Kilimanjaro

Well...this morning we will set off for Kilimanjaro. 6 days on the mountain, should be great. I'll have pictures from the last week and an update for you when we get back.

To the summit!! Brittany

Friday, May 30th 2008...Finally...CHEETAH!!

This morning's 6am drive came wa to early...but there was excitement in the air as we loaded up. It was till dark and Madili was urging us into the Rover so that we could be the lead car. We actually ended up being the 3rd. When the first car saw a cheetah cross the road, he swerved around the 2nd and got us right us on it. It was a small female and she was beautiful. The lead car raced off, but we slowly crept forward and Madil was able to spot 2 more in the grass watching our car. We waited and they jogged across the road only about 10 feet from the jeep. SO AWESOME!! They were watching a herd of gazelle, but the way they were sitting also made them look like they were just enjoying the beautiful sunrise along with all of us. There were a total of five they were smaller, Madil said they looked like cubs that had just been forced out on their own. It is a good mother that can have 5 cubs survive. I was speechless for the whole interaction and I know these guys are by far my favorite of all of Africa. They walk so lightly and have so much speed and power in their bodies, it's astounding.

We drove around some more looking for leopard and we never did find them, however we did see jackals and some more of the various grazers. A quick breakfast and we were on the road for the 8 hour drive back to Moshi. It is really weird for us to see sights that we recognize in Tanzania, but some of these places we have passed multiple times. These long car rides are always the best chance to get to know one another and I have loved getting to know all of the people on the trip!!

When we got back to Springlands Hotel, we had a grand welcome and a very large dinner. it was amazing. Before we hit the bed, I spotted some climbers that had just come dow from Kili and I thought I would ask them for some advice. They were 6 Irish guys that had travelled for the holiday and they were all successful in their trek. Good to know, they said it was cold, tiring, but amazing...so I am very excited. Well...it's late, I've been up all day. I need to rehydrate and start resting for this new adventure that awaits... Until Tomorrow.

Also...I will be trying to upload photos soon! miss ya'll Britt

Thursday, May 29th... SIMBA!

I couldn't sleep last night knowing that I am in the middle of one of the best game parks and that I'll get a chance to see all of the animals that I have been obsessed with since it was little. Driving out of our hotel to the main roads of the parks we saw the usual grazers of impala, gazelle and zebra. However, one awesome sight before we made our first turn was a herd of elephant. There were 11 adult females with 7 calves. One was small enough to walk underneath her mother's belly. They were marching just like the Jungle Book across the road about 6 feet from the front of our jeep. There massive bodies gave me chills, thankfully they're grazers too.

There was an awesome herd of Zebra that had been at the watering hole and were walking to the shade. They had to cross the path in front of us and they got spooked and started a mini stampede. Listening to their barks and hoofs thundering was straight off of Planet Earth.

A fun giraffe moment was watching it drink. He had to bend awkwardly to get far enough to get to the water. This is really rare because the giraffe are so vulnerable with their head down. Around that same watering hole were two female lions lounging in a dead tree for the morning. Just cat napping.

We went to another pond and saw the most disguting hippo pond ever. We could only stand the smell for about 3 minutes then we left to see the biggest croc I've ever seen. It had just finished eating a junvenile hippo so it's belly was huge too.

Ther mission for the day was to find lions close up, cheetah, and leopard. Well we were lucky enough to see those two lionesses at the water, then two more walking and lying in a bush, and one more watching a herd of very nervous zebra. After 5 lionesses we were ready to see the real simba. Wouldn't you know it, our driver, Madil was able to happen upon a lioness and her accompanying male. We saw another pair relaxing together too. In the heat of the day all these guys do is nap. But I would too if I only ate once or twice a week. The huge male with his beautiful flowing mane demanded repsect and awe. It was so great! The cutest picture that I got today was anothe lioness sleeping in a tree. She was hugging the branch with her face smashed against it too. I just wanted to climb up there and lay with her. When we came into this park we were so excited for lions and so happy to see as manuy as we did. We continued to drive around looking for the other cats, and ended up seeing another lioness resting on a huge rock, and two juvenile males that were celebrating after they just brought down a wildebeast. They were tackling each other in the grass and prancing around with mud all over them, too cute.

