Tanzanian Trip: There and Back Again, Chapter 5

I woke up at 6:30 and kept hearing noises like someone was tearing branches off a tree.  Once we got ready for breakfast we walked out our hut and saw monkeys in the trees above our hut.  

The Game Reserve is 50,000 km  in area, so it wasn't guaranteed that we would everything that we wanted to see. 

We ate breakfast and met our guide, Silas, at the jeep for our Game Drive.  We drove for about ten minutes to the entrance of the Game Reserve, but before we made it to the actual entrance we had to stop to let about 50 baboons (and some warthogs-just like Pumba) cross the road. 

We saw giraffes everywhere.  The giraffes were pretty scared of the jeep, or in Silas' words "Shy". 

They stayed still if we were still, but walked away if we started to move again. 

Some zebras hanging out behind the giraffe. 

We were driving through some pretty thick green jungle-like trees and plants and all of a sudden this popped out:

We stopped the jeep and then the elephant put his trunk up in the air to smell us!  He walked back in the trees and went around us the long way.  

We had just seen a lot of hippos, giraffes, and birds in a watering hole and then this little troop of elephants popped out of the trees.  I can't get enough of the little bitty one!!!

This one was scared of us, and walked over to the tree and started trying to intimidate us by brushing back and forth in the trees. I started to get a little nervous that it was gonna get brave and come too close, but he ran behind us pretty fast. 

We stopped for lunch under a tree, and our task for after lunch was to try to find the lions. 

We passed a few other jeeps and they told Silas that they had seen lions down by a watering hole.  Silas drove us over to that area, and we came upon this:

That is a dead water buffalo on the left side of the picture.  The ground is extremely muddy as you can tell by her legs.  She is panting so hard, and looks exhausted. (cue yawn)

 Hello Jungle Book.  Under the tree are 4 lions and a dead wildebeest, and the vultures are waiting at the top of the for the lions to move away from the food. 

 I'm trying to smile, even though this is a little too close for comfort!!!  The lion was getting up to move to the other side of the water buffalo because a vulture was on the ground trying to get closer to the buffalo. 

These animals are tuckered out!!!

I was very thankful that we were able to get out of the mud.  I was about to panic. 

On our way back to the camp we saw some other jeeps looking at something under some trees, so we followed them over there.  We had been looking for the Wild Dogs because it's the only place they are, and we found them!

 Just a few more zebras before we made it back to our camp.

It was an awesome day! It's so surreal. It's hard to believe that the animals just happen to live there, and it's not a setup. 

Tanzanian Trip: There and Back Again, Chapter 4

Friday morning, we woke up at said goodbye to our friends in Mtwara. :(

Travis came to pick me up at Sarah's and he took me and my dad to the Mtwara airport.  Our flight from Mtwara to Dar was supposed to leave at 8:15, but it left at 7:45.  This boarding pass was one of my favorite things about this trip

We made it to Dar and had 2 hours until our flight to the Selous Game Reserve for a safari. We got to the "old terminal" at Dar to take our "Coastal Aviation" flight to Selous. There were no signs about our flight. The only schedule they had up was incorrect, and no one seemed worried about it, so dad and I just hung out at the gate area hoping we would hear "Selous" from someone. 

Miraculously, at 11:15 (just 30 minutes late) a pilot and an airport worker said the Selous flight was ready.  There were only 6 people that were on our flight, and there was only room for 8 people anyway. EEEK!

 We landed on a dirt runway and dropped off two passengers, and then took off again and landed 10 minutes later at our stop. 

(The sign on the tree says, "Coastal Aviation", in the middle of the Selous Game Reserve. 

 Looking at some hippos from the airplane. 

A jeep took us to the "Selous River Camp" that we were staying at for the next two nights.  We had a couple of hours to rest, and then took a "Boat Safari" that afternoon.  

 Our hut.  There is no electricity in the camp, so they have solar-powered lights and a fan that you can use at night.  There was a charging station available from 6-10 pm at the bar area.  

Creepy Crocodiles

Hanging out on a sandbar

Hippos popping up for air.

We had dinner at the camp that night.  There are 6 huts at the camp.  There were 5 others groups/couples at dinner and only one other group was speaking English. 

Our Maasai guard walked us to our hut and we went to bed.  We were thankful and amazed that we actually made it to Selous. 

Tanzanian Trip: There and Back Again, Chapter 3

On Wednesday morning we had breakfast at home before heading to a hotel called "Old Boma", which was about a 15 minute drive from Sarah's house, for some eating and swimming with the rest of the team.   It's a beautiful place that sits up on a hill and overlooks a bay in the Indian Ocean.

We drank tea and snacked on chipati (thicker than a flour tortilla, thinner than naan--and very delicious!) until it was time for lunch.  After lunch Dad went home with the Trull's to stay with them for the next two nights.  

Everyone came over to Sarah and Andrew's that evening for dinner and church. We sat out in the backyard and drank some more tea. 

Thursday morning, the whole team met at the Meeks' house for a meeting and I watched Reed, Aletheia, and Jedda.  

We ate dinner at a restaurant by the beach that we went to earlier in the week to wrap up our last night together. 

I had so much fun spending every waking hour with these two ladies!  Ya'll are awesome!

Tanzanian Trip: There and Back Again, Chapter 2

Dad made pancakes on Monday morning so we could use some of the maple syrup that was sent from friends and family back home.  

