Blogs from Tanzania, Africa - page 322

Emily and I left Saturday for the Serengeti, it's 400 km from arusha but took about 7 hours to drive there because the roads are pretty crazy. you drive up the crater, around the rim and then down the other side. the road is only paved half way there, then it's rough riding. we stayed at the Sopa lodge our first night, complete luxury from our little bunk beds rooms at the CCS house. we each had a double bed with a huge mosquito net curtain surrounding both beds, no more getting tangled in a net at night! Our first day of game driving was wicked! We saw lots of lions and unlike the the lazy lions in the Crater these lions were busy stalking prey! It was so neat to watch them attempt to hunt, ... read more

Humjambo- I have found myself in a new world. Since arriving on Friday I have slept little and made many new friends. The people of Tanzania are incredible. Even though they have so little, I have never experienced so much joy and genuine friendlieness. Homebase is a wonderful place and the mix of people and backgrounds makes for an interesting experience. We have spent the last several days adjusting to our new environment and meeting people in the local community. Truthfully to say it is another an understatement. I am not sure I ever really understood what living on less that $1 a day would look like until two days ago. At this point it is not something I can even put into words. The people in this community value education above all else, and many ... read more

A great deal has happened since I last updated my blog 4 weeks ago. I did plan on updating the blog once every week, but I am either busy with work for my placement or out gallivanting! Things at my placement have moved on from my last entry in the sense that the leaders of TUPO, together with the volunteers came up with an idea of a small farming business to generate regular income for the organisation, as well as providing the members with much needed food. (You may remember that a brick project was mentioned in my last blog entry. This idea was ruled out as it was decided that the members are too weak physically to operate the labour intensive business of brick building). The main problem for those living with HIV/AIDS here ... read more

First I just wanted to say thank you to all you who have sent messages and comments about my trip, I am sorry I haven't been able to respond as my time on the internet is limited but I really do appreciate them all!!! Soo here's a question for you all, what do you get when you mix a 70 year old german bee expert named Wolfgang, with a equally as old farmer from Mississippi, and a 50 year old land rover in Africa?? Well, if you're me you get a near death experience on the cliffs of the Kilimanjaro national park! What started as an innocent trip to go see the waterfalls, ended in quite an African adventure after a little bit of rain made the veeery narrow road up the mountain into a ... read more

Hey everyone! So here is email number one. I have arrived safely and completed my first couple days in Tanzania. Yes the flight was very long….I'm glad to be here finally. I think I will be sending out an email every week or so - if that's too often feel free to delete it and if it's not often enough I might be adding additional entries to a blog which I will send out the address later (maybe). So far I have spent a night in Dar Es Salaam, the commercial center of Tanzania, met my family and moved into my room. Dar is an expansive but rather short city (in terms of buildings). My window for the night was on the seventh story of a hotel, which was probably the tallest building around. I had ... read more