Karibuni Tanzania!

Looks like its been awhile since I’ve updated the world. We got to Tanzania over a month ago…whoops. So much has happened that it would be impossible to update you all with words, so I’ll use pictures instead to give a brief overview of whats been going on.

 

Moyo Hill Camp

These are the front gates to our camp at Moyo Hill, in Rhotia, Tanzania.

To my extreme enjoyment there is a primary school not too far from our camp, so sometimes we get to see the herds of children as they are walking home from school in the afternoon.

 

This is my home! I live with Lucy and Emily S. in Kifaru on the right side. Kifaru means rhino in Swahili, however we have dubbed it “KiFARTu” because of some of the activity that goes on inside. TMI? Pole not pole.

 

There’s a slack line on campus so I’ve spent time trying (and failing) to master that. One of the staff members here, Martha, is really good and gives me lessons. Here’s Sam working his line.

 

The area we live in is so cute and quaint. Its so lush and green everywhere, with plenty of corn fields and rolling hills. Theres tons of room to leave camp and walk around in the local area, which is so wonderful. Theres also a hiking trail up to the top of Moyo hill.

 

 

Heres Emily and I on a sunrise hike we took to the top of Moyo hill.

 

We have fallen in love with the staff here, just as we did in Kenya. Here are Costa and Michael.

 

In other news, we all adjusted really well to Tanzania. We’ve picked up some of the local fashion sense (lets be real, no one wears these kind of clothes except wazungus). Please note Andrews hammer pants. I have also attempted rocking the hair wrap. Here, when a woman has a child she goes by Momma and then the name of her first child. Since I don’t have a child, I use the name of my first pet. So whenever I have my hair wrap on I switch into Mamma Tina mode. One day Peter went into town and got his haircut.

 

We’ve also spent plenty of time taking over the kitchen. We make special desserts every time someone has a birthday (which thankfully there have been many of) and we’ve celebrated different holidays. We had a special Easter dinner that came about from a lamb slaughter in the afternoon. The Jewish students on our trip cooked us a special dinner for Passover and we had our own seder, and last night we celebrated Cino de Mayo with yummy chapati, beef, chips, guacamole, salsa, deep fried avocados and churros.

 

Also, an important thing to note: The children here are just as adorable as ever.

 

Homestay

Our Tanzanian home stay was SO much different from our Kenyan home stay. In Kenya we stayed with Maasai. Maasai women do lots of hard manual labor every day like fetching water and carrying the jugs back home on their heads and going out and cutting firewood. Here we stayed with families from the Iraqw tribe. The women still did all of the preparing food, cooking food and constantly making chai, which consumes most of the day. Kat and I stayed in a large family that all had separate homes right next to each other. There was the grandma and grandpa, two sons who each had a wife and endless amounts of children. This is Kat and I with our home stay family.

 

This is the rembo sana (very beautiful) Momma Constancia. She looks like wonderful African princess in all of those prints.

 

We helped make lunch, including every African’s favorite food, ugali. Which is actually disgusting and just hot water mixed with flour.

 

Ahhhh, iPhones bringing happiness to people all around the world. This is our family playing with the CamWow app on Kats phone.

 

 

Also. They had a pig on a leash. Cutest thing ever.

 

 

Ngorongoro Crater

The Ngorongoro Crater was absolutely amazing and my second favorite park, after Serengeti. The crater walls are 2,000 feet deep and the site is one of the 7 natural wonders of Africa. We drove down into the crater and drove around inside all day long.

 

 

 

SERENGETI

The best week ever.

 

We were also lucky enough to witness the great migration of Wildebeast, another one of the 7 natural wonders of Africa. I have never seen that many animals in one place in my life. It was breathtaking and pictures can’t even come close to capturing it.

 

 

Six days left here in Tanzania with SFS. Then I will be meeting my mom and brother in Narobi for some family travels!