Arusha National Park

Our first Safari to Arusha National Park on Saturday was incredible!  Our guide, Abel, was fabulous.  He was very knowledgeable about the park and about the variety of animals we saw.  This park is one of Tanzania's smallest but our guide book tells us it is one of the most beautiful and topographically varied.  It is very lush and because of the variety of altitudes, it supports a variety of vegetation and thus many different species of animals.  We saw families of giraffes, herds of zebras, many baboons, blue monkeys, bush bucks, cape buffalo, an albino baboon on its mother's back, colobus monkeys (which we didn't even know existed~Christopher called them skunkies as you can see why) and warthogs.  The park was absolutely gorgeous with lakes to the east and to the west is Mt. Meru.  We ate our picnic lunch overlooking Ngurdoto Crater.  It was a dream-like day. 

Today we spent time at the baby home after breakfast.  We can't get over how precious these children are, how heartbreaking their stories are and how amazing the people are who volunteer here.  There are three shifts of eight nannies (Tanzanian women) that work there, a full-time nurse, and a social worker. 

This week there was a new arrival, an albino baby boy from south of here.  His mother had to bring him here because albino babies are at risk of being killed where she is from.  People actually tried to kill her son. Albinos are safe in this part of Tanzania.  One of ADRA's projects is to help change this (This is the agency where we are staying and the baby home is located on this property.)  The mom has been here every day this week.  We also met the director today and her adopted girls, Stacy and Mariah.  They are so sweet and today they were busy picking macadamia nuts from the tree behind our cottage.  I asked how they removed the nuts from the shell and they said that the African way is to use a rock but the American way is to use a hammer. 

After lunch at our favorite restaurant, Tanz-Hands, we are now just packing some of our things for tomorrow.  After breakfast we leave on our three day Safari beginning with Tarangire, then Ngorongoro Crater, and ending with the Serengeti.  We are leaving most of our luggage here since we will be returning here on Thursday.  I am pretty certain that most of the lodges we will be staying in do not have internet access.  I know they have limited hours of electricity so I am not sure if I will be able to post anything for a few days.  We are safe, healthy and enjoying each other as we experience this adventure together.  We really miss our family and friends (and girlfriends)!  Love to you all!

Easing into Africa

Our first full day in Tanzania went very well.  We had a very low-key day overall.  Even with the full day of travel yesterday, we did not sleep too much last night since our bodies were thinking it was the middle of the day.  It seemed we all took our turns laying awake and whispering to each other.  We woke up to "Wake up, Mom and Dad, we're bored!" at around 5AM.  The boys were wide awake and ready to check out the grounds and the nearby village.  Christopher, the accommodations supervisor, prepared a fabulous breakfast for us of potato and onion pancakes, homemade bread and fabulous fresh fruit.  We took a few walks to town and saw many Tanzanians harvesting corn and other crops and transporting them with their bicycles (it's amazing the amount of stalks they can put on their bike and still be able to ride it~a bundle the size of a small car), motorcycles, and in large containers on their heads.  They are SO friendly and warm.  We have not seen many other tourists here at all and the locals seem eager to greet us.  It's been fun practicing some of our conversational Swahili.  When we were strolling to town later in the day after school was out, the kids seemed eager to practice their English that they must be learning in class.  Lots of giggles and smiles and they were not shy at all.  When we walked by the school during recess, we watched them play soccer with the most unlikely items~old plastic jugs and buckets.  Tanzania's economy is ranked as one of the world's poorest but from what we can see, they are not poor in spirit or happiness.

For lunch, the volunteers here recommended a restaurant called Tanz-Hands just down the main road that is part of something called "Rehabilitation and Vocational Training Center."  It is an organization that helps physically disabled Tanzanians with physical and occupational therapy.  It also provides training in the areas of welding and sewing to the individuals.  It was nice to find a place where the food was not only safe for us to eat, but delicious too!  They also sell items that are made by the disabled artisans to help them have a source of income and better standard of living.  We found the most adorable figures made out of welded scrap metal~elephants, hippos, giraffes...  Perfect souvenirs to remind us of Tanzania.  

Because of our early arrival, we also took some time to figure out some additions to our itinerary before the big boys head up the mountain.  We decided to leave one day early (Monday) for our safari and add Tarangire National Park to our list of places to experience.  The boys have done some research into what animals we may see and we are interested in seeing the differences between the parks.  We will be staying at Bougainvilla Safari Lodge after our game drive to be closer to Ngorongoro Crater the next morning.  Tomorrow we have a guide that will take us to Arusha National Park.  It is close to our cottage (about a 45- minute drive) so it will be a nice day trip from here.  Arriving a few days early will also allow Christopher and Allan to have some time to spend at the orphanage before they leave on Thursday.  So on Sunday, we will all be able to spend time there together which we are looking forward to.  We had a tour of the facility today and our hearts melted when we met the babies!  The youngest of them were sleeping but we were able to spend some time with the older ones (around age two)  They are absolutely precious and absolutely ADORABLE!  A few kept calling Christopher "baba" which means dad in Swahili.  If you click on the link to Cradle of Love at the bottom of the page and then click on "meet the children," you can actually see pictures of the cuties that are there.

