We got up early and went to the car and our guide was waiting there and his name was Sammy. He was a very nice guy. Then we drove for a long time. Then we stopped at a tourist overview. There was a lot of people there selling little trinkets for the tourists. The view was awesome. It looked out over a valley that is part of the Rift Valley. The Rift Valley is a tectonic plate shift that created Mt. Kilimanjaro and Lake Tanganyika, it starts someplace in Kenya and does not end until sometime in the DRC. It was beautiful. There was some volcanoes and a lot of green. Then, I bargained for a soap dish for Dad. Then we got back into the car. We stopped in a little town a couple of hours out for lunch. Sammy told us to each heartily. It was good food, then we got back on the road. We traveled for about two more hours and then we stopped. There was a clunking in one of the wheels. So Sammy looked at it and then he called a mechanic. Another minibus drove by and Sammy flagged it down and asked if it could give us a ride to the camp. Sammy said I will be right behind you, so we left all our stuff in the car. Luckily I grabbed my camera. The road in was rough, but I was tired, so I managed to stick my head in between the seats and fell asleep. We saw some zebras and giraffes. While we were driving the window I was sitting by fell out of the car, I grabbed it and they put it back in, like it happened all the time. Eventually we got to the campsite. We rested for a little bit, but we had no books or anything, so we decided to get a beer. We ate supper and then we talked to the guy who was in charge. He said that Sammy was coming and would be here in the morning, but if he was not here, we would go on a safari with the overland truck that was there. It seemed all right. We went and sat by a fire and talked with a Massai warrior. Then we were tired so we went to bed. The next morning we went to breakfast and looked for Sammy, he was not there, so we ate and then got in this huge truck and went into the bush. The people in that truck had just flown in the day before, so they were all getting to know each other. We were instructed before to tell them we were with the overland truck company, but we were going with another group, so we would not be joining them. This was so the guide could pocket all the money and it made no difference to me or Dad, so we stuck to that story. The people on the truck wanted to get to know everyone, so they all asked us what we were doing and how far we were going to go. We had to lie at least thirty times within the first twenty minutes of meeting these people. The first thing we saw was a jackal and a hyena hanging out under the shade of some trees. Then we saw a bunch of Wildebeests, Zebras, Thompson Gazelles, Impalas and Grant Gazelles. In that mix we saw another three Jackals who were eating the leg of something. Then we saw a bunch of topaz and hartebeests. Next, three male lions hanging out under some small bushes to get away from Then, we saw a bunch of elephants. We followed them and they led us to a pride of lions. There were around twenty lionesses and baby lions. We stayed there for a long time and took a bunch of pictures. Someone saw some Tommie gazelles and we were hoping the lions would attack, but they did not. We left and went to where the Massai Mara and the Serengeti connect and we got to stand in the Serengeti, it was cool. Then we went to the Massai river. This is the famous river where the wildebeests get eaten by the crocodiles and are chased by lions, during the wildebeest migration. We saw hippos and a giant crocodile that was absolutely prehistoric. We ate lunch and moved on. By mid afternoon we were not seeing very much and most people in the truck fell asleep. Then we saw some giraffes, another lion and an assortment of birds. We then left for camp. We got in and our bags were back, so we showered and changed clothes. Then we ate with all the overlanders. We drank some beer and talked. Then moved down to the fire and kept on drinking, eventually Dad went to bed. Some of the overlanders had bought a box of wine, so I helped them finish it. It was getting pretty late, maybe 12:30, when all of the sudden Sammy showed up. He told me we were going on a morning game drive at 6 the next morning. I told him I wanted to see a cheetah and a leopard, he said he would do his best. Eventually we all said goodbye and I went to bed at around 2am. The next morning we got up early and ate some breakfast and then went in the minibus with Sammy. We drove in again and the first thing we saw was two topaz fighting. They kneeled down and pointed their horns at each other and then ran into each other and stood up. It was a sight. Then we looked for a leopard. We saw a few carcasses of impalas in trees where leopards had eaten them, but no leopard. Then we saw more of the same until we saw a cheetah. They are sleek and catlike. They hung out and we eventually moved on and saw some baboons and an ostrich looking bird that is the national bird of Uganda. The baboons we saw got in a fight also. It must have been fight day in the Mara, because on our way out we saw two impalas fighting. We left and drove for another six hours to Nakuru, a town by Lake Nakuru. We stayed at a hotel and slept well that night. We had said goodbye to Sammy and had a different driver, because it was his car. We got up and went into Lake Nakuru. We saw a beautiful lake full of flamingos. There were hundreds of them. Sadly the lake was drying up and it is only a shadow of its former beauty. We saw a group of hyenas, we found the dens and saw two very small babies. Then we saw more of the same until we went to this lookout. We got to see the whole lake. I was peaking over the edge when I saw what looked like a big groundhog. Furry and small with no tail, I thought it was a rock hyrax and our guide confirmed this after we showed him the pictures. A rock hyrax is the closest looking relative to an elephant. I was very happy to see one, even though they look more like a squirrel then an elephant. We then kept going hoping to find a rhino (that is what Lake Nakuru is famous for). We eventually saw a lone rhino. Took some pictures and moved on. Then we saw a mother and a baby, a really small baby. The baby did not even have a horn yet, just a nub. Dad and I agreed that this was the only animal we had seen that even the babies were ugly. The mother had a large stick in her horn when we first got there, but don’t worry she figured out how to remove it. We then saw another lone rhino and some buffaloes. We then saw three rhinos. A male with two adolescents, the male was HUGE. It was cool to see and they slowly came toward us. We left and went back to Nairobi. We got back and we were tired, so we booked a dorm room and put our bags down. When we put our