Tanzania Summer 2008

Uhuru

2008-06-06T09:40:00.000-07:00

For those of you that are worried...I'm alive..and yes, I made it to the summit. I'm wiped today...but more to come for sure...I love you. Pictures from the last 10 days are on their way!!

Britt

btw...so proud of the comeback dawgs beating those nerds!

Kilimanjaro

2008-05-31T21:59:00.000-07:00

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!!

2008-05-31T06:51:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-05-30T04:38:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-29T11:55:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-28T15:26:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-27T14:42:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-05-27T14:01:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-05-27T13:43:00.001-07:00

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!!!

2008-05-24T06:51:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-05-23T04:38:00.000-07:00

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!!!!!

2008-05-22T05:01:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-21T08:35:00.000-07:00

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

Tuesday, May 20th 2008..."American Soil" and Tanzania's Ted Turner

2008-05-20T06:12:00.000-07:00

Today's events started at the US Embassy and we all celebrated as we touched "American soil" again. They had clean bathrooms and it was such a great change from the last couple of days. It is amazing what you get homesick for. Ambassador Green eagerly met with us and it was so nice to finally hear American English again without having to decipher through a Tanzanian accent. He talked about what Americans have been doing in the country as far as aid and health programs. The US is the largest donor to TZ (over $660 billion) and thanks to American efforts against Malaria ( PMI, the President's Malaria Initiative) Malaria is no longer a public health issue in Zanzibar.

Ambassador Green is creating initiatives to brand and promote giving from the American people instead of just federal agencies and it is nice to know that he acknowledges that these gifts come from hard working taxpayers with big hearts. He helped host President Bush in TZ for the longest stay in Africa of any American President, quite an accomplishment in a country that was socialist just two decades ago.

We couldn't take pictures, but I snapped these before we went in. We took a tour of the compound and it really is a little city inside of those walls. Some of the improvements came because 10 years ago the American Embassy in Dar was bombed. This is a very new facility and now that relations with the country are good, they feel much safer here.
Our next stop was to meet at Dar es Salaam's nicest hotel for lunch with one of the country's celebrities. There were two different television stations and a half a dozen newspaper reporters there to report on our arrival.
That attention can also be attributed to our guest, Mr. Reginald Mengi. He is the Ted Turner of TZ, owning 11 newspapers, 6 radio stations and 4 television networks in East Africa. He also owns the Coca Cola bottling company that we visited earlier in the week. He was by far the most motivational person that we have spoken to on the trip. He spoke about viewing obstacles in life as challenges not problems, this puts a positive spin on our work and pushes you to reach for more. He also advised to have vision for the top and to only strive to be the best. "To shoot for #2 is to lose." He spoke of self-confidence and believing in yourself..." Wake up every morning and say, 'I can, I must, I will'" Then he went on to inspire us with R Kelly's "I Believe I can Fly" ( This may sound a bit cheesy, but the speech was moving and most people were ready to go out and change the world.) Finally, he spoke on the need for integrity and faith. These two things spoke to my heart and are definitely personal goals in the coming years of finding my passion and career. " Success in business goes to the man who has integrity and you can trust his word."
Mandy gave him a little card that had this poem on it. I am in a mood to spread the inspiration, so I'll put it here for you.

If you think that you are beaten, you are;

If you think you dare not, you don't;

If you like to win, but you think you can't

It is almost certain you won't.

If you think you'll lose, you're lost,

For out in the world we find,

Success begins with a person's will

It's all in the state of mind.

If you think you are outclassed you are,

You've got to think high to rise,

You've got to be sure of yourself before

You can ever win a prize.

Life's battles don't always go

To the stronger or faster man,

But sooner or later the one who wins

Is the one WHO THINKS THEY CAN!

Sorry if I forgot to fill ya'll in, but we have a new hotel now and I thought I would give you a picture of it... it's nice, AC is the best perk for sure.Today for dinner, we were back at our hotel, relaxing around the pool and doing our classwork for our Speech Communications class. We get to chill again for the next couple of hours and work on our business plan for Mama Zara. Hopefully it will turn out really well. We have been blasting James Taylor and Jimmy Buffett as we took in the amazing weather and cooling breeze. Africa has been good to us. We are learning so much about the intersection of business and government in a nation that was socialist just a decade ago and is now trying to spread its wing in the world. It is the responsibility of the private business owners to create jobs for those in poverty and the government to remain stable so their enterprises will succeed. Enough poli-econ lecture. Hope you all are doing well.

