Our Adventure: Tanzania 2012

Day 3     6/11/12

This morning was awesome.  Bill was amazing enough to take Owen after I'd fed him and gotten him dressed so I got some great alone time.  I walked the property admiring the beautiful landscaping and taking pics.  My fav. <3 
After breakfast we got things ready and headed out for Safari. 

On the way we spotted something wild!  Can you see what we saw? 

We stopped for lunch - a gourmet boxed lunch provided by Wild at Heart Safaris (Mary & Peter's safari company - and let me tell you it was excellent!)  Here's just a peek at what we had -

 Gourmet chicken, mango and a ton of other yummy things - stuffed into a fresh pita...  and this amazing salad (below) that had a flower in it even - and yes I ate the flower!  And Owen very much so appreciated the raspberries :)  There was also a yummy juice box, cheesecake with papaya, a couple chocolate treats and a souvenir Maasai napkin and wooden spoon. 

 Next up we walked across to the Snake Park & Maasai Museum.

  

At the snake park a guide took us through and showed us all the different types of snakes indigenous to Africa, it was interesting to see all the different varieties - there was even one passed around for holding.  I declined because I had my hands full of camera - but I got a good one of Aimmee :)

They also had some tortoises - Owen had a blast saying 'tuh-tuh' over and over again every time he saw them.  It was cute to see him so observant of the larger animals he could see like the crocs, the eagle and the monkey.

 

 After that we went over to the Museum.  I didn't photograph it because it was very dark, hot and extremely close quarters in there.  Plus, I figured I'd photograph the real thing at the end of our trip when we camped out with the Maasai.

I did learn a lot from the Maasai man that guided us through the museum though.  We saw how they build their houses, using sticks for the frame, then filling in with a mix of mud, sand, ash and cow dung.  The women are in charge of doing all the building of the houses because the men are out herding the cows and goats.  It takes about 4 to 5 days to make one home, they have no windows only a chimney hole.
The men are polygamists so the women & children sleep together in one section of the hut and the man sleeps alone - except for 'special occasions' the guide told us. 
{{ WARNING - The next part is rated over PG-13, parent's cautioned! (Seriously!) }}
We also learned that around 15-16 years old the boys are circumcised.  They sit on the ground leaning against another mans chest while he's bracing him.  No pain med.s or anesthetics are used and the boy must not cry.  He can choose to keep his eyes open or closed, but he can't change his mind in the middle of the procedure.  Once it is over the boys wear all black and paint designs in bright white paint on their faces, they also get a headband with ostrich feathers on it - all to signify they've 'become a man'.  However, if the boy cries at all during the procedure, the ostrich feathers are cut down, so everyone knows he cried.  They wear this same outfit for about 2 months.
The girls also get circumcised, but at age 10.  They are allowed to cry.  This practice has been outlawed by the government, but the Maasai guide told his that some tribes still practice it due to the strong cultural heritage. 
{{ End of Cautioned Content }}
The Maasai also always carry a stick.  They use it for walking, herding, dealing with snakes, fighting, etc.  They are also known for drinking cow's blood.  They mix it with cow's milk to prevent clotting and claim it's very nutritious.  The guide asked us (very seriously) if we had ever tried it.  When we all said, 'No', he said, "You should try some, it is very good for you."  He was dead serious. 
After the museum we took camel rides around a big open field that overlooked a Maasai meat market.  I wish I'd have taken my camera up on the camel with us because the meat market was quite the sight, but I left my camera with someone on the team so they could get pics of Owen's (& Bill's) first camel ride!

 

Owen loved the camel ride, he thought it was so neat!  He actually fussed a bit when we got off, but calmed down when I let him see the camel's face close up. :)

 

 Next we headed to our first lodge for the night, on the way we saw a Maasai market in full-swing.

 

That 'van' on the left is called a "dala-dala" (just like a tro-tro to you fellow Ghanain's!) - they cram at least 30 people in there and taxi them around.  C.razy.  With a capital C.  Our driver, Eric, stopped abruptly in a little town outside of Arusha and came back to the car with these:

Red bananas.  They are shorter and fatter than the yellow bananas we get in America, and have a slightly pink hue to them on the inside.  And they are the bees knees.  I mean, once you eat one, you don't want to ever have a yellow one again.  That's how fresh, sweet and amazing they are.  ::drool::

We arrived at our lodge just before sun-down.  It was just a little back-packers camp with tents and a few buildings.  I forgot to get pics of this place because we were busy getting settled and rushing to make dinner on time, but it was very basic.  Our room was in a one-story building with about 4 rooms in a row.  Concrete walls and floors, a wet-bathroom (open shower, so everything gets wet, there's a drain in the floor) with running water and toilet and a sink.  For dinner we had rice, boiled potatoes, sauteed veggies, avocado salad, 'beef' stew (I'm pretty sure it was goat) and papaya for dessert.  All was served buffet style outside under a grass-topped canopy.  It was pretty good.  We are heading to bed early since we are getting up at 4:30 to get to the Ngorongoro crater before sun-up for our first game drive!

