Hi all!
Here is a continuation of what's been going on during my trip thus far:

The safari was awesome! We left Friday after work and drove to our campsite near Lake Manyara national park. Then Friday night we went to see a traditional Maasai village. They sang and danced for us when we got there, and showed us their houses. They sleep in really tiny huts made out of cow dung full of cockroaches. There are two small "beds" made of bamboo shoots with only an animal hide to cover them. It's permanently dark and not well ventilated because they don't want wild animals to get inside. Then we went back, ate dinner, and went to bed. Saturday we got up early and went through Lake Manyara national park. The first thing we saw were baboons (they are everywhere here!). They can be pretty mean, they are constantly fighting with each other and screeching. The top of the truck comes off so we can stand up and see through the roof. One baboon jumped on top of the truck it was a little scary. We also saw hippos, giraffes, impalas, lots of elephants and birds. We did that for several hours then we went back, ate lunch, and headed farther to the Ngorongoro crater. We drove up to our campsite which was on the edge of the crater so it was really high up. The dirt roads were narrow and no guardrails, but fantastic views. It was pretty cold on the edge of the crater, and I was freezing. We ate dinner, drank and had a campfire. I woke up in the middle of the night hearing noises outside our tent. Then I heard someone else unzip her tent and yell "get out of here!" I was like ohhhh what the HELL is outside?! Then I heard it walk around to our tent and I heard really heavy serial killer-like breathing right by my head. I woke Sara up (there were two of us per tent) and we were freaked out for awhile. I kept my ears plugged for about two hours and kept asking her if she could still hear it cuz I didn't want to anymore. A little later we both had to pee so bad we braved the outside and ran to the bathrooms. We were so scared I'm sure we looked so stupid. The next morning we found out it was a big warthog. I'm just glad it wasn't something bigger or worse like a hyena. So then Sunday we went down into the crater where all the animals are. We saw so much! Wildebeast, antelopes, giraffes, ostriches, elephants, water buffalo, zebras, jackals, birds, flamingos, hippos, and, best of all, LIONS! There are about 60 or 70 lions in the crater. The first three we saw were hunting buffalo but didn't kill any. Then we came across some that had just finished eating. There was a huge male sleeping next to what was left of a wildebeast carcass and other males and females sleeping about 10 feet away. They were practically laying against the truck, SO CLOSE! I got some really good pictures. The hyenas were surrounding them waiting to scavenge the hunt. It was intense, especially when the lions woke up. It's crazy seeing them like that with no glass or anything between you. So then after several hours we drove back to Moshi and stopped for camel rides on the way. The camels are so tall when they stand up you feel so high in the air. It was cool. We were all pretty tired last night, after my ordeal with Pumba (that is a Lion King reference if you forgot, plus Pumba is the name for Warthog in Swahili) I needed sleep, so I went to bed at 9. Today we went back to work. It went by really fast. The kids are really good at math and science (like physics...they are really smart) but need A LOT of work on English, so that's what we worked on all day. On Wednesday I go to my placement at Watoto Rau (Watoto means children in Swahili and Rau is the town it's located). I'm excited because all the kids are 3 and 4, and because the person who started it is a local who also volunteers at CCS. So, he is with us every day. He was the first person to show us around when we got here. His name is Living, he's 23 and super awesome. It's amazing he started a nursery school already, and he pays for it out of pocket! I definitely want to do some fund raising for him when I get home, because he is currently trying to get his own land to build a school (currently he rents a bar when it's not being used in the mornings). So, I'm pretty excited to start there.


Today (note written on Tuesday) we went really close to Mt. Kilimanjaro. We visited a small Chagga village (the Chagga are the original people of this region) and I bought a couple small tools for Kev from blacksmiths that were working right in front of us. Then we went to this amazingly beautiful resort to eat lunch, then went to the Chagga live museum which was really cool, then we walked or should I say climbed down a really steep cliff to see this amazing waterfall. It was fantastic. Last night we went dancing and out to dinner it was really cool. We had the whole hall to ourselves and there were traditional dancers. Eventually, after a couple of drinks we all joined it. It was really fun. Daughter is "binti" in Swahili. I don't use it much because I am working with orphans right now. But, since today is a holiday that's why we went on our day trip to the Chagga village. Tomorrow I start at Watoto Rau, I"m really really excited!

Today (note written on Wednesday) I started at Watoto Rau (Watoto means "children" in Swahili and Rau is the town it's in). I work with Living (he started and runs the school out of his own pocket-he's only 23!) so it's really fun, he's great with the kids. We only had 9 students today. Soon we will have 25 between the two of us. The first week we are just working on songs, playing games, drawing and doing crafts. The kids are soooo cute! They are 3 and 4 years old. Today we taught them the ABC song. They are pretty good at picking up songs and words. One little girl named Asia (A-see-a) said "bye Mzungu" to me. Mzungu is the Swahili word for foreigner or white person here. It's so funny. We only teach them for 2 hours a day because they are so young. The school fee is only 2,000 Tanzanian shillings per month, where other nursery schools charge about 15,000. Living really tries to keep costs down and make it easy for the parents to pay. Moms can run errands and get a lot done without the kids running around for a couple of hours. So, I'll be there for the remainder of my time and I'm really excited. It doesn't take long for the kids to warm up to you. Today we have a guest speaker and this afternoon Swahili lessons. I'm gonna try to do my laundry today, we'll see how this goes. You have to hand wash it and hang it on clothes lines to dry. After it dries you have to iron it really well because while it's on the clothes line small larva or bugs from the Mango trees get into the fabric, and if you don't kill them they can crawl into you under your skin and make you really sick, so I'll be ironing really well.