Travels to Uganda

On the Road to Uganda

Clothes? Check. Snacks? Check. Pizza for the road? Check. Jamie and I were ready for the 22 hour bus ride to Uganda. After a farewell lunch at one of our regular local joints, we headed to the bus station where we were met by the GZA who was waiting to say goodbye to his favorite mzungus. After a 1 hour delay, we hopped on the bus and headed for the Kenyan border. I thoroughly enjoy the scenery we get to take in during these long journeys. The views from Northern Tanzania into Kenya were stunning with vast plains and amazing mountains, Massai leading cattle for miles. The ride was bumpy to say the least, but that and the bone chilling night are our only complaints. We crossed the Kenyan border after dark – this was my first border crossing via foot and it was a tad frightening, but exciting. As we walked across we were followed by elderly Massai women desperate to sell us their jewelry – it was almost spooky how they loomed over us dangling necklaces in our faces as we walked through the dark street. Before we knew it, we were back on the bus and in Kenyan territory. A few hours later we made a brief pitstop in Nairobi and rolled through the night towards Uganda. We were seriously underdressed and the bus was freezing (thankfully I had my wool socks in my bag – thanks Karen!).

Exploring Kampala

Early afternoon the next day we entered Kampala, Uganda’s capital city. The outskirts of the city vaguely resembled the outskirts of Dar Es Salaam, but were not quite as run down as Dar’s slums. Many of the homes had tin roofs vs. the grass roofs commonly seen in Tanzania.

Upon pulling into the Kampala bus station, Tony (the tour operator assisting us with obtaining our gorilla permits) was there to pick us up. We headed to his house / office and made plans to meet the next day to pick up our passes at the Uganda Wildlife Association office. We were then dropped off at the Red Chili Hideaway hostel where we grabbed a couple of beers and watched the monkeys play in our backyard.

Monkeys in our backyard at the hostel

The next day it was exploration time – we headed into Kampala and wandered the streets. We hit up the local market and tried grasshoppers (a popular snack item in Uganda) for the first time. I can describe them as being crunchy, greasy, and probably good with a bit of salt. We observed that the city is a lot more modern than the cities that we have visited in Tanzania. The infrastructure is more contemporary and the people even appear to be more modern – the women wear pants vs. the traditional kanga or long skirts that virtually all women wear in Tanzania. Also, in Tanzania there are mass amounts of 2^nd hand clothes which we noticed are probably 75% Canadian. Did we mention that during our first week of volunteering we were visiting projects in a very remote village and we met a man that was wearing a Prince Edward Island tourism polo – small world.

The city has done an exceptional job getting back on its feet since the Amin days. However, there were a staggering number of child beggars in the streets. Another problem in Uganda is “cross-generational relationships” in which older men date especially young girls – there are large billboards scattered throughout the city condoning the act.

Streets of Kampala

That afternoon we picked up our highly anticipated gorilla tracking permits and Tony and his side kick took us to their favorite local restaurant for some Ugandan food. They were entertaining us with safari stories and started discussing safari experiences with different nationalities. We got a kick out of when they described the Germans as being very “complicated” people to safari with and told us that once a German group had brought their GPS and were quite concerned when they ventured off the predetermined route.

We took our first Boda Boda rides (motorcycles used for public transport) through the city. We are still alive. Once again, enough said. We wrapped up a day of exploring the city and headed back to the hostel to rest of for a day of white water rafting on the Nile.

White Water Rafting on the Nile

Rise and shine – it was time for white water rafting on the Nile (the source of the Nile is located in Jinja, Uganda). It is notorious as being home to some of the best rapids in the world. We had some breakfast and jumped onto the bus Jinja-bound. When we arrived, we had a quick pep talk, met our guide, got geared up (rain coat, life jacket, paddle and helmet) and headed excitedly to our raft.