The cheetah and leopard eluded us even on our drive back to the lodge. This was doubly frustrating because one car of people in our group had seen 5 cheetah the first night. It was the car with my fav driver, madil and it was the only day I hadn't ridden with him. I made him promise we would see one and that I could get a cub to take home. His response "if you can catch it, you can keep it" I'm up for the challenge.

We made it all the way back to the lodge and saw some awesome hyenas, giraffe, and elephants, but the cats were nowhere to be found. Tomorrow's our last chance.

We ate a great dinner and celebrated having Heinz ketchup. I was lucky enough to get some cell service and got to hear some much needed voices. Sometime I think that may make me more home sick, but only two more weeks until I'm stateside!

This was by far my favorite day of the trip. There are enough positive words to explain all of the emotions of the day. I have dreamed about seeing these things for almost 20 years and I'm so happy and thankful for this experience.
We have a 6am drive tomorrow and the animals are normally more active at sunrise, so I'm off to bed. Until tomorrow's 10 hour car ride back to Moshi.

I miss you all, Britt

Wednesday, May 28th...Cradle of Life

another misty morning with a chill in the air at the top of the gorge. Sitting in the rover for our 7 hour drive to the serengeti was not the first thing on my wish list. So I was happy to hear that we had three pit stops at sites on the way. Our first stop was Oldupai gorge which some call the "cradle of life". They call it that because of old minkey man fossils that they have found here. The anthropologists on the trip died when they saw the old bones, tools, and footprints. Our next stop was a real Masai boma. When our cars pulled up the wives were working in the yard and they sent some of the children to get the husband who was tending the cattle. They took us into their huts to show us how they live, and they let us play with their baby goats (some if the cutest little things I've ever seen). The final pit stop was at a sand dune called Shifting Sands. It moves over 100 meters a year! The sand came from a local volcano and it is really dark. Some of the particles are magnetic, so we had fun playing with them.

Now the drive to the largest wildlife park in Africa. After such an amazing say at the gorge, I thought it would be tough to top. But, the giraffe came through in the clutch. They are my favorite animal to see up close. They are awkward and beautiful and graceful all at the same time. I love their long limbs and how calculated every step seems to be. So awesomely gorgeous. The rest of the drive consisted of gazelle and other grazers, nothing out of the ordinary because we weren't even in the park.

When we did finally get to the sopa hotel here in Serengeti. We took showers and went to a great meal with tribal entertainment. My favorite moment though was watching some gazelle graze about 10 feet away from our room's balcony. This hotel is truly nestled in the thick of things.

Until tomorrow, waiting for another chance to see some big cats... Britt

Tuesay, May 27th... Wildlife Retirement Home

We packed our land rovers and headed into the brisk morning as the clouds wrapped the road in a misty fog. The jungle lined the road, but off to our left was a steep drop off into the Ngorongoro crater, our destination for the day. We dropped our bags at the new hotel ( the Sopa, a 5 star suprise from Mama Zara).

We popped the tops to the rovers and headed for the gorge eager for the animals ahead. Our first encounter was a family of baboons playing in the misty trees on the side of the gorge. We jostled and jolted our way down the rim of the crater to the plains. This caldera is a huge protected area of about 100 sq. miles. Lion King songs were repeating in my head as we drove in search of Pride Rock. Wandering in the grasses were huge herds of cape buffalo, wildebeast, and Thompson's gazelle. One cool moment was when we drove by all of the buffalo lying and chilling in the grass. Douglas started playing his African drum and they all stood up and stared right at our car. We were hoping they enjoyed the music, not sure though. We didn't stick around to ask. My personal favorite of the grazing animals were the zebra. The foals were born in Dec. So now they are 6 months old and still in their adorable awkward and fuzzy stage. Their brown baby strips are just too cute. We ate lunch at a watering hole that was full of hippos, but when you get close they smell pretty bad. We had to eat inside of the jeeps because the local birds are known to dive bomb your hands for food.

