Thirteen of us all packed into the 4x4, driving 45 minutes along winding, bumpy roads, skidding and sliding back and forth in the muddy ruts, the whole way to Karatu. After spending two whole days in bed with stomach pains and achy blah, I finally went to see the doctor yesterday. I brought two other kids from the children's village who were sick as well, and with both of them on my lap, and seven more local villagers packed in for the ride, we set off uncomfortably tight. As the driver stopped to pick up more and more passengers along the [View Full Entry]

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Okay so as a follow up on my boastful "I'm gonna climb Kili" shit I would like to let everyone know that I admit defeat. I started off well, got to 4000 and, whilst looking at the amazing view, hurt my ankle. It's my own fault really, we were walking on basically just rocks and I should know by now that luck doesn't really cling to me.. so anyway, our guide Richard told me I should go down as my ankle would need rest and a top of a mountain really wasnt the best place for that. Totally bummed me out. [View Full Entry]

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Hello all, We arrived safe in Tanzania yesterday and got the ferry over to Zanzibar this morning. It's hard to describe how tired we are after the 4.30am start this morning, 8 hour flight to Doha, 1 hour transfer and the 5 and a half hour flight from Doha to Dar Es Salaam. We slept very little on the plane because Qatar airline was fantastic and provided around 1000 entertainment options, FREE alcohol (as much as we wanted throughout the flight), films, music, games and TV options as well as regular meals which were really tasty but kept waking us up. [View Full Entry]

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being back in the village was great. i mean i was back less than a week but you know. duty calls. lets see. i got back in the village on tuesday (sunday the car broke down and monday the car was full). stephanie decided to come with me so that was nice to have a friend along for the ride. i got back to my house and it was a mess. i dont mean anybody broke in. just dust was everywhere. and yes, ruka the dog indeed was alive. but just barely. i think if i wouldve come back a couple [View Full Entry]

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Today is a dark day as I perform that which I swore I would never do. I am blogging. It just sounds wrong. But I am far too lazy to respond to individual emails and messages, so this was the easiest route. Do not fret, I will keep things short. So, join me on this magical adventure into the lowest form of written word, wont you? (FYI, this site will not allow me to do apostrophes, so I have opted to simply skip them. Its not poor grammar, so dont judge me). Also, editing on this computer is pretty much impossible, [View Full Entry]

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I felt it was time to write a new blog entry now, its been awhile. We e still on Zanzibar and frankly, we haven done too much the last couple of weeks. Well, we did go on a little adventure the last few days, but first things first. As I mentioned in an earlier blog entry, we met some locals who helped us with everything from accomodation to swahili lessons; Arif gave us lessons for a couple of hours every day for a week, which made us sort of "stuck" in Stonetown for that time. So we developed a very relaxed [View Full Entry]

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Sunday is the volunteer day off, so I went with 5 other volunteers into Karatu, a nearby village where we went out for dinner, drinks and dancing. It was a wild night for the wazungu (white people), a few of the staff (locals) from the children's village showed up too, and we stayed out until about 4 am! The next morning we walked about 2 miles outside of town to a local art gallery perched on the side of a mountain, looking out over the beautiful countryside, where we ordered delicious food, and sat relaxing (recovering) for about 4 hours waiting [View Full Entry]

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One of my favorite sounds in the world...children singing. [View Full Entry]

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I made the horrible mistake of reading the children's bios before bed the other night...some of these kids have been through tragedies far beyond what any child should witness or experience. Many of them, after there own parents died of AIDS related causes were living with relatives who abused them severely. I laid awake for hours, my heart aching, and then all of a sudden I felt tremors from a nearby earthquake shaking my bed. And then the next day the volcano on the horizon erupted! (Sulfur, not lava) Supposedly there is still more to come too. It last erupted a [View Full Entry]

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Have you noticed that life is never boring in Tanzania? But sometimes we really wouldn't mind a small portion of boring. Last week we decided to go to the “Massai cafe” and enjoy a bite of lunch out, and give Joy a break. We enjoyed the time out, but it came at a price. Jacob got food poisoning. Two days later his fever was hitting temperatures up to 104 degree Fahrenheit and his vomiting was also weakening him. So when the first day of the week came, Joy stayed home with him to monitor his condition. Since Julia was still away [View Full Entry]

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