bags down I noticed a drum that looked familiar. I went back outside to find James sitting there having a soda with our friend Nick. He was there and so was most of the people that I had left when I went on the safari. I walked back in to help Dad with everything and I noticed the two South Africans I had met when I first arrived at Milimanis. We all talked about our adventures and eventually it got late and we decided to go out to eat. We went to an Ethiopian restaurant. It was interesting food. It is all served on a flat sour bread and had a bunch of different sauce stuff for dipping. It was good. Then we all went back to the hostel and stayed up drinking. James and I found out that at four the next morning the Viking were going to be on tv. So we woke up at four and watched them get handled by the panthers. Then Dad and I took a minibus to Arusha. In Arusha we got an nice hotel room and found a place for money and got bus tickets for the next day. Then we had a nice dinner and got a taxi for the next day. We slept well and then got on the bus the next day. It turned out to be a twenty hour bus ride to Mbeya. We got off the bus in the rain and drove around to a bunch of different hotels before we found one that had room. Then we got ripped off by the taxi driver and slept for a few hours then boarded another bus to Subawanga. We arrived in Subawanga and went to my house and slept. Then the next day it was Christmas eve, so we went over to my friend Marianna’s house. The children where there and they got to open their presents and sang songs, it was very cool. It was the best way I could spend Christmas away from my family. On Christmas we went to a four hour mass and then hung out for a while. We did the same thing the next day. The day after that, one of the monks drove us around and showed Dad the town. We stopped off at the orphanage and saw the rest of the town, it was good. Then we relaxed and finally we went to Mvimwa, which is where the monastery of the monks I live with is. We spent a night there and Dad got a tour. The next day we went to Kipili on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. We stayed at that tropical paradise for a day and a half, then returned to Subawanga. I think Dad enjoyed to see where I live and where I have been around. It was fun to share it with him. It was New Years Eve, so we went out to eat with the monks. Then we took a bus the next day back to Mbeya. Then on to Dar es Salaam the next day. We stayed with the monks there for a night and met James there again. The next day we wanted to go to a market, but we went there and it started to rain, so we decided to go to the ferry to Zanzibar. We got on a bus and then a guy said he would take us there and so, James, Dad and I followed this guy. We went to a small looking ferry and rushed on as it was about to depart. The guy paid for us and we got on. Then James texted me to see if I was on the right ferry, so I asked someone and he said it did not go to Zanzibar, but some other place. The horn sounded for it to shove off, so Dad and I jumped off the ferry and found James, we found the correct ferry. On the ferry I called a hotel to see if they had room. They said yes and I booked a room for the next few nights. We arrived and hired a taxi to take us into stonetown and pick up some girls glasses we met when we were staying with the monks. Then we went to a hotel called Kendwa rocks. It took about an hour. This was the place I had booked the room at, but they had no booking. They found room for us and that was good. Dad and I dropped our packs off in our room and went to the beach bar and got a beer and then went to the water and we were swimming around after the beer. When I thought I saw my friend Judith, who volunteers in Subawanga with me. I said her name and she looked at me and then kind of went the other way. So I started talking to my dad and then she said Dan. She did not recognize me, because since I had been away for a month my beard had grown considerably and she did not have her glasses on. Dad and I ended up having dinner with my friends from Subawanga and some people they had met on the island. We went to bed early, tired from six days straight of travelling. The next day we relaxed on the beach and decided to go snorkeling the next day. We stayed up and had dinner at the restaurant on the beach and then sat by the fire. Dad went to bed, but I had to finish my drink and I started talking to two british people who had just climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. We talked and eventually I went to bed. The next day we got up and then got into the boat for snorkeling. We went out on this wooden fishing boat that had been remodeled to be a diving boat. We got to the point of the beach where we had to turn right and go across the island parralell to the waves and the captain decided to turn back. We met a couple of people on the way and one of them puked. We then had lunch and relaxed on the beach for the rest of the day, swimming. Then we had a massage and played volleyball. We got dinner and then bed time came around. The next day we went back to town with a shared taxi and got there in half the time. A little scary the way this guy drove. We got ferry tickets and then had really bad pizza in a little restaurant called Mercury’s. It was called this after Freddy Mercury, the lead singer for Queen who grew up on Zanzibar. Then we got on the ferry. We took first class back and it had air conditioning, which was huge. Then we went back to the place of the brothers. Dad left on his plane and we picked up James’ friend Sara at the airport. I was sad to see Dad go, but all good things have to come to an end. We went back to the brothers house. I stayed there with James and Sara for three days, because they were getting a ride to Subawanga from Mbeya and thought I could get one also. We went into dar and found the market we looked for before we went to Zanzibar. I bought a hat and James bought some gifts and Sara bought a phone. It was fun. We met a neat guy named Ahjah. He told me how to apply for a job with the forest service, which is something I’m contemplating. Then we got ticket for the bus ride to Mbeya. We left on a long bus ride to Mbey and eventually got there. Left for Subawanga the next day in a car. We stopped at Liela, which is where Sara is going to be teaching. Then we made it to Subawanga. We were supposed to start teaching the next day, but we found out that there is a week where no one teaches in order to give the students time to get back. So, we hung out at school and prepared things. It was a very interesting trip and I am very happy about how it all worked out. I would like to thank my mom for allowing and pushing my dad into coming and handling being apart for Christmas so well. I love you all.