We had 9 passengers on our raft including our guide. The morning began with a few lessons on paddling, falling overboard, flipping, etc. We learned that the rapids are classed from a grade 1 to grade 5 (commercial rafting companies aren’t allowed to do grade 6 rapids). We would be going over 6 large rapids ranging from grade 3 to grade 5.

In the morning conquered 3 rapids, one of them being the largest rapid, “big brother.” We were on a roll until we hit big brother – our raft did a nose dive into the rapids and our boat bent in half. The passengers sitting on the left hand side (the side which I happened to be sitting on) bounced and were then thrown out of the boat. This happened before we went over the 3 major waves so it was quite a battle. We were all scooped up by the safety boat and put back into our raft in time for some leisurely floating down the river for lunch.

After lunch we did some more floating and had a chance to jump in for a swim. Somewhere in between lunch and before going over a class 5 waterfall, I couldn’t turn my neck to my right hand side or move it downwards. Luckily we had a nurse on board who diagnosed me with probably a pulled muscle in my neck (probably from being whip lashed by big brother). So it was the safety boat for me. The Ugandan rowing the safety boat had superhuman strength and we were all in awe of him. It was amazing to see him work and at one point, all 3 of our rafts were tied to his as he paddled us up the river so we could relax. We chatted and went over the lower grade rapids which were still unreal. Then came the last rapid that is almost guaranteed to flip. I watched from the safety boat and yes, they flipped! The power of the rapids are out of this world. I watched for Jamie’s little red helmet to pop out from under the water and then let out a little sigh of relief. We then headed to shore (along the way spotting a 2 foot long neon green iguana) and headed back to Moshi with a bus load of cold beers. A photographer rafted with us for the duration of the day to capture all of our best moments. P.S – there are crocodiles found in the calm parts of the Nile that we rafted through!

A Little Piece of Heaven Called Lake Bunyoni

It was time to move south to Lake Bunyoni. We took a taxi ride in probably the most congested traffic on the planet. As usual, the instant we stepped out of the taxi at the bus station, we were surrounded, our bags grabbed, and pulled towards the busses going to our destination. Anxious to get going, we bought bus tickets for the first bus heading to Kabale (8km from Lake Bunyoni). To our dismay, when we stepped onto the bus, we were the only ones on it. 4 hours later, after the very LAST seat was filled, we took off for Kabale.

As per usual, the scenery was amazing and the trip flew by. It is very interesting to watch the people going about their day as you pass by – men (and very often small boys no older than 5) tending to and herding cattle, children playing (very young children usually naked) in the dusty yards, women weaving baskets and shelling peas, people napping in the shade in their yards and so on.

We arrived in Kabale at 10PM (much later than planned) with no plan of action. The city was very dark, dusty and there wasn’t a taxi in sight. It looked like the city (with the exception of the men drinking outside and in the pubs and a few flickering candles) was fast asleep. As we got off the bus, a man approached us and advised us we would need a special hire to take us to the Lake as the roads are treacherous. He conveniently had a friend waiting outside who even more conveniently had a brother that was working at the hotel that we had in mind. They agreed to give us a lift. There is no way in hell that I would agree to this in any other circumstance at home, but here in Africa, sometimes you just have to go with the flow and forget that gut feeling. After a 30 minute, very rough ride along the road’s windy edge, we reached the hotel (hallelujah!).

The next day we woke up to one absolutely gorgeous view of the lake just beneath us which we couldn’t see the night before in the dark.