Many in the group loved the huge male elephant that walked by about 15 meters from the jeep. They say this crater is the retirment home because a lot of the older animals move here where predators are scarce. Some other really cool animals that we saw were warthogs and the much larger "cousin" the black rhino. The rhino mom had her calf with her so we were lucky to see 2 of the 20 rhinos that live in this park. We drove up on a sleepy hyena who had just taken a mud bath. I thought he wasn't alive until he peeped his head up to check us out. I felt bad that the rover woke him up.

A shocking experience was seeing osrtiches crossing the plains, I had forgotten that they lived in Africa... They looked neat though. I guess people just forget about birds because there are so many. Speaking of birds...we saw a couple thpusand pink flamingos in a lake in the cebter of the caldera. The sheer number of animals is overwhelming. Another cool bird that we saw was the Cory Bustard, the world's largest flying bird. I wish I would have seen lions closer. We saw two males at the top of a hill relaxing in the shade of an acaia. I'm crossing my fingers that we will be closer in the coming day.

The wildflowers in the grasses were so increduble. As the breeze whipped through the plants and over the rover, the aroma swept me away. This is the first time I have smelled that "fresh wildflower" scent.

After a long day of wildlife spotting (it felt like a treasure hunt), I was ready for a break at the hotel. Windburned and sunburned we were ready to chilax and watch the sunset. It slowly rolled onto the rim of the gorge and slipped behind the clouds, a perfect ending to a breathtaking day. Miss ya'll. From the safari world, Britt

Monday May 26th... Camels! And Other Travel adventures

Today we flew from Zanzibar to Arusha then drove 4 hours to a new hotel near the game parks.

When we got to the airport, we had to wait (shocker, I know... More about that later). Then we got into out plane, it was more like a 14 passenger tin can but I was loving it! Chris was our co-pilot for the flight. The only casualty was an eagle who hit our wing as we were landing. Better the wing than the prop (a lot more cleanup for the prop). Eish. We were sfae though, which is always good.

On our drive we made a pit stop with 3 attractions. First, camel rides! They were so awesome and awkward. I was full of fear and joy as Connor's camel trotted next to mine and threatened to spit. The long face is kinda cute in an ugly goofy sort of way. Second, the reptile park. Equipped with two pythons who have actually eaten people and enough cobras to kill our whole tour... I was loving the danger! We held a olive snake, but he was small. I also held a baby croc (Trying to make the Erwin family proud). It was tough to be nice to a gator, but I sucked it up. Third was the Masai museum. There were creepy wax figures that depicted everyday life, but I learned a lot about their culture. A couple practices have me rethinking this Masai wife thing...I'll let you look that up on you own.I'll say it's this: When the women get married they wear a long chain around their neck, how fitting.

That was it for traveling today. When we got to the hotel we ate and celebrated Bryan's 22nd birthday. The hotel brought in traditional dancers and they pulled me into the circle to dance. My Masai partner and I put on quite a show, I owe eveything to the Loft...haha.

Now to random thought from Zanzibar...they tell us to report on what we think would make businesses run better. First, power (electricity) a basic necessity that cannot be trusted on this island. Evry store, hotel, and restaurant has a generator and they are relying on it for power 90 percent of the time. It's a tough life to run a restaurant where the fridge won't work or to sell clothes to people trying them on in the dark. They make due with candles. But we had to take a lot of fabric out in the sun to see the real colors. Service/ Time Management: I've heard of beach time but people her take that to the extreme. We actually napped at the tables while waiting for our lunch and one night for dinner took 2 hours to cook 3 burgers. Their hospitality is great, but they need to increase speed to keep business flowing in and out.

Enough ranting... I want to tell you about the highlight of my day. As our Land Rover at away miles of African savannah, the huge orb of the sun slowly snak into the horizon. it cast colors of deep red,peach, and pale yellow across the sky. The grayish pale blue slowly lingered across our natural ceiling and the mountains shone with a mistyy purple. Still no pictures for now, I'm sorry. As the Lion King sun set into the west, I saw the plains lightly salted with acacia trees and scattered Masai huts. The people were gathering theor cattle in for the night. This was the Africa I imagined and I couldn't have created it any better in my dreams.

