Moses

After spending nearly every waking moment with him for ten days, it
became abundantly clear how lucky we were to draw Moses as our guide.
In fact, we ran into many people during and post-safari who know Moses
and sing his praises. He is 'mcheshi sana' and leaves a trail of
friends as he crosses the country.

He is very knowledgeable about Tanzania's animals and the environment
in which they live and we learned more than we will ever remember
about their fascinating behavior. However, most of our thousands of
questions for Moses seemed to focus on Tanzania's people, culture, and
history. He was generous with his thoughts, giving us a valuable
window into Tanzanian society by openly sharing with us his family
history, information about his home life, and his plans for the future.

Clearly, it is Moses's genuine, friendly, and caring personality that
defines our time with him. We passed hundreds of other guides during
our safari and it was the rare situation when he didn't stop, roll
down his window, and greet them with 'vipi mambo'. I suspect we
benefitted from his relationships by always knowing where the best
animals had recently been cited. Other guides' faces light up when
they see him coming; when we were in a hurry he had to signal to them
that he can't stop as I'm sure they have come to expect.

Wherever we went, he made new friends and learned more about people
and the surroundings, undoubtedly what has made him such a great
guide. While the Datoga were showing us their blacksmith trade, Moses
was talking and laughing with the Datoga women. Later, when Monica
noted how white their teeth were, Moses mentioned that he had asked
that question of them.

Even if he couldn't be of assistance to someone on the side of the
road, for example when we came across a man rebuilding an entire
transmission under a truck in the serengeti dust, he would stop with a
'pole baba', a few words of encouragement, and an offer of water.

I am clearly not going to capture Moses completely here. On our last
day with him I told him that I felt like a baby bird and he was about
to push us out of the nest. He may no longer be our 'mama bird' but I
know we will always consider him friend.