Bobby and Andrew were going out to the village on Monday and Sarah and Andrew had decided that they were going to take Bob, the chicken, to a friend of theirs in the village as a gift.  Bobby helped Andrew make a "chicken catcher", and we went outside to watch Andrew use it to catch Bob.  It worked really fast! Andrew grabbed the chicken on the first swipe.  Sarah was explaining to Reed where Bob was going, and that it was time to say "bye" to him. 

Reed's taking all this like a champ, and I'm over there blubbering because I'm saying "bye" to a chicken that I've known for 48 hours.  

Andrew and Bobby took my dad over to the Meeks' house on their way out to the village because he was going to stay with them Monday and Tuesday night.  

Sarah, Reed, Candice, GQ, and I got in a "Bujaj" (3-wheeled vehicle that works like a taxi) and ran a couple of errands. While we were out we got a very unusual (for August) downpour of rain.  We got home and started doing some food prep while sitting on the back porch.   It was a quiet, relaxing night. 

Candice and GQ at the market.  Is that hat (and facial expression) amazing or what???

Tuesday morning we had some yogurt and granola for breakfast and preceded to the back porch for some food prep.  We drank tea and ate some lunch then went down to the beach for a little bit that afternoon.  We made it back in time to get dinner ready before Bobby and Andrew made it back in town from the village.  

Tanzanian Trip: There and Back Again, Chapter 1

I apologize that this gets wordy and detailed.  I do this for my family and a few friends that might actually care, and for me so I have it documented somewhere.  For those that don't...enjoy the pictures!

Earlier this Spring my dad told me he was going to visit the Makonde Mission Team again this Summer.  I asked if I could tag along, and he willingly obliged!

While I was preparing for this trip, I was very careful to keep expectations out of my mind. I wanted to go into it experiencing things for the first time and taking it from there.  I got my shots, bought some long skirts, some Cliff Bars, and a hat and I was ready.

Dad flew up to MSP on Wednesday the 30th, so that we could fly together on the long haul flights.  We left Thursday am at 11:00 and flew to Chicago.  We flew from Chicago to Zurich and go in at 6:30 am on Friday.  Our next flight was out of Zurich at 11:00 and got to Dar El Salaam at 9:30 pm Friday night.  Andrew Fraser had arranged for us to stay at the Guest House of the Benedictine Brothers.  A man picked us up at the airport and took us to the guest house. They had a meal prepared for us that night then we went to bed for a couple of hours before our 6:30 flight to Mtwara.

 Precision Airline flight from Dar to Mtwara

Meal at the Guest House Friday Evening

I was up at 2:00 because of jet lag, so I read my book and waited until 4:30 to meet our driver downstairs.  There was about a 10-minute period of Dad and I thinking no one was coming to meet us, but at 4:55 the driver showed up.  We made it back to the Dar airport and our flight said it was on time, but of course that's just a suggestion.  We waited for an hour listening for Mtwara over the intercom.

Random sidenote:
There were so many things that go through your mind when you're traveling or moving to a new place. While sitting there in the airport I realized that sunrise/sunset is virtually the same time everyday: 6:30-6:30.  It's definitely better than the Winters in Minnesota, but I love our 9:45 pm sunsets we get in the Summer.  It would be hard to adjust to 2 seasons (wet/dry) instead of 4.

Back to the story:
Our plane was probably 1/3 full, and we were just thankful they actually still flew there being that empty.  We landed in Mtwara at 8:30, got our bags, and met Andrew, Sarah, and Reed at the front of the "airport".   It took Reed a couple of minutes to warm up to me because she thought Mr. David was bringing a "kid" when he heard "his daughter" was coming.

We loaded up the car with our two suitcases a trunk of goodies for the families and headed to Sarah's house for breakfast of yogurt, tea, and fruit.  We were very excited to hear that Bobby, Candice, and their 11-month-old Georgia Quinn were also going to be at the Fraser's while we were here.   After breakfast, Sarah and I ran a couple of errands in town to the market.  Sarah introduced me as your friend to the workers at the market, and they all thought my visit was going to be too short.  I was given a papaya by a vendor since I was Sarah's guest and a basket by another vendor.   It was fun to listen to Sarah interact with the Tanzanians, and an odd feeling to not know what is being said especially if they are looking at you!  Sarah typically interpreted the conversations for me if they were worth sharing.

Once we were done at the market we drove back to the house and loaded up to go to the Trull's house. Lauren was recovering from malaria, and we sat around visiting with them for a bit.  We stopped back by a restaurant called "Himo" for beans and chicken and a thick-potato-like substance called "ugali" (I don't know how to spell it) that you eat with your hands.

We got back to the house and started some food prep for dinner.  We had tomato soup, grilled cheese (on homemade bread) and some salad.  We had to soak all the vegetables in some kind of disinfecting rinse before cooking with it.  We had some arugula from their garden and Cranberry Hibiscus from their yard for the salad.  Dad mixed up a dressing for it and dinner was served.  

 Dad, Andrew, and Reed looking for greens for the salad. 

 Candice, Sarah, Bobby, and GQ drinking some tea

 Andrew and Bobby making the grilled cheese

 Sarah making the soup

Reed "cooking" the grilled cheese. 

Sunday morning we met the "office" for the men to have a reading/discussion group.  We took an afternoon walk to the beach that evening before dinner.  They live about a 10-minute walk from the Indian Ocean. 

A selfie in the car while Sarah runs into a restaurant for some "to-go" beans for lunch.  (Don't worry I'm not driving. They drive like the UK).

Reed rode her bike to the beach

Sarah shaving some coconut for some homemade delicious macaroons

 Doing some food prep

Reed enjoying some of the goodies from friends. Love the heels with the athletic outfit