I woke up early from excitement. I grabbed my packed backpack and headed out to where I was supposed to meet the car. I was worried I would miss it, but those worries were unfounded. The car picked me up and then the British couple and some overland truckers. For those of you that do not know what an overland truck is, it is where a bunch of people get into a huge truck and travel around a continent and camp out, it is quite big in Europe. We arrived at the ranger station. It was just a building in the middle of some fields. We had coffee and I drank tea. I talked with some of the overland truckers and my British friends, then we were separated into groups. I was put in the lucky group, a group that has twelve gorillas, the silverback separated from the Sasa group, which is one of the main research groups of Diane Fossey. We set out in cars and eventually got to the edge of the forest. We hiked for about twenty minutes, it was easy walking. Then the guide told us to give our bags and stuff to the porters, so the gorillas would not smell the food. As he did the first gorilla showed up. It did not even care that we were sitting there and snapping pictures. Then more and more gorillas showed up. They just sat around, eating bamboo and climbing trees. The silverback was off trying to steal female gorillas away from other groups. We were worried we would not get to see him. But with ten minutes to go, he showed up. What a sight. HUGE, he walked in with an air of authority. When he got there all the gorillas came over and greeted him. It was amazing, but you can only have one hour with the gorillas, so we had to leave. We got back to town and my British friends and I went to lunch. It was good and I asked the waiter how to get to Kampala from Musanze. He said there were buses in the morning and at night. So, I said goodbye to my friends and caught a mini bus to the boarder of Uganda and Rwanda. I crossed the border and caught a motorbike taxi to Kisoro. I caught the last bus to Kampala, the only reason it was still there was it was being fixed. It was probably the worst night of my life. I did not sleep and the bus played Celine Dion videos over and over again. I got to Kampala and got another motorbike taxi to the hostel I wanted to stay at. I got there about 5 o’clock in the morning, the security guard let me in and told me to pay for the dorm he put me in when they opened in the morning. I paid and then walked around Kampala, I changed some money and then went to a book store and bought two books and had a little over 5 dollars left in my pocket, so I walked over to the ATM, but it would not work, so I went to another ATM, still nothing. I tried every way to get money, but could not. Defeated and poor I walked back the 2 miles to my hostel. I had taken out too much money in Rwanda and so, I had to wait two days in Kampala in order to be able to use my ATM card again. So, I waited and called my parents for help, I was nervous and hungry, I had run out of water and food by the middle of the second day. I used a guys phone I met at the hostel to text back and forth to my parents. Eventually I got money. I went to a guy’s shop who is from the Congo and talked to him. I talked to him in English and Swahili. His shop was a mini mall where he put out all of his stuff on a stairway. It was really cool. He was interesting, but I needed to check out of my hostel, so I left. I got a bus to Jinja and arrived about five o’clock and went to a hostel. I then talked to the guy about rafting and bungee jumping. I arranged to raft the next day and then I walked to the ATM and successfully withdrew money. I met two Norwegian guys at the hostel. We moved from a hostel in town to a hostel on the Nile River. It was beautiful. I ran into the same overland truck that I had met at the gorillas. I drank with the two Norwegians and they got really drunk. One found a rat, it must have been a foot and a half long. It was huge. The next morning I got up and went rafting. We had an awesome group, the guide was amazing and the river was the Nile, so it was a really good time. We flipped four times and got tossed around the entire day. After the rafting we got transferred back to the hostel and had a great meal. I met some Americans and hung out with them. It was a great day and lots of fun. I asked the lady in the office about bungee jumping, but they did it at a different company, they called over there and booked me three times. They won’t open it up for only one person, so I thought I was going to go, but they figured out the mistake and I did not think I would be able to go. I decided to wait around and see if I could find someone to go the next day. So, I slept and then had breakfast. I met three Australian girls and asked them what they were doing, they said bungee jumping and so I went bungee jumping. I got a ride from some people I went rafting with the day before and I waited at the place for a while and slept. Then I bungee jumped, holy crap was that scary. It was awesome though. I got a ride back to town and walked around by Lake Victoria and took pictures and stuff. It was nice. Then the next day I took a bus to Nairobi, while waiting for the bus I met a Canadian girl and found out that Canada is still part of the Commonwealth. I arrived late at night and got a taxi to the Milimani backpackers hostel. I got there late and got something to eat and started drinking with a couple of South Africans. They were cool and they were here to climb mount Kenya. The next day, I met the Canadian girl again at the hostel and then I met a Scottish guy and we went to the market, holy moley, everyone begged me to go to their shop, but I had no money. It was intense. I left eventually and then took a taxi to my new hotel and watched rugby until about seven o’clock. Then I went to the airport and waited for a plane to arrive. I saw the Kenya National Sevens Rugby team, as they got back from beating South Africa in a tournament. It was cool. Finally my father’s head popped into view and I exploded with excitement. I was very happy to see him and he was exhausted from the journey. We got a taxi back to the hotel and stayed there for two days, because he was not feeling well. Then we went back to Milimani backpackers hostel. We arranged a safari and then went to town for supplies. In town I got a phone call, James was calling. He could not find his friend and so he called me and asked me where I am I said I don’t know, but somewhere in Nairobi and then I told him the street. We were going to try and meet up, but had no idea how. So, we walked some more and saw a guy getting attacked. I think he was a thief, someone was holding him and people were running up and slapping him, it was intense. We got our supplies and then walked back to where we were going to meet James. We ran into him and walked back to the hostel with him. We were going to leave the next day for the safari, but dad did not feel well and I thought I lost my passport. We went to the hospital and I found my passport safely in a pair of pants. It was a neat day I walked around with James and a guy we met named Nick, Nairobi was nice and we hung out with an American guy named Adam who had been traveling around and volunteering in different places. It was a good night. The next day we left for the Massai Mara, not expecting to see any of them again.

