Arusha/Serengeti

Mambo!

I arrived in the dust covered town of Arusha, in northern Tanzania last Friday night. I stayed for a few days at a hostel, for an amazing $6 a night, including breakfast and hot showers;) I wandered around Arusha on Saturday and met a nice guy named Frank who showed me all around town and got me some good deals on stuff. Arusha is a fairly large town, but not too terribly pleasant. It is dirty, dusty, and very busy. It's the place where most people go to book safaris though. Sunday I went with some kids doing internships at the Rwanda War Crimes Tribunal (thanks allen, keith was awesome!) for a hike with a maasai kid around (mostly up;) the foothills near Mt. Meru. It was beautiful, but very exhausting. The Maasai people living up the hills were incredible...women would walk up and down the sandy, steep incline with no shoes, balancing baskets filled with heavy things on their heads. They even passed us doing it! Our Maasai guide was amazing too....one of the guys was apologizing for taking so many breaks when climbing up a very steep (aka vertical) slope, and the guide replied with, "no problem, when I run up it I sometimes get out of breath too!"

Monday I went on a five day safari to the Serengeti, Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater, and Tarangire Park. It was incredible. I went with a French and German couple, adn it was very entertaining. We saw four of the big five (lions, elephants, cheetahs, and rhinos) but missed out on seeing leopards. Tons of other animals too, and each park had a completely different landscape. We got withing 20 feet of 3 female lions with their 7 cubs. The baobob trees are surreal...they are really ugly, huge trees that the maasai consider as evil spirits...but they store water inside of the trunk and can live thousands of years.

Yesterday, after driving for many hours on the bumpy dirt roads from Tarangire, I immediately hopped on a local bus and drove 2 hours to Moshi, where I am staying for 3 weeks to do my volunteer program. Not the most pleasant experience, but I survived. The bus (extended van really) held about 25 people, and I had the sun beaming down my back the entire way. In addition, the highwya<2 lane road) from arusha to moshi is fairly dangerous...I saw two accidents on my way, and we aren't talking minor accidents. A semi trailer separated from the front, and the front did a 180...I have no clue how, and anothe one a bus flipped upside doewn. they are ridiculous driers and the poor peole that live here were really scared and disgusted, understandably so. anyways, I am alive and at my house now. I'll write more later but gotta run now.

baadaye!