Yep God lives in Africa. God is the sponsor child of Kellie and he lives in Tanzania. Kellie inquired where exactly he lives and it turned out that he lives more or less close to our travel route so she started arranging a visit. That’s easier said than done and involves a lot of paper work (including a police clearance) but was successful in the end. We got picked up by a WorldVision LandCruiser (which we had to pay for…) containing our “guide”, a driver and someone else working for this charity and we set off. It turns out that God [View Full Entry]

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As Hemingway said of his piece, ‘I’m throwing all the truth on this one’. It was somewhere between two and four in the morning, when my eyes started to go blank, and zigzag was the only direction my legs knew. I was conscious, but had started to lose control of my body. Congestion was problem bigger than altitude at that point, and we had started at 11:30 pm only to go up, always up. My headlamp went off. Freaking batteries, no more spare ones. Zungu led the way, Shuvo was in front of me illuminating his path and mine, and Didas [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday, May 7, 2008 Though we all left wake-up calls, there were no phones. Instead, one of the workers knocked on each door. I quickly showered and dressed, hoping to get a good picture of the sunrise. I was a bit too late. The photographers in our group said I had just missed a beautiful red sky. I took other shots, including Majura with two of the workers. One was dressed in traditional Maasai garb, while the other wore Western clothes. Some of the young adults we saw later had a combination—Maasai dress, tennis shoes and socks. We ate and went [View Full Entry]

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This is mostly going to be photos, because really, it's all animals. We started in Moshi I think, went to the markets, had a nice day to chill. Then headed to the Serengeti via Olduvai Gorge. At Olduvai Gorge they found footprints of what they believe to be Homo Erectus, humans (ish) from 1.5 billion years ago. After that, our truck got stuck. Then it got unstuck, we got to the Serengeti, and we blew a tire. Thankfully we made it to the campsite safe and sound. That night, hyenas cruised through our campsite. The next morning, we woke up early [View Full Entry]

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Tuesday, May 6, 2008 After an early breakfast the next morning we left for a day full of activities. Taking the road to Engaruka, we waited for the other Land Rover outside a small shop. A woman brought corn to be milled, and we watched it being ground into meal, then put into a large burlap sack. Nearby, another woman was setting up her fruit stand. We bought bananas for the trip. We stopped at a large souvenir shop where a wide variety of handicrafts were sold. I bought a red checkered Maasai blanket and various items for gifts. Because of [View Full Entry]

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Mount Kilimanjaro (as a MasterCard advertisement) days on a mountain - 7 Snickers Bars - 8 (3 on summit day) liters of water - 21 "watering" of rocks and trees on the way up - 21 (or more) Songs sang by the girls and guides on the way up - HUNDREDS! (to the dismay of everyone else in our group) Blisters on hands from treking poles - 2 waking up at 11 PM to walk on a 70 degree slope of sand to the summit - 1 Feeling like I was going to die - 1 Watching the sunrise at the [View Full Entry]

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Monday, May 5, 2008 We were awakened early the next morning in order to eat and leave soon after the sun came up. Instead we found it was cloudy with occasional chilling rain. We finally set off at 9 a. m. The fog was so dense at times that it was difficult seeing where to drive on the mountain road. The lanes were even more narrow, due to construction. In some areas only one was open, so we had to be especially careful, not knowing if a vehicle was coming around the bend. We passed one truck that was stuck in [View Full Entry]

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Dear Family and Friends: OOPS! HOW WONDERFUL THE KILI KIDS ARE Poor Kate woke in the middle of the night after writing the last entry and realized that she had neglected to include at least a sentence or two about the children at the orphanage....you have to understand that the entries are always written piece-meal, sometimes over a week's time, often with someone waiting to use the computer, and, on some occasions, large amounts of text are lost and, when re-typed, end up shorter (as frustration increases, text decreases!)....so...we just want everyone to know that the REASON we left pa [View Full Entry]

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Sunday, May 4, 2008 Two Land Rovers left the lodge to begin a four-day pre-conference excursion. The group included international scientists and IYPE leaders Eduardo de Mulder, Executive Director, and Larry Woodfork, Chairman of the Board; Rainer Ellmies and Vicky Niku-Paavola, geologists from Namibia; Marc Urvois, a geoscientist from France; and Eva de Mulder, IYPE Event Organizer and Ed's daughter; Charles Saanane, Majura Songo and Fredrick Mangasini, scientists from the University of Dar es Salaam; and me. Wanda Smoragiewicz, a Polish biology professor from Canada, and he [View Full Entry]

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stay tuned [View Full Entry]

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