A Big, Fat Tanzanian Wedding

On Saturday I had the privilege of going to a traditional Tanzanian wedding!  Pascal, the assistant director at Save Africa, got married and wanted us to be there to share in his happiness as well as snap a million pictures of everything that happened throughout the celebrations. Matt and I went to the wedding along with two other volunteers who worked at Save Africa before we arrived.

As part of the Tanzanian tradition, the bride’s family has what is called a “send off” a few days or a few weeks before the wedding.  This is basically a party they throw to say farewell to their daughter and give their final approval to the groom.  While we did not attend the send off, we were told it is usually a very emotional party as the bride is officially being given away to the groom’s family.

Pascal walking towards his bride :)

After the send off takes place, they have a typical church ceremony followed by a reception (both of which we were able to attend).  The church ceremony was in Swahili so it was a little difficult to follow exactly what was being said but it seemed to be more or less like a traditional wedding in America. One difference that was interesting was the processions down the aisle.  First the groom walks in with his father and ring bearer and they are followed by a group of family members who are dancing and singing like crazy.  Once he gets to the alter, he waits with his back turned until the bride has started to walk in with her mother, maid of honor, and flower girl (also followed in by dancing and singing family members). After the bride has entered the church, the groom turns around and starts to slowly walk towards her with his father and ring bearer.  When he has reached her, the families join, he lifts her veil, and the families walk together down the aisle…still dancing and singing.  There was a whole lot of fun African music and dancing during the ceremony while they said their vows and signed the marriage certificate.

Dancing family members 

After the ceremony, the bride, groom and close family members went to take pictures at a beautiful game reserve down the road with tons of animals. Since I was hired as Pascal’s photography, us white folk were also allowed to go take pictures with them.  I felt a little out of place since we were obviously not close family but Pascal specifically requested our presence!  His wife is beautiful and I loved following them around and documenting the day.

Once pictures were taken, we drove to the reception where the rest of the guests were waiting.  The reception was coincidentally being held in a hall at the school I am sending Edwin and Augustino to so it was cool to see the transformation from school to wedding venue.  The color theme of the reception was red, white, and blue. When we first arrived I felt as if I had walked straight into a huge 4^th of July party in the late 80s/early 90s.  The decorations were a little over the top and very, very shiny.  It’s also kind of funny because the wedding was in a town called Usa River…USA, USA!

Anyyway, the wedding party waited outside while the guests were getting settled in their seats.  It was set up like a school play- folding chairs in rows facing a stage where the bride and groom stood all night.  The mother of the bride and father of the groom were the first to dance down the aisle, again followed by an entourage of crazy family members and close friends.  Once they reached the front, the bride and groom danced down the aisle to really fun music.  I must say, their entrances really out did any wedding reception entrances I have seen at home!  The music alone just sends so much energy through the room and before you know it, everyone is out of their seats dancing, singing, and clapping.

A few speeches were given and then they cut the cake.  The bride and groom feed each other like any American wedding but then they also have their family members line up so they can feed them cake as well.  Because I was sitting in the front row to take pictures, I guess I was confused for a family member and forced to get up in front of everyone and be fed cake off a toothpick.  It was pretty embarrassing since I cannot katika, or shake my hips, nearly as well as the voluptuous African women! There was not enough cake for everyone so I felt preeeetty lucky to have received one of the few pieces.  After the cake, they set up a receiving line for gifts.  Again, family members and friends lined up in the back of the hall to deliver their gifts.  The loud music continued and with every gift that was given a huge procession of guests danced up and down the aisle passing the gifts over their heads and eventually into the hands of the bride and groom.  The bride and groom did share a first dance and there were a few other dance routines that their friends put on for everyone.  There wasn’t really much unorganized dance floor dancing like we have in America, though.  All of the dancing was done through the aisles when giving gifts and receiving cake.

