Tunasafiri Tarangire National Park!

Things have been great in the little village of Bangata, but the rainy season started early...which makes for a lot of mud. The river that we cross to get to school every day flooded, which made for an interesting trek (luckily no one got too wet).

I'm a little sad to leave my family...but it will be nice to get some more food variety and not have to stuff myself at everyyy meal out of politeness. Last night my whole family gathered around me as I was attempting to do my Swahili homework by kerosene lamp...they found my Swahili songbook and we sang every song together. After, they made me teach them some English songs..."row row row your boat" and "this old man" were all I could think of. But it was a great evening.

My mama taught me to milk our family cow yesterday. I probably collected a whole tablespoon full of milk...mama got about a gallon.

We spotted about 5 chameleons on the rose plants at school the other day. We even witnessed a chameleon fight which ended in one of them falling about six feet to the ground...luckily he didn't seem phased by the fall. We picked him up and put him on my tie-dye shirt, hoping he would turn tie-dye colored. No luck...big surprise.

Through luck of the draw I made it into the "elephant group"...meaning I get to spend every morning of safari following and studying elephants! Wish me luck.

Karibu Nyumbani Kwa Mama na Baba Winnie

I'm five days in to my three-week homestay in a little village of Bangata and so far so good. Bangata is located at the base of Mt. Meru. My homestay family is great! My baba is a vet for Maasai cows (awesomeeee) so he is gone during the week. I have three host siblings: Winnie is 14, Godlove is 10 and Mike is 5. They've been teaching me Swahili card games, showing me off to their friends and having a grand old time taking pictures with my camera. And my host mama is so nice...she is so patient with my Swahili skills, patiently teaches me to cut fruits and vegetables directly in my hand (I've only sliced my thumb once so far...I really don't know how they do it), and doesn't laugh at me tooo much when I struggle at doing laundry by hand. We also have a cow named Zawadi ("present" in Swahili)...which I can't wait to learn how to milk.

Every day we have Swahili class from 8-1 and in the afternoon we play soccer, ultimate frisbee and attempt to study. Despite having already taken this Swahili class last semester, I'm learning a lot. Alright, enough for now. I'll try to post pictures when I can...





So this is my Swahili classroom...jealous?
We made guacamole for our Swahili teachers...tamu sana!

Dada Winnie, Mama, na Kaka Mike

Mike and my neighbor, Veronica (I'm not sure why Mike makes this face in every photo...)

I made it to Arusha safe and sound after a six-day orientation out in the bush. We went straight from the airport to Ndarakwai nature reserve where we camped in the valley between Mt. Meru and Mt. Kilimanjaro. We hiked around the area...saw elephants, lions, wildebeast, zebra, and buffalo and learned to identify birds. We visited a Maasai boma and learned about their increadibly interesting culture. We attended a Lutheran church service where I was asked to give a small speech (in Swahili!!) thanking the congregation for hosting us...eek! And every night we go to watch the sunset behind Meru. (And my Zanzibari friends were right...it IS cold at night here.) And we did lots of other things but I am running out of time at the internet cafe. Unfortunately the SIT office here doesn't have internet...so all of my blogging will have to be from internet cafes...which means 1. I probably wont get to post pictures very often and 2. I probably won't get to post very often in general.

We have a few days to explore Arusha and have Swahili classes before we start our 3-week homestay in Bangata - a small town outside of Arusha.