I can't believe it has been so long since I've posted a blog! I've had quite a busy past two weeks, but they have been filled with fun activities! My family arrived Sunday, November 20, for a week full of African adventures!
After picking all seven of them up at the bus station, we headed to my little two bedroom apartment where everyone would spend the night. Sleeping accommodations were a big tight, but we managed. Everyone was quite tired after their 30 hour journey, so after a quick stop by Good Hope Orphanage to pass out some presents, we all headed to bed pretty early to be refreshed to start our adventures the next day.
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| Our transportation for the week! |
We headed out pretty early on Monday morning since it was a day full of activities. We started with stopping by Cradle of Love to play with the babies for a few minutes and drop off some donations. As always, it was quite hard to leave! Then we headed to a beautiful hot springs about 2 hours outside of Arusha for swimming and a picnic lunch. After this, we headed in the opposite direction (quite in the middle of nowhere) to visit a Maasai village (a local tribe in Tanzania). It was quite shocking to see that people still lived in houses built with sticks and mud with no electricity or running water. It seemed like we were stepping back in time!
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| A traditional Maasai meal of goat cooked over the fire. |
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| Dad loving the baby crocodile! |
After camping near the village, we headed out bright and early the next morning for our three day Safari! We visited Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater, and Tarangire National Park. We had an excellent safari and saw many many animals. Some of our favorites included cheetahs, lions, and baby elephants! We also made a stop at the Arusha snake park where we all held a snake, a baby crocodile, and a tortoise.
Our last night all together in Arusha was Thursday night, and we headed out to a local bar to try chips mayai and konyagi. Our waittress was very sweet, and after giving her an apparently HUGE tip (equal to $6), she had to give every single one of us a hug, and immediately show her coworker. I'm sure it was more than she makes in a week!
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| My all time seat in the middle back of the safari van! |
Friday morning, we headed to Good Hope school to pass out more donations and visit with the kids before saying good bye to my Dad and Jessica who took the bus back to Nairobi on Friday afternoon. The rest of us took the kids from the orphanage out for pizza on Friday night, which they loved! Saturday, we returned to Cradle of Love to spend more time with the babies, and stopped by Sofia's orphanage to see the huge contrast between Jericho and Good Hope. After a delicious lunch, we headed back to Arusha on the dala dala (my family were all quite dala dala experts by this time!). We went out to dinner and watched a live Reggae band Saturday night, and finished up the weekend with a little last minute shopping on Sunday morning! It was a very busy week, but I really enjoyed intruducing my family to Africa!
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| Passing out pencils at Good Hope School |
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