View of Lake Bunyoni from our canoe

Jamie suggested we use this occasion to celebrate our 1 year (and a bit) anniversary. We spent the morning in a canoe ride around the lake and visited some of its islands. One notable island is called “punishment island” – girls that became pregnant before they were married used to be cast away to this island to either starve or drown trying to reach the main land. Another island was used as a leper colony (leprosy is a very common and extremely heartbreaking problem in Tanzania and there are lepers lining one particular street here in Moshi). We spent the remainder of the day relaxing, reading and playing pool (Jamie was determined to redeem himself after his defeat on our 1^st date)

The Bumpy Ride to Buhoma

Once again, we made another awful travel mistake. We took a cab into Kabale and eagerly accepted an offer for a 20,000 shilling ride in the back of a local’s pickup truck. We foolishly refused to take the front seat – we wanted to sit with the Ugandans in the back (why not? It was only 120km to Buhoma – it would be fun!). The first 30 minutes were pretty amusing. The locals were shocked to see 2 mzungos in the back of a pickup truck. It didn’t take long before the cool breeze turned into a cloud of dust filling our eyes and mouths, for the novelty of the amusing stares to wear off and for the back of the truck to hold 5 to 15 people. We stopped in every town for potato pickups which took up the rest of the space on the truck. The roads were unbelievable (if you can call them roads). In two of the villages we encountered some daunting drunken locals. One woman came up to us to ask for money and then kept asking me to take a picture of her (you have to be careful when taking pictures of people in Africa or you could end up footing a bill). She was quite persistent and mildly aggressive. I was pleased to pull away from the village as she picked up her machete. The drunken man in the 2^nd village was quite the same and kept touching us, this time our companions in the back had finally taken a shine to us and threatened the man who left us alone. We were halfway to Buhoma and I wanted OFF that truck!

Another 3 hours later we arrived in Buhoma with very sore bottoms and gritty teeth. We moved into our little banda hut and joined a lovely Canadian couple for supper. We also indulged in our first hot showers in 2 months. It was then time to get some sleep and dream of gorillas!

It’s Gorilla Tracking Time then Moving on to Rwanda

It was 7:00AM and we were ready to track down some gorillas. We were assigned to the “R” group and broke into our group of 6. Obed, our guide, gave us the lowdown on the rules, and we ventured with him and several armed guards into the jungle. Trackers entered the jungle before us and started the hunt for the gorillas. Once located, they alerted us as to their location. Our gorillas had only moved several miles from their location the previous day (lucky as some days they can move much further).

We macheted our way off the beaten track until 1.5 hours later we came upon our magnificent gorillas. We first spotted a baby dangling from a tree, eating. He was almost doing the splits with one knee forward and the other knee behind him, each pushing against a tree, propping him up, (priceless posture) allowing him to eat with his two free hands. We then visited a breastfeeding mother with a small male lazing around beside them.

Mother gorilla nursing

Then came the moment we had all been waiting for: through the thick of the jungle we spotted the king of the jungle - a striking, astonishingly large, silverback gorilla. The silverback’s back turn silver with age and these large males are the protectors of their families.

Tragically, these gorillas are highly endangered (they make valuable, prized souvenirs) and can only be found in the hills of the Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. Each year thousands of poaching traps are removed from these parks. I was quite shocked that poaching was still such a crisis.

The silverback quickly moved on and we weren’t far behind. We pressed forward, slashing our way through the jungle, and stumbled upon the family. The silverback lay on his back in a very relaxing-looking fashion, while scratching his giant chest and belly and releasing boisterous farts. Surrounding the silverback were smaller males and females and one very active and endearing baby playing who frolicked among the group. Off to the side of us were two smaller males that seemed to be completely immersed in eating. Jamie and I were approximately 2 meters from them and they were not giving us the time of day.

Meanwhile the adults of the large group eyed us from time to time, but didn’t seem very interested in us bystanders. However, the baby seemed to almost have the courage (or curiosity) to approach us. He came halfway and then scurried back to his mother (perhaps he had been scolded about approaching these visitors at some point by her).

The baby of the family

We were about 3 meters away from the family, with some vines separating us. It is very common for a mother or silverback to charge while doing the tour, to establish their territory and we were a bit disappointed that we didn’t get to experience this. Visitors are limited to 1 hour with the gorillas and only 1 visit is permitted per day (this is to minimize the animal’s stress and exposure to disease). This was easily the quickest hour of my life. We then tracked back to our banda hut and relaxed for the remainder of the day. That night Jamie and I both came down with wicked colds and Jamie spent the night in and out of a delirious fever.

