Zanzibar The Spice Island After a stop over in Dar es Salaam, the main port and centre of commerce for Tanzania, we take a boat to Zanzibar. The crossing is relatively smooth and it takes just a few hours to reach Zanzibar and Stone Town. Historically the town was a centre for trade in both spices and slaves to Arabia as well as being a base for many of the 19th century explorers of Africa including Speke, Burton and Livingstone. The town is made up of old colonial buildings and alleyways hiding various shops and markets. When we arrived there was [View Full Entry]

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Hey everyone! So this is my last week in Tanzania, and I'm starting to get really quite sad! Most of the other volunteers that lived with me for 3 weeks left on Friday and Saturday, and thirty-something new volunteers came on Saturday night. The majority of them are from a youth group in Canada- mostly 15/16 year olds. It's a lot different because they've known each other before coming to the homebase, but there are also 6 or 7 people who have come individually. There is a couple who are have taken a year off to do CCS in about 6 [View Full Entry]

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There is something quite amazing to start a trek and be walking next to a group of giraffes... I still have to make sure I am not dreaming all this. The trek up to Mt Meru started in the rain forest. It was very foggy, misty even, but the forest was really like an enchanted forest, with big trees, full of moss and lichen, and the sound of monkeys. I was hiking with the guide that will be working with me for the next 6 weeks, a really nice tall friendly Tanzanian and a ranger with his .306 to chase the [View Full Entry]

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My parents came to meet us for a week of safaris. They are vacationers, as opposed to travelers, so while the duration of their visit was limited to a week it was first class the entire way. As they planned it to visit us, we managed to leech off them and enjoy the spoils of “the good life,” as Kanye would put it, for a week. Fantastic food, that arrived in a timely manner, beautiful rooms, with facilities that worked appropriately, and service that didn’t leave you baffled; it was hardly the Africa we have become accustomed to. We started off [View Full Entry]

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Linan and I got our open water certification in Malawi in 2 1/2 days. It usually takes 4. It was great to get it out of the way because it was a lot cheaper than doing it in the ocean but we spent all of our time at Kande Beach getting through everything. After leaving, we spent one night in Chipata (spelling?) before heading into Tanzania. Overall, I was pretty disappointed with Malawi. It didn't really live up to its reputation of being the "warm heart of Africa." I guess it's all circumstantial but, for me, the Tanzanians have been much [View Full Entry]

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Mon 7 July - Sun 13 July Climbing Kilimanjaro was one of the best things we have ever done. It was hard work on summit day but def worth it. We took the 6 day Machame Route option which is also known as "The Whisky Route" but I can't remember why it is called that. We went with a local company and the best part was--it was just the three of us hiking (Myself, Rob and Dad) with about 12 people from the company including guide, assistant guide, cook and several porters. Here is a quick summary day by day. Day [View Full Entry]

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If the last two sites for the Magnetic work were given 'assault course' names, the hill climb and the water harzard is what they would be! These were the last two areas we had to do for this work, both within 5 km of each other on the same license. The first was a good 5km from the road, and consequently took 2 hours to get within 1000m of it trying to pick our way down rough tracks and dry streams in the pick up. So even before we began work we had to hike up and over a very steep [View Full Entry]

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Service Project of North MacArthur Ladies Recently we received a package in the mail. Some of the ladies of the North MacArthur congregation, in Oklahoma City, have spent much time and energy to prepare some things that will be very useful in teaching Bible class, and for preparing bulletin boards. The project was organized by Donna White, one of the elder’s wives. The ladies die cut and laminated dozens of letters and shapes, and also laminated papers on which the books of the Bible are typed in Swahili. It is frustrating to spend hours and hours on visual aids, onl [View Full Entry]

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Hamjambo! I left off my last blog as i was about to go to Upendo orphanage. Let's just say that that particular orphanage was very, very sad. They house about 25 babies, but i wasn't allowed in because only staff who have been there a year or more are allowed, to prevent illness. All of the other children ranged from 1-6 or 7- and all of them were sick. They split the toddlers into 2 sections, boys and girls, and keep them separate for most of the time- except for playtime. I would say the majority of them had minor to [View Full Entry]

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