It is amazing how that 15 minutes can make your day perfect, no matter where you are in the world.

Until the next sunset: Britt

Sunday, May 25th... Monkeys!

This morning we derove out into the Jozani monkey forest. These guys were incredible, swinging and jumping from branch to branch. Dive bombing and tackling one another to the ground. A small group of us snuck off and got one of them to eat out of our hands. That was pretty cool! We also went into a mangrove forest that has protected the island of Zanzibar from hurricanes. The mud was covered with odd looking fiddler crabs that were very interested in Douglas's gum that he spit out.

Our lunch was at Paje beach. The beach is protected by a reef about a mile from the shore. This creates a shallow area of beautifully crystal clear water with a green glow. The shallows are also perfect for growing seaweed farms. (A moment of nostalgia... For those of you that counted starfish on Lady Elliot Island in Australia, the seaweed lesson was all too familiar... Enough said)

After lunch the girls pulled beach chairs down onto the sand and rested our feet in the warm tropical water. The boys decided they would walk out to the reef. As a summer shower rolled in, the boys that actually made it out to the reef were too far to make it back. So they were taxied in by some local fishermen. Boys will be boys.

We drove back to stone town and I took some more girls to get henna from the friends I had made the day before. They were ecstatic to have the business. We set off to eat dinner and chose a balcony table overlooking the ocean and the setting sun. The ocean was so peaceful without any waves as the fishermen steered their boats with canvas sheets as sails back to shore.

I'm a bulldawg through and through, but today's sunset put it to the test. The sky was painted the most beautiful shades of... Dare I say it... Orange and blue. Reminded me of my days growing up singing War Eagle. Luckily though those colors were surpassed by a moving Red that was eventually overtaken by the Black night sky. What a mixture of insane colors! I wish a picture could show you, but it won't do justice. Miss you all... Until next time! B

Saturday afternoon, May 24th... Tattoos?

When leaving the internet cafe yesterday, Mandy and I were intercepted by an Emily Evert on a mission. We were now going to the old portugese stone fort for a special suprise. As we walked in, two ladies royally welcomed us and beckoned for us to come to their art shop. They were exactly who we were looking for.

They poured some black powder into an old fanta orange bottle cap and with a few quick flicks of a toothpick... Boom! Henna. All 3 of us got patterns on our feet. Wait parents before you freak, henna tatoos are temporary and will only last a few weeks.

As we were sitting there letting our feet dry and eatong passionfruit with our new friends, Connor wandered into the fort with a new friend as well. He had met a local who offered him Swahili lessons, but when Connor told him we were leaving soon, he became Connor's personal tour guide of stone town.

For dinner, we drove to a beach on a different part of the island. The girls decided that we would all wear the new African garb that we had bought that day. I felt much more official, more like that person that has moved to the island and actually fits in. As we ate out on the sand surrounded by tiki torches, you could hear the Indian Ocean waves crashing beside us. What a moment. I star gazed for a bit and nature's beauty just overwhelmed me. Til Tomorrow. Britt

Saturday, May 24th 2008...SCUBA!!!

Sunset over the ocean...ridiculous

After a quick trip to the dive shop. We went back to the hotel to jump in the pool to refresh on using our masks, snorkels, and fins. As we watched the sunset from the beach in front of our hotel, the local kids started playing in the ocean. Here the boys are helping bury one of the locals. Kevin Shapiro was a hit with them because he would flip them off his shoulders and into the water. The girls took our sunset pics...Addie, Me, Emily Dennis and Mandy.
Then I caught Joe Turrentine for his debut in the blog
And Chad got his typical surrounded by girls pic...anyways, the water was beautiful and so was the lighting so we went crazy. We headed to another hotel, the Serena and ate our "ball out" meal of the trip. The white table cloths set the mood as I ordered lobster stuffed chicken...AWESOME. And Leah, they had Goats Du Rome, so good!! With a full belly, I quickly gave in to sleep that was full of dreams for our next adventure...SCUBA!!