The next morning we were greeted at our door by a tarantula and then by breakfast.

We did a quick tour of the tiny village of Buhoma and picked up the odd souvenir. We joined 2 French lads in a taxi ride to the Rwandan border and were in for another ridiculous road trip. The taxi driver drove his little car although nothing other than a 4x4 should EVER attempt these roads. In total, we had to empty out of the car four times to give it a push over a bump or out of a hole. I cringed the entire time as the bottom of the car was being destroyed. The plus side of the trip was once again the stunning views - hills with farms and villages and also a large, beautiful volcano. We pulled up to the Rwandan border and waved goodbye to Uganda.

WODEF Road Trip to Same & up the Pare Mountains!

Jamie and I just landed in Moshi after spending the last few weeks gallivanting through Uganda and Rwanda. Blog updates have become few and far between and I’m going to sum up our adventures the best that I can (with the help of a few notes).

The week before we took off for Uganda we had a 2 day WODEF trip to Same (Sah-meh - the main town in the South Pare Mountains - part of the Eastern Arc Chain). We knew that we were off on our usual mission: entrepreneurship presentation and project visits. What we didn’t know was the long journey we had ahead of us to the top of the Pare Mountains!

Jamie, the GZA and I hopped on a 1.5hr bus ride and pulled into Same town and hopped right into a 4x4 jeep. We were accompanied by Mr. Stephen, the mayor of Same and the Same regional director of WODEF (what a jolly little sweet man). So we head “up the mountains” to visit our members. But first, a 2 hour drive beside Mkomazi Game Reserve and a 1.5 hour windy, dusty, and very steep ascent up to the top of one of the Pare Mountains to Mpinji village.

It was hard to imagine from the bottom of the mountain surrounded by desert that at the top of this mountain there was a luscious green, tropical, beautiful village with a thriving little community. I think it was the most remote, hidden place that we have visited to-date. We were greeted by warm smiles, fried bananas, utter generosity and undivided attention.

After lunch, we all gathered in the local church for the presentation and then proceeded outside for a little photo shoot (Tanzanians are blown away by the digital camera). We were then summoned back into the church were we were advised that the villages wanted to give “mama Kate” a gift in appreciation for our long journey. One of the mamas presented me with a beautiful black and yellow kanga topped off with a bear hug – I was touched.

Mpinji WODEF members

Jamie, the GZA and I, followed by the mob then took off through the hills to visit projects as well as take pictures for our website. The majority of the projects were ones that we have seen many times before and are now quite knowledgeable about, but there were several newbies: sugarcane shamba (farm), ginger shamba (the ginger was incredibly delicious when handpicked from the farm) and a fish shamba.

Mpinji Children

Ginger Shamba

Slicing up some sugar cane

Fish Shamba

The land was better than average and the people appeared to be very self sufficient and healthy. One of the challenges was their remoteness and vicinity to the closest town (Same). We were treated to our first piece of sugar cane – it has a soft, wood-like texture and is filled with moist pulp to be chewed for the juice (delicious). Night was approaching so we said our farewells and headed back down the bumpy mountain and back to Same for the night. Mr. Stephen generously treated us to dinner and we tucked in for the night in our lovely little guesthouse.

The next day the agenda was to present to the WODEF members in Same town, visit projects and spend the afternoon on a field trip to the local hydroelectric dam. The presentation went routinely and the projects were quite typical – main problem: capital. Same is nestled in the mountains and is a dusty, modest little town. Children play barefoot in the streets and chickens are beheaded in the backyard of restaurants – pretty much your average Tanzanian village.

