Dave Sharon and Sydney

We took photos and said our goodbyes to our friends at home base after lunch. We said goodbye to Kilimanjaro on our way to the airport but once airborne we flew directly in front of the mountain. We know two people who are climbing now so it was fun to imagine them hiking up as we flew past. My seat mate was a young man going to school in Dubai who had just summated Kili. It was a much tougher endeavor than he had imagined. His climbing companion had to turn back and go down so my seat mate summated with his guide. Last week someone died of altitude sickness below base camp. Our guides on the coffee tours said people die every year because they don’t pay attention to the early symptoms of altitude sickness. ... read more

An hour of singing and adorable faces filled our last day at placement. Imagine 90 kids in one classroom – half of them sitting on the floor, singing songs from ‘Jambo Bwana’ to “We are the kids, the kids from Step Up. Everywhere we go-o, people want to know, who we are, so we tell them we are the kids, the kids from Step Up…”, and “Goodbye teachaa.” Sydney has video of the kids singing and when she’s home and is able to upload the videos they will be on her Facebook page. If you’re not friends with Sydney Renee Sherman you might want to check out her page because she has some photos posted from every stage of our trip. Mama Hasseim gave each of us a pair of locally made earrings – she actually ... read more

Road work TZ style: Wear day-glo green vest. Place rocks down the center line. If you need to straighten or move the rocks, stand in the oncoming traffic lane and move them! We came across real, serious road construction. The front man carries two flags, one red and one green. There is yellow and black striped tape strung from tree to tree across the road. We were stopped and our driver, Mama and the construction man had a lively discussion. Apparently the news about the road closure was bad because we turned around and found an alternate route. The alternate route was interesting, to say the least. We drove through deeply rutted roads that are no wider than alleys in Denver and in one part we drove through a village market- actually ... read more

Wow! What an amazing 24 hours we have had. Last night we went to Asha's home for dinner. She lives not too far from the CCS home base in what she called her bibi (grandmother) house meaning that it's much smaller because she has no children at home. Except the house wasn't small and she has her granddaughter and several 20-something year old boys living with her. Her granddaughter Lily made dinner for us and it was so wonderful. We started off with avocado juice which I never even knew existed. It is sooo good. You juice any other sweet fruit (last night it was orange) and mix them together. The juice looks green and tastes mostly like orange juice! We had a meal much like the dinners here - rice pilaf with peas, a curried ... read more

Yesterday afternoon/evening in Moshi Town was a fun and tiring time. We met Stanley a 25 year old computer whiz who is one of the staff at MKombozi where Dave works at the Union Café. The Union is in a beautiful building – a left over from the colonial period and is a tourist Mecca. We walked all over Moshi for 3 hours, through shops and markets (think the farmers market at ground level). Sydney and I were able to complete almost all of our souvenir shopping. We are also now the proud owners of a Tanzanian cell phone so we’ll be able to call taxis and get ourselves unstranded if stranded. We talked about buying one when we first got here but Dave hadn’t checked it out. After discussing it with Stanley and having Stanley’s ... read more

It's a quiet, cloudy morning in the Karanga region. Most of the volunteers have set out for a one day hike to the Kilimanjaro base camp. Last night, while some people were in town, others here were ironing their dry clothes. The ironing area is on the back porch and has been a very busy place. With 40 volunteers washing underwear and other clothing and the housekeepers washing towels and sheets for 40 the many clotheslines are often full. Then, everything needs to be ironed - so at times there is a wait to use the iron. Unfortunately the outside outlet in which the iron is plugged is tied to the one in the bedroom on the other side of the wall and the breaker switch is tripped whenever the girls use their hair drier. So ... read more

Hujambo, My thighs are burning today - yesterday I used squat toilets (hole in the floor) several times and then we hiked down several thousand feet to a river for viewing a waterfall. The hike down - slippery, and muddy was challenging but the hike up is what did in my out of shape thighs! We went off in the direction of Kilimanjaro and visited a Chagga tribal museum saw a hut that would have been used by their Chagga ancestors. The circular hut is divided in half - one half for family and one half for livestock. 3 cows and 4 kids plus parents in a 12' x7' space. The house is built of sticks and grass. The center of the house is the firepit. There are 2 beds - the one closest to the ... read more

How to describe three indescribable days in a short enough fashion so that you don’t nod off? It was so fabulous that words will never do it justice and even Sydney’s amazing photos and Dave’s fabulous videos will fall short because of the scope and magnitude. Safaris are on rough roads, very dusty and dirty and SOOO worth it. We left Friday about 2:30pm and within 2 hours we had giraffes walking off the road eating trees! They are so rangy and gorgeous. I had never noticed how big and knobby their knees are. At the zoo the giraffe enclosure is usually very stinky. I am happy to report that in the wild – no smell! We stopped at a Massai village and were welcomed with song and dancing. We and most of the women ... read more