The last thing we did was eat dinner…without any silverware.  We were shoveling rice, pasta, and vegetables into our mouths with our hands! So graceful.  Probably the biggest difference between a Tanzanian wedding and an American wedding was the lack of alcohol- there wasn’t any served all night!  The lack of alcohol didn’t really make any difference to me at all (except that I wasn’t able to ice myself…), but I did see it as a pretty strong symbol of how unimportant food and alcohol are in their lives.  They can’t afford to indulge in fancy food and drinks so they focus on the more important things like family, friends, and dancing!  Food and drinks are usually two of the most important things at any American wedding, followed by how good the DJ was. I think we sometimes lose site of what is truly important when it comes to weddings in America, we may have our priorities a little mixed up!  Pascal’s wedding was a beautiful reminder of what is really important when you celebrate the love between two people. 

Give a man a fish, he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.

Edwin :)

Forward progress has continued at the orphanage this week!  While the days seem to last forever as everyone operates on Africa time, the weeks fly by.  As a result, I always seem to surprise myself at the end of the week when I feel a sense of accomplishment.  Last weekend, I spent about $50 at the bookstore on supplies for the school.  I bought 5 handwriting books for the little ones, 4 books with English vocab words, 4 coloring books, makers, index cards, a big pencil sharpener, and two primary school books so I can tutor Edwin and Augustino. 

I have started reading to the kids at porridge time and they love it!  When I read shorter books, they repeat everything I say and I try to translate everything in my broken Swahili….somehow they seem to understand.  I hope this is helping them pick up some new words and maybe even teaching them how to read some basic words on their own.  After porridge and story time this week, I pulled Edwin and Augustino into the office so I could begin to prepare them for the primary school entrance exam.  We are working on reading in English, basic sentence structure, and writing. They are doing very well so far so I have no doubt they will both pass the entrance exam in a few weeks!  I also made a few flash cards with pictures including both the word in English and Swahili for all of the children to use. Click 'Kuku' to see a video of James and Josephat using the flash cards:  Kuku!

Just another day at the office- mowing the lawn with a machete!

On Wednesday, I was expecting a normal day at school but Francis had other plans.  He decided I was going to come help him clean up his “office”- he is a furniture maker so I knew manual labor was definitely going to be involved.  He had me carrying chopped wood around, mowing the lawn with a machete, and starting a fire to burn any trash that was lying around. It was really fun to see how his workshop operated I just hope that next time he gives me advanced warning so I don’t wear an ankle length skirt!

Maybe now he will let me help build the desks...

Working with Francis gave me a great idea on how to spend a good chunk of the money I have left from donations.  It has been hard trying to budget out how to spend over $2,000 here because that is an unfathomable amount in the eyes of most Africans.  You have to be very careful talking about money because people are not afraid to ask you for anything.  People come up to us on the street and just shout "money" in our faces.  Yes, its very rude but they are so desperate for anything you can give that they feel no shame. Because of this, I try not to talk to my directors about the amount of money I have raised I have just been spending it on things I know they need.  In their eyes, the biggest needs are money for rent and money for teacher salaries.  While I would love to just hand over a check to pay for these things, unfortunately you can’t always trust that your money will end up in the right place.  I also want to make sure that the generous donations all of you made are being spent on the things I promised I would spend it on- the kids!

Since Francis lives at the orphanage with his family and has a steady job outside of the school, he ends up financially supporting the orphanage most months.  I thought it would be a good idea to support his business while also providing something for the children.  After visiting his workshop, I decided that it would be great if he could build a few desks for the baby class since they just have benches.  This classroom setup is very distracting for the kids and makes it difficult for them to learn without desks to write on.  I am hoping that adding desks to the classroom will make the days more productive and easier for the children to pay attention.  At the same time I am buying desks for the kids, I am also giving Francis money to help sustain the orphanage and spend the money as he sees fit.  Just handing over money does no good here, the people need to learn to provide for themselves without rich Mzungu coming in and giving them money to solve all of their problems.  If we give them the tools they need to progress, they will learn independence.