Please keep my friend Michael Demperio in your prayers, he tore his ACL and he is going into surgery today. I am crossing my fingers for a quick recovery and rehab.

And...Happy Birthday to my AOII lil sis Annalise Peters... big 20!

Don't forget to check out the groups blog at ugaintz2008.blogspot.com

Miss ya'll...have an amazing Tuesday!!! Britt

Monday, May 19th 2008...Tanzanian Big Wigs

2008-05-19T05:35:00.000-07:00

Waiting for the Police Station Tour
Today was our first full day of professional clothes, that's tough when it's this hot and muggy outside. I think we missed the whole "make your wardrobe out of linen" thing. Anyways...last night was tough, for some reason I didn't sleep a wink...I think this is only the third or fourth all nighter that I've ever pulled...too bad we didn't have any test or anything today, I just couldn't relax...maybe it was all the food. Well, our first stop was at the Ministry of Defense. Dar es Salaam was the capital city of Tanzania...Dr. G said it may have moved to Dudoma therefore, all of the important government buildings are here. The Ministry of Defense is basically the Police Headquarters for the entire country. The Inspector General of Police (#1 guy), Saidi Mwema met with us over tea and he was awesome. He talked about the planning for bringing the Olympic torch through peacefully and the need for information/ technology sharing between TZ and the US.

After the talk, we went on a tour of their facilities. We saw IT, they are just now starting to use forms to create databases in Access.(...eish...thought you would like that one James) The whole country is jsut light years behind technologically, they haven't inputed data ever...they are expecting 6 months time just to get the HR stuff compiled for the police employees.

Our next stop was down into the investigative bureaus. This center is responsible for the Crime Investigations for the entire country. We saw some awesome stuff from the Forensics labs...ballistics and counterfeit money inspection computers. Also, fingerprint files and Scene of the Crime tools that they use. The final stop was Cyber Crimes. I felt like I was back at Duke when I studied Forensic Sciences there for the summer before high school. I'm glad everyone else got to see how everything works, but the stuff that we had 7 years ago was way more advanced than the stuff they were using. Technology and human capital are their two greatest needs in this country.

Mayor's Office

Our next stop was really amazing. We met with the Mayor of Dar es Salaam. He was an interesting guy to talk to. His ideas are positive and he really believes in his solutions to the city's poverty levels. He was also you typical politician, long winded and head strong. It was nice though to share our thoughts on what he was doing and hear his dreams for the city.

My main improvement that I would make to the city is improving infrastructure. It is the backbone of the economy. At most of their major intersections, they do not have traffic signals...they just fight through. It is the most amazing thing to have 35 cars trying to weave in and out of eachother while turning left, right and squeezing through to go straight. I fear for our livelihood sometimes, but the drivers are pros. This city has 4 million people, it's like not have street lights on Broadway in NYC and trying to cross on 42nd...impossible.

We went out to the coast to eat...and we got to see the beautiful Indian Ocean. Here the beach and the horizon were gorgeous. The ocean breeze lifted the heat off of us in our suits and we were so thankful. We had a relaxing lunch and shopped a bit in the local market. Our last stop was back to the hotel to recover from the break neck pace of the morning and take naps. I am desperately in need of sleep. We are actually in for the rest of the night. I actually just woke up from a 6 hour nap and I'm afraid I won't sleep. But...maybe some "vitamins" will help.

Hope ya'll liked the pictures...I updated every post. More to come... Bye Bye from the Breezy Beaches of Dar. Britt

Sunday May 18th, 2008...FOOD!! Finally Calories!!

2008-05-18T11:06:00.000-07:00

This little guy was at one of our stops...how adorable.

Dar es Salaam, a port town meaning Port of Peace, it was the place where ships could get away from monsoon rains on the Indian Ocean. I love seeing all of the ships in the harbor, but their beach was kinda nasty...city beach I guess.

This morning we woke up from our new hotel in Dar es Salaam very excited...we had gotten to sleep on real mattresses and get some rest. We headed to a small textile business run by about 10 people. It was fascinating to see them spin the thread and then weave the loom. Then the loom runs and weaves sheets, dresses, table cloths and all that sort of stuff. How cool. Tedious but cool. The children in the area were beautiful and so interested in checking all of us out.
Funny, the drivers were not able to see it coming, but putting the buses and Land Rovers in sand was kind of soft and the weight got the bus stuck. Actually it took about 25 people to solve the problem. You would think that all of these kids from rural towns would have had some experience with getting vehicles stuck...but we eventually got it out and running again.

