Safari Continued...

Mambo everyone! Pole (sorry) about my last blog being cut short.

So to continue on with the story, Alex didn't get better at all the next morning. So we had to figure out what to do with him, since we were 3 hours away from our village in Moshi. We talked to everyone we could to try and get a ride for him back to Moshi if others were heading that way. We used our great bargaining skills to try and get him a ride back (sarcasm). After they said it would be 400 US dollars round trip we decided that was a no go. So Tiffany and I basically started to freak out. We felt so bad for Alex and had no clue what was wrong with him, and we were really upset that we may have had to end our safari and bascially eat the money we spent on it. After a lonnnnng conversation with our guide he offered to bring Alex back to Moshi for the cost of the gas only, and Tiffany and I luckily knew some other volunteers going to Ngorongoro Crater that day so we hitched a ride with them.

So after we got Alex sent off to the hospital in Moshi, we were off to our second national park for safari. It was a pretty long, BUMPY ride, but sooo worth it. The most beautiful place I've ever seen in my life. Absolutely amazing. I tried to take as much video as possible, but I'm sure it wouldn't even do it justice. Ngorongoro used to be the biggest mountain in the world, as our guide told us, until it collapsed (assuming thousands/millions of years ago, I have no idea) and it created this enourmous crater that is home to thousands of animals. We saw everything you could imagine. Tons of zebras, buffalo, flamingo, a couple lions, rhino, elephants, giraffe, impala, hippos...so many animals. It was the best day I've had here so far! We got to see the Massai tribe who is very populated around that region of Tanzania. It's actually amazing because they live with the animals all around the rim of the crater, and yet they don't seem to have much of a problem with getting eaten...haha. I asked the guide and he said that is the one of the mysteries of these people, he said they have a special relationship with the animals. All I know is that I don't have that special relationship, so I watched safely from the car :) After a long, wonderful day, we headed back to the campsite to spend our last night.

The next morning we went to Tarengire National Park for our last game drive of the weekend. We got there around 11 am or so. The park was beautiful, it was more of the "lion king" look that you would expect from a safari. The crater was gorgeous, but never what I expected a safari to be like. But here there were tons of trees and tall grass...and yet we didn't see many animals unfortunately. We tried all day to see a leopard becuase that was the one animal we didn't see, but it never happened. Hakuna matata thought because right before we left we saw the most amazing family of elephants which was my favorite animal siting of the weekend. There was a mom and dad and 6 babies! They were right in front of our car and we just watched them eat for about 15 minutes, it was so cool.

But that was pretty much our safari weekend. Everyone that is wondering what happened to Alex, well, he has Malaria. Ugh, but he was put on meds and feels much much better now, thank god. Actually about 4 people in our house were treated for Malaria already. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

School is going so well, I'm started to get upset that I have to leave next Friday already. I went to price out a swingset for my school today, so I'll find that out tomorrow, hopefully its not to much money since things are pretty cheap here. Anyways, gotta go now. Love you all.

xoxox
Kristin

My Safari Weekend

Mambo everyone, So I went on my very first safari this weekend and it was, well, interesting as well as amazing. We started off Friday afternoon after work, we got picked up by our guide and got everything in the car ready for our 3 hour trip to Lake Manyara. It ended up just being Tiffany, our friend Alex, and I so it was nice that we didn't have to pack a lot of people in the car. We arrived at our campsite around 2pm and set everything up. The camp was really nice, much nicer than I ever expected anyways. So we got into Lake Manyara National Park around 3 pm. Everyone is feeling fine at this point. We drive around for a minute and I saw my first elephant about 5 feet from the car, so cool!! It was amazing to watch him in his natural habitat. We saw some baboons, and giraffe, all amazing!! Then it all started. I look over and Alex is sleeping. I hit him in the arm to wake him up because I couldn't believe he was actually sleeping on a safari. But he didnt really wake up, he passed out for a minute or so. I immediately thought heat exhaustion so we wet a bunch of our clothes and put them on him to cool him down and gave him water to drink. But over the next hour he just wasnt getting any better, so we left Lake Manyara to go back to camp. He slept the rest of the night and the next morning, no better. Oh no! no more time left on the computer, hate to leave you hanging, more tomorrow!!

