Two 4 one

---

I missed blogging yesterday as I got quite ill, either from drinking juice at the lodge that may have been made with local water or from the chicken sandwich in my boxed lunch that was not refrigerated during our game drive. After arriving at our new camp, I slept for 18 hours and started the antibiotics I got from travellers health before leaving Canada. Feeling a little better but still mending.

That said, Arnet went on the game drive alone yesterday. We had driven from the crater to a tent camp called Kururumaru. Prior to getting to the camp, our guide took us to the village of Manyara Kibaoni. This small village has over 200 orphaned children due to HIV/AIDS and abandonment as a result of prostitution in this so called high tourist area - though we did not seen any evidence of accommodation in this village. We visited the AP Orphanage center which is home to 15 children aged 4-15 and also serves as a day care to local children while parents are at work. There were only 4 children there while we visited as the rest were in school. The living conditions are suboptimal to say the least, though each child has his/her own bed with mosquito nets, boys and girls are in shared rooms. Goats and chickens roam around freely and hand washed clothes is dried on the top of shrubs and bushes. The boys have creatively fashioned trucks and cars out of a used 1 liter juice container to which they have attached wheels by using sticks. The one boy's flip flop toe piece was held in place by a piece is chicken wire...Needless to say the orphanages and children out here are forgotten and left to fend for themselves unless projects like Compassion, World Vision or Food for the Hungry get involved. After seeing this, it was very difficult to leave and go back to the comfort of our tent. Even though it was not elaborate or extravagant, it was shelter from critters and bugs and has running water with a flush toilet, something these kids have never seen and likely will not.

While I slept, Arnet went with Edwin for a drive in the Lake Mayara national park. This park (1800 sq Km's) is over populated by baboons and monkeys as they have no natural predators here. There were also elephants, jackals and many different species of birds due to the tropical nature of this valley we find ourselves in. While I rested, baboons played in the trees not 10 feet for our tent. The accophony of night song finally settled around 4:30 and started up again around 5 as dawn started to break.

Today, we drove to Arusha which is about 70 km from Mt Killamanjaro. It was overcast and spitting rain so we could not get even a glimpse of the infamous mount. We flew from Arusha to Nairobi, Kenya where we met up with a family friend who is a priest living and working in Meru. He drove 5 hours to meet us and we will be staying with him at the prep house in Karen for the next 3 days. The accommodations here are VERY humble as this order of priests take a vow of poverty- no mirror in the rooms, minimal linens- but, the arms are welcoming and smiles are friendly and it nice to be in the company of a fellow Canadian.

Night all,

Mouahhhh

MnA

---