After the textiles we went to a carver's market and checked out some of their awesome handicraft. These vendors were alot better than the ones on the street...not as aggressive.

Our final stop for the day was a fabulous lunch at a restaurant in the middle of a courtyard. We were able to order burgers and pizza and our entire group filled up on everything. It was amazing...sometimes I feel like I have been in a constant state of hunger here, but after that meal, I was really wasn't honestly hungry at dinner. Wow!! So good to finally get some substantial calories!!

We were able to just go back to the hotel and chill for the rest of the afternoon and it was amazing. We all just sat around and chatted and got to know each other further by asking random deep and really funny questions. They were prompted by random email questions that we have been getting and then we expanded on them.

Anyways....I am off to bed now, and I miss you all. Hope everything is well. It should be a fun couple of days here in Dar.

Til Next Time... Britt

Saturday May 17th, 2008...This is Africa

2008-05-17T13:04:00.000-07:00

Well...how do I begin...today was an experience. Definitely a trial of patience and a character development day. We set off on the road to Dar es Salaam in our amazingly plush Land Rovers...not really but they are better than the bus that we've been riding in. However, when we stopped for lunch...we got word from the Maymester students that their bus had broken down. (This is Africa...TIA...be flexible.) So we had to send our Rovers back to the rescue. After a 3 hour waylay at the restaurant, the other group joined up with us and we tried to rearrange seating to get 39 people and all of our luggage into the 3 rovers. Luckliy Mama Moshi had called another bus to come pick up some of their students, but we still got a geometry lesson to fit 10 people in an 8 man Land Rover...good thing our generation grew up on Tetris. The ensuing 5 hours were passed with IPods and random get to know you better convos for the group...all in all a good time, but we were glad to stretch our legs and eat our dinner at 9:45 when we got in at our destination. Now enough about travelling. I am going to fill ya'll in on some ongoing experiences and quirks of Africa that have been periodically left out. I figure a travel day in the blog is pretty mundane...so I'll try to spice it up with this.

First...the really funny thing about TZ is that cell phones are just now taking off. Their culture has not really learned cell phone manners, and it is hilarious when they go off in the middle of a meeting. The people will just randomly answer in the middle of a meeting with our group and start talking while the person speaking to the group continues. It is clearly distracting, but I guess the whole..."I'll call you in a bit" piece hasn't caught on here.

Visitor books are HUGE here. Every stop that me make in the city, the business owner asks us all to sign. It is amazing because they want all of us to sign, not just the teachers...so our 16 people take up like a full page or two. Kinda of archaeic, but cute.

The people here are just happy. They will all smile and greet you wherever you are...so our Swahili is coming in handy. Also, the kids are always waving and running up to us just to check us out. These people are so glad to see us and they have practically nothing, but they love their rice and beans and two outfits and smile the whole day.

Another ploy for us is to say "Tabasam" which means smile...everyone we meet giggles at us when we do it. Now a couple of the female members of the staff call me Tabasam because I am smiling all the time. I guess you really don't have to speak the language to communicate sometimes.

One amazing thing to me is how many languages that everyone can speak. One server at our hotel learned Spanish last winter because there was a guest that came through that only spoke Spanish and Gilbert (the server) felt that he was under serving him by not being able to greet him properly...wow.

One last detail I forgot is that last night a tailor came by the hotel with fabrics and he is going to tailor a dress for each of the girls on the trip. I am so excited to have some "traditional" clothing to wear. The differences for this dress will be that ours is at the knee whereas theirs is to the ankle and ours will have skinny straps and theirs cover their shoulders...gotta keep it slightly American.

Well a long day of travel has worn me out...can't wait to update the pictures tomorrow. The Dawgs are still playing Bama or I would update you on that. Miss you all.