Even though we took some time to just rest and relax today, we are all pretty tired tonight and are hoping for a FULL night sleep this time.  Sending our love... 

We are in Africa!

We were fortunate to have everything go smoothly with our flights.  Flying stand-by can sometimes be interesting, but we were all seated together in first-class to Amsterdam.  We had a few hours in Amsterdam and then flew on KLM to Kilimanjaro.  Both flights were about 8 hours each.  We saw an African sunset right before landing.  It was dark when we landed at about 7:30PM.  We had a driver from ADRA and an employee of ADRA named Christopher waiting for us at the airport with a warm reception.  Christopher is the "accommodations supervisor" here where we are staying.  We were told he makes a great breakfast and will take good care of us.  It took about 20 minutes to arrive in Usa River.  Being dark, we didn't see too much but from what we saw, the grounds are very nice and the cottage we are in is very cute.  There are four cottages and a main cottage where meals are served.  It is clean and the water is safe to drink here.  Sally has killed only three bugs so far.  We went to the main cottage to register where we met three girls from Germany and Denmark.  They are very nice and have been here for almost two months.  One of them has been here before for over nine months.  They are volunteering at the baby home, Cradle of Love, here on the grounds.  They are very nice and helpful.  They are going to give us a tour of the orphanage tomorrow after breakfast.  We have had a few hours to unpack and settle in.  Hopefully we will sleep most of the night and be able to quickly adjust to the time change.  The boys are in their bed on the other half of the cottage with the mosquito net surrounding them.  Having internet access here for the first part of our trip will be very nice for us so we can make connections with our loved ones.  So far, we feel very safe and welcome.  It is almost 11PM here...we are anxious for daylight to explore our surroundings.  Hope this finds everyone well!       

A Leap of Faith...

It's hard for us to believe that we are leaving for Africa in less than twenty-four hours!  We began committing our hearts to this trip over five years ago.  The feelings of excitement and anticipation are overwhelming.  We are also anxious and nervous at the same time, but we are leaving with great faith and confidence in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our family.  We are truly blessed.  We have enjoyed all of the planning (with the exception of all the shots), research, and many meetings with our church group in preparation.  We have prepared our hearts with much prayer.  The support from our family, friends and congregation at Augustana Lutheran Church has been tremendous and we are grateful.  Feel free to follow us on this journey~we will post as electricity and internet access allows.

We will be gone for a total of four weeks.  The first half of our journey begins with just the four of us.  Flying stand-by, we have a list of things that we would like to see and do should we arrive early (so far the flights look good).  We then have a scheduled itinerary of safaris and various activities until August 2nd.  On August 3rd, Christopher and Allan will begin their climb to the "roof of Africa" atop Mt. Kilimanjaro via the Machame route until August 9th.  During that time, Nicholas and Sally will be at Cradle of Love orphanage near our cottage and visiting other places in the area of Arusha/Usa River.  On August 10th, we will take a bus to Dar Es Salaam to meet up with the other youth and chaperones in our church group.  Together we head to the area of Iringa to develop relationships with the people in our companion congregation of Ipogoro.  Our youth director has an incredible looking itinerary that promises to make for a life-changing experience.  If you are interested, we have added links on this page of places we will be staying and visiting.  We have also added a link for more information about our church's global mission, specifically in Tanzania.  We return on August 22nd.

A month is a long time and Africa is far away...it will be difficult for us to be away from Amber, our family and friends.  We will miss them terribly.  We will have them in our minds and hearts more than ever.

My sister thoughtfully gave each of us a leather bookmark to take with us, each one with a special bible verse.  On one of them happened to be the exact same verse that is on the first page in our book of devotions that was given to us by our group leader at our very first meeting for this trip...

"Come to Me with a teachable spirit, eager to be changed.  A close walk with Me is a life of continual newness.  Do not cling to old ways as you step into this newness.  Instead, seek My face with an open mind, knowing that your journey involves being transformed by the renewing of your mind.  My thoughts embrace you in everlasting Love.  For I know the plans I have for you: plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Give yourself fully to this adventure..."
Romans 12:2; Jeremiah 29:11

And that we will!

Kwa heri! (Goodbye in Swahili)  Love and Blessings!

Allan, Sally, Christopher and Nicholas