Mount Kilimanjaro

When I first flew into Kilimanjaro Airport 6 weeks ago, the views of Mount Kilimanjaro were breathtaking.  I didn’t come here with the intention (or gear) to climb the mountain but the more I talked to people, the more I was convinced to just do it.  My whole outlook on this trip has been “if not now, then when” so after just one week in Tanzania, my mind was made up. I was climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.  Matt and I had plans to climb it in mid-October so I started “training”. Basically I went for a total of 3 runs in my neighborhood up and down these dusty, hilly dirt roads…definitely not enough to get my butt into shape.  The more I thought about it, the more hesitant I was to officially sign up. I was a little nervous about making it to the top but it couldn’t possibly be harder than training for and running a marathon!  I knew if I really wanted it, I could do it but that was just it- there was a part of me that didn’t want it bad enough.  It’s a very expensive climb and what if altitude sickness prevented me from making it to the top? Not a risk I really wanted to take for $1,200!

After much back and forth, I thought long and hard about the reasons I was here in Africa.  I realized that Kilimanjaro was not one of them. Although forgoing the climb was going to be a sacrifice, I was inspired by another volunteer who backed out on the safari last minute so she could give one of her students the money to go to school.  I decided that my money could be put to much better use if I spent some of it on the 50 bundles of joy I came here for- the kids at Save Africa.  Instead of spending my money on climbing Kilimanjaro and getting the most expensive Facebook profile picture ever, I am going to put my money towards spending time with my 50 new best friends.  In November, I am going to take the kids on a field trip to a zoo in town where they can see a few animals and go for camel rides.  Most of them have never left Usa River so going on a field trip is a pretty crazy idea but it will be a lot of fun for them.  I am also going to make sure we have another ice cream party, go out to lunch in town, and maybe even find a movie theater.  This sounds like way more fun than walking uphill for 6 days straight!

I didn’t have to completely throw away my goal of hiking Kilimanjaro because last weekend, I did a one-day hike up to the Base Camp.  It was so much fun!  It took 3 and a half hours to get up and one and a half to get down.  The views were incredible and it felt good to breathe in some fresh mountain air for a day.  Once we got to the base camp, I definitely felt like I could have kept going but I think 2 days in I would have been bored and wanted to turn around. Not to mention, it is three days after my one day hike and I’m still walking a little funny. I wouldn’t want to know how I would feel if I climbed the whole thing!  Matt made it to the summit this week and just took me through all of his pictures.  It looked so awesome and I must admit,  I'm a little jealous.  It would have been a really cool thing to cross off the bucket list but in the end, I am confident that the small sacrifice I made will be well worth those big smiles.

Doctors in Training

HADIJA’S HIV TEST CAME BACK NEGATIVE!!! Today we took Hadija (probably my favorite, shh don’t tell anyone) to the hospital to get tested for HIV.  When we learned that her father died from AIDs and her mom was HIV positive, we were pretty convinced she had it too.  She hadn’t been tested with the rest of the kids since she started school a few months late so we wanted to make sure we took her to the doctor as soon as possible to get tested.  She was very brave and only cried for a minute when they drew blood.  We were so excited to learn she was negative, she’s one lucky girl!!  Unfortunately, there is one child at our orphanage who is HIV positive- Moodi.  Matt is hoping to find someone to sponsor his medication once we leave since he isn’t taking anything right now.

Hadija's very simple HIV test results- "Child - negative"

We also took James to the hospital for the 5^th time since I have been here for an infected toe.  He was in a lot of pain and couldn’t walk in September so we have been treating his infection with antibiotics. Eventually the doctors removed his toenail and it seemed to be healing nicely but because he plays in a dirt field with open toed sandals everyday, the toe got infected again.  After the doctor cleaned and wrapped his toe up, we went shoe shopping for a new pair of sneakers to keep that toe clean!

Daktari Karina wrapping up James' toe

This week has been filled with all sorts of ailments. In addition to the infected toe and HIV test, I have been treating a bunch of the kids twice a day for ringworm.  I ended up at the doctor on Saturday morning for what I thought was a really infected cut on my knee, turns out it is ringworm.  I know, so gross!  I got medicine for myself as well as the kids because we all know my ringworm only could have come from one place!  I know you are dying to see pictures of the ringworm but fortunately for you, I don’t have any.