Well, its been a while since I have last blogged, but do not fear I am in good health and have returned from my month and a half long trip. It started out a bit rough. First I woke up at 5 o’clock in the morning thinking my bus left for Kasanga, a small town in southern Tanzania. The ticket said 6 o’clock on it, so I showed up at 5:30. The bus did not show up that morning. It turns out that the six o’clock on my ticket was Swahili time, people start counting at 6 in the morning, so seven in the morning is 1 o’clock. So I went back home and tooled around until noon and then caught my bus. It was not like a nice greyhound bus, it was a mini bus. Small and crowded, people in all the seats, with the aisles full of luggage that ranged from clothes bags, fish and the occasional live chicken. It was a seven hour bus ride on a dirt road that is very bumpy. However, the scenery was gorgeous, it reminded me a lot of Jurassic Park. Rolling hills of green and small, with small villages scattered throughout the journey. I got to Kasanga at around seven. A bunch of children crowded around the bus and were very interested to me. I found out later that I was not in Kasanga, but a smaller village near Kasanga called Muzi. I found a small cheap guest house and stayed there that night. I found something to eat, walked to the beach and then went to bed, because I had to be up at 5 the next morning in order to catch the ferry up Lake Tanganyika, call Liemba. I woke up the next morning in a pool of sweat and got back on the bus. It was roasting hot. I got to the port for Liemba. I waited for a long time and then eventually asked some locals if Liemba was coming today, they said no, it was in the Congo. The ferry goes to the Congo once a month and I happened to pick the one week that it went this month. So, I started walking back to the guest house, it was about a three mile walk, but I did not know what else to do. I was met on the way by a guy named Peter, he told me about a guest house closer to the ferry port. I decided to stay there. Peter was really nice and he showed me where to get something to eat and I hung out with him and his family. Eventually I wasted that day and had talked to Peter about going to Kalambo Falls, the second highest waterfall in Africa, 732 ft. high. It stormed that night. I mean it stormed like you would not believe, I left the window open and woke up to a puddle on my floor. I eventually got up and got my stuff ready for Kalambo Falls. I got in the car with Peter, I mean I got on the car. The car was a flat bed truck that I stood in the back of holding on for dear life. At one point a bunch of us had to jump out of the car and walk up a hill so the car would make it up the hill. We made it to a town called kasper, got out and paid the guy and started walking, it was 16km to Kalambo Falls. Peter walked and so did a guy I don’t know who he was, but I guess he was a friend of Peters. It was long, but uneventful. I finally got to the village before Kalambo Falls and we talked to the village mayor or something and then we walked across a downed tree with a railing and up a hill and arrived. We had made it to Kalambo Falls, what a sight, it was huge. The storm the night before had made it run even more fiercely. I saw Zambia on the other side of the river with some steps. The river basin opened up with huge cliffs of green on either side. The water ran down crushing anything in its way. We spent some time there and finally went back. We caught the bus back and I slept well that night. I woke up early, because Liemba came today, but no one knew when. I got up, swam in the lake and then went to the ferry landing at around ten o’clock. I then waited for the ferry until four o’clock in the afternoon. I hurried and got on the ferry and got a ticket. Then I ate supper and hung out on the ferry, it was still docked. I fell asleep and have no idea when the ferry left the port, but it was sometime in the night. It was a boring and uneventful ferry ride. I was the only person on the ferry that could speak English, so I mostly read. I finally made it to Kigoma after two days on the ferry. I arrived around three o’clock. I went through immigration and I needed to have a stamp on something, so I had to go to the immigration office. There the guy said he could do nothing for me, just to get my residency permit before I returned to Tanzania. So I left, went to an internet café and went on the internet. Met two German guys and got some info. on Kigoma. I walked about two miles to the bus station only to find they were closed, but if I got there early the next day I could catch a bus. I found a cheap guest house and stayed there. I received a bit of good news, that my father might come and visit me. I got up the next morning and got on the bus to Nyakenezi. Since I had to buy my ticket on the bus I stood for the seven hour journey. I arrived at Nyakenezi and did not really have a plan to get to the border, so I asked around and found a guy named Ben who spoke really good English. He invited me for a beer with him and his friend, so I drank a beer and talked to him. He was very nice, he told me he would arrange a car for me to the border. He invited me to his house for the night and stuff, but I really needed to get going and told him that. Mom you need to stop reading this now. His friend found me a car, I put my bag in the car and got in. We were just about to leave, when Ben came running up to the car and told me to get out and that these guys were bad. I was dumbfounded. Who do I trust the guy I met an hour ago or the guys I just met. I decided that Ben seemed ok, so I got out and got my bag and my money back, then I asked Ben what happened. He said that the people in the car thought I was albino and that if you have the hand of an albino, you can get a lot of money for it from a witch doctor. Ok, mom you can start reading again. We went to the police who had a road block type thing up, in order to find a ride to the border. I ended up finding a ride with a shared taxi for cheaper then the car that was arranged. I got to the border of Tanzania and Rwanda. I crossed the border, there is a waterfall, a gorgeous waterfall at this border. It was uneventful and free to cross this border. It was in the afternoon and I found a minibus to Kigali. So, I changed some money and hopped on the minibus. I met three American guys on the minibus. I traveled with them and talked for a while. Two were volunteering in Kenya, one through Harvard University and the other through Georgetown. It was interesting and nice to talk to people who could speak English well. We got to Kigali late and found the hotel we were going to stay at was closed, so we walked around and found another one which we bargained hard for and finally slept. The next morning we went looking for cheaper accomidations and found that Kigali was really expensive. I went to the Rwanda Board of Tourism to try and get a gorilla permit. I thought I would have to wait for a long time in order to get one, but I got one right away and then found lodging and said goodbye to my American friends. I went to the bank and got some money, the first time I did a cash advance using my credit card, this was a Friday. I got some food in me and bought some good bread and Rwanda Gouda cheese. I went back to my guest house and tried to sleep. I could not and I ate some bread and drank some water, because I was not feeling very well. I then got up and went to the Kigali Memorial Center. It was a memorial for the Rwanda Genocide. It was very moving. It started out talking about how the Belgium had separated the Hootos and the Tutsis. Then it talked about a guy at a UN conference said he was going to create hell on earth and no one listened to him. Then it talked about all the horrors that were