After a hearty breakfast, a mixed group of Maymester students and our ILA group donned our wet suits and headed for the reef. Here we are (no guy skin on skin action, always good)

The dive boat looked abit scary, but the service was more than we could have hoped for. We went down in 4 small groups of 5. It was so beautiful.
Douglas and Shannon learned to dive in the resort pool yesterday and decided to join us..I was pumped to spread the obsession with even more people.
Me and My dive buddy Joe, who is now in the blog alot. First dive and we're OK!!

Words can't descirbe how beautiful it was down there. There were rolling hills of coral reef and we got to see a shipwreck on our second dive. It was an ironsided boat that had run aground in 1901, the anchor and alot of the pieces still remained. For those of you who are not fish people, I will put this in Nemo terms for you. The Morrish Idol...the yellow and black "bad" fish is everywhere here and their long fin just flows in the water. I watch anemone and clownfish "Nemo" for alot of the time too. We saw moray eels, lionfish, stingrays, angelfish, damselfish, and everything else you can imagine. The mix of brain coarl, antler coral, and even coral that looks like lettuce shows how much life is under the sea, and how much more of the world there is for me to see!!

I am being pushed off the computer...until tomorrow. I miss you all!!! SCUBA Britt (It's not Steve, but it's close)

Friday, May 23rd 2008...Spices!

Well...as you can tell by the cute little sailboats, we're still in Zanzibar. Today was devoted to finding out more about their spice trade roots. Our first stop though, was at the 3rd Sultan's other residence. He had that House of Wonders for he and his 4 legal wives, but he also had a huge palace for his 99 concubines. They each even had their own toliets. Talk about luxury. The palace had running water and aqueducts that brought it in from miles away.
Caught Dot in the candid photo. That's tough to do with a photog that is always on the lookout.
The palace had these decorative pools around the perimeter and now the locals use them as bathing pools and to wash clothes. There are lilly pads growing in them, so we weren't inclined to even dip our hands in.

Addie and Dave in deep convo...actually probably discussing cameras :-)
About half of the group...we were waiting since our guide, Jihad, walks so speedily through all of the museum and palace. Now off to the spice farm. That was amazing...a mix of many different smells. Our guide would crush up the leaves and have us guess. We went 0-8 I think. There was cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon grass, lavendar, cloves. They also had a variety of fruits growing like starfruits and coconuts.
Here is Chad painted with the "war paint" I couldn't understand the name of the plant but they kept calling it "lipstick." It is some red pigmented plant that is native to South America. Marlee and I played with it in Ecuador.
Speaking of Coconuts...this was a trip. A guy that called himself the butterfly...climbed up the coconut tree and did a performance for us. He was singing and striking poses. He even swung is legs out to the side and made it look like he was sitting in a chair off the side of the tree.


The only support that he had came from a rope tied around his feet. How strong. He threw down about a dozen coconuts to us and cut them up for us to try.
Dave drinking some fresh coconut juice.
Em Dennis getting her fill too. The men would drain the extra milk then cut the pulp for us to eat. It wasn't that bad..i'm not a huge fan of coconut, so I'm a pretty harsh critic.
I broke down and finally tried it. :-) After the spice tour we headed back to the hotel to change and go grab some lunch. After our crab pasta, a group of us decided to hit the beach for some rays. While we were walking, we passed a group of kids playing soccer...we couldn't resist.

I've been told in the past that soccer was a communist sport...I disagree. I feel its an ambassadorial thing, kinda like smiling and laughing. Everyone understands it and everyone likes it. It is definitely the easiest way to connect with people of other cultures.

We're off to the dive shop to get ready for tomorrow. Until next time, I miss you all. Be safe. Check out the group blog at www.UGAinTZ2008.blogspot.com

Britt

Thursday, May 22nd...ZANZIBAR!!!!!