Don’t worry, there were some good things that happened this week as well!  Matt and I bought enough rice, beans, flour, corn, and fruit to feed all of the kids for over a week.  Hopefully we added a little variety to their meals this week.  We also went to visit a primary school today to get the ball rolling on researching places to send Edwin and Augustino to in January.  With everyone’s help, I am getting really close to being able to sponsor schooling for both of them for a year!  I can’t wait to tell them the good news but I am waiting until next week when I start tutoring them for the entrance exam.  Karina’s last day was Tuesday so we sang a bunch of songs with them and played limbo in the yard.  They were very sad to see her go.  Below are two videos of the kids singing:

Songs for Karina's Farewell

If You're Happy and you Know It

The Limbo

Augustino (left) and Edwin (right), who both live at the orphanage and are like brothers, will be going to primary school in January, thanks to everyone who donated!!

Last weekend we went on a hike to these beautiful waterfalls not too far from my house.  We took boda bodas (motorcycles) up the road to the woods and then hiked down this steep hill and along a river until we got to the waterfall.  We were followed by a bunch of little boys who wanted to help out our guides. At first we were a little annoyed because we knew they were only tagging along to see if we would give them money but they were preeeetty helpful when I slipped and fell.  I was trying to show off my horrific, white girl dance moves on this really steep part and I lost my footing and slid down the hill in the mud.  One of the boys quickly picked me up and got me back on my feet and then didn’t leave my side the rest of the hike…such a little gentleman!  After the hike, our guides let us drive the boda bodas, it was so much fun.  Kiko said I am a really good driver so maybe I should invest in a motorcycle when I get home?

Yeah, that happened...

Breezin' around on the boda boda with Kiko

To say farewell to Karina this week, Matt, Karina, and I went to lunch at this place called Shanga.  It’s a small factory outside the city that makes beautiful jewelry, scarves, blankets, glassware, etc out of recycled materials and they only hire disabled people.  A lot of the workers are deaf and some have physical disabilities. This place gives them a job and a real sense of community; it’s a really amazing place. There is also a very delicious restaurant and a small field with couches to relax.  We spent all afternoon walking around, eating lunch, reading on the couches, and playing with the monkeys that roam around.  We were sad to see Karina go but it was a great way to spend our last day together!

Shanga Bead Factory

Relaxing :)

Asante sana!

Overwhelmed doesn't even begin to describe how I feel about all the love and support I have received over the past month.  This is a journey I decided to embark on by myself, something I was going to do with or without the support of anyone, something I felt was an important step in order to become the person I want to be- so I am extremely flattered that so many of you were interested in taking this journey with me!

I started this blog so my close friends and family could keep tabs on me and make sure I wasn't going to adopt 5 babies and stay forever (sorry guys, its still a possibility).  But after receiving countless emails, blog comments, facebook shout outs and $1,475 in donations (!!!) I have realized that I may have a slightly larger following than I originally thought.  I think I am getting a little ahead of myself since I still have 2 months to go but I wanted to take a minute to thank everyone for their kind emails and generous donations; you really have no idea how much it means to  me.  Every day here is amazing and challenging in its own way but there are definitely those days that I look to your emails for motivation and encouragement.  Keep them coming!

You are all the best.  Asanate sana, sana, sana, sana!! (Thank you very, very, very, very much)

Extreme Home Makeover

Trying to blend in

It has been a good week- we accomplished a few projects at the orphanage that we have been talking about for a few weeks now and it feels great to be making some headway.

On Monday after work, I went shopping in town for blankets, pillows, sheets, cups, and a thermos. It’s not like at home where you can just run to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and grab everything you need in one swoop.  It was a whole afternoon event filled with haggling, hand gestures due to the language barrier, and running up and down the streets trying to find everything we needed.  They definitely do not have the selection we have at home and everything is all over the place but thanks to those superb negotiating skills I picked up as a media buyer, I was able to buy 6 sets of sheets, 5 blankets, 5 pillows, 24 cups, and a thermos for about $150.  Not toooo bad.