perpetrated during the genocide. Then personal stories of people who survived the genocide were presented. A room full of bones and tattered clothes. Upstairs there was a memorial to other genocides, Nazi Germany, Bosnia and Cambodia. Then what they call the hall of children. It is a room that has big pictures of children and plaques for each. On the plaques are information about the child, favorite food, best friend, and then how they were killed in the genocide. I broke down and cried. I finally left and got on a motorbike taxi to a hospital, because I felt like I had Malaria, it turns out I did not and went back home and slept. I got breakfast the next day at the hotel, I met a Canadian lady, an American lady and a Vietnamese lady who I ate breakfast with. We got to talking and it turned out that they were living in Arusha and volunteering at the International war Crimes Tribunal for the Rwandan genocide and they were traveling around. I had an interesting conversation with all of them. Then I left and went to the Hotel Des Mille Collines, with all my stuff after I checked out of my hotel. The Hotel Des Milles Collines is the actual hotel from the movie Hotel Rwanda. Then I walked to the bus station to find a bus to Musanze where I would see the gorillas the next day. I got on the bus and sat with my bag. I met a British couple who were seeing the gorillas the same day as I was. We talked a little, but we split when we got to Musanze. I got off the minibus and a guy on a motor bike actually drove in front of me in order to try and get me to take a ride with him. It was frustrating how many people wanted me to take taxis from them. I crossed the street and started walking the wrong way, because I was so frustrated by all the people. I eventually found a guests house and put all my stuff down, repacked for the hike the next day. I went to look for a ride to the gorillas the next day. You have to have a ride to the place you start hiking, but I showed up there without arranging a ride. I walked around trying to find a company that supplied rides and could not find one. It started storming, rain like you would not believe. I had my jacket on, so no problems. I eventually ran into the British couple from the bus and asked them how they were getting to the gorillas the next day. They had a ride and wanted to share so it would be cheaper. We arranged it and they invited me to dinner and so we started with drinks at their hotel and eventually moved on to another hotel for dinner. We drank Primus, the big Rwandan beer, I was buzzed when I walked home and got a ride form a motorbike taxi. I slept for the big event the next day, GORRILAS.

This blog is going to take on a little different feel, but it is the most important blog that I will write during my time I am over here. The reason that I have not blogged for such a long time is because I wanted this blog to be done well. A lot of these blogs have been just thrown together at the last minute, but I wanted to think about this one a little bit. The German fellow that I went to Katavi National Park with, some might be wondering why he was in Tanzania in the first place. For those of you that are wondering, even those that are not, I will tell you. He was here to help out a woman named Marianna. Now the million dollar question is who is Marianna? the rest of this blog is going to tell you. This blog is dedicated to her and I hope it will help her somehow. On Thursdays I do not teach any classes, so I decided to quit sitting around and start to help out at the orphanage that is about two miles from where I am living. It is quite fun, the orphanage is full of little children about 40-50 children that range in age from babies to 8 years old, mostly victims of AIDS. I say victims of AIDS, because these children are the real victims, their mothers and fathers might have suffered from AIDS and even if the children don’t have AIDS, this disease has robbed these children of so much. It has robbed them of their parents, the most important thing in the world, I was lucky enough to have a great pair of parents, a house, attention and most of all love. There are 40-50 children in this orphanage and 3-5 women to take care of them all. So, the children are mostly left to fend for themselves. Some of the stories of these children are amazing, absolutely amazing. One is named Polisi, because his parents left him and he was brought to the orphanage by the police. One is named Flora, a darling little girl, who always shows you what is in her mouth when you see her with her giant smile. She was left by her parents to fend for herself, no one knows how long, but she survived in a house all alone for a time, but they think it was a year. She is about 5 years old and has been in the orphanage for some time. Amazing. I go there and just play with the children, because they need the love and attention, any love and attention. I probably get as much joy out of it as the children do. This orphanage is called Sister Agripina There was a woman who was a psychologist in Germany, she is an older woman, only a year or two away from her pension, but she has a dream of going to Africa. So, after she is fed up with all the bureaucratic BS, she decides to take a vacation to Africa and help out in this particular orphanage. So she comes to Subawanga and starts to help out the orphans at Sister Agripina. She only has a three month visa and she goes to the orphanage and helps there for only a week. A man has recently died. His wife had died bringing his daughter into this world and now he is dying of Tuberculosis. His little daughter, a daughter that he had to trade his wife for, is now dying of tuberculosis. She is a year and a half and only 4 kilos. This is about 8.8 lbs, which is what I almost weighted at birth. He is from a very poor village in the Lake Rukwa region, so he travels to Subawanga for help. He ends up at the hospital that is run by the same nuns who run Sister Agripina. He dies, but his daughter lives and has caught tuberculosis. His little daughter is slowly dying and will not eat anything. This German woman sees this little girl named Christina. In her own words, “I can not explain what happened, but I fell in love with her and I could not leave her.” She decided to focus her energy on this one little child. She moved to a place called Mvimwa and lived in the abbey there in order to help this child. Help she did, she nursed little Christina back to health, which meant getting up in the middle of the night and forcing this little child to eat some porage. Christina made an amazing recovery, one that she would not have made if it was not for this German woman, the doctors did not think that Christina would make it, but a little love and care changed that. This women then checked how she could take this child home with her, her visa was going to expire, but she did not want to return to Germany without little Christina. It turns out that Germany would not let her take this child back with her, so she would have to leave this child or leave her entire life. She had to go back to Germany for six weeks to wrap up her affairs and leave everything behind, including a biological daughter, friends and her flat. It was a decision she would have to live with her entire life, a decision that was made weeks before the first time that she had laid eyes on Christina. After having spent time with this little girl I know why she made this decision so easily. She built a new home. She was leased land by the Mvimwa abbey and spent the last of her money on building a house. She adopted eight more orphans and they lived in Mvimwa for a about ten months in this house. Then a series of unfortunate events happened. These events forced her from her home in Mvimwa and forced her to Subawanga. Since these events