Dik Dik Hotel Arusha

... my hotel room and saw this little black spider on my wall. "No problem" I thought, "I'll just take my shoe and squish it... but when I went to squish the spider it literally jumped like 20cm away. Thinking it maybe used a web, I tried again. The little bugger jumped again and needless to say that freaked me right out... I eventually killed it [I had to sneak up on it]. I ...

... We're having a little bit of money trouble as I have no access to my bank account so I'm dependent on Zach and his Peace Corps money hasn't come through yet. So we are literally counting nickles and dimes. It's pretty bad. Hopefully, my money to his account will come through today. So since we couldn't afford a safari we went on a cultural tour yesterday. We went to the Tanzanian Tourist Board and hired a guide for a walking tour. We walked up the foothills of Mt. Meru to ...

... br>it will be unnecessary to even switch on your head lamp. In actual
fact, planning your summit attempt to coincide with the full moon dates
mentioned below would enhance your whole trek up the mountain, offering
some magnificent night views of Kibo from most of the overnight camps.

... her and a ways off were zebras, but they were all looking the other direction. And then we realized what was happening. The other lions had circled the zebras, walking towards them slowly and holding their attention so that our lion could creep up on them from behind. Little by little she eased her way up and walked low, picking up speed as she moved closer.

We were all holding our breath again as her slow walk turned into a ...

... At the end lay our hotel, a magnificent resort called Serena Mountain Village. It was originally a coffee plantation. It’s lush. With the cutest thatched roof huts that are guest rooms. In the middle of all THAT … THIS. Amazing.

Our room is round, with honest-to-goodness mosquito netting to keep out those critters (and malaria) at night. The bathroom is lush; there is a TV with cable, and wireless internet ...

... thing I have ever seen! It was two days old and had the cutest little underbite. Don’t worry mom she will get along with our dog just fine. We gave some of her siblings a few soccer balls and then took her little sister Margaret into town to get the proper shoes for her school because she will be kicked out otherwise. We also took the second oldest son with us to get groceries for the entire family because they had nearly nothing. Afterwards we dropped both Mama Witness, who ...

... beans, and spit. She grabs my hair and goes at it, and although I was completely resisting, I am defenseless. Melinda, Charlotte, Lucy, and Christine (the other volunteers) are trying their best not to laugh hysterically as this woman who's hands are covered in every Tanzanian food is running her fingers allllllll through my hair and through a full mouth of food screaming, "I BRAID YOUR HAIR AFRICAN STYLE!" Fml. I felt so violated. Whatever ...

... The dialogue went something like this:

Mama Anna (for approximately 5 minutes): swahili swahili ahhhhhhhh blah ni na choka blah blah blah blah ni na choka blah blah ni na choka ahhhhhhh ni na choka.
Nama: Sawa, Mama (Ok Mama)

Now repeat that over, and over, and over again for an hour and a half. I lost my freaking mind.

At one point early on before I was completely exhausted and beyond frustrated, I started cracking up in my room and decided to count ...

... This was an introductory meeting. The Mhandos gave us some of their expectations and suggestions and we just gave them ours. We essentially had to make a semi-legitimate schedule to show the next day when we were meeting the Mhandos again but there was an added bonus: we would be going to an African wedding after the next days meeting!!!!!!!!!!!! The Mhandos are a dynamic couple to say the least. Both compliment each other very well (with Mrs. Mhando ...

Maandag ben ik 'verhuisd' naar Arusha omdat dat toch wel een handigere
basis was voor wat tours die ik dinsdag en donderdag zou gaan doen. Die
dag ben ik ook met een jongen van mijn guesthouse de hort op geweest naar
de gewone markt in de stad (mooi! al het fruit stapelen ze heel mooi symetrisch),
en nog een Maasai markt buiten de ...