Boy's Bunk Before

Boy's Bunk After

I was so excited to bring everything to the orphanage on Tuesday morning because I knew the kids had no idea it was coming; I felt like I was running my own episode of Extreme Home Makeover. Karina and I tried our best to carry everything on our heads like the locals but the end result was tons of complaining and a whole lot of neck pains on Wednesday. As we were walking through the field trying to balance everything on our heads, a few of the older boys came to the rescue and carried everything the rest of the way for us, not really knowing what was in the bags.  As soon as we got to school, we showed the boys what we had brought and they were SO excited.  You would have thought it was Christmas morning. They were running around, laughing, and jumping on the beds.  I have never seen 10 year old boys so happy about making their beds.  They even asked Pascal if they could go home and live with me! The boy’s bedroom has two sets of bunk beds that sleep 10 boys- ages 3 to 12.  Not even the Tyrrell household had quarters that tight! 

Some happy fellas:)

After making the beds in the boy’s room, we went out back to the girl’s bedroom that has one bed and sleeps 4 girls.  During recess, I brought the 4 girls into the bedroom to show them what we had done.  I wish I could have bottled up the smiles they had on their faces and saved them forever.  Witness, the oldest girl living at the orphanage- 7 yrs old, just stood in the corner and covered her mouth because she didn’t want me to see how happy she was.  The other three rolled around in the bed and kept playing with the pillow and hiding under the blanket.  I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t get a little teared up when I showed both the boys and girls their new bedrooms.  It really is amazing what we take for granted at home.

Giddy Girls :)

The other big project we were working on this week was a photo wall with pictures and names of all of the kids. We are still trying to learn all of the children by name so we thought this would be a good way to learn faster as well as make the kids happy- they LOVE seeing pictures of themselves.  All week we tried to take individual shots of each kid.  This was a very difficult task since they all want to be in every picture we take and do not listen when we tell them to get out of the picture.  It’s a miracle we were able to get a solo shot of each child and keep track of everybody’s name.  Today we hung up all of the pictures on the wall in the main classroom and we had to lock all of the kids outside for about an hour while we prepared everything because their excitement was getting in the way. Once it was all done, they were so happy to look at all of the pictures and recite all of their classmate’s names.  Earlier in the week, I also hung up the days of the week, months, colors, and pictures of the weather so they could start learning some more English vocab words.  The walls are looking a lot more colorful than they were a week ago!

A bunch of crazy, locked out kids

The photo wall!

Yesterday we were really sad to see that no porridge was served to the kids during recess because they didn’t have enough money to buy the ingredients, its just made of water and flour.  The kids seemed to have a little less energy than usual but I did not hear one complaint about not having food.  We had asked our house mama last week if she would cook mandazi for all of kids one day this week.  Mandazi is fried dough, it kind of reminds me of a beignet without the sugar on top.  We have it for breakfast a few days a week but it is a real treat to most Africans.  It worked out that our mama was cooking the mandazi for Friday so we brought them to school today and the kids went crazy.  I handed them out with the porridge and each kid was able to get two even though most of the kids tried to trick me into giving them more than that.  There were about 15 mandazi left over, not enough for all of the kids to have another so I decided we would save them for the kids who live at the orphanage to have for breakfast tomorrow.  I was chased into the office by 25 kids when I went to put them away…I actually had to lock myself in there so they would go away and hopefully forget that I had some leftovers.  It was really sad because they were so desperate for more and I have never seen them beg so much for something…I wish I had an endless supply of mandazi to give them.  Next week I am going to the market with our project managers to buy the orphanage rice, beans, flour, and whatever else they need so they can hopefully feed the kids the proper amount of meals a day.

All hopped up on Mandazi

Thanks to my generous family and friends, I was able to make the above possible.  I really cannot express the happiness I saw on the children’s faces this week and knowing that I helped (and YOU helped!) put those smiles on their faces is the exact reason I am here.  The past month has been an up and down roller coaster of emotions because it is so easy to get discouraged that you are not making a difference. Some days are wonderful and you really feel like you are finally making a breakthrough with one of the kids but then other days you are bogged down by the reality that it is going to take a very long time to see progress in the way that we see progress at home. I think everyone who comes to volunteer in Africa carries with them the optimistic hope that they are going to make huge strides in just a few short weeks. Sure everyone wants to see big changes but as I am coming to find, sometimes its the smallest changes that make the biggest difference.

