July 10th, 2017
(Written August 12th)
With most days I'd be worried about recalling all of the details, but the tenth of July was not a day I will soon forget.
We started out on Safari, but said goodbye to our friends Adam and Summer on the way out.
Then we were off!
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| We saw baboons before we even reached the park! |
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| Baobab trees! |
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| Starling nests |
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| There's a baby gibbon in the tree! |
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| A Mama lioness and her two cubs were feasting! |
There was even a leopard!
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| Zebras hug like this to confuse lions. |
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| That gibbon had just stolen a banana from someone's lunch box, but Brad was determined to make friends! |
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| Tarangire :) |
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| Love this lady! |
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| To wake up (and for the thrill) I was determined to stand on the chair the entire trip between stops. It was so much fun! |
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| Elephants cooling off in the mud! |
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| There was a young male who was determined to get all other creatures out of his water hole. |
My first Safari and I got to see 3/5th of the "Big Five." How cool is that?!
We didn't even get back to Karatu before we stopped to visit a Maasai Boma.
They did a welcome dance for us and then we got to join in.
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| Fire made with a machete, a piece of soft wood and a hard wood stick. |
Everyone was very kind. The boma is made up of one family; there is the chief, his ten wives and their 65 children. Each woman makes her own house in the circle, and the chief has his own residence. Maasai invest their wealth in cows, and when a young man has ten cows he can buy a wife from another family. For two years after the ceremony the couple lives in the husband's boma until he is able to go and start his own community. The son we met who runs the visit has been to university and came home to help his family. Most of the men speak some English, Kiswahili and Kimaasai. In the center of the boma was the animal pen, and surrounding the outside of that was a dozen or so tables filled with hand beaded jewelry and decor. Overall it was informative and tons of fun!
All four of us fell asleep on the way back to Karatu, and Edwin said we all looked very funny. :)
Once we got back to our little Tanzanian home we headed up the hill to see if our playground was finished, and it was!
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| Oh-my-gersh, we built a playground! Unfortunately our project manager, Brad, was busy fixing a leaky faucet, so he wasn't in our picture. |
We had to say our goodbye to Sumawe Primary School, but we certainly left our mark.
(Fast forward a few weeks, and we receive these pictures!)
After our visit to the playground, Edwin was kind enough to drive all four of us to the KRO dorms so I could deliver the project I'd been working on. In a month I made 29 rafiki (friend) bracelets for the KRO girls.
I had a few extra so I was able to give bracelets to Jude, Talemwa and the Mama in charge of the dorm. It makes me emotional just thinking about their smiles and gratitude.
None of us were ready for those goodbyes. I miss those girls often.
And that was the long and spectacular day of July 10th, 2017. I'm so glad I have the pictures to remember all of it.
Much love,
Kami
Then we were off!