That sign right there says it all "Welcome To Zanzibar" Our first little taste of paradise.
6am came way to early this morning and it was hard going to load up on the Ferry headed ot of town. Here is a shot of Dar from the sea...the Cathedral demands respect in the skyline. And the hge cargo ships dot the harbor. I really have missed the sea.

As we pulled away from the dock...Mama Moshi reminded us why we had to be there so early. This is rush hour and there are only a couple boats...these were all of the people waiting in line behind us. The owner of the Ferry company came around to shake hands with the whole group...then he led us to the front of the line and on to the boat.
Enjoying the sun...I guess the early hours kept it from being too hot. The spray from the splashes of the boat were a nice break from the heat...although we got off feeling pretty sticky from the salt.
Reaching Zanzibar was like finding an oasis in the desert. The beautiful white beaches and inviting trees screamed for us to come and lounge beneath them.
This is Chris's debut in the blog...I gave him mercy from too many pictures because of the skin allergy...but he's a sport and he's totally rocking the Neo shirt from The Matrix.
Their boats here are soo cute... The little shade on it reminds me of something I would see in Venice or something. It is like stepping back into the days of Spice Trade here on the island.

I think doors like this are my favorite part of this island. It shows the Islamic and Persian influence on the architecture. They are very muslim here...there were Sultans and great Arabian stables at the palace. These carved wooden doors are plated with brass ornaments and ornately decorated with beautiful scenes. They are at the front of every nice business or church. These are the ones to enter our hotel...the Dhow Palace.
From inside of our courtyard if you look up, the beautiful wooden balconies luminate the wall. There is stained glass decorated in all of the windows. These balconies overlook this lucious pool.
Those stone "thrones" at the end feel very C.S Lewis ish.

Our next stop was the market. We walked through and checked out vegetables and fruits, meats, fish, and of course....SPICES!!
These chiles were so tasty looking and the colors were awesome.

The greatest shock for me is to see the difference with the men and the women here. The men are very westernized and look just like American citizens. The women still wear full garb of shawls and wraps. It just looks unnatrual.

Our next stop was a church built in the 1870s. They built the church over the last slave yard to ever be open in Africa. The high alter is actually placed over the "whipping pole" where they put slaves. As they beat them, the less they complained, the higher the price was. The cathedral was beautiful but unfortunately was not in the best shape. You can't really tell in this picture but the exterior was gross and black in some places.
Our final tour destination was the House of Wonders. This was the house of the 3rd Sultan of Zanzibar. It was called the House of Wonders because it was the first house in Africa to have electricity, running water, and even an elevator. The three story mansion was unbelievable. I definitely missed my calling to be a princess in Zanzibar.
The view from the top of the house is breathtaking in every direction...it is no wonder why the Sultan lived there. The view over the stables looked out like this and I laughed as I looked out that direction.

This picture is a perfect description of what Zanzibar is. It is a mix of Christian and England (note the steeple) Muslim and the Middle East (note the mosque)... historical buildings (note the red roof of the stables from the 1860s)...and the modern (note the satellite on the roof). This is such a melting pot and full of many different cultures!

I am now having to rely on internet cafes, so although it is 4 I am done for the day with the blog. The rest will be up for tomorrow. I apologize, but this is the only way I can keep pictures coming.

From the beautiful beaches of Zanzibar, (insert Jack Black song here)

Brittany

Wednesday, May 21st 2008... The President is Always Watching

Dave in his usual Hairy Dawg pose

Another morning in Zanzibar, but we are encouraged that today is our last day to wear professional clothes. Finally no more struggling to look like the heat is not bothering us at all as we struggle to hold all of our sweat in and elbow near the AC units in every room.

The other encouraging moment was opening the doors to our rooms and letting the national newspaper fall into our laps. As you open it up to page two...there is a huge picture of Reginald Mengi and all of our students listening intently to his lecture. Nice to know that the American got positive press here. We were also featured on the 8pm and 10pm national television news. Practically celebrities I guess, both of our speakers referenced it when we met with them today. The link to the paper if you want to check it out is: www.ippmedia.com/ipp/guardian/2008/05/21/114830.html

Our first stop was at the Tanzanian Investment Center. Here they explained to us the various sectors of Tanzanian economy that foreigners can invest in including mining and tourism. You have to have a minimum investment of $250,000. Land here cannot be owned, it can only be leased from the government for a maximum of 99 years. The only person that can revoke those leases is the President...that would be a real hassle for him, so most people get to keep the land even if they are not using it for they said they would.