transpired, she was forced from her home and forced to move into a hotel with her nine children. They survived and eventually found a place to live in very close to Sister Agripina in a suburb of Subawanga called Katandala. She is renting this house and it is very little. The events that forced her out of Mvimwa, also has made some people in Germany cut off their support of her project. As we all know money makes the world go round. These children need food, they need clothes, they need an education and they need educational toys. What these children do not need anymore is love, a home full of happiness and a mother who loves them, all these have been filled by one woman named Marianna. She is a very strong and capable woman, an amazing woman with an amazingly big heart that has allowed her to love nine children. An amazing energy that allows her to keep up with these children. The youngest is Christina, kily, is what she is called because she is to little to actually say her name. She is about 3. She has a smile that could make Stalin’s miniscule heart melt and a laugh that I will haunt only the happiest of my dreams. I was at Marianna’s house last saturaday with the other Germans and Kily was sleeping on the couch, but she started to slip off, Marianna of course grabbed for her, but young kily wasn’t going anywhere and she reached down with her hand and met my hand. I held hands with this young child for maybe a half an hour until she adjusted herself and my assistance was no longer necessary. Ima is the same age as kily. But boy is he different. Before he came to Marianna’s house he was called Little Buddha, other then the physical characteristics, a pot belly, he never smiled. I have never seen this side of him. He loves to make noises and scream when he is happy, so the house is constantly filled with his screams. I must admit that he is probably my favorite. He will run to me and put his head in between my legs and push on my legs with his arms until I pick him up and throw him over my shoulders, this is always accompanied by a scream of pleasure. Then, there is Gastoly. He is maybe five and he is the smartest little kid I have ever met. He already knows Swahili and has some English and German vocabulary. Marianna will speak to him in German and he will answer in German, its crazy. He has a wide face, that grows when he smiles. He resembles Muhammad Ali, but I don’t think he has it in him to be a professional fighter, he is just too nice. Then there is Marta. She might be seven and all she wants for Christmas is her two front teeth. She is always showing the gap in her teeth during her prolonged smile sessions. She is always laughing and you would think that she has never known what a problem is. These children are amazing. I only talked about the youngest four, because they are the cutest and will get the heart jerking reaction that I am hoping for. This woman has nine children to take care of, obviously this is a full time job, so she can not work. If you would like to verify if this is a full time job or not just ask my mom how hard it was to raise one angel and one devil when me and Collette were growing up. As far as who was the devil and who was the angel, you will have to ask Collette. The long and the short of it is that she needs financial help. She is doing all the work a human can possibly do, so she needs your help. I don’t expect you all to send huge contributions, but little ones would be appreciated, ask for donations at your local churches, ask your parents, ask oprah, I don’t really care, but in know all of you are good people and will do what you can. Here is her website where you can send donations www.christianashope.wordpress.com. All we can do is what we are able. I love you all and hope this finds you well.

Last weekend we stayed at Father Pombo’s place, connected to the church. It was the same place that Christian had stayed for the duration of his stay in Africa. It was a very relaxing weekend. I read a book and just relaxed. Father Pombo is a very interesting man. He wakes up at six to ring the church bells everyday and he doesn’t go to sleep until two or three in the morning everyday. He works very hard and does a lot. He is writing four books on top of preaching to three different parishes, with the help of Father Mindi. He is busy all the time, but he never seems tired. He is always smiling and joking around. He is a great example of how attitude can overcome hardship. The food he eats is very good. On Friday night we said goodbye to Christian, who left Saturday morning early. It was sad, he was almost in tears, but Father Pombo said he was just changing rooms, it was no big deal. This room change just happened to be across a sea. So, now there are only six Muzungu (Muzungu is the Swahili word for white person) left in Subawanga. James, me and four 20 year old Germans at Katandala are the only ones left. It is a very new experience to be such a big minority for me, but it doesn’t really matter much. This Friday we left at 2 o’clock to go to Kipilli. James and I thought that we were going to leave at noon, but this is Tanzania, so we left at 2. It was James, me, Brother Joseph and two form 4 student girls. Kipilli is right on Lake Tanganyika. The monastery’s house is located on a bay facing the Lake. It was absolutely gorgeous. We got there late on Friday and just ate dinner and went to bed. Then on Saturday I woke up and went and read by the Lake. I got hot so I went for a swim. The water was a turquoise blue and very refreshing. It was extremely hot in Kipilli, so we swam when we got hot and dried off by the sun. We did this for most of the day, then we went to a beach at another part of Lake Tanganyika. There were people building boats, washing clothes and a lot of children were swimming. James took out his camera to take a picture and he was swarmed by around fifteen children that wanted to see the picture he took. It is a good thing his camera is waterproof, because otherwise it would have been wrecked by all those little wet hands grabbing it. It was cool. Then we back, ate dinner and watched the sunset. The sunset was beautiful, I took a lot of pictures that I will try to get up on facebook. We slept as well as we could, James said he woke up and thought he was dying, because it was so hot. Then on Sunday we woke up and did the same thing as Saturday morning, except we did not swim at all. James and I got some wicked sunburn and since we are both geniuses and neither of us brought along sunscreen or aloe, we stayed that way. Yes mom, I know you made me bring some and I know it doesn’t do me any good to leave it in subawanga and yes next time I go I will bring it with me. Then we walked with Brother Joseph to the convent near us. It was beautiful. The sister that was staying there was very very nice. She was welcoming and gave us some food. It was blazing out, but I was hungry so I ate a lot. Then we walked back to where we were staying and tried to cool off. Then we had to eat again, but I was stuffed to I politely ate as little as I could. Then we hung out for a little while and waited for the boat, then we went for a boat ride. It was beautiful. We went by a hotel that you have to pay a $1000 a night to stay at and then we went by some small villages and a lot of mountains that were very pretty. It was nice. Then we came back and drank some pombei by the Lake and watched the sunset, which turned out to be even better then yesterday’s sunset. We went to bed and the next morning we left. It was still hot, but now that we are back in Subawanga at 5000 ft. elevation it is not so hot, not uncomfortable anyways. James bought some aloe and we have been using it ever since to heal our burning skin. But the burnt skin was worth it for the beauty we saw. It was a great trip.

