Ngorongoro Serena Safari Lodge Arusha

... a sudden went off in the middle of a forrest or saw an elephant trottin right along our bus. We're all loving it here and there is no reason not to. The people are beautiful, the opportunities are endless and the amount of "exotic things" around us keep us baffled allll day. Safari was awesome...we saw so many animals. I can't remember if I wrote about it or not but we saw everything from blue lizards ...

After taking a nice warm shower at the hotel, (I had to leave it on for a while to get it to warm up even the slightest), we had breakfast and drove to Mama Witness's house about a half hour away. Somehow, Mama Witness had bought a bucket of fresh milk for us (so fresh it was still warm). I am not a big fan of milk, especially not whole milk, but because it was disrespectful to refuse it and she had probably spent the last of her money on it, I agreed. I am not going to tell the whole ...

... that included a mysterious stew with meat, she looked at me, giggled, and said, "We eat donkey meat!! Hahahahahah!" I may have eaten donkey. Sweet.

Eesh I love them. Saturday, when I came home from day camp graduation, my Mama's friend was over braiding their hair, so they were both running around with their hair naturally as it is in huge fros, so freaking cute. They tried to braid my hair like theirs but they said it "doesn't plaid ...

... not stop for over an hour" I literally mean does not stop for even a second for over an hour. I want to buy a tape recorder so everyone can understand how unbelievable this is. People think I speak quickly...picture me, times 100, in Swahili. Sometimes I think her tongue is going to fall off. I will literally sit in my room sometimes and be in absolute awe of how this woman is speaking so fast, and how the hell she is still going. And she usually just yells to Nama or Eva who ...

... suggested some other things we should check out. Once dinner, the taxis took us home. We spent a bit of time coming up with questions for the meeting with Dr. Mhando but after a while, just crashed for the night (well, Janelle, Marian, Erin and Tamara went bananas playing this card game; it’ a ridiculous game – I probably don’t like it because I get crushed haha).

Day 2 (Friday June 12th) in Arusha: We woke up this morning ...

... who is an older Tanzanian woman who works for GSC and is amazing, and she hooked me up with the director, Mrs. Mosha, of WIA, Women in Action. Mrs. Mosha wanted me to come in this morning to speak to her about volunteer opportunities, so around 9AM I began my dala trip down to WIA.

Dalas: picture a big van that usually carries about 15 passengers but can only comfortably fit about 8 or 9. You're either standing slamming your head on the ceiling or sitting completely smushed ...

... things in Swahili. After talking for a while I agreed to come back for dinner some other day, and Maureen, Grita, and Judy (the adorable 4 year old) walked me home with Judy holding my hand the entire way. Tanzanian's friendliness is both great and frustrating. Great because of people like Maureen and Judy and the student that felt like she could talk to me, frustrating because there are days when I just want to walk and not have to speak to anybody, and that's ...

... just relax...they don't do that here. When we were walking yesterday, a couple of Tanzanians just came up and said "What's wrong, you are sad?", just because I wasn't talking to anybody at that moment. I had to explain to them that in the US, when someone's alone they're usually content and are probably thinking or just relaxing - they were kind of confused by that and were still like "Ok well don't be sad, hakuna matata" haha. We ...

... br>

The next morning, I felt 100% fine and was ready to continue. However, the hike for me was more difficult as we had to hike up the Barranco Wall. Alex particularly enjoyed this climb because it was "part hike, part scramble." Unfortunately, being short was not beneficial and both Zawadi and Alex had to lend me a hand/pull/push at times. The porters were particularly amazing on the Wall. They are already faster than us, while carrying their own pack, plus supplies ...

... Mulala, ergens op de Mount Meru
bij Arusha. Daar gingen we het Agape Women's Project bekijken, en wat
wandelingen doen. Het is een dorpje aan het eind van een enorm slechte
zandweg, waar je dan zo'n 20-30 minuten overheen stuitert en slipt. Er
is geen elektriciteit.



Het bleek een onwijs mooie groene omgeving te zijn met heel veel bananenbomen
en koffieplanten, en mooie heuvels en rotsen ...