Same (Sah-may) WODEF Members

Same Town

After we wrapped up our visits, we piled back into the 4x4 and took off to the hydroelectric dam. Because it is government property we were prohibited from taking photographs, but it was quite a sight. We drove to the opposite shore to take some photographs from there and visited the local fishing villages. Children shadowed us as we checked out the hollowed out canoes the fisherman use and then piled into them for a little photo shoot. We then headed back to Moshi.

That night we had drinks and played some cards with our fellow North Americans at the hostel and got ready to head to Uganda the next day.

Incubator 101.

One of the best parts of being in Tanzania is getting to enjoy new and different cultural experiences. It is this neverending pursuit of broadened perspectives that led our hostel to attend to 13th annual Miss Kilimanjaro competition. We loaded up on a couple of bottles of Konyagi (Tanzanian spirit, $3.50 for a 1/2 litre bottle) and showed up ready to roll. The competition itself was fairly lame, and seemed more like a competetion for strippers than a beauty pagent as people would come up to the stage and give the girls money as they danced. Despite this, there were quite a few good local bands who performed which salvaged the night. The highlight of the night was this fat middle aged Tanzanian in front of us, who somehow felt the need to be the only person in the audience standing up and dancing with the choreographed performance. Of course his dance moves were not in sync with the performers and he mainly just rubbed his man-breasts as if to say "Mmmmmm I should be Mr. Kilimanjaro". Many drinks and cat calls increased this mans courage to the point that he ran up on stage and started dancing with the girls. Oddly enough, nobody did anything and after a while he grew bored and went back to his seat. Only in Moshi.

The next morning we were going out to Genesis' house for our pig roast. This was our second time out to the region but our first time actually meeting his family. If there is a heaven, I would imagine it looks something like the plot of land where the Kiwelu family lives. His house is situated about 10km outside of Moshi threw fairly thick rainforest style jungle filled with black and white colubus monkeys. The family has a very nice european style home and about 2 acres of land where they grow mangos, maize, beans, berries, coffee beans, bananas, tomatoes and hot peppers. They also kept around 40 chickens, some pigs, a couple cows, and a couple bee hives for honey. We met his four kids, who are probably the kindest children we have ever met. The food was absolutely incredible, which can only be expected when everything is just fresh from the land. Everybody had an excellent day, except for a certain someone who had too much Konyagi the night before and had to make several quick exits during the afternoon to empty their stomache.




Work has been going very well the past week or so. Besides our usual visits and presentations we have also been experimenting with a couple of our American friends at the hostel building cheaper and more efficient technologies to introduce to the community. The first things built were a stove and oven which will greatly reduce fuel and woods costs for project operators who run small restaurant businesses. To celebrate our success we whipped up some batter and deep fried a Mars bar on our stove, which was sensational. The other project we are working on is building a home made incubator since about 20% of the businesses we have met are poultry keeping projects. Buying an incubator here can be really expensive (Between $500 and $800) and we found a design to make one for closer to $20 so we decided to go around and look for the parts.




We split up to cover more ground quicker but met up with our friend Jake around lunch to pick up the goods. He was very excited to tells us about this paranoid schizoprehenic who runs an electric shop where he had found most of the electrical goods we needed. Apparently the owner had cornered Jake and told him how almost every business in town was actually a drug front and everyone in town was blind to the fact except for him. He needed our help to raise awareness so we could smash these internaional drug rings. Excited to meet this man we rushed into the shop, totally unprepared for what was waiting for us.

When we got to his store the man quickly shook our hands and without wasting any further words handed us a hand written note on a piece of construction paper. The note basically said the following - We need to watch, analyze, study, and scrutinize the comings and goings of people, particularly women, who were part of an international drug smuggling operation. These drug barons were restaurants, internet cafes, jewelers, hotels, and every other business. After this he asked us where we were from, and began rambling about the followers of Aga Khan who have set up a huge drug dealing network in Canada and told us we needed to be very careful of these people. As if to pick up his claims on drug traffickers he began pulling out scores of newspaper articles, some about 2 years, about drug busts that had taken place. We thanked him for enlightening us, paid for our goods and bid him a fond farewell.

