I'm doing none other than fabulous after 3 weeks of vacation! My friend Jamie arrived on May 18th, and we went directly to the beach so she could sleep off jet lag and be baptised in the Indian Ocean. We then headed south to Iringa town, where we stayed for a stopover on our way to Ruaha National Park. Ruaha National Park is one of the largest and least visited parks in Tanzania, but also one of the most scenic and diverse. You can check out good pictures of Ruaha and other Parks in Tanzania on this great website: http://www.tanzaniasafaris.info. As soon as we arrived in the Park, we were welcomed by a breath taking Kudu buck running across the road. Kudu are large elk like animals, light grey with a few white stripes on their sides and the bucks have huge spiral black horns. They are absolutely magnificent animals! We then encountered a group of giraffes, who at once took off running then stopped to stare back at us. If you've never seen a giraffe run, it is a quite surreal sight. They are surprisingly graceful, and appear as if they are running in slow motion

Last Friday night, I got together with Mike, Page and Fish to talk openly about the strong feelings I've been having that Phish has run its course and that we should end it now while it's still on a high note.

I returned to my village 6 days ago, and have been adjusting well despite a few struggles. Being in the States ruined me in some ways! I had a fabulous time there, enjoying all the luxuries that are so often taken for granted, such as daily hot showers, driving, a vast variety of food, comfortable chairs, clean stuff, wine and GOOD BEER. And of course above all else, I immensely enjoyed spending time with family and friends. Other volunteers that have gone back to the States warned me that everything would be so strange and that I might have a hard time relating to people. However despite having felt a bit repulsed by our greed (which repulsed me before I left) I otherwise did not at all feel out of place. With family and friends, I felt more connected to them than ever before. Everything felt so comfortable and so much like HOME.

When Mark Karan takes a break from life on the road as lead guitarist with Bob Weir's RatDog, what does he do for fun? He hits the highway with his own band!

Since 1998, Mark has been touring with offshoots of the Grateful Dead (including The Other Ones, Mickey Hart's Planet Drum and Bobby Weir's Ratdog).

Before crossing over into the land of the Dead, Mark worked his guitar voodoo for the likes of Dave Mason, Paul Carrack, Delaney Bramlett, the Rembrandts, Huey Lewis, Jesse Colin Young, Alex Call and Sophie B. Hawkins.