Africa

As many of you know, I have been a very lucky girl this year when it comes to travel opportunities. Last January I visited Australia, and this summer I went to the Galapagos islands. I have also just returned from celebrating Christmas in Tanzania and am about to embark on a journey by sea around the world for about four months. Case and point.

Let me tell you about Tanzania.
I have never been to a country where I felt more welcomed than Tanzania. And it wasn't that "I'm so glad you're here to spend our American money" kind of welcome, but a truly genuine welcome. Our amazing tour guides were Maliga and Godliving (great name I know) and they carted us around through the bustling town of Arusha, through the high grasses surrounding Lake Manyara, into the enormous Ngorongoro Crater, over the vast plains of the Serengeti and finally to the birthplace of Lucy the Australopithecus, Olduvai Gorge.

Lets start with Arusha. What a great town! It is bustling with markets selling lost shoes of tourists and live chickens. People line the streets mostly walking to their destinations. You see the occassional Maasai wearing their shoes made out of recycled tires, carying their sticks and sometimes even riding bycicles! We stayed in a beautiful Lodge in town situated next to a Christian school. Nearing Christmas, the voices of the students singing carols drifted into our rooms. We were also awoken each morning around 5am to the eerie singing of the Muslim call to prayor. We visited a local womens group who makes cheese and coffee by hand and even got to help out! The women were so much fun, dancing and singing and laughing with us.Then we went to a local potter's studio where we met the only male potter in Tanzania. There was a lot of emphasis on the fact that he was a man doing a women's job. It seems as though the women in Tanzania are the ones who do all the dirty work and the men do all of the "important" jobs. The next day we visited this Tanzanite place where they showed us a bullshit video on the "history" of Tanzanite and then sold us really small stones for really high prices.

In the afternoon, we moved to Maramboi Tented Camp in the Tarangire-Lake Manyara area. Before we left for Africa, I had a sore throat and was put on Amoxicillin with no real diagnosis and around this time is when the sickness kind of kicked in. The arrived in the afternoon and went on a very warm game drive where we saw all sorts of animals, but most notably, a herd of elephants that passed in between our two jeeps. The next day we went on another longer game drive and thats when I really started to feel it. I was nauseous and weak and was burning up so I skipped the afternoon game drive and tried to rest. We spent one more night in the Tangiere and then moved on to our next location.

The next day we departed for the Ngorongoro Highlands and on the way stopped at a local Maasai village. This was definitely my favorite part of the entire trip. The women in the Maasai village are the ones who do all the work so after a musical welcome where the women were dressed in Maasai robes and beads, we were asked to help patch a roof and put homemade cement (manure, dirt and water) on the walls. After we helped out a little bit, we were invited to share breakfast with them. This meant puncturing the jugular of a cow (not killing it), collecting its blood in a gourd, and mixing it with milk. Because it is "yummy food", in order to respect it you get on one knee and then drink. Feeling absolutely horribly, I didn't try it, but my uncles and aunt and cousin did. Then we were invited into the hut of the 1st (of four) wives hut where we asked and were asked questions by the four wives. They had amazing sense of humor and such a passion for life!

That nigth we arrived at the Ngorongoro Farm House and I took an interesting trip to the hospital! (Learning and Discovery as our tour guide would call it. Seeing as how I was not getting any better, we decided that it would be best for me to see someone. So we headed for town where we first stopped at a "laboratory" were an older man took my temperature and told me to come back in the morning to test my blood for Malaria. Then we went to a Lutheran hospital that was clearly closed, but our tour guide somehow scrounged up a doctor who ended up diagnosing and treating me for Malaria. Turns out that I most likely had strep throat and not really Malaria, but it took the Malaria treatment only helping a little bit and Cipro helping a lot for us to figure it out. The next day I rested in the room and tried to get better instead of going to the Ngorongoro crater which was a big bummer.

The next day we arrived at our tented camp in Serengeti National Park. Each tent was equipped with a flushing toilet and hot showers (operated by a member of the crew who hoisted a bucket of hot water over the shower and poured it into a shower head). We spent about four days at this camp (including Christmas) and had a great time doing daily game drives and hanging out around the camp. We even heard lions around our camp at night!

Then we returned to the Farmhouse where we stayed one more day and then to Arusha where we took naps and packed up. Then we started on our 26 hour journey home.

Although I got sick and the bugs and khaki got a little bit old, I had an absolutely amazing time. Our tour guides were amazing, the food was amazing, all of our accommodations were beautiful, and I can't thank my grandfather enough for giving us time to be together as a family.

I highly recommend visiting Tanzania!
(I will add photos and maybe a video or two later!)