Back at home we began the process of wiring our incubator. We were using a dimmer switch, since this allows you to control the temperature of the incubator better but on our first attempt we only managed to light up the bulb without dimming. Undaunted we spliced the cables, rewired the dimmer, and taped it back together. We learned this was a bad (and dangerous) idea when there was a small explosion when we plugged the light back in. Luckily, we had bought extra wire and were able to discard the old wire and wire our light back up again. This time, the second we put the light in the socket the power in the entire house went out. Unsure if this was due to us or just a coincedence as the power had been flickering earlier we tried again in 15 minutes once the electricity was back up. Turns out it was us. We wanted to try again, but nay sayers like Katie Baglole put an end to that idea. Clearly she isn't as interested in saving Africa as we are.




Besides our heroics we have had a recent change in plans for our travel itinerary. Previously we had planned to climb Kili around the 3rd week of June but realized that they were better things we could be going with $1200 per person. This better things materialized in the form of a 2 week trip to Uganda and Rwanda. The highlight of this trip will be gorilla trekking in Bwindi national park in Uganda, where you hike through the rainforest up to a family of silverbacks and just sit and hang out with them for an hour while they go about their daily lives. We finally got in touch with both the Ugandan and Rwandan tourism boards early last week to inquire about availability. Rwanda was booked solid, and Uganda only had permits available on the 12th of June. So long story short, on 3 days notice we decided to drop everything and boot it across country for the trip. We also plan to go white water rafting at the source of the nile, spend a couple days canoeing and mountain biking on Lake Bunyoni and many other things. The whole thing just seems like much more value for the money than just climbing Kili (which I would still love to do some day).

Anyways we have a few more little stories to share, such as our recent "business trip" to Same, but are running short on time since our 26 hour bus trip leaves in a little under 2 hours.

Just Another Day in Njiapanda, TZ

Today we were visiting the Njiapanda WODEF group as part of our weekly presentation tour. The following is our day, in sequence.

-On the way out to Njiapanda our Daladala was pulled over and turns out our driver did not have a license. As he went off to pay his bribe to the local gendarme another driver materialized out of nowhere to take his place and off we went.

-After our presentation we had to go around and visit the local projects as per the norm. However today we were transported around with 20 other ladies in the back of an old pick-up truck.

- While visiting one of the projects random people kept coming up and trying to Mzungo us. Instead of politely asking them to leave us alone, the GZA threw them away. Us Mzungos are property of WODEF and the GZA is very protective.

- As we were walking to another project we came across a stage setup for a Serengeti Lager and being Mzungos we were called up on stage to sign some gigantic soccer balls, provide a few token words of wisdom on the microphone, and Katie received a marriage proposal. She said no.

- On the way back we were given the posh treatment of shotgun in the DalaDala. This is very luxurious when you consider there are 20-odd other people crammed into the back with exhaust fumes circulating. I asked the driver in Swahili if I could driver, he said not unless I had a license. I didn't see why this should matter as he probably didn't have one either.

All things considered a pretty sweet day. Combine this with the fact that we might head to La Liga tonight (prositute capital of Moshi) I think we're well ahead of the 8-ball.

We are also invited out to the GZAs house on the weekend for pork and bananas. We are very excited. If anyone has any ideas for good Tanzanian gifts to bring please let us know.

Updates Live from Tanzania

Been keeping extremely busy and journal writing has been an unfortunate casualty. Hopefully we can resurrect the journal and try and remember the past 2 weeks as best we can.

Volunteering has been very demanding to say the least. Days can range from being very good to extremely frustrating and disillusioning. On the good side of things we have started a traveling road-show trying to teach people how to start and manage their businesses. But that story starts a week earlier when we were first told by Genesis (who will hereafter be called the GZA) that we would have to give a talk to 250 people. Then the next day he told us he was going to give a presentation and we weren’t. The day after that it was hinted that we may give a talk. Anytime we tried to ask questions about the presentation we were given the standard Tanzanian answer of a pause and then a yes.

