What is Ian up to?

Here is what Ian was up to just the other day (and every day) - running around and being crazy!

This particular day, he was out observing a fire that was burning a fire break around Chitengo as part of the Park's fire management plan and also as part of a training program for local communities in conducting controlled burns.



Thanks to Monica for the photos!

Ian's Aloe Coral Tree

Regular readers of our blog may remember that Ian was an avid seed collector and germinator last year in Chitengo. We gathered many of a seed from mostly trees and shrubs, and germinated them in yogurt pots on our front porch.

One seed, in particular, was very productive. It grew and grew. We had to be careful, as even as a tiny seedling this plat has sharp thorns on the leaves and stems! We had to repot the seedling into a larger container in September or October 2007, and then we had to leave it in the good hands of our friend Cheryl to care for while we returned to the US to have Theo.

Cheryl soon reported that Ian's seedling of the aloe coral tree had grown SO BIG in the heat and rains of the Mozambican summer that she'd had to transplant it into the ground!

This little tree, just one year old, continues to grow now, just ouside the window of Ian's bedroom.

Imagine Ian coming back to Chitengo someday to visit this tree. What a legacy.

Ian and Gram Keep Busy

Gram was with us here in Africa for more than 2 1/2 months. During that time, she and Ian were busy around the clock with projects and studies of all kinds. Here is a short list of the projects they did:

House for Lizard, a small plastic toy lizard that, sadly, disapeared from our lives even before his house was completed. We plan on getting a new lizard, but Ian says he is only available at Zuzu's cafe near the zoo in Madison. (This is where Lizard the First came from.)

Carnivores of Kruger, a hand-drawn and -colored book of some of the carnivores of Kruger National Park. This was a many-week project that resulted in a high quality product.

Lemur's book. Gram and Ian took Lemur, an important new addition to Ian's stuffed animal collection that Dad brought from Madagascar, all around Chitengo Camp, taking his photo in many places and with many people in Chitengo. Then, they cropped and edited the photos on Gram's computer, organized them into the right order, and wrote text to accompany each photo and tell the story of Lemur. Katie is still working to turn the photos and text into a Powerpoint presentation or maybe even a book.

Paperdolls. Lemur was lonely, so Gram and Ian made paperdolls of Lemora and Semur, Lemur's brother and sister. These paperdolls also have a collection of very interesting and lovely clothing, including ice skating outfits and bathing suits.

Cuisinaire Rods. These are wooden rods of different lengths that help kids learn basic arithmatic skills in a visual way.

Tangrams. These are plastic geometric shapes that you can use to make almost any other shape with!

Phonics. Almost every day, Gram and Ian worked on their phonics book, and Ian learned to recognize many different words, including "and," "the," "he," "she," and "said". They also made up lists of rhyming words that have the same root spelling, like hat, cat, bat, pat, and mat and book, look, hook, and nook. Rhyming words are very fun.

They did MANY more projects than this, but that gives you some flavor of their activities. What fun!

Happy Mothers' Day!

Rich and Ian made us a terrific Mothers' Day breakfast of french toast and improvised syrup (no maples to tap around here!) Ian decorated the table with grasses he and his dad had collected on their field expedition the previous day, and he set the table too. Oh, and I can't forget the crown he made for me, which I was obliged to wear for the rest of the day, even to the restaurant. (It wasn't Mothers' Day in Mozambique, so I had some explaining to do...)

Hangin' in Chitengo

Here are a smattering of photos from our time in Chitengo in April.

Gram stayed with the kids during the morning while I worked, doing various "lessons" with Ian. Tthe state of our dining room table in that first photo is evidence of their hard work! The litte house in the foreground of the photo was a house made out of cardboard and lovingly painted for our little plastic friend lizard who, alas, was lost before his house construction was completed. But it still was a great project.

Theo was a pretty good sport about the whole thing, demanding to be held a lot but still enjoying hearing stories and observing Ian and Gram's hard work (most of the time).

We had great weather - warm during the day but not so hot during the day - that allowed for daily swims in the pool and hanging out on the lounge chairs in the shade of the trees around the pool.