Our Adventure: Tanzania 2012

Day 2              6/10/12

A great night's sleep was had by all.... well by most.  Little bear woke up a few times and was freakin' out about the new surroundings a little, so we brought him in bed with us and we all snuggled together under our mosquito net, rejoicing over the fact that we could lay completely horizontal and stretch out and get a better, more restful sleep than we had gotten on the plane the previous day.  Owen even slept later than us, despite us getting out of bed and getting dressed/around with him right there in the room.

We started our day at 8am with breakfast.  Owen had his first taste of fresh, African mango and L.O.V.E.D it.  He's only ever had freeze-dried mango from Trader Joe's before - so once he tasted the real stuff he pretty much wouldn't eat anything else until we took the mango out of the dining room so he couldn't see it any more.  I'm positive he would have eaten all 5 mangoes had we let him. 
After breakfast we did devotions and Mary played some acoustic while we worshiped along.  She asked us to share what was on our hearts as we began the trip and I kind of lost it.  I feel like this trip God is telling me/ showing (?) me what it looks like to take time for Him & me, and balance being a mom.  It's not easy.  After that we started the 'Hot Seat' tradition (where one of the team members get's prayed over, we would do it each day until everyone on the team was prayed for).  Mary decided that I should be the one in the hot seat today.  The team prayed over me and I felt a release of emotion that I had been storing up and it felt good to get it out.  After that I felt refreshed and renewed.  Marilyn and I really connected at that point too - she's a mom of three and a teacher as well, so we already had that in common.  But then she told me about a vision she had of me that involved being in shallow water that was getting deeper and deeper, and it really resonated with where I feel like I am right now spiritually.  It made me think back to the Ghana trip - where I had several visions of water pitchers overflowing - because I was getting SO full spiritually on that trip.  This trip though, I'm definitely running a little shallow-er - just from being a mom, and trying to be a good wife, and work and everything else, I'm just in a totally new stage of life than I was before.  It was neat to hear from God through her that this trip would be the launching point of going deeper with Him.  And she also mentioned that she would take Owen at any time of day if I needed a hand, and that helped too :)
Shortly after prayer we got packed up and headed out to the middle of nowhere - literally - to a secret oasis with some hot springs.  It was our time to unwind, get on African time and relax before setting off on our adventures. 
This place was literally surrounded by desert - you would have no idea that this beauty lay behind the thorns, dust and dirt that surrounded it.

I swear I didn't enhance the color at all in these photos - this place was just that beautiful! 
We had a picnic lunch before jumping in for a swim!

 

     Although he looks pretty darn cute in his rash guard and swim trunks (with his mouth full nonetheless), Owen is going through an "I'm-terrified-of-water" stage right now, so he only got in for about 30 seconds, all of which he screamed bloody murder for.  So Bill & I took turns on the shore with him.

   

There was a rope swing - and boy was it fun!  I went off it a couple times too, but I think someone else got the pics of me - not on my camera. :)  The water was nice and warm - not hot, hot, but quite warm, especially in that spot above where all us girls were sitting on a log.  The water was crystal-clear and you could see all the way to the bottom, which was at least 12 feet deep in some places, and it had this gorgeous turquoise-green hue to it - so unreal and beautiful!

   

If you look closely on the white feet over on the right of the photo, you can see little black fish.  These guys were flesh-eating fish.  No joke.  They left you alone as long as you were swimming, but if you stopped for a while and just relaxed in the shallow areas they would nibble at the dead skin on your body.  A couple of the guys and girls sat in the shallow part of the spring and let the fish give them a pedicure. They said it just tickled more than anything... I wasn't about to find out though - NOT me.  Those of you that know me well know that- even though I grew up on a lake - I'm not a fan of fish.  Especially the flesh-eating variety. :-p

Can you see it?  Look in the middle of the frame... it's not a bird, not a plane... it's a monkey!  Near the end of our time at the springs we heard a great rustling of leaves, and looked up to see about 4 monkeys chasing each other around from branch to branch.  They were very fast and this is the best shot I could get!
The Maasai are fascinated with wazungus (wah-zoon-goos/ white people) and we had quite the audience at one point:

We snapped a quick family pic before packing up and heading back home for dinner:

And as we drove home and the sun was setting over the dessert, we passed over these tracks, I couldn't resist the photo-op with the boabab (bo-uh-bab - the ones with the fat trunks) trees in the background!