The morning of the presentation we took a white-knuckle Dala-Dala ride out to the village we were speaking at which is an hour outside of Moshi. After a quick stop into the local government and WODEF offices to sign their registers we made our way to a half built school. We could faintly hear singing as we walked into the school which grew louder as we moved towards our classroom. The singing turned to tongue clacking as we entered the classroom filled with around 100 Tanzanians. How to react to that? Do we click our tongues back? Clearly we had stepped about as far away from the classrooms at UPEI and into the furthest regions of bizzardom and possible.

The presentation was a flying success. I spoke for about an hour while Katie signed some certificates for the attendees certifying they had successfully completed a course on entrepreneurship. Afterwards we were the guests of honour at a massive feast and visited some of the local projects.

The people of the village were easily the nicest people we have met so far in Tanzania. They accompanied us to every project and waited for us while we talked to some of the project operators. One of the most touching places we went to was the local dispensary where we stayed for tea with the doctors and nuns who worked there. Their generosity knows no bounds as they often forego a months salary to provide medical assistance to local villagers who can’t afford it. Overall, the day was one of the highlights of our trip so far and an excellent lead up to safari the next day.

Safari is much better told through the pictures we have taken rather than words. We were picked up from Moshi at 6:50 by our guide Davis who took us back to Arusha and then onwards for our adventure. Our first stop was Lake Manyara, one of the smaller national parks in Tanzania but home to a varied group of animals due to its diverse habitats. A lot of the park is forests which made for some extremely close encounters with animals. The highlight of the day was bumping into 2 herds of elephants fighting in front of us and later right beside us. Everyone was a little nervous, especially our driver about making too much noise and having the aggressive giants charge us. Katie loved the baboons the most, possibly because there is a close resemblance. We came across a couple of large primate families who were completely unfazed by us. One little guy even jumped up onto the hood of our jeep and started tasting it. The park also had some very active hippos, with one guy even waddling around out of the water. The next morning we took off for the Serengeti the largest national park in Tanzania and the largest mammal population in the world. May is the perfect time to visit the park as there are around 5 million animals there, half of which are getting ready for the great migration up to Kenya. We had our first encounters with lions, one lioness even eating a zebra a few feet away from us. We camped overnight in the middle of the park and had giraffes in our campsite. We also heard a few lion calls during the night but weren’t going to venture too far out of the tent to check ! We woke up at 6 for the sunrise and took off for another 5 hours in the park before packing up and heading to Ngorongoro Crater. The crater was formed after a massive volcanic explosion millions of years ago when a mountain larger than Kilimanjaro imploded leaving behind the world’s largest crater. We camped in the extremely cold climate of the crater rim for \which none of us were prepared. We had zebras in our campsite there and an elephant came up to drink out of our water tank. The next morning we slowly descended to the crater floor to visit the amphitheatre of death. We saw some jackals hunting flamingo and 2 lions picking clean a zebra carcass but this was no where near enough for Katie’s bloodlust. Luckily for us a lioness was setting up to hunt a large pack of wildebeest and zebras and we had front-row seats. It was very good drama, somehow the animals sensed the lion and began stampeding off in a new direction. Everyone in the jeep was rooting for the zebras and wildebeest to get away except for Katie who was out for blood. It wasn’t meant to be though and the animals got away….. for now. Later on in the day we saw 3 black rhinos (1 of which was a baby) which was very impressive considering there is only 21 left in the world. We left the trip extremely satisfied except for Katie who was hoping to hunt the rhinos for their horns. Her thirst for blood is only matched by her hunger for ivory.

Ok, I’ll take it away from here. As Jamie mentioned, the safari was a once in a lifetime, unbelievable, almost surreal experience.