Post from Ian: Our Story About Tadpoles

[Transcribed by Katie as told by Ian]

We captured some tadpoles. We are trying to save the tadpoles. We are trying to raise them. When they grow up they are going to be Foam Nest Frogs. We are raising them in a dishwashing bucket that is full of water.

When we first got them, they were tiny and white and slowly they turned more black. When they are a little bigger they start growing legs and once they have full grown legs and their tail shrinks, they lose their black color and become a greyish-white color.

We got the tadpoles from a place where they would have died. The place was the Sanctuary in a pan [shallow, temporary wetland]. They would have not survived if they had emerged there because their nest was over mud there, not over water. Tadpoles must have water.

[a bit of information from Katie: foam nest frog females lay their eggs inside a white foamy nest - you can see one in the photo with Rich and Ian. She lays this foamy nest on a branch over a body of water, and when the eggs are ready, they fall out (as little tadpoles) into the water below. The foam nest that Rich and Ian found in the Sanctuary were laid over what had been a small pond but had since dried. We've had the tadpoles for almost two weeks now and they grow daily, but no sign of legs yet. Stay tuned!]

Theo Grows

Here is a post dedicated to our smallest member – the one of us whom you are most interested in seeing! He is growing leaps and bounds – was 10 pounds at his 6 week checkup, gaining ~ ½ pound a week on average. He is wearing his 3-6-month-old clothing already. Generally he is a very good baby, although we are learning he has his limits – he “goes with the flow” during busy days (like an 8-hour day in Chimoio – including drive time there and back – to go to the bank and grocery store, or an all-day trip to hike to the waterfall on Gorongosa Mountain), sleeping in the car and generally doing wonderfully. But then he lets us have it that night, howling and refusing to stay asleep until it’s time for us to go to sleep.

Mercifully he does sleep well at night (usually) once he actually gets to sleep, waking only a couple of times – without screaming – to nurse, after which he goes back to sleep. Small miracle when you live in a camp with houses close together and no glass (just screens) in the windows!

Recent developmental milestones: smiling, grabbing/gripping, and looking adoringly at caretakers. Batting at things deliberately is just around the corner, according to Rich! He loves baths (in a small plastic tub in our bathroom’s shower).


Ian continues to be a stellar older brother, showering him with obvious and genuine love, looking after his needs, and helping his mom, dad and Gram take care of little Theo.

Welcomed by Friends

It was great fun in the days following our arrival in Chitengo to greet old friends come to welcome us back. Word travelled fast, and we had many visitors to our home to meet Theo and see (in particular) Ian and me, as we'd been gone for such a long time (since mid-November '07). So many familiar faces! Theo goes by "Tay-o", as the "th" sound is missing in Portuguese and "Tee-o" means "uncle".

Below: 1) Zeca and Antonio with Theo, 2) Grant, Ian, Katie, Theo, Francisco and Vasco, 3) Katie, Theo and Ian with some other new Chitengo babies.

Joburg - Gorongosa

Our Joburg to Beira flight was uneventful but for some last-minute snafus getting our tickets finalized (nothing goes smoothly, it seems!), and Franziska was there waiting for us at the airport with a Gorongosa car. We headed for Shoprite to stock up on groceries, when we suddenly realized we’d left Theo’s passport at the airport, getting his visa! (The immigration officials take your passport to process the visa while you wait at baggage claim, and we’d left the airport forgetting about our newest member, as the rest of us had our paperwork in order.) So, I headed in to do the shopping while the rest of the crew headed back to the airport. Apparently the immigration guys were all laughing knowingly at Rich when he arrived to retrieve Theo’s passport (thankfully the office was still open on that Saturday afternoon!) – at least we hadn’t forgotten the baby himself.


We arrived at Chitengo in time to have ample light to unpack the car into the house. Almost three weeks of having being shut up tight (and an earlier 2 months uninhabited over the holidays) had left the house very mildew-y smelling. That, in addition to the suitcases yet to be unpacked, left me feeling totally overwhelmed by our return. Thank goodness Mom was there to step right in and get busy with the cleaning up – shelves all wiped out, groceries put away, suitcases organized if not yet unpacked. I felt we were well settled in by the end of 24 hours.


