Fantastic photos!

What is the compartmentalized tray with the ?stones? if I could ask?

It is a board game they play in Africa.

I watched them for a while, and never managed to make heads or tails out of it - to Walter's amusement, who kept saying "Saeed, don't try to understand a game that requires the use of a brain!"

One day I will leave him in Africa. I am sure he will feel right at home among the baboons!

Saeed will confirm but I know it to be a Gambling game called Inca, which translated into english, means Cows. Sometimes the men play it to win cattle.It's a counting game with the goal of eventually ending up with all the beans or stones. Perhaps the African version of chess or something like that. They have tournements. My wife knows the game well having grown up in Burundi. We have a game on our living room table. It takes a little getting used too......

Thanks, gentlemen. A board game of some type was my first guess, however what we call a "game" can sometimes take on a different meaning in other cultures. Thanks again!

The first time I travelled in Africa I travelled with a Greek American woman who worked with mentally retarded kids. She was very interested in all the games the Africans played. Later with some other fellow travellers a couple were very inquisitive and would sit down with the old guys playing the various "board" games (the board was usually dirt with hollows scooped out). One was a series of stones. The old guys taught it to them. I have a game from the Himalayas with mountain goats and wolves. I found this tribal game impossible to play until I found a computerized version on the internet. No kidding. There are dozens of these games spread around the world and it is enriching to learn them. A store in Sydney actually had a lot of them re-created as modern board games but unfortunately the wife wouldn't let me buy them all.

I think it is grand the way the African guys play their games in their villages as recreation, the Viennese play chess in their parks, the Cairoans play checkers in their cafes ...

Saeed,

Is that Walters skin that the ant is biting?

Thanks

Minkman

I did nto want to mention it, but now that you have asked, they are biting his nuts!

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
It is a board game they play in Africa.

There are many versions / variations / names for this game. Every where I have seen it, the board and rules change. It is popular in one form or another through out Africa, Indonesia, the Caribbean, Philippines, Brazil, etc. It has even been found where the board was chiseled in stone.

http://nabataea.net/games1.html

http://gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/countcap/pages/

It was imported into the US by Milton Bradley in 1891 under the name of Chuba.

There is no chance, it is purely a game of skill. So, yes, it is often used for gambling.

I have had a couple of people try and teach it to me. I felt like I had rough session with a pro card shark after they were done.

Man, that is one king size tick!
- mike

Saeed,

Can you recall which camera you used for the macro photos of the fly and tick?

Great stuff.

Cheers,
Canuck

I gotta see Tanzania before I kick off.
Great photography. Thanks for sharing ... except for Walter's scrotum, too much information, and one hairy scrotum. Walter should fit right in with the baboons. Is Walter attracted to red and blue face paint or bald red buttocks?

Walter must have some localized numbness to be still long enough for the photo setup. Poor guy.

Now that the beanie wieners have been spilled on Walter, Saeed must come clean with the rest of the story, or else the legends will grow, of S&M in the Selous. S&M by S&W? Or is this simply the kind of autoeroticism that Walter sets up for himself?
Very weird. Muti? Payback? I'll have nightmares. Scarred for life ...

Say it isn't so Saeed. Surely you don't get your jollies with Walter this way!

RIP, you are killing me.

I don't mean to cast aspersions as to our most excellent host's honesty . . . but unless Walter has morphed into a cape buffalo minotaur, those ants were never fastened to his nuts.

Nightmares, indeed . . . .

The close were taken by a Nikin D1X DSLR.

We paid a witch doctor to take those photos of the ants on Walter's nuts.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
The close were taken by a Nikin D1X DSLR.

We paid a witch doctor to take those photos of the ants on Walter's nuts.

I imagine it wasn't any picnic for the ants either!

quote:

Originally posted by Borealis Bob:
Walter must have some localized numbness to be still long enough for the photo setup. Poor guy.

Poor guy? what about the others in camp with him? I'm quite sure Walter ran around asking everyone to pick them off! Unless you're a coroner/pathologist at Bellvue or in East LA, I don't think you'd have the stomach for this.

Minkman

Walters scrotum with a tick!!!!!Mama...yango

When I first saw the photo I was thinking ants on warthog.But after seeing the notation that it was Walter's scrotum,I guess I can believe that also.After all ; Walter scrotum/warthog. Warthog/Walter scrotum.I can see how I may have been fooled initialy.

If they sink their fangs in do you have to burn them off with a lighted cigarette?