Follow the Journey

It seems strange that after weeks of posting exciting stories and group photos, I am just writing to say that I am home safe and sound! My time at home has been filled with seeing family & friends, telling lots of stories, and looking at all of our photographs from the past three months. It has been wonderful to be back at home, but I also am feeling homesick for… Read More

An early morning ride across the island landed us at the Matemwe Beach. After 3 months of roughing it we were awed by our resort accommodation on a perfect white sand beach with clear turquoise waters, hammocks under palm trees, and flowers on our beds. This final leg of our journey brought us here to get our PADI Open Water SCUBA Diver certification. We jumped right into classes and pool… Read More

Hello Parents and followers of Carpe Diem KIFARU East Africa blog, We just received word from Grant and Gwen that the students have departed Tanzania for their long journey back home. This marks the end of this program, but not the end to the growth, friendships, and knowledge gained during these past 3 months. We (including Grant and Gwen) wish the best for all participants and hope that everyone will… Read More

Mambo, family and friends! This past weekend, our group said goodbye to Uganda, and flew back to Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania. After one night in this crazy, busy city, we got on a ferry and headed to Zanzibar! As soon as we arrived at Stone Town, we fell in love with the island. The quaint, old-fashioned streets are filled with shops and markets, and there are no shortages of… Read More

    Lake Bunyonyi Arrival!   Paddlin’   Warrior Grant   Da Ladiess (and G-man..)   Mouse Bird!!   SNEC!!   Mixin Mixin. Jackalope workin hard   Jasper Prancing, Kellie Slacking 😉       Hornbill at Mabira Forest Reserve   Liam at Lake Bunyonyi   The Group at the Bahaii temple in Kampala (Liv is creepin’ over katie’s shoulder)   Rhinos IN the campsite, with rafiki bush buck  … Read More

Before our group leaves Uganda and heads to the tropical island of Zanzibar, we have one week of free travel! This means that our group is in charge of all accommodation, transportation, and activities for the whole week! It is basically a test to see how much we have learned about international traveling and budgeting… Since we have had a jam-packed schedule for the past few weeks, we decided to… Read More

Last Sunday marked the end of our time at Ziwa, and we were all pretty upset to leave. Most of us agreed that it was our favorite volunteer opportunity so far. Working with the Rhino Fund was not something that I was super excited about, but I surprised myself with how much I enjoyed my time there. Getting to see the rhinos was cooler than I imagined and having Felix… Read More

This week was terrible. All I wanted to do was ride a rhino. Not only would they not let me ride one, they wouldn’t even let us pet them. Just kidding! This week went far beyond any of our expectations and believe me, you DO NOT want to get too close to these ginormous majestic beasts. Upon our arrival at the rhino sanctuary we had a brief orientation followed by… Read More

Welcome to Uganda! We arrived on the 30th of October, and the next day we found ourselves at the home of Edirisa. Our first volunteer program was based at a place called SNEC (the Special Needs Education Centre), located just outside of Kabale Town. Here, the group mixed cement and built a side walk for kids who have physical disabilities to get to and from class everyday. The work was… Read More

Hello friends and family, Just wanted to give you all a quick update on the past couple days here in Kampala. Kampala is definitely the busiest city we have been to thus far on our journey. To me this is a little stressful, especially trying to cross the street, but some people really seem to enjoy city life. Yesterday we had the opportunity to visit one of the eight Baha’I… Read More

Arrival in Kigali.  We touched down in Rwanda at around 8-8:30 AM local time after having a very early start to our travel here.  Our first plane from Dar left at 5 AM, so we were up and ready to go at 3..  We had two short flights, with a leighover in Nairobi, Kenya.  Right off the bat, Rwanda was a great place for me to practice my French, although… Read More

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When I was younger, people used to ask me what it was like to have special needs brothers. Some people would even ap0logize, as if their presence was a burden on my life. I never really understood it.  To me, they have always been perfect. I think it took me a very long time to even realize that there was something different about them. So yes, they might not have… Read More

Here’s the Thanksgiving story (October 14th): Starting the day, Jack and I woke up and our homestay mother put us right to work. We were sent to the ‘shamba’ (farm field) to clean up the old corn stocks. Mama John (the homestay mother) gave us Djembes, a gardening tool much like a hoe, and told us to chop down the old dried-up stocks. We worked for about half an hour,… Read More

 Rock Gardens near Morogoro  Getting the Fish’s eyes ready to eat! (Yum)  Liam and big big fruits  Siafu! (ants that CAN and WILL eat you.)  Stranger Danger (Siafu)  Kellie and Amanda teaching the locals how to make peanut butter cookies!  Foggy mornin’ hen keepin her chicks warm  Liam helping Msafiri prepare for his national Math exam (Mufindi Orphanage)  Zaoda on the swing that Liam and Kulywa fixed at Mufindi  Zaoda… Read More

Hi!! Where do I even begin?! I could start by telling you all about the amazing animals we saw during our stay…but someone (*cough* liv) forgot to bring the list to the internet cafe. That is okay though, you will all just have to wait a week to see our nerdy list. Just imagine birds of every color and size, ones that passed too fast and we couldn’t help but… Read More

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Kamwene friends and family! We are back in Iringa town and staying at a very nice hotel. Last week we arrived with open hearts and minds to Ohana Amani’s beautiful home and organic garden. We had a fantastically fun time hanging out with the sisters Curry and Chevy, and their friends Shannon, Hannah, and Anna-Sophia. They are some powerful ladies who inspired all of us. We had a glamorous camp… Read More