After two days of work this week, i.e monday and tuesday, our crew from CCS Karanga thought that we need a break from the kids, hospitals, orphenages and other places of work and they took us on a field trip to the hills of Kilimanjaro. We went on a Marangu Educational tour, which in essence meant that we drove 1st to a place in town where a local artist makes batik drawings that are just beautiful (btw on Monday, we get to try this ourselves ) and we had to do a little souvenir shopping, then we drove furthe into the [View Full Entry]

---

---

We ( 8 of my fellow volunteers from CCS) were picked up in Moshi on Saturday morning by our tourguide from Maasai Wanderings and we first drove to Arusha to visit a local craft market. After abrowsing through the stalls and bargaining with the vendors we got back in our landrovers and headed out of town to hike up a small mountain from where we were able to overlook the area. We were joined by our Maasai guide Jeremiah, who explained to us how the Maasai live, what was awaiting us for the rest of the evening, and we enjoyed a [View Full Entry]

---

---

Today is Friday, and i just completed my first week as a day care volunteer. To say the least, i have had just the most amazing week in one of the most beautiful countries with the friendliest people i have encountered so far. Tanzanians are dirt poor, but they have a heart so big and a smile that is infectious. Just wonderful. I am supervising, teaching, and playing with about 90 kids at my day care center and am assisting the 2 other teachers who also work as prison guards during the day or night shift (just depends). These two teachers [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hi, i arrived in Kilimanjaro - Moshi area, and my volunteer home base in Karanga village last night after flying from Jo burg to Dar es Salaam, Zansibar and eventually Kilimanjaro Intl airport. Luck would have it that on the flight from Dar to Kili, i was actually sitting next to the cross cultural prgram director for tanzania , mama Thea, who was also on her way to greet all of us newly arrived volunteers. What a great lady, and what a nice way to get inroduced to what we are about to do. We were picked up at the airport [View Full Entry]

---

---

Since the Falls cover a total lenght of 1.7 km, and only 700 meters are in Zambia, we ( Christine, a nurse from Germany working in Congo with Doctors without borders) and Ahmed (Pakistani U.N. peacekeeper in Congo who I also met at the Jollyboy hostel and I ) decided to cross the bridge to walk over to Zimbabwe to check out the falls from that side... well, like most things easier said then done... well actually it was quite easy... i needed to get a new re-entry visa for Zambia so that i could come back into the country, so [View Full Entry]

---

---

So after the adventorous day yesterday, and experiecing the river from above the Falls, i thought it was only appropriate to also experience the river as it winds itself between the two countries of Zimbabwe and Zambia through the gorge, and so rafting it was! Well, let me tell you the Zambisi at low waterlevels is a class 5 river and one of the 5 best rivers to raft in the world (not sure who rates this sort of things, but, i'll take the word for it . so , after hiking down to the Boiling point once again, we put [View Full Entry]

---

---

After arriving in Livingstone the previous night, and setting out on a sunset cruise on the Zambisi River ( sunset cruises mean "booze cruise around here, since it is all you can drink , to get things started off right, i.e. get to see the river, some crocs, some hippos, and make some new friends, I ventured this morning via a hostel shuttle and with my new "travel partner" for the day Josh off to see the Falls. Josh and a number of other Americans who were on the cruise the night before are teaching english in Namibia for a year, [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hi, sorry that there have not been to many updates lately, but to get a faster internet connection around here is not the easiest thing to do, and hence the blogs are a bit further apart. I am going to try to recap the last few days in a nutshell, but let me first say that winter in South Africa is better than summer almost everywhere in the world where i have been. , 25-30 degrees C, or 75- 90 F during the day with a cool breeze, and night time temps in the low 10's C or low 50's F, [View Full Entry]

---

---

So Kruger NP is everything you think it is... bushlands, dried up rivers in the African Winter, an abundance of wildlife, tourists, ( but you don't see them, since the Park is bigger than the Netherlands, and they put a daily limit on the number of cars allowed into the Park) and did i say an abundance of wildlife... just spectacular to see herd after herd of Elephant , journeys of Giraffe gracefully towering over the bushlands, lazily grazing , hippos cooling of in the few rivers that have not totally dried up in the winter months, lions, whose roars [View Full Entry]

---

---

This will be a short update, since i have already spend enough time on the computer today, uploading my pictures. so for any of you friends out there, is you are interested in seeing pictures, let me know via message or email, and i will forward you the album. thanks for your patience on that on other news.. i arrived in Dundee yesterday at the home of friends of my parents, who were able to pick me up from the Baz bus route through the Drakensberg Mountains. Spectacular scenenery, despite overcast skies... we actually had enough time to go for a [View Full Entry]

---

---