After we got home and cleaned up/changed we headed to 10 to 10 Pizzeria for dinner.  I got a mushroom/cheese pizza (brick-oven style) and Bill got a cheeseburger.  Which turned out to be just that.  Cheese.  On a bun.  With all the trimmings.  It was quite funny to see how things like that get lost in translation :)
The dynamic of this trip is so different from my last trip.  It's so much harder for me to really enjoy it.  Too really get in deep, because I'm always focused on Owen and making sure his needs are met, etc.  Not that I'm not enjoying it - I really am - just not as deeply as I imagined I would.

Our Adventure: Tanzania 2012

It is here I start my recount of our journey as a family to Tanzania.

I journalled all throughout the trip and this is what I wrote:

Day 1        6/9/10

It still seems a little crazy to me that I'm laying on my bed in Africa as my toddler paces back & fourth in the pack & play next to me (refusing to sleep, slightly weirded out by the mosquito net that encases him).  And that my husband is here with me.  In Africa.  It's crazy.  But it's awesome.
What is also amazing is the favor we had on the way here.  And as I write this, I'm realizing that though we prayed for and believed God's favor would be all over is - it came in forms I wasn't expecting.  I expected it would mean there would be an empty seat on the flight so we could use Owen's car seat.  But God had other plans.  The flight was full, so Owen was on our laps the entire time.. well except when we got up to stretch, then we gave him our seat :) 

   

He did a really great job though - all things considered.  And riding that way forced him to learn to fall asleep on me again, which I'm thinking will be very helpful throughout the trip.

God's favor allowed hubby & I to be together on the last flight (though our seats weren't assigned together) and for that four hours Owen slept the whole way! (After only sleeping maybe two hours total on the 13 hour flight).  God's favor followed us through immigration when not even an eyebrow was raised at Owen not having his yellow fever shot record.  And it continued when every single piece of our teams luggage (like 12 pieces!) made it through, despite our extremely late departure from Charlotte and the plane being held for us in DC because we were late for it.  God's favor is awesome and it is so neat to be covered by it and know that it was because so many people were covering us in prayer.

So when we arrived in Kilimanjaro, 

  

Peter & Mary Street, and Marilyn were there to pick us up.  Marilyn flew up from South Africa to join our team, she skyped in on a team meeting while we were back in the States and has been a long distance part of our team from the beginning. :)  She led the trip two years ago that Frank & Aimee were on.  Her husband is from South Africa and she had just left her three kids with her in-laws there so she could come be with us for the trip.
We drove the hour-long trip home,

   

                                   (guess who wanted that pic?) :)

unpacked our things, organized a little bit, then headed out for our first African meal at a restaurant called "Salisbury's".  It was a steak house that is a little 'upscale' (for African standards) and it was pretty delish.  I had the peppered steak and chips (fries) and peanut slept on my lap the entire time.  After we got home he had his first-ever bath with a friend, the missionaries' daughter Faith (2yrs).  He hated it just as much as he hates bath time at home.  He is currently resisting sleep in the pack & play... I guess I better try to get him down so we can get up in time for breakfast in the morning! Below you can enjoy a little tour of our 'home' :)

  

 The path leading to the guest house. To the left of the path is the 'pit' (where all the trash gets burned) and water tanks.

 

The living area, just as you walk in the door.  That window is where our room was (below).

   

Our room, the bathroom area, the two doors on the right are the shower stall and toilet room, respectively.

   

The view from our front door,& the doors we walked through every morning for breakfast (the main house)

 

 The driveway leading out of the property, and the front yard, to the right of the driveway.

 

 The front yard -- <3  -- and the kids area of the front yard.

Another view of the front yard, to the right is the driveway.

 

 Owen LOVED the swing in the front yard. It was so peaceful - a perfect place for some quiet time.

 

Several tortoises roam the property - Owen learned to say "Turtle" because of these guys! (okay I know they aren't turtles, but that's way easier to say than tortoise)

 

 Baby tortoises! Sooo cute!                   This little guy was pretty cute too - and very friendly!

They have three guard dogs on the property, all very friendly pups :)  This one was guarding the garage/guard area.... or just relaxing in the shade :)