safari & moshi update

-------- about the safari:
so i went on safari this weekend it was amazing. i went with five other girls (one of which is a woman hillary whos in her forties so i feel weird saying 'girl'). we had so much fun. first we went to lake manyara, and our safari land cruiser had like removable panels on the roof so you could basically sit on the roof the whole time and zubi, our 21 year old rather insane at driving driver, let us just sit up there as he drove through the national parks which im not sure if he was supposed to do, but we LOVED sitting up there. anyway first we went to Lake Manyara - a smaller national park - and my god there are so many baboons in and outside of the park i have the answer to Andrew's question: what there is TOO MANY of and you just get downright sick of are Baboons in tanzania. they are actually considered vermin here. theyre still cute but man, we'd come across hordes of like 100+ of them. 'planet of the apes'. anyway manyara was gorgeous, we saw girraffes and flamingoes and lots of cool things - impalas, vervet monkeys, etc. then that night we stayed at a campground in a tent and then drove to the serengeti the next morning.

no one told us the drive to the serengeti was going to be bad, let alone THAT bad. we had the windows down (obviously no AC) and every time a car drove by, a dust cloud came in. we got so dirty just from the car ride. and that road puts any road in Baja to SHAME. it was washboard the entire way. if i had sung in one note for 9 hours straight it wouldve been vibrato the whole way. it was so incredibly bouncy and miserable we had to sing songs from Grease and Lion King to distract ourselves. thats when you know youre in desperate times. anyway so we got in to the serengeti and got a gorgeous view of the plains atop a small hill that sortof marks the park enterance. the serengeti plains are so vast its hard to describe its just one of those things you have to see for yourself. its incredible. just as you see it on the nature channel, with the acacia trees and we were there in the dry season ( when all the animals flee north to the maasai mara in kenya ) and there were still animals EVERYWHERE. SOOOO many thomsons gazelles i mean hordes of 50 of them every quarter of a mile. and girraffes just walking across the plains, and elephants. we saw also a cheetah VERY close up that afternoon, we got incredibly lucky as we were one of two cars that got to see it before it fled. i got some pictures but theyre a bit blurry (you need a really nice camera if you go on safari). we saw lions also, we even watched two female lions stalk a bunch of thompsons gazelles -- they didnt succeed but it was amazing nonetheless.

that night we camped in the middle of the serengeti with no fences to block us from animals and with plenty of warnings about animals just coming in to the campgrounds. sure enough that night we heard hyenas super close to the tents and i shared a tent with this hilarious british girl holly whom i love the most out of the volunteers here, and we got woken up by what sounded like two warthogs fighting RIGHT outside our tent. i almost died of fear. it was pumba from the lion king!!!!haha

by the way the lion king is so lame cuz they just used the swahili words for every animal. simba means lion, pumba means warthog, etc. etc.

needless to say the serengeti was awesome, id like to go back someday with matt in the spring to see the wildebeest migration.

then we drove back and camped at the ngorongoro crater (biggest volcanic crater in the world; 600 something km wide or something maybe thats square kilometers who knows i dont remember). i got really sick (physically sick) and almost threw up i think it was the sudden altitude climb and car sickness. we slept on the crater rim at a campsite and all along the safari my biggest fear was an elephant stepping on our tent (ive heard horror stories) and sure enough i woke up in the morning to hear there was an elephant walking around our campground between tents the night before. THEN flash forward that afternoon we went back to the camp ground and there he was, this elephant just chillin in the middle of the tents! i couldve walked right up to him! it was soooo bizarre.

the crater was gorgeous, we got extremely lucky and got to see the black rhinocerous of which there are something like 16 left in East Africa (and the white rhinocerous is now extinct in east africa, theyre only in south africa now). we saw two of them. they look so prehistoric.

oh i failed to mention we all bought cheesy safari hats before the trip. i bartered with the guy and got like 9 for just under a dollar each. they have giant drawings of Kilimanjaro on them and are so cheesy. we wore them with pride~ my god the american tourists and their safari gear is ridiculous. i mean we were kidding but these people are SERIOUS when they wear their gear.

i was telling mom that at one point in the crater, as we were sitting on the roof of our car, this was the scene: hundreds of flamingos on the water, a long line of hundreds of wildebeest and zebras marching to the waters edge to drink, a female and male ostrich, several black and white cranes (the big ones with the pretty orange fray on their head, like birds of paradise flowers), and two rhinos along the waters edge. All in one scene. you have to pinch yourself and say "this isnt the zoo or the wild animal park..this is REAL" haha. really though~ it was amazing.

----------- onto moshi
the womens group has been great and rewarding but very hard work. they catch on so much faster than kids, i have to jam pack the lessons to keep up with them, so i have to prepare lots. i am teaching afternoon classes to them on Tues/Thurs. the last two optional afternoon classes were about business, and i taught them vocab like "profit, buying, loaning, interest" etc. and how to use them in language. todays lesson on business went really well i could tell they were excited.

the women's group also made me two long skirts --- they took my measurements and i picked the fabrics out of the ones they had and they made them. im wearing one but i dont know how it looks cuz i havnt seen a mirror yet, but it seems to fit well! it cost me 10,000 shillings plus 5,000 for labor in each skirt, which amounts to like $20 usd for two skirts that were handmade with lining, zippers and everything custom fit to ME!!! awesome huh?~??

also the other volunteers and the volunteer house has been really nice. the food is really greasy cuz the cooks think thats how we westerners like it. so we are all getting fat i think. its okay though cuz i think i mustve lost at least 10 pounds in uganda so it all evens out in the end. also its super hot here. we are going to a hotel pool tomorrow after we teach in the morning at our various projects (us volunteers),. it costs like 3,000 shillings to hang out at a really nice hotel pool all day (USD 1.50).

lastly i am not climbing kili as you know, and i am pretty sure i'll be able to get the cheap flights to zanzibar so i likely will be going there instead of trying to come home early. i am going to spend the money i was going to use for Kili paying for zanzibar, and im also going to use it to buy a suitcase and TONS of crafts here (paintings, wood carvings, etc) to decorate me and matt's future house in. its so cheap and i honestly could spend 300 USD on stuff here that wouldve cost me 3,000 USD at home, easily. plus i know its authentic here and it supports the local economy. so i'll have fun shopping after school each day. so thats that! i'll update more later this week.

much love,
suz:)