Time to go home (July 20-21)

We returned from Ngorongoro for one final night in Springlands.  Owen suggested we eat out at the Italian-Indian restaurant one last time.  We love this place and had dinner there 3 times this trip!

I will miss my friends in Tanzania!

We left for the airport with Ashley, Doug and Theresa.  

The five of us would be flying from Kilimanjaro to Doha together, then they would continue to Philly and Florida while Owen and I went to JFK.  I will miss seeing these sights along the streets everyday!

Fun in Arusha (July 15)

Fun in Arusha! 🐪🐪 🐍

We had a great lunch at Smiley's then hit the Snake Park/Camel Rides/Maasai museum !

$2 CAMEL RIDES ROCK!!  It was really fun.  See the video clip of the beginning of our ride here: Going UP!   The back camel was very vocal until he stood up.  

            

             

After the camel rides, Ashley, Bonnie, Doris, Janet and I went to the Snake Park.  Everyone else went to the Maasai Exhibit.  The snake park was really fun.  A guide went around with us and told us about each of the reptiles.  At the end, he brought us to the kissing snake.  He puts it around your neck and you have a chance to hold it and give it a kiss.  It was a pretty small snake (and not dangerous- I assumed), so it didn't bother me much, but Ashley was REALLY scared!!  We also had a chance to hold a giant turtle, which freaked Doris out a big :)

                      















       

                       Owen joined the others at the Maasai exhibit.

Back at the hotel we enjoyed wifi that really worked and watching HBO (with ads??) on the TV in our room.  Owen tried not to get lost in the mosquito netting around the beds before tossing it up above!

Sober House (July 15)

Sober House

Saturday morning Kelly, Doug, Theresa, owen and I went to the Sober House where Kelly was running a meeting for the residents in recovery.  This group found out about us when Kelly did an addiction presentation in Arusha the previous week. Adam, the director, asked us to come to the facility to talk with the 46 men and 2 women in recovery residing there. 

We all took turns introducing ourselves. They were very impressed that this was Owen's second trip to Tanzania. He told them he is on summer break and will start Form 3 (the equivalent of 11th grade) in the fall. 

We listened while Kelly talked to the group and Adam translated.  What was supposed to be an hour meeting lasted over two hours because the residents were so engaged in listening and asking questions. 

After the meeting we went outside and checked out the property with a chicken coup, bunnies, pigeons and a cat.  

One guy wanted to talk to owen. He asked him what he was studying in school and asked for an email to keep in touch! 

Tina and Doris went into town to buy bulk oil and  rice that we donated to the group.  

Then Tina led us all in a singing if I Take the Ball (which is often sung in the primary schools). It was quite humorous!!

Sanjay is an artist and owen bought one of his paintings before we left. 

Tim Harrington School (July 14)

Tim Harrington School

This school is supported by Yesaya Wilfredy. We met Yesaya in 2015 through Tanzacare when we went out to the remote schools near Same, Tanzania.  Tim Harrington is  a school for the poor and disadvantaged children of Arusha! They work very closely with the government.  Due to the partnership we have they allowed Cathy to present at Tim Harrington and in two public schools, 1. Arusha Secondary School and 2. Arush Girls High School!

Bonnie, Janet, Owen and I went to the classrooms while Cathy, Kelly, Doug, Liz and Theresa met with the women of the community for an HIV education presentation. 

After the school day and presentations ended, we met with some of the men of the local soccer league.  Last week Garret met with the team to teach them some drills.  We donated jerseys provided by Florida Southern as well as Friends-Together shirts.

TAFCOM Tailoring Program

In addition to providing medical support and educational support to families affected by HIV, TAFCOM also has a women's tailoring program. Many of these women are uneducated single mothers who are struggling to provide for their families. Through a six-month intensive tailoring class provided at a tailoring center, these women gain the skills they need to work as a tailor or operate a small tailoring businesses.

The women were instrumental in sewing over 5000 disposable sanitary pads for distribution to women by Friends-Together.org.  The money needed to purchase fabric and sewing supplies was provided by donations collected by Friends-Together volunteers. See a video on the pad project HERE.

 

Currently, the sewing room has 6 machines.  Friends-Together purchased an additional 10 machines for the program!  We also donated supplies to the new graduates of the program.

   

                             

                           

TAFCOM has plans to construct a new building to house the expanding tailoring program with the help of Friends-Together.   Check out this video put together by Liz on the project HERE

Driving in Tanzania

Driving in Tanzania

Many roads are not paved and are therefore very bumpy necessarily slow travel. It can take 10-20 minutes to drive 5 km on the dirt roads.  It is very tricky navigating the holes in the road and can often make for lots of swerving back and forth.   

Unlike roads in the US, there are constantly people and animals walking around.  Even very young children can be seen walking to and from school.

I don't know how people find their way around because street signs are scarce, even in Arusha. 

On the paved highways - which only have 2 lanes- it feels a little more like driving at home. 

There are 2 types of speed signs. 

This means all vehicles need to stay below 50mph. 

When the speed sign has these lines it means the end of the speed limit. Commercial cars with passengers can not go above 80, but there is no limit for private cars!  The difference is obvious looking at license plates- private vehicles have yellow plates and commercial vehicles have white plates. That being said, there are no police cars driving around. What we have seen a lot of this trip are police stops, where they randomly pull cars over and talk to the driver and occasionally check for seat belts. 

In Tanzania you drive on the left and pass on the right. You can pretty much pass cars whenever you want to and if you want to pass 6 cars and the oncoming lane is clear, then go for it! 

This sign indicating speed bumps (or humps as they are called here) are a common sight.

