Hey guys its Camille and Aura and we have some great stuff to tell you about. The Serengeti and the Ngorongoro crater were amazing. We started heading to The Serengeti from Mwanza it was a long jeep ride but we got to the front gate and ate lunch. During lunch monkeys came so close to us that we could almost touch them we got loads of pictures and it made everyone ready to see African Wildlife. As we rolled into the Serengeti every ones eyes were peeled ready to see a lion. Wildebeest were there to give us a warm welcome. There were Millions of Wildebeest and Thompson Gazelles and many other animals. When we saw our first lion it was amazing. So we rolled on to our camp site and ate a great meal and went to sleep early because we were eager to see an african sunrise apart from the city. It was well worth waking up at 5:30 in the morning because as the sun was rolling high Giraffs were a hundred yards away walking past our camp hinting that tday was going to be a great day. We started by a great breakfast and packed our daypacks and embarked on our Safari. We saw tons more Wildabeest and then a massive elephants. Then as lunch was creeping near David needed to use the bathroom and walked to a tree getting out of our vehicle and Omar our guide sternly told him to get back to the car because lions were sleeping under the very tree that he was going to pee behind.
Then we finished up at the Seringeti and a long dusty ride took us to the beautiful Ngorogoro crater. We stopped on the way to explore a village of Massai warriors and learned much of their culture. Then we made camp on the summit of one of the many moutains that surrounds the crater. After camp we drove into the crater. Our vehicle’s breaks gave way and we almost plumited to our death but yet again Omar and his experiance saved us again. We waited until nightfall and went back to the camp where we found kevin aura and david on their sides sick. so we put them all in the sick tent and thus started the sick tent trek. others to join were camille and andrea, andrea getting the hard end of the stick when she got a temperature of 104.
The last day of the trek we ended up in a beautiful campsite right outside of lake natron. a lake we have now dubbed the endless lake of flamingo shit… where was the water? then tanzanature tours took us to arusha where we stayed two nights at backpackers hotel, exploring the city. aura camille matt jessie and david went to go visit omar and omari’s homes, two of the guides. it was a lot of fun and prepared us for the stay in bengata.after our pretty uneventfull stay in arusha we all made our way to our host families in bengata. bengata is a small town outside of arusha that is right below mount meru and is what seems to be the birthplace of dust. kate has proved the persistence of this dust by wearing socks and closed toed shoes and still finding the pesy little buggers in her toes. we cant write from everyones point of view but it seems that the families are kind, welcoming, and fun. i know that i will deffinatly miss my family when i leave. the only downfall to being in homestays is that we miss the group life. although we do see each other at our daily swahili classes we find ourselves missing each other a lot. mama frieda and all of the tomito household have been very kind, making us lunch and allowing us to use their facilities for classes and are spectacular halloween party.
oh yes we had a halloween party. kate was a super hero. jessie a butterfly. david hucklberry finn… we all knew what he really was…. kevin was matt. matt was kevin. camille was a fairy. lihi was an earth child. andrea was a caterpillar. aura was trinity.. orignially she was an italian boy but when she put on matt’s sunglasses the resemblance was so bizarre that we all decided she had to be trinity. thanks to camille’s moms care package halloween was a blast. also thanks to lihi’s majestic bats and jessie’s doodling abilities..
our project in bengata was to teach form four children. david and lihi taught english. jessie rachel and clairen are teaching geography. andrea and i did sex ed. matt and kate did math. aura and kevin did history. it was a struggle but there were many good moments like when students screamed “condoms” and when a student took matt to the side and asked him for help. a few of the students had trouble teaching due to constipation issues leading to one particular person having to get it digitally removed.
tommorow we are going to meet pete o’neil a former black panther who is now exiled in tanzania.
