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Published: October 28th 2007
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Gregg's kids
They all came to see me when I arrived at the airport. This, along with all my other Africa blogs, were actually emails sent to friends and family. I didn't know much about blogs at the time, but now I do. Hello all! Greetings from beautiful Tanzania!
I thought it would be a lot easier to email from here than it is. This is the first chance I've gotten to really write a note and my time is limited. My computer won't connect to the web here, and I'm left with using the house computer, which many people use here.
So much to say!!!! Here so I start and what do I leave out?
Anyway, I arrived in Tanzania six days ago and the time is flying by. I've spent most of my time getting to know my brother, Gregg, and his family.... all of them lovely people. They have been so gracious and helpful in every way. They take me out on every day types of trips for them that seem to be cultural wonders for me. I've visited a school and a hospital, both of which seem to be rather sparsely equipped by American standards, but they seem to do just fine all the same.
Just driving down
Gregg
At the house in Dar es Salaam. I wish I had taken more pic of the place. It was huge and beautiful the road - a lot of which are not paved and are in poor condition - can be an exciting experience. I often close my eyes and hope I get to our destination alive. When we stop at a stop light - which there are precious few working ones - street vendors will come up to the car selling anything from socks to TV antennea. Life is somewhat chaotic here. I also love to watch people while I'm riding down the road. You can often see Masai tribesman walking down the road in full tribal dress. Really interesting, even though no one else here seems very impressed.
Today we went to a local market so that I could buy some souveniers of Tanzania. I really don't know how to haggle for prices, so I was glad that my brother was there to help. It all went fine for a while when Gregg was there to help me out but as soon as he ducked into another shop to check prices all the vendors descended upon me like vultures on a carcass. I was really overwhelmed. I almost bought something when Gregg came in and pulled me out to get
Mosquito net
...so you can sleep soundly with out the buzzing of mosquitoes in your ear and the fear of marlaria. an even better deal elsewhere. In the end, I got a few things and got out of there quickly. Maybe we can go again in a few days and I'll have a better idea of what to expect.
Tomorrow we will be going to Morogoro, which is a town a few hundred kilometers away from Dar es Salaam. There is a mountain here that we will walk up and camp overnight. This should be fun. I'm really kicking myself for not bringing my jeans and hiking boots. We should be able to see all sorts of wildlife on the way. After that, we come back to Dar and head out again for Zanzibar to see the old slave prisons and a tour around the island. I can't wait. After that we rest for a day in Dar and back out we go to the Ngorongoro Crater, which is where the huge numbers of animals are. You can see every type of animal in Africa there except the giraffe. This is the place that they are most likely to film wildlife for National Geographic films about animals in Africa. After that I'm heading to Kenya for a week on my
Visiting the School
Somewhat sparsely equipped but better that what many children in Africa have own. Somewhere in there I will try to let you know how things are going.
For now it's off to bed so that I can get up in time for a 5:45 am departure time to Morogoro.
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Stephanie
non-member comment
omg!
ok, well i have a rough draft about Tanzania due tommorrow, you know us teenagers- waiting for the last minute.. But, i cant find ANYTHING about religon, and all that crap, i got lucky to find an AWESOME topic sentence for my culture. Can somebody point me to a website that'll do more than say "Im no use, check somewere else" well i guess ive wasted enough of your time, if u can help me i would be soo thankful! Thanks for your time :) **Steph***