                                         

You can see video from out last trip of the bumpy ride to TAFCOM
by clicking HERE.

Click HERE to see video of driving through Moshi. 

Leaving Ngorongoro (July19)

Leaving Ngorongoro 

After the safari everyone was pretty tired.  The drivers joined us for dinner and we heard some stories of other safaris and seeing the Serengeti. I'd love to have Brian and Devin fly in and join us for a Serengeti safari next time. Maybe we should start saving now!

On our way back to our tent the Maasai took us to see a giraffe on the other side of the camp. Owen actually complained because he was so tired and just wanted to shower and go to sleep! It was another huge one. There is something about seeing a giraffe up close in the dark illuminated by a flashlight that is so surreal.  We had much less activity outside our tent that night. But still saw some zebras outside. 

The next morning as we were getting ready to leave, Ashley spotted a giraffe so we walked the path looking for it. We found it down near our tent and watched it walk off into the woods. 

As we drive down the road we had to stop because there was a giraffe in the road! Ok, we have had to stop for goats and cows numerous times everywhere, but this is the first time we stopped for a giraffe. Then we noticed 5 more to our right and another one to the left!  That made my day!

Here is a video clip of Yajaida screaming when she first noticed them:

About 20 minutes later we had to stop because of zebra  crossing the road.

Then we had to slow down because of a bunch of buffalo grazing on the side of the road! I'm going to miss all of these animals!!

                              

So unlike most posts, I have been writing this one during the actual drive out of Ngorongoro.  I'm back because just before the gate we had to stop for baboons- tons of baboons! Check out the pictures below 😃🐒 and video here.

Next, we saw some camels on the side of the road!

 

Since we were all tired of boxed lunches we decided to stop back at Smileys for lunch and donate our boxes to Maasai kids along the way.

Finally, we stopped at the scenic view that was too cloudy on our way in to enjoy...

Safari- A Day in the Crater! (July 18)

We managed to get to breakfast at 5:55 as instructed and set out for the 2 hour ride to the crater around 6:30. It was cold out and we knew from last time that it would be even colder in the crater. Let's just say the Floridians were freezing and Owen had on shorts!

I forgot how beautiful the ride is passing all of the Maasai huts and animals. There are cows and sheep and goats and zebras all pretty much grazing together! 

In the clouds!

And that first view of the crater? WOW!  There was this streak of light coming from the clouds. Ashley pointed it out and called it "God's light."  I believe she's right!

When we got to the bottom, Richard popped the top even though the girls wrapped in blankets objected. Hey, this is a safari and standing up and looking out the top is the best view! Even though it was overcast and a tiny bit rainy at that point... Later on, we were all standing up!

                   

The first thing we saw were gazelles. They are so graceful! Standing next to the wildebeest I can't help but think that it's beauty and the beast!!

Three of us did this safari last visit and were praying to see a lion since we didn't last time. What's cool is the drivers all have cb radios and talk on them sharing what's where. We were going in one direction when suddenly Richard turned around and picked up speed. Ohhhh he heard about something good!  

As we approached the area with several safari vehicles we spotted them. A mama lion and two cubs!

We found Simba!  You see, simba means lion in Swahili. Owen commented that Disney was lazy in naming the characters in lion king! Later we saw Pumbaa- which means warthog. 

After we were done watching the lions we drove around and saw more wildebeest, buffalo and zebras. 

Richard showed us a funny bird called the Kuri Bustard (Which we kept mispronouncing!)

We spotted a hyena - more on them later! 

And and area with tons of wildebeest. Ashley kept confusing them with the buffalo. I think they are scrawnier and uglier!

Richard also spotted a rhino, but it was so far away you could only see it with binoculars. It looked like a black rock to me. Apparently, with the climate change the rhinos and elephants stay in the marshy areas and aren't seen as often.

Next stop was the hippo pool. Last time they looked like giant rocks, but this time they were much more active.

We watched them yawning, chatting, rolling over, and ooohhhed over a baby: Hippo video1 Hippo Video2  Hippo Video3  Hippo Video4

Then Tashoy yelled, "there's lions over  there!" And sure enough a pride of female lions and cubs were crossing the road and coming across the field! 18 of them! 18 LIONS! It was amazing!!

Photo credit: Liz Watkins

                             
Check them out when first crossing the field: Pride of lions video

After the lions wandered into the grass we drove off. Richard stopped at the side of the road and there were 5 pumbas grazing. He pointed out how one was on his front knees. It makes it easier you eat since they have such short necks and big heads.

Back Behind the warthogs were tons of wildebeest. Suddenly, we saw some running, then saw a hyena chasing a smaller wildebeest! Then more hyenas running behind. They must have caught it because the running stopped. Hyenas started showing up from all directions running to the gathering. Richard said it they would be too late because they eat fast.  Owen asked why they don't just go after  one of the other wildebeest. He explained that hyenas are scavengers. They can't run too fast, but they have stamina so they go after a smaller animal and chase it until it gets tired. Circle of life, folks. 

                             

You can see the chase here:Chasing wildebeest

Next we went to the picnic area for lunch. There is a huge lake with a few hippos in it. I didn't understand why they got to be here while the others are in the smaller pool.  They were fun to watch.

After lunch, we drove out to an area that was filled with zebras. We had to drive through this creek to get there which was pretty cool. 

I love the zebras. A mama and baby were in the road right in front of us.  We all took zebra selfies and sat watching them for a while. 

Here is some video. Listen to Richard's corny joke about the stripes 😃.

We drove through the forest area. I was hoping to see more elephants but there weren't any.  Here's a far away pic of one we saw earlier...

We stopped to use the restroom before heading out of the crater. There were some zebra hanging out right there...