Week Two

Hamjambo Everyone :)

So I'm just finishing up my second week here in Tanzania, and I love it more and more each day. My students are the most adorable kids I've ever met. I don't try and play favorites, but I can't help it sometimes. One of my girls, Manka, is the sweetest mtoto (child) and always has a smile on her face no matter what, its great. Then there is Belena who is two years old and pretty much just sits and colors all day while I teach, but I have no problem with that because she has the cutest face in the world. You will all understand when I show you the pictures. But really, I couldn't ask for a better class of kids, they try so hard and they are doing really well with their numbers, letters and colors so far. I come home around 1 in the afternoon and am soooo tired after teaching just because there are so many of them (apx 75) and two of us, and although I'm almost fluent in Swahili, I'm not quite there...haha, yeah right.

Yesterday we had the day off from work and went on a little field trip all around the Kilimanjaro region. We went into a bunch of Batik shops which were beautiful and learned how to do Batik art. Then we drove up to the Chagga villages and visited some caves and traditional homes which was so amazing to see. Then my favorite part of the day was the hike to Ndoro waterfalls, it was gorgeous!! Although it may not have been the best choice to go swimming, I jumped in because I couldn't resist (sorry Mom). So that was a very cool day we had with everyone from the house.

Tomorrow I am going on my first Safari!!!! We are leaving work early and going to Lake Manyara, Ngorogoro Crater and Tarengari (spelling?) for the weekend. I am so unbelievably excited I won't be able to sleep tonight. I can't wait to see elephants, zebras, lions, EVERYTHING! I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and footage so everyone can experience it back home! I'll write more on Monday to update everyone with my safari weekend.

Last, but not least, GOOOOO GIANNNNNTTTTSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe I am going to miss this game!!!! But I'm sure I'll be hearing the outcome, just because I'm overseas doesn't mean news doesn't spread. So hopefully there won't be any hard feelings after the Giants win :) And baba, your Swahili is vizuri sana! I'm glad to see your practicing :) I love you all, and miss everyone back home. Until next time...

Kwaheri,
Kristin xoxo

Week One

Mambo Everyone :)

So I'm finally all settled in and working at my school now! I absolutely LOVE my kids, they are soooo adorable, I can't wait to show everyone pictures and video. The biggest challenge is getting over the language barrier, but I'm doing the best I can and taking Swahili lessons everyday so I can communicate with them. I'm experiencing such culture shock here, everything is just so incredibly different. The most amazing thing is that although the people don't have much, they are the happiest people I've ever met. Everyone is always smiling and laughing, they come up and talk to us and practice their English while I make a fool out myself trying to speak Swahili...haha. Yesterday and today I taught the class of 2-4 year olds which are my favorites :) We started counting and the alphabet and they seem to be picking it up fairly quickly. It breaks my heart when I go to school everyday and realize how much stuff they need...they have no paper, barely any chalk or pencils, no crayons or markers or anything of the sort. The school looks like what we would call a shack, with two rooms that fit about 40 kids each. They have a couple jump ropes for play time and the only swings they have are both broken so the kids can't use them. I brought some construction paper and arts/crafts stuff and the kids were soooo excited and the teachers thanked us all day long, it was the best feeling I've ever had, like I had helped them so much. I only have one minute left on the internet, so I have to go. I'll write more this weekend!! I miss everyone back home :)

<3 Kristin

Jambo everyone! I finally arrived in Kilimanjaro after a verrrry long day of traveling. I can't even begin to describe how incredible it is here. We arrived at night, so we couldn't see any of our surroundings until morning, but when I woke up I was in awe. I stepped outside and there was Mt. Kilimanjaro staring at me in the face. Our house is absolutely beautiful and the people are so patient, friendly and loving. I can't wait to start at my nursery school tomorrow morning, the children love to run up to us to say hello and ask questions. I met my two teachers that I'll be working with at my placement in Magerenza and they were very nice, however spoke absolutely NO english...so this should be interesting :) Today we walked into town and around Karanga (our village) to see what was around us. We met so many wonderful people who are so warm and welcoming to us mzungas (foreigners). The one thing I learned so far is that I need to learn Swahili immediately...haha. It is very hard to communicate with the people in the village because most do not know any english, but I am learning, at least enough to call a taxi and have him bring me to this computer. I have sooo much to say but the huwala house (internet cafe) closes in about 10 minutes so I will have to write more tomorrow after I finish teaching. So until then, Kwa heri (goodbye) everyone :)

xoxo

Kristin