First Impression= Mind-blown

Wow. Honestly, don’t even know where to start. This adventure has been at ultra speed and so much amazingness has happened.

If I wrote everything this would be too long for our generation’s attention span, so I’ll just do the highlights.

The first few days we camped in a place called Ndarakwai Ranch. After a bumpy bus ride (that beats Indian Jones ride anyday) and 2 pee stops in the bush, we arrived at midnight. We set up our tents, ate, and went straight to bed. The view when we woke up was incredible, with Mt. Meru to one side and Mt. Kilimanjaro to the other. The pics speak for themselves.

As soon as we woke up we saw wildlife, starting with some crazy baboons near our campsite.

By the end of the trip we saw our fair share of zebra, wildebeest, giraffes, warthogs, dik-diks, birds, vervet monkeys, bushbabies, impalas, and inlands, all wild (the two elephants we saw weren’t wild).  You know you’ve been in Africa a few days when you see an animal in the distance and then say, “Oh no wait.  It’s just zebras.”

The savannah landscape was just beautiful and the sunsets and moonrises are surreal.

Our camp crew is godly and makes the best food. I never would have thought that I would come to Africa and have too much food. (But I’m not going to lie that feels weird after learning that more than half of Tanzanians survive on one meal a day and less than 2 dollars a day). 

On Sunday while at the ranch we got to participate in a nearby Maasai, Luthern church service.  I loved the ending where we danced just outside the church. And after we went to a local bar for food (goat, beef, chicken) and beer (pombe).  The food was great, but America is definitely spoiled when it comes to beer options.

All the people we have met, at the church, at the Maasai bomba, in Arusha, at the ranch, our teachers, our camp crew, people on the street, literally everyone has been welcoming and fun to meet. I also got lucky with our group of students. Everyone is adventurous and we all get along great, which is good since we’ll be seeing a lot of each other.

One huge highlight of Ndarakwai Ranch was visiting the Maasai bomba. Look at the pics. These indigenous people have stuck true to their traditional lifestyle and survive off of cattle and goats.  Learning about their lifestyle was amazing. Each wife owns her own house, which is a circular shape made of sticks covered with cow poop, sand, and water and the roof is made of grass. I’ll go into more detail about their lifestyle after we do our homestay in a month or so. We each get to live with a Maasai family for a week. Should be incredible. We also got to buy some beautiful Maasai jewelry and I already want more.

We are currently in Arusha for a few days until we leave for Tarangire National Park and then Mazumbai Reserve (Tropical Forest). So I won’t have internet or phone for awhile, since we’ll be camping in these areas for the next two weeks.

I wish I had more pictures of Arusha but I can’t carry my camera around town since it will easily be stolen. In fact I can’t carry anything. Our money has to be in our bras and we don’t carry purses since pick-pocketing is quite impressive here. Arusha is a blast. It’s a fairly busy city. Things are fairly cheap here but we have to barter for everything because our price is usually jacked up (and rightly so) since we’re wazungu (white people).  And the buses are crazy 16-seater vans that cram in about 25 people so everyone is on top of each other. But a fun experience nonetheless. 

Almost forgot to describe our toilet and shower experiences. Often the toilets are holes and sometimes have bricks on the sides to step on and a pitcher of water to wash down your business. My first shower was a bucket with a cup, but then I upgraded to a cool bucket that dispensed water like a shower.

It can get pretty warm but it’s not as humid as I thought it would be and there are regular rain showers.

The children everywhere in Tanzania are also adorable as expected. At the Maasai bomba, the children were fascinated by me tying up my hair in a bun, since they keep their hair shaved.  I’m still getting use to the attention from just being white. Sellers will often follow us throughout town, knowing that we likely have money. It is certainly different. Practicing Kiswahili with different Tanzanians is pretty funny, but definitely a fun experience.

Overall, I’m loving loving loving this country. The landscape, the people, the vibe, the pace, the smiles, the differences, the food, the weather…I could easily live here. 

I won’t be blogging as much as expected since the semester is pretty busy and internet doesn’t come often. Coming up in the agenda is the Tarangire National Park, then Mazumbai Tropical Forest Reserve, then a 3 week family homestay in Bangata. (pics take forever to upload..I wish I could put more!)

Kwa heri!