and around Ethiopia for many years with one book or another set there.  The extraordinary, sui generis music current of Ethiopia has been part of my cranium for twenty years or more.  It would appear that giants like Mulatu Astatke and Alemayehu Eshete, still play out which would be astounding, though I can’t imagine I’ll catch them in a brief three-night window.

Cooking classes though.  Ever since I arranged a cooking class for my wife in Venice I realized this is what I should always do when I travel with her.  I’m sure she would enjoy learning how to prepare spongey injera from teff and all the spicy dishes you lay out on top of it.  The girls would too.  A quick search isn’t turning up many options the way it does when you search for such places in Venice, but perhaps I’m not searching well.  We’ll find it.

We’ll spend four days then down in Blantyre, southern Malawi.  A friend of my best friend runs an orphanage in Limbe, named after one of my favorite trees: The Jacaranda Foundation:  http://www.jacarandafoundation.org/   I wonder when those purple flowers will be in bloom.  I’ve tried to suggest that we can help or contribute in some way, but I reckon we’ll likely just do a lot of listening and learning which is fine.  One of Africa’s tallest mountains with the memorable name of Zomba is nearby on the road to a lake we will visit. 

My cousin in Tanzania runs an orphanage there in the city Bagomoyo. www.tzkids.org   Apparently the kids are on a break for the summer, so we may not head there, but she is up in Arusha, which is the staging ground for all the safari activity.  It will be lovely to finally see here there in the country she’s lived for so long and to meet her family.  We've discussed this for years.  The safari itself may be the best chance I’ve had in a while to insist my girls read and not look at their phones.  There will be long, five hour rides across the savanna and evenings of glamping by firelight and I can’t imagine they’ll be much of any internet access.  From there it’s a flight to Zanzibar, to see Stone Town and the and the remarkable ethnic mélange of that former Arab port and whether I like it or not, afford a few days as well, for us all to relax on the beach, before the long flight to New York.

Thursday 6/15/17