Theo’s carseat (his favorite sleeping place) fits just right on top of my bedside table and inside our bed’s mosquito net, so all three of us can settle in for the night in our room. Mom is sharing rooms with Ian, occupying his spare bed which sat idle for most of last year. We are a full house but everyone is amenable to it. Theo’s porta-crib – a generous gift from Seattle friends brought all the way to Africa – serves primarily as a changing table and dresser for Theo’s things, and is located in the living room. I love how we all are capable of putting up with situations that are not what we are used to nor would we necessarily choose (if given the choice) – in this case, space and privacy, primarily.


The peace and quiet of camp after the generator went out at 10pm that first night reminded me of why I love being here – the natural nighttime noises without all of the artificial human ones.

More Introductions...

We celebrated our friend Cheryl's 40th birthday in early August with great fanfare -- and lots of frosting! Hendrik arranged for a beautiful and heavily frosted cake, some of which was enjoyed the traditional way and the rest of which was thrown, smeared, and otherwise blasphemed in a great food fight. (Never fear, this debauchery occurred after the young impressionables had left for bed.) I was a big chicken and fled the scene before I got besmirched by frosting, but I still had my wits about me as one of only a small few non drinkers! So let me introduce the birthday girl, Cheryl (in the red shirt with the pineapple, which was filled throughout the evening with either gin and tonic or champagne). Cheryl is Chitengo's gardener, responsible for the lovely grass around the pool and native plantings spring up around the camp. She is also the camp hairdresser (hooray!) and all around supportive friend. Another introduction is our friend Raquel (brown Gorongosa polo), conservation planner and wonderful friend. Oh, and then there's Ian in his Tigger suit, his special dress up clothes in honor of the party.

Across the Pungue to Vinho

We spent a great day visiting the community located just across the Pungue River from Chitengo CampMany of the local staff working in Chitengo live in Vinho, and the restoration project is actively engaged in helping this community develop its capacity to provide community services and, ultimately, develop businesses to serve both the community and tourists.
The Pungue River is a short walk from Chitengo, a a kilometer or two down a sandy road. To cross the river, one has to wade initially to reach the part of the river that is deep enough to accommodate the mokoros or canoes that take you to the far side of the river. Even the deepest part of the river at this dry time of year is only about a meter, so the canoe is a bit of a formality, or creature comfort. Three or four adults can fit in the canoe, but be warned that too much stuff that raises the center of gravity of the boat can result in a capsize event! (We were spared such indignity).
The town itself is sprawling, with little centralized "town" area, although this is changing. Most of the houses are traditional stick-stone-mud huts thatched with grass or sometimes scraps of salvaged plastic. Huts are spread out in part to accommodate the small farming plots of mostly corn grown as the staple food.
Our first stop in Vinho was at one of the houses of the village "chief" (he has several houses, as he has several wives, a common practice in this area), where the women and children were gathered to process their corn crop. Carole and Lea took a turn trying out the grinding process in a huge wooden mortar and pestle type contraption. These women work hard! After only a couple of pounds, Carole and Lea had had enough, much to the delight of the local women.

First Madison Visitors! John, Carole, and Lea

We were delighted to host our first visitors from home in early July: John, Carole and Lea whom we know from Madison. John and Rich are collaborating on developing a survey project in the communities of the park (John runs the UW Survey Center), and Carole is looking to develop a project to train local people in massage for use in the local health clinics and for the benefit of staff and tourists in the Park. (Believe me, lots of staff benefited from her talented hands during the week she was in Chitengo!

We met John, Carole, and Lea in Johannesburg on our way back from Port Elizabeth. We piled into our enormous rental minibus to make the 3 hour trip northwest to Pilanesburg National Park, a terrific (and closer and less hectic) place to see great African game. The weather continued cold, and we all shivered and were thankful for the warm blankets in our rental safari tents. We saw lots of great game - white rhino, elephant, zebra, wildabeest, and even a honey badger during our night drive. Heard the giant roar of a lion as he notified all of his territory, but couldn't find him for a look. Did find an interesting sunset scene with two elephants, an older male and a youthful male, the details of which we will save for the next time we share a beer with you! Suffice it to say it was a "first timer" for everyone on the game drive, including the driver!