James and I are settled in to our new home. We found a rug under my bed and now our little room is truly a home. I teach three eighty minute periods a day. The math is isn’t too hard, but I haven’t had real math in six years. The children seem to take to the lessons very quickly and ask very tough questions. However, I have another teacher who is also a form three math teacher. His name is Dennis, but everyone calls him Black. He is about six feet and 220lbs and maybe 4% body fat. He is the strongest person I have ever seen. Tammy would have loved to have him playing rugby at SJU. He is very nice though and has helped me understand some math. I don’t have much to do after I figure out my lesson plan, so I mostly just sit around and talk to other teachers. School starts at 7:30 and ends at 2:30. Afterward I usually go to town or read. I have a lot of free time, which is fine with me. We eat the same basic things everyday. Breakfast is bread and maybe peanut butter or just butter. Then at 10:40 we have a break where we have tea and roll type stuff. Then after school is out we eat lunch. Rice and maybe ugali, beans, a vegetable and a kind of meat is what is almost always on the menu. Ugali looks like mashed potatoes, it is corn flour that has been ground up and boiled, it is tasteless, but it absorbs taste very well. The beans are a mixture of baked beans and kidney beans, they are tasty. The vegetable ranges from potatoes, tomatoes or a cabbage type vegetable. The vegetables are always boiled in a different type of sauce, they are very good. The meat is all free range and it is usually fish, cow or goat, again it is boiled in a sauce, but it is very tough and tasty. Supper is the same thing as lunch and we eat that at 7 o’clock at night. It is a good relaxed pace of life that agrees with me. I am still trying to learn Swahili, but it is a pretty simple language to learn. So far the trip has been very good. A week ago, we went to a form four graduation, which is basically high school graduation. It was very interesting. There was a bunch of performances that ranged from rapping, singing, speeches and dances. It was very cool. The audience participated a lot with either shouting their approval or running up to the stage to give money. It was interesting. After the graduation, there was a feast which was very delicious. Then everyone just sat around and drank beer talking. The children went to the assembly hall and danced. It was a lot of fun.
I went to Katavi National park last weekend with a German friend of mine named Christain. We took the bus at 7:30 Friday morning to Staliki. Staliki is a small small town on the edge of Katavi National Park. On the bus ride we saw Zebras, Impalas, and Giraffes. It was cool. We got to Staliki in the afternoon and went to look for a place to stay. The first two places were expensive around $25 per night, so we opted to find a different place to stay. We found a place for 5-6 dollars a night, so we stayed there. We walked to the park rangers headquarters and asked them what the best way to get a safari would be and how to get bus tickets home. They got us the bus tickets and told us to pick them up tomorrow. Then he told us to go back to the place we first tried to sleep at, the $25 a night place and get a safari through them. So we left and went to the place to negotiate the safari, but the guide wasn’t there, so we went to eat something. A nice place in town where they had food and a table outside is where we ate, rice and chicken. While we were eating some local children came near us and started yelling to us. Muzungo is what white people are called in Africa, so the children were shouting that at us. Then they would run away laughing. So I started yelling back, I asked them how they were and then I told them to come here. They replied by telling me to come there, so I got up to go over there and they all ran away. So I sat back down and started to drink more beer. Then we went to the place called riverside camp, to see the safari guide and negotiate a price for the safari the next day. He still wasn’t there, so we took a couple of beers down to the river to see the hippos. There were about 100 hippos just relaxing in this river, no joke. We were about 7ft. away from all the hippos, including one hippo that had been born that day. It was the coolest experience with animals that I had had so far, little did I know that I would get much closer to an animal much more dangerous then a hippo. We saw one hippo out of the water, that scared me a little, but it was a lot farther away then the other ones, so we were safe. The guide, Mr. Jumaa was his name, interestingly enough Ijumaa is Friday in Swahili, and they are pronounced the same. We got our safari set up for 7:30 the next morning. Then returned to the river, drank our beer and hung out with the hippos. We stayed there for probably 3 and a half hours total. There were a couple of children who work at riverside camp, they came and talked to us, but eventually we got hungry and left. We went to a new place for dinner and had chipsmiei. It was an interesting dish, scrambled eggs and French fries, it was good. The restaurant saw us and played only country music, I thought is was hilarious, but Christian was not amused. The bar had only 3 country songs, including two by Reba Mcentire, who’s voice Christian hates. We left and went to bed. Then began the day of the safari. Up early, we walked to riverside camp and met Mr. Jumaa. We got in a green Toyota land cruiser with a removable top and got biscuits for breakfast and some water and paid our park entry fees, then the safari started. The first animal we saw was a fisher eagle, it looks just like a bald eagle, but has more white on it, then some guinea fowl, a bird that looks like a turkey with a turquoise head, then an African Buffalo. These animals are huge, our guide said that when you see one or two they are dangerous, when walking, but in big groups, no problem. We saw two at first, then around 75 in one part. Then some Impalas