Tutaonana bagamoyo. Hello safari!

With the last few days of my volunteering experience comes to an end. It's given me plenty of time to look back on what I've done and who've i've met over these past 3 weeks. I must say that Africa is truly a beautiful place. For people who have a hard time getting a meal in their bellies, they will go miles to make you feel at home in their community. They don't complain about their poverty or they're hardships. But they work through them because there is no other choice. If they doubt do anything about it, they wouldn't survive. It really makes me think on how we treat eachother back home, and the little things we complain about that really won't change anything in our life. And also, people are always there to support you in this community. Like my friend captin, who has been literally abandoned from his family, has UKUN and these volunteers visiting him everyday. We also have Amina, who is being helped by her wonderful family and neighbors. No matter how bad the help may be, there is always support. I hope to really show the love that these people who I their friend and family to people at home :). Before I continue writing about my adventures, I'd like anyone reading this to take the time to think about a wonderful women, Mwanvita. She was one of my patients, who had HIV/AIDS, ovarian cancer and a large cyst in the abdomen. She had been bed ridden for the past two months, however was staying strong for her family and friends. She would always take my hand and welcome me into her life, and she was just a beautiful women. She past away on June 1st, 2012. She is no longer suffering, which I many of us are extremely happy about. However she will be dearly missed. Please take a minute to think about her family and especially her daughter Amina, who is the woman UKUN and us CCS volunteers have been working with to walk again. Please give her any energy to have the strength to move past this hardship and continue to rehabilitate to walk again. Asante sana :)

Once I say all my goodbye's to everyone at the CCS headquarters, I set off for my journey to a busy city called Arusha. Now Arusha is the safari capital of Tanzania, and where I started my safari with G Adventures. I just it back yesterday and I must say not only are the people amazing in Tanzania, but the country itself is stunning!!! We met with our guides and drivers, Emmanuel and amdan, who welcomed us immediately with open arms. We hoped in put four by four, pop up roof safari jeeps and headed to our first stop, the Serengeti. The serengeti received it's name from the meaning in Swahili, endless plains. And they were definitely right about that. All it is is flat fields with hardly any trees and tall grass. I didn't think much of it at first, until the animals started coming from everywhere! I was stuck once in the middle of a zebra migration! There were thousands of zebra's running in a pack to get to their next destination. We saw the beautifully majestic giraffe, and the fast little gazelle. However the highlight for me was the king and queen, the lions. Now at first we didn't see many males (the ones with a lot of fur around their necks). Emmanuel actually told us that a subtle male will mate with 38 times in one day, and then take a few days off. So in a single pride, there is one male, and approximately 38 women. However, we did end up seeing the mufasa, and thy are truly amazing. Mostly because their lives consist of sitting on rocks and waiting for prey to come at them. But their still awesome. We camped out in the middle of the Serengeti, where I would fall asleep to the sounds of the wildebeest and the hyenas barking. We then moved on to a place called olduvai gorge. Now this is cool. This is where geologist and archeologist found the first fossils of upright human foot steps. These are the oldest footsteps found in the planet, meaning researchers believe that the human species began here in Tanzania. We had an awesome visit there and moved on to by far my favorite place, the ngorogoro crater. Now a few details. This crater used to be a volcano until it erupted, completely emptying the magma basin inside the volcano. With the empty space, the volcano collapsed on itself, causing what geologist call a caldera. It's just advertised as a crater because people know what that is and it looks like a crater. Anyways, it's one of the 8 unbroken, unflooded caldera's in the world. Inside the crater, it's perfect living conditions for any animal (except giraffe, because apparently their long necks prevents them from getting over the crater run). We drove into the crater and saw more amazing animals everywhere. We also finally saw a cheetah and a black rhino, which are nearly extinct. We stayed on the craters's rim and watch the sun set over the beautiful circular caldera. I promise I have pictures to share!bone last thing we did on our safari was visit a massai village. These people are the aboriginal Tanzanian people. They live in little villages, and wear only Red and blue. They mainly raise their cattle and trade at the markets. However they also make beautiful jewellery and other crafts. They mainly live off of their cattle's milk, meat, and blood, and make their homes out of clay and the dung of their cattle. Even if we are soooooo different from them, they of course welcomed us into their homes and showed their way of life. After our incredible exclusion. We arrives back in Arusha for an authentic African meal and a fun last night with everyone from G Adventures.

So what's next? I'm heading to a quieter town called moshi, which is where most of the trek's up Kilimanjaro begin. I will be spending a few days there, enjoying my last days in africa. I hope to post one last blog for the end of my trip so stay tuned :).

Tutaonana, E