After two full days in Pilanesburg (including my birthday, well celebrated with balloons, a delicious rich piece of cake complete with sparklers and a song from the restaurant staff, and lots of great adventures), we headed from Joberg to Beira in Mozambique and the three hour drive to Gorongosa National Park. We spent our week there enjoying Chitengo, taking in a few game drives (and expeditions on the helicopter for the lucky ones!), and doing lots of playing. Ian and Lea were great friends, drawing lots of great pictures, making books, holding "Fun Club" sessions daily (complete with Manners Class), and creating other adventures. We also had a great trip across the Pungue River together to the community of Vinho from which many Chitengo workers come to their jobs, but I'll save that story for another post!

If you need details about coming to visit, contact John, Carole, and Lea, as they are experts now! It was super to be able to share our new life here in Chitengo with good friends.

Adeus, Natasha

Sadly we said goodbye to our friend and babysitter Natasha, who needed to return to Portugal. Natasha started caring for Ian while we were in Portugal in March-April, and then came to Chitengo (where her mother, Sofia, works in the Communications Department with me) in May. Ian took to her immediately, and she was a key part in Ian's easy and quick adjustments to the many changes in his life: language, culture, surroundings, people...

We managed without a babysitter for most of July, just starting last week with a new caretaker, Joana. So far, so good. I am excited about this because Joana doesn't speak any English, so Ian will be "forced" to work on his Portuguese now! He is making good progress.

We miss you, Natasha! You better come back and visit soon.

World Children's Day

Back in early June we celebrated World Children's Day (June 1) during three days of fun at Chitengo with kids from the local communities of Nhambita, Vinho, and Casa Banana, and our own Chitengo Camp. The kids went on a game drive, providing the first opportunity ever for many to see some of Mozambique's native fauna. They also attended a workshop led by a local artist on making beaded bracelets and earings and learned how to plant native trees seedlings for reforestation projects.

And of course we also just played! Kids from Chitengo and Casa Banana performed dances and songs, we had a great blindfold game (sort of like Marco-Polo), had a "balloon festival" with hundreds of balloons inside a huge mosquito net -- as close to a Chuck-E-Cheese plastic ball jumping pit as these kids will get (thankfully, in my opinion!) and played a rousing inter-village football/soccer game.

Our colleague Baldeu Chande, Director of Community Relations, wrote some new lyrics to commonly-known Mozambican songs - here is one of my favorites:

I went to
Gorongosa National Park
Back in the bush
I saw a big elephant
The elephant
Is also Mozambican
The elephant
Also has a right to life



[Shameless self promotion: to read more about this fun event, including more photos and lyrics, visit http://www.gorongosa.net/news/news.php?l=eng.]

Ian's big Gorongosa Park map

Ian's birthday present for Rich was a big map of Gorongosa National Park that he made all by himself (ok, with a little help from mom drawing some of the animals -- but the inspiration and direction was all Ian). I had the Park entrance gate, the wildlife sanctuary, Chitengo Camp, the game drive network, Gorongosa town, and Gorongosa Village. And lots of animals. And, of course, lots of different specialized game drive vehicles. Dad helped a lot with these (this was a many days project) -- the map has an elephant game drive vehicle, a snake game drive vehicle, a frog game drive vehicle, etc. etc -- each vehicle looking like the animal of its name, with chairs on top for viewing. Ian thought these game drive vehicle would be well camoufloge. Ian was also sure to draw in all of the shallow pans (small waterholes) that he remembers from the game drive network.

This piece of art is now residing with Gram in Seattle, but she's promised to keep it in good condition for posterity.

Update from Rich

Katie has done such a great job with the blog I have become a real slacker in writing anything myself, but I guess it is time to finally break the silence. Here are a few highlights from the past couple months:

I had the honor of meeting and shaking hands with President Armando Guebuza on his arrival—his first state visit to Gorongosa National Park. The President arrived with 6 helicopters and a support plane for his 24-hour visit—quite a production. He seemed genuinely pleased with the project and surprised at the rapid recovery of the Park.