The little things

Out and About with the Kiddies

This week I went to visit another orphanage to get some ideas on how to better organize Save Africa.  The kids were so well behaved at the Hill Crest Orphanage and the volunteers did a great job decorating the walls with posters and pictures to help the kids learn. We have a few posters on the walls at Save Africa but they are all ripped and faded from the sun.  After work on Friday, Karina and I went shopping for some supplies so we can make posters and index cards with more English words.  We will be hanging posters with the days of the week, names of the months, weather patterns, and numbers.  The kids only know a few words in English that they learn from the alphabet song so hopefully this will help expand their vocabulary.

I had a great conversation with my project manager on Friday about the needs of the school so we can better prioritize our goals.  There are 4 or 5 kids at the orphanage who are too advanced for the classes there and should really be placed in primary schools.  Unfortunately, either they come from really poor families who cannot afford to send them to school or they live at the orphanage with no family at all.  I am trying to think of some creative fundraising ideas to sponsor some of these students so they can get the proper education. Let me know if you work for an organization or company that would be interested in sponsoring a child’s education for a year! 

Face paint Friday :)

The next thing on my list is buying sheets, blankets, and pillows for the orphanage.  Right now, the kids sleep two or three to a bed without anything but a thin, foam mattress.  I nearly started crying when Pascal showed me the bedrooms again and I realized they didn’t have anything to sleep with- maybe I will buy a few teddy bears too.  It gets really cold here at night so I can’t imagine how uncomfortable they are.

This is one of the bedrooms, 4 or 5 of the little ones share this bed

We are also looking for exercise books so the children can practice writing, reading, and math skills.  They only have blank notebooks that they copy down exercises from the board- this is when the mayhem ensues because there are not enough pencils for all of the kids to work at the same time. On Friday, Karina and I took 6 of the younger kids out of class so we could review the alphabet with them and let them practice holding pencils, coloring, and writing.  This method is so much more effective because we can give them special attention and help them to develop their handwriting skills.  They are so happy when they learn to write a new letter or number, its adorable.

Karina teaching Hadija how to write her name

We are buying more spoons, cups, and plates so they have enough for all of the kids, a thermos for tea, and buckets for cleaning. I think we are going to try to buy big bags of rice, beans, flour, etc so the mama’s can cook a variety of meals for them.  I was so sad when Pascal told me that some nights the kids just have Chai tea for dinner and then go to bed.  On Friday, we took 7 of the oldest kids out to lunch- they were ecstatic!  Pascal played a joke on them and told them they were in trouble so we were taking them to the river for a punishment.  They knew he was joking but the suspense of where we were really going was killing them.  They all ordered chips mayai with meat and vegetable on top; chips mayai is a traditional meal here, basically it’s an omelet with french fries in it…really good and unhealthy. The plates were so huge that Karina and I turned to each other and said, “there is no way they will be able to eat all of this”.  Well, they proved us wrong by basically licking their plates clean and fighting over the chicken bones we had left on our plates.  I heard my Grandpa’s voice saying “There are starving children in Africa, you must eat everything on your plate!!”- a line  he famously used at every family party when we were younger.  At the end of the meal, they were all very full and happy.  It was such a treat for them to be taken out to lunch and be fed a proper meal; I will never forget the smiles on their faces that day.

Out for lunch!

Since I get so upset thinking about what they do on the weekends, Matt and I decided to visit on Saturday too.  They never leave the school area except for Sundays when they go to church.  I wanted to give them something to look forward to on the weekend so we told them we were coming to take them out for ice cream on Saturday afternoon.  I brought balloons, stickers, and a beach ball that we played with for a little while- “Teacha, puliza! Teacha, puliza!” (Teacher, blow up my balloon!)  After a half hour of craziness, Matt and I walked to town with 14 kids, Pascal & Francis.  They were in awe of everything going on around them- music, stores, animals, food vendors.  Most of them had never seen town so Pascal asked if we could just walk around for a little while so they could take it all in.  Once we got to the ice cream stand, they very patiently waiting for us to hand out the cups of Tutti Frutti ice cream.  I was shocked at how well behaved they were!  It was nowhere near the chaos we witness during porridge everyday.

Saturday afternoon fun

Ice Cream Outing!