On Tuesday we were back to the real world and back to work with WODEF. After the success of Thursday’s presentation, we were in high demand – the GZA lined up another presentation for Thursday and 3 for next week. Tuesday we had an office day and we prepared for our presentation and tried to make some leeway with our website (we’re trying to get a website up and running for WODEF to give them a voice abroad and to provide information to potential volunteers). We spent the remainder of the day wandering through Moshi and had our Swahili lesson that evening.

Wednesday morning we were invited to Mwanga where the villagers were putting on a traditional dance (everyday is a surprise at WODEF!). The dance was really cool – 3 male drummers sitting in the middle of a circle while they were danced around. The chairman of the Mwanga group was translating their song to us which was about the dangers of HIV. One of WODEF’s initiatives is to educate it’s members on the dangers of HIV.

We then visited several projects in the area. I had been on the hunt for fabric to have a kanga made (Africa makeshift skirt) and one of the women sold just the item as a project. I found the perfect fabric and I think that it will hold a fond memory of our visit. We then met the African superwomen – the next project was operated by a woman and went something like this: gather giant rocks from the mountains (approx. 1km away), carry rocks via buckets on her head back to home, smash rocks fearlessly with lead pipe (bare hands) into gravel, and repeat. We were blown away by this little mighty Tanzanian woman. She took a special liking to me and actually told me that she loved me – I don’t think there is actually a word in the English language to describe how sweet these people are. We then went next door and met another woman operating the same project. Again, we were impressed. We were then informed that she had given birth the previous day and had actually worked up until she gave birth. They were amused at my utter SHOCK and awe and simply said – well, we gotta eat! We were then given a feast (fried fish, fried bananas, avocado – the usual). I actually think that if I eat one more fried banana I will turn into a fried banana. They taste like potatoes by the way. So we wrapped up our visit in Mwanga and headed back to Moshi.

Yesterday we were off to a very remote village called Kahe – most treacherous dala ride to-date. Because it was headed to such a small village we got a tiny dala. The combination of giant potholes and a low ceiling left poor Jamie with big headache by the time we arrived. The dala was the most packed we’ve seen it and 2 guys actually sat on the roof. Halfway there the man on the roof dropped his baskets so we had to stop and wait while he ran back to get them and we were off again. I thought the only thing that could complete the picture would be some poultry. Low and behold, there was a woman sitting in front of us with a chicken in her bag. So we finally arrived in Kahe and we were greeted by the group members and a girl named Jennifer that would be our translator (she is also the teacher at the school). First stop – village school. Typically when we encounter Tanzanian children, they are over the hills with excitement – can’t get enough of us. These children didn’t really even smile when they saw us.

They welcomed us with a song that they had prepared for us. The translator then told us that there were singing about their needs and deprivations (chalk, food, water, a building that didn’t have walls made of cardboard, etc.).

I was a bit shocked and taken aback. But this was the poorest community we had met by a long shot. The children were quite sullen and a handful of them had very bloated little bellies and probably had severe worms which was heartbreaking.

The people were literally in the middle of nowhere and their land doesn’t have much to offer. Ok so we then started with our presentation. Our translator (Jennifer) made it to grade 8 in Kenya so spoke minimal English – this made for a very frustrating presentation. Also, it was very difficult to give these people advice as what they really need is outside support – to get our of their poverty they would need a helping hand. We then went around the community to visit projects and as per usual, were treated to lunch compliments of the local Pastor. The people were absolutely fascinated by my digital camera and we had a couple photoshoots. The women there were especially fond of me (see picture of women swarming / grabbing me) – they were awesome.

After our long day of mixed emotions we headed back to Moshi. Somehow our 30km trip took 1h30 minutes and we sat in the back of the dala breathing in petrol fumes the entire way. Lastnight we went out for dinner with the hostel gang and had some much needed beers and foosball. Today we are taking the day off and go back in tomorrow and Saturday.