Going on Safari

I've already talked a little about this, but wanted to share a few of the pictures and stories. I had the privilege of going on safari with the Students at Uroki Secondary School. My plane landed in Tanzania Tuesday evening around 9:00 p.m. We went to bed around 12:30 that night. I had to get up at 5:30 a.m. to go on the school tour. I woke up to pouring rain. I was so worried about how we were going to get off the mountain. Guess what, I had good reason to be worried. The bus was stuck at least 5 times and a total of 1 1/2 hours. The students and villagers all had to push. It was a horrible mess. We finally got out of the mud by a homemade banana leaf rope and a truck. I was so surprised that no one got run over of smushed in the process.

You may have already heard that there were 46 people on the bus. I counted the seats and there were 24 seats... and that includes the driver. It was so horribly crowded. We had luggage on our laps, students on students laps. Many people had to stand up for hours at a time. It was definitely a new experience for me.

Our safari was three days long. We went to three places. Lake Manyara, Nongorongoro Crater, and Tarengeri. Our driver was a bus driver and not a safari driver. We had to yell at him to stop if we ever saw an animal. We were so packed in the bus that only the people on the side the animal was on could see the animal. I got to where if someone said there's an animal, I would just pass back my camera and ask the students to take a picture of it for me.

I wouldn't change this safari experience for anything. I learned so much about the students and the country by going with natives of the country. Even though I enjoyed the safari, I still enjoyed the people more.

Click here to see a video of two impala fighting... or play fighting.