wondered our way, we saw these all day. Giraffe was the next thing to shoot, a picture of course. They are huge and beautiful creatures as long as you don’t look at their faces. The face makes them look really stupid. Then we saw a warthog that only had one tusk, that was neat. Then we saw a car ahead of us stopped, I was wondering what was going on, until I saw them. There were five lions sitting on this hill about fifteen yards away from us. We stopped and I started taking pictures. A couple of them left the hill and slowly walked over to a tree, hesitated, then jump into the tree and climbed up. The male and a female stayed on the hill. Then our guide pointed out another lion on the other side of the road, I still couldn’t see it. Then the car in front of us left, so we got a lot closer. We were maybe 7 yards away now. We took a bunch more pictures and I found the other lion in the grass. Our guide then started backing up right at the other lion. I was afraid at this point. Christian and I were sitting on top of the car, outside of it, no protection and the lions had already demonstrated that they can jump very well. The large cat, another female, just got up and moseyed to a tree right next to the other lions. Then our guide drove the car around the hill and stopped by the tree. The lions just looked at us like what are you going to do I’m a lion. We stopped about 5ft away from a lion. It was amazing. I can’t begin to describe how lazy these animals are, they are more lazy then any house cat I’ve ever seen. Then we left. We saw hippo number one of what would end up being about a thousand for the day. I turned to Christian and said “now we just need to see an elephant and I’ll be happy.” Five minutes later I was happy, an Elephant was on the horizon, so our guide cut him off on the road. The elephant was huge. Though it was only a teenager, so having raging hormones, it thought we were encroaching on its turf and trumpeted at us and fake charged. It was awesome. I was terrified. Then we saw a bunch of vultures and cranes eating a dead elephant. We stopped for some buttered bread and cokes. Then we saw more of the same, until we came to this place we thought was full of rocks, we’re talking about four hundred rocks, but as we got closer, we realized there were no rocks, only hippos hanging out in mud. We stopped there and took some pictures. We went to a ranger station near by and saw an hippo and elephant skull. They were both huge. The hippo skull had a tooth still in it and we got to hold it, it was bigger then my forearm and heavy. We moved on and saw two more Elephants and some velvet monkeys. Then we saw a couple of crocodiles and hippos hanging out together. Whenever they were close by each other, a couple hippos would be looking at the crocs and a couple of crocs looking at the hippos. Then we got to the crocodile caves, these are caves that the crocs go into to escape the heat and tourists. I actually saw one climbing into the cave. We stopped at a bridge right next to the caves and saw a bunch of hippos. One hippo let just its nose out of the water to breath, a neat sight to see. Then we drove some more, saw some zebras and stopped for lunch. We stopped next to this river with a bunch of hippos. Two adolescent hippos were play fighting. This consisted of them opening their mouths really big and pushing on each other with their mouths. An amazing sight. Lunch was finished, so we left and went to the flood plains. We saw waterbucks, zebras, giraffes and buffaloes hanging out together. Waterbucks are just big deer with horns like an impala. They were very beautiful. Then came a big stretch of time were we did not see any animals and I fell asleep. Then we saw another eagle and an owl. Our guide started to head for home. Which was fine with me, I was tired. We saw more lions and tried to get close to them. Our guide ended getting a little too close and one lion roared at us. Needless to say that warning was more then adequate for me. There were three males lying around by themselves, with two females nearby. One of the females was laying about 5 ft. away from a hippo. Then we left. Christian and I ate at the place we got lunch the day before and had some beers. It was one of the greatest days of my life. The next morning we waited for 3 hours for our bus, but this is Africa, so it didn’t matter. Yesterday was a national holiday, Julius Nygiere, the first president of Tanzania and a very good president at that died. So we didn’t have school. One of the sisters had passed away, so we went to the funeral. It was pretty much the same as an American funeral, except for a couple of changes. Everyone walks with the body to the grave, then prayers are said, then the body is buried, while everyone watches and if you want to, you can help cover the grave, after that everyone is invited for a meal, then the funeral is over. It was very nice to see everyone gathered for a meal after mourning. It has more of a community feel, the community lost someone, not just the family of the deceased. Life here is good, teaching is going well and I have no regrets. Everyday is a new experience.

Things are going great over here. I started teaching classes. I teach three times a week for an hour and twenty minutes. I teach form three math, about 11th grade. It is fun, i enjoy it. I have a lot of time to prepare and get things done, so it is no big deal. Malaria is over with, I feel great. I am going to Katavi National Park this weekend with a German guy named Christian. I can't wait. I am still trying to learn the language, but I know enough to get around. The food here is good. In the morning we have bread with peanut butter or butter and tea or piping hot milk. It is good. then at about 10:40 we have tea and Mkazi, which is like minidonuts. Then at 2:30 we eat lunch. Ugali, rice, meat and beans, plus a vegtable. Ugali is corn flour that has been boiled in water. It looks like mashed potatoes, but has no taste. At 7 at night we have dinner which is the same as lunch.
PS Go Twins.