I spent an incredible day with a water diviner. We are working in the Great Rift Valley of Africa and professional hydrogeologists have spent years trying to understand the groundwater system and its importance to the Park. Using a guava tree brach, he is able to precisely identify the location of underground aquifers more than 50 meters below the soil surface. OK, I can deal with this—he is picking up changes in magnetism related to deep faults, and I find I can actually get a bit of a response myself when I walk across a fault he has identified. But then he uses a wire and conducting rod to precisely map the depth of each successive confining layer below the soil surface (essentially he is mapping the entire geological formation below the surface)—and the accuracy of his work has been tested many times by drilling teams. OK, this is getting tougher for my science mind to deal with, but I suppose it relates to his extraordinary ability to sense magnetic fields. But then, he loses me completely by giving us an accurate estimate of the yield of the aquifer (i.e. how much water we will get if we drill a bore hole there). He does this by balancing a coke bottle filled with water on the palm of his hand and walking across the deep fault line—depending on how fast the bottle tips over, he estimates the yield (in this case, at 55 m depth). I give up. It works. I can’t explain why.

I am an avid runner and try to run every morning, but I am running out of safe places to run here at camp! For the past two years, I have run along the main road leading to Chitengo from the main gate, and enjoy flushing up baboons, waterbuck, reedbuck, and warthog as I run by. But alas lions have moved in along my running path—a pair were seen a couple hours after I passed by two weeks ago—and we have buffalo moving into the area as well. Now I run from camp to the Pungue River, which mostly involves passing by scores and scores of Mozambicans as they make their way from Vinho village across the river to Chitengo for the work day.

Animal numbers are recovering quickly here, which makes for fun viewing but new challenges we didn’t have in past years. Had my first serious run in with elephants a few weeks back. I had to wait until dark to creep in my vehicle around a big bull elephant feeding next to the road, as the road forward was the only way back to camp (the loop route cut off by high water). He made two full charges at the vehicle (ears out, trunk up bugling) that sent me twice in high speed reverse. It was fully dark by the time I moved past him, so it was really just a guess that he had moved far enough out of the way to let me pass. Not something you want to do everyday, and here we have two months of vegetation sampling starting up this year. The elephants here are still a bit traumatized from the years of war and poaching and it may be a while until they settle down and adjust to being watched.

Rich's Birthday

We are more than a month behind now! will hope to do some catching up this week...

Rich's birthday was June 10. Had a great party at Chitengo with the whole gang, and will use this opportunity to introduce some of the cast of characters of Chitengo:

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(l to r): Chris (son of Cheryl & Grant), Joao Viseu (Dir. Admin/Tourism), Luiz Filipe LeBoeuf (head of Infrastructure), and Vasco Galante (Dir. Communications, and my boss).

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(l to r): Nuno Soeiro (finance), Bridget Conneely (Exec Asst to Greg & Prog Mgr in Communications), Cheryl Norvall (landscaping), and Bart Wursten (botanist, Scientific Services).

Presidential Visit to Chitengo

Mozambican President Armando Guebuza visited Gorongosa National Park last month -- the first presidential visit to the Park in decades. This visit produced a flurry of activity for the weeks leading up to the visit, with pre-visits by various dignitaries (presidential assistants, local government officials, security teams), massive work to decorate and landscape the new cabanas, painting of buildings throughout the site, repair of roads still pot-holed by the summer rains... A lot of things got done with the pressure of this important visit! But this work didn't come without plentiful stress shared around the camp.

My job was to help prepare the costumes for our group kids who were to dance and sing for the President. We spent weeks bent over sewing machines, weilding needles, making and painting maracas, and rehearsing the kids. Happily the songs and dances they were to perform were well-known Mozambican songs, so at least we didn't have to start from scratch there!

When the Big Day arrived, hundreds of people descended upon Chitengo, all requiring accommodation of some kind. The chalets were reserved for dignitaries, and tents popped up all over camp to house the masses for one or two nights. I'm still not quite sure who everyone was and why they needed to be here for the visit. Some were ministers from the government, others were local politicians (provincial and district goverment officials).

And then came the aircraft. Five helicopters and one cargo plane. What a ruckus. All very formal. People poured out to watch the arrival, although the "official" welcoming group was kept quite small. However, Rich made the cut and got to shake hands with the President!

The President and his entourage marched at a quick pace through the camp, pausing for about 15 seconds in front of our group of performing kids, long enough to wave an appreciative hello. The excitement was palpable. In fact, the women's performng group continued to dance and sing long after the President disappeared into his cabana, enjoying the moment of revelry with dozens of other onlookers.