Speaking of the President. Pres. Kikwete is a bit creepy. Not as a man, but in the way that they portray him around the country. This picture hangs in every building that we have ever been in here. So weird, it's like he's always watching...eish. I feel like they have secret cameras in all of the pictures so they can make sure that nothing sketchy is going on in any building. It is an odd fascination, must be carry over from the socialist background.

We loaded in the bus and drove out to Bagamoyo. This is a lesser known place and it is a real shame. We ate at the Paradise Holiday Resort and met with the owner to learn about business ownership and the hospitality sector. This hotel was beautiful...set on the beach and equipped with a bunch of little tiki huts. I would totally want to come back here and stay if I ever come back to the coast of TZ. Bagamoyo means to lay down your heart...it was the old gateway to East Africa...all of the European Explorers and Christian Missions and Persian settlers came through this port.

After hearing him, I think that hospitality would be such an amazing business. Making people happy for a living sounds awesome. How rewarding...plus you own a resort that is straight up on the beach. Maybe I can open one in like Costa Rica or something. That would be so ballin. He also gave us some inspirational thoughts that supported the believing in yourself and having confidence to take calculated risks without being careless. Also he talked about the value of being prepared so that when luck walks up to you, you are ready to strike!
I went and sat in their massage chair in one of the huts and just chilled out for a minute...it was like a little piece of heaven here in Tanzania. My back is still getting used to these mattresses down here. After an amazing meal with fajitas, pastas, desserts...we were hardly ready to hit the road. We headed for a walk down the beach and then finally drug our feet as we loaded up on the bus. The food in the past couple of days has been light years better than the first week and a half. I guess it is because we are eating with some of the country's wealthiest. I like keeping company like this!!

I fell asleep back on the bus, but before I did we had some great times. One, our AC went out so we opened windows and took in the African dirt roads. Two, we decided to play karaoke and sing every song that we could remember the words too. Despite our lack of pitch or rhythm, no one jumped out of the bus...so it was a success.

The return to the hotel was glorious as we all collapsed in our air conditioned rooms. We went out to greet the Maymester students who have just returned from archaeological ruins in Kilwa, 8 hours to the south. We all chilled out by the pool with some drinks and enjoyed the restful afternoon as it faded into dusk and evening. Another routine dinner, but the next adventure was the Premiere League Championship...Chelsea vs. Manchester United. I am glad that I get to watch soccer in yet another foreign country. They just take it so much more seriously. Tomorrow is going to come very early...we have to board our ferry at 7pm and leave the hotel at 6am. ugh.

It's amazing to think about how much your life can change in one year. Last year today, I was sitting in the stands cheering the Tennis Dawgs to their National Championship title as Omi let that volley go over his head and out on court 4. I was also planning to fly out the next day to Peru to meet Marlee on Macchu Picchu. Amazing how one year later I am on a completely different continent and about to head to the top of yet another mountain. It has been quite a year...from NCAA's to Vandy's practice field and funny faces, to Blackout vs. Auburn, to beating FL, to Sugar Bowl, to Antarctica, Gatlinburg :-), Galapagos, Athens nights at Foley, the prep party at Lumpkin House, French Maid, Singing Whitney Houston and Akon, living in the house for a whole nother year, running to the buses at Pappy's, leaning on a truck's trailer ball, Robert specials, and lots of raspy voices...and now Africa. Junior year really was complete! Thanks for all of you who made all of those memories possible.

Sorry for the nostalgia...A couple of shout outs...

UGA MEN's TENNIS!!!! NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!!! Back To Back!! So Awesome guys...good luck in individuals.

Also, Baseball gears up in the SEC tourney against Ole Miss tonight. And Michael's surgery went well.

Miss ya'll...can't wait to hear from you!

Brittany