At school, the children are so loud and crazy because they are competing for our attention and it is a place where they feel safe. I found it very interesting to observe them in smaller groups when we brought them outside their comfort zone and into town.  They are timid and shy and much better behaved.  I am so grateful we were able to spend extra time with them and learn more about each individual; its so hard to do that with 50 kids jumping all over you.  Each and every one of them is amazing in their own way and I want nothing more than to provide them the opportunities and memories that all of us were given during our childhood.

Safari!!!

This past weekend, I went on a four day safari to Lake Manyara, the Serengeti, and the Ngorongoro Crater with 6 other volunteers- it was so much fun!  We saw every animal there was to see and did both a sunset and a sunrise game ride. I could just about die for a good sunset so that was all I needed to be happy...so add in a herd of elephants, and I go crazy.

A herd of elephants at sunset!

On Friday morning, Chui (our driver and ironically the word for leopard in Swahili) piled all 7 of us into the Safari jeep and drove us to Lake Manyara National Park.  We set up our campsite for the night and then drove thorough the park for about 3 hours sighting monkeys, zebras, giraffe, elephants, impala, and water buffalo.  The park was gorgeous; there were areas of lush trees followed by open fields of grass with roaming herds of animals.  We popped the top up on the car so we could stand and stick our heads out to get a better view.  After dinner at the campsite, we watched a music and dance performance which I was unfortunately pulled into and forced to katika, “or shake my hips” in front of everyone…pretty embarrassing.  Thank god I don’t have any pictures of that to share!

Can I fit him in my backyard?

Safari Van

A quick afternoon cleaning!

We spent most of the day on Saturday driving out to the Serengeti on windy and bumpy, dirt roads.  Along the way, we stopped at a Maasai village to see how they live.  Although we felt quite intrusive, it was very interesting to learn more about their way of life.  They welcomed us with a traditional dance routine and gave us necklaces to wear around while we were touring the village.  There are only three items that make up their diet- meat, blood, and milk…can you believe that?!

My boyfriends

The girls attempting the Maasai Dance

We arrived in the Serengeti on Saturday afternoon and did another game drive spotting tons of animals.  It is insane how close the animals get, at one point we had a leopard crawling around under our car!  We were so excited to keep going that we drove straight into sunset blasting “Circle of Life” and “Hakuna Matata” on repeat and then Chui had to find our campsite in complete darkness.  It was quite the process trying to set up camp in the middle of the Serengeti with no lights and the threat of animals coming from all directions.  Thankfully we survived and were able to wake up at 5:30am to do a sunrise game drive through the plains.  As much as we wanted to keep sleeping, it was SO worth it to wake up early.  There were tons of animals out at this time and the views were unbelievable.  I can’t even begin to describe how beautiful and peaceful it is to be in the middle of endless plains, my pictures barely capture it.  In the Serengeti, we saw all of the same animals we saw in Lake Manyara with the addition of lions, cheetahs, hyenas, hippos, meerkats, warthogs, and all sorts of birds.  I think my favorite animals were the lion cubs and the elephants.   Thanks to Chui’s amazing eagle eyes and ridiculous driving skills, we were up close to almost every animal we spotted.

Sneaky leopard under the car

Sunrise game drive

Our last night was spent in a campsite on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater with awesome views inside the crater.  We had some exciting visitors at dusk- a family of elephants was right next to our car and a bunch of zebras were hanging out outside our tent all night long.  I was pretty close to getting attacked by an elephant since I didn’t see him and walked right by without noticing.  Another guide had to get my attention and tell me that there was a gigantic elephant 10 feet behind me!  Obviously, instead of running away my reaction was “Oh my god!! Can you take a picture of me?”

Elephant invasion!

Zebras at our campsite

On Monday we drove through the Crater all day and finally saw a few Rhinos which completed the “Big Five”- lions, leopards, elephants, buffalo, and rhinos.  I think Chui said they are endangered and there are only 22 left in the Ngorongoro Crater so we were very lucky to have seen three!  It was such an amazing trip spent amongst great company.  I will be adding many more pictures on facebook in the next few days so keep an eye out for them! And if you ever find yourself in Africa, a safari is a must!