Ngorongoro Crater & Rwanda Trials

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We landed in Arusha, Tanzania on Feb 10th. Arusha is the fastest growing town in Tanzania and is the headquarters for East African Community and site of Rwandan Genocide Trials. It is the place to organize safaris to Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater.

We met a lovely American couple from Utah - Connie & Verlyn at the Kenya-Tanzania border with whom we ended up spending the rest of the week. Connie & Verlyn had worked over the last two years collecting donations for a village school on the foothills on Mt. Meru and were here to distribute the library books and study material for students. We spent an afternoon with them in the Maruvangu village. Th entire school student body, teachers and village elders were there to greet us on a Saturday. There was lot of singing, joy and gratitude expressed by the village that day. They had been waiting two years for this day and it had finally come. It was an amazing experience for Alison and I to be present to witness this event.

The four of us set out on a 3 day safari to Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Manyara and Tarangire. On our first anniversary, we drove in the Ngorongoro Crater, the most phenomenal experience so far. The 20km wide collapsed volcano - caldera has the highest density of animals in East Africa. We slowly descended down the steep slopes of the crater onto the floor. Within this crater, there is an astounding variety and quantity of animals - It feels like one is in a large zoo. The whole day we saw thousands of Zebra, Wildebeast, Gazelles, Impalas, Flamingoes and also many water buffaloes, Lions, Rhinos, Hippos, Elephants. It felt like the entire animal life were living in harmony in this fishbowl of a crater. To end a perfect day, we were greeted by a magnificient Lion at the end of the day before we made our way back out of the crater to enjoy a drink at a lodge overlooking the entire crater.


We spent Valentine's day seeing large herds of elephants in Tarangire. We had a fabulous Valentine's lunch at the Safari Lodge overlooking the Tarangire river and wildlife at the water.

Once we returned to Arusha, We visited to UN-ICTR to witness the ongoing Rwandan Genocide Trials. We got gallery passes to watch couple of ongoing trials against the Hutu Leaders. It was chilling to hear witness testimony of the events that occurred in April 1994. The wheels of UN justice are slow, but they are progressing with 65 of the Top 80 wanted people in Custody. It is heart wreching to listen to the atrocities committed by the accused. We were lucky to witness the court proceedings.

We have made it to Dar Es Salaam after a long bus ride. We are now in Zanzibar soaking up the swahili/arabic culture of stone town and beaches on Nungwi, Zanzibar.

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Photos

Masai in Ngorongoro
Masai men take their cattle for grazing in the Crater

Garden of Eden
Abundance of Animal life in Ngorongoro Crater

Right of way to Animals
Animals are very relaxed about homo sapiens in their contraptions