Tabasam, Britt

Friday May 16, 2008...More Coffee

2008-05-16T21:48:00.000-07:00

For all of you who spent time in the Maquipaquna reserve in Ecuador...this is for you. This morning was eerily similar to my Spring Break last year. The overcast sky threatened rain, and it had also rained the nigh before, so our trails wer soppy. The coffee here is shaded by banana trees...shocker. And I think there still may be a grub waiting for Beau or Faust. But as we decided to go walking, I started to have the worst deja vu. The rians unleashed their fury as we trekked through the mud and investigated these "riveting" plants. Please note the warm fuzzys i get when talking about this...thanks Ecuador. I wanted to chunk a java plant (named Joe of course) in a hole from about 10 feet away and throw some dirt at it.

Sorry for thos of you that were not on that Fellows trip...the above paragraph is teeming with inside jokes. Today really wasn't that bad.

Next we went to the Tanzanian coffee board and taste tested some of their different varieties. It was interesting to see how rich and strong their blend its here. I guess it is because you can charge a better price for a better quality.

After lunch we got to go to my favorite stop so far...we spent the afternoon at the Kili Centre Orphanage. I was surrounded by children, but one little girl, Zawadi, was instantly my best friend. We danced and drew pictures and I even tattooed her up with UGA G's on her cheeks. She looked ready for gameday. The kids did some tribal dances for us,and we called the Dawgs for them. It was so amazing to see them get so happy about little things we gave them like pens and chocolate. They were adorable and pictures will be the only way to explain... I'll work on that in the next couple of days. It was really hard to leave. Their puppy was even cute.

We met with Mama Zara again to get the framework for our main project on this trip. It is developing a marketing plan for her business in the US. I am responsible for website upgrade and University oureach. It should be fun. - got lucky enough to score a pedicure and it was awesome! Never would have expected that in Africa.

Our last stop for the night was Club La Liga, our group of 17 really stuck out. Myabe it was that we showed up at 9pm and were the only ones there until 1045. Ironically we left at 11 right as things were starting to get jumping. The blacklights, fog machine, and disco ball were a nice touch. For a club in rural Africa... Not too bad.

Just found out that the dawgs were rain delayed and ended up splitting the double header... Working on an sec record!

Tomorrow we leave for Dar es Salaam... Until then, and don't forget to check out the group blog. Se Lah from TZ... Britt

Thursday May 15th...Coca Cola...thanks Earl

2008-05-14T22:15:00.000-07:00

Last night's dinner was more eventful than i expected. President Adams sat at a table of 7 ILA students including myself. It's interesting to see how he relates to students. He knew all about all of our high school including mine and others from lousiana and Alabama. It was nice to be with teh maymester students, but ther is a definite divide because we don't know all of them and have not spent any time with them. An extra special treat was our evening entertainment. We had traditional tribal music and dancing. At the end, every one of us learned a dance and joined in. It make me chuckle to remember back to some of the administrators dancing...I'll leave it at that.

Disclaimer: we woke up early this morning and had a full day so its a long blog.

Earl Leonard, the namesake of the scholars program in ILA would have been very proud today. Earl was a senior VP of Coke during the 80s and 90s. Our trip to the Bonite Bottlers was an amazing display of an assembly line efficiency. Emily said Henry Ford would have been proud. Five senior managers in the company met with us to talk about their financials and their projected goals until 2010. Pepsi is just now coming on strong as a competitor, but Coke still holds 80 percent market share. So it's kinda like Atlanta. The most astonishing transition for us as students is the use of glass bottles. It seems archaeic but it is actually the most cost effective method. After seeing all the numbers, we headed to the fun stuff... the plant itself.

Bonite uses spring water and purifies it themselves before mixing in sugars and flavors. The first line we saw produced Fanta orange. They would load a recycled bottle into the cleaner, check the quality of the glass, fill, cap, and pack it for shipping all in about 15 minutes... Amazing.

There is also a permament Coke only line that is all automated but does the same stuff. Our group gawked over the lever that kicked underfilled or messed up bottled out of line and into the reject pile. They produce about 300,000 bottles of Coke in 8 hours and only have about 250 rejects. The broadcast news major in me doesn't know the real percentage on that one! The final and most exciting assembly line was the one producing bottled water.

The plastic starts looking like a test tube but it heated and blown into shape in about 30 seconds... So cool.

After a quick lunch with the maymester students we met with the Coke distributor. He's the local expert and personally calls in the accounts daily. They have a VIP program that provides businesses coke tables and chairs, a fridge, and a tv. The catch is that they can't sell any Pepsi products and the distributor is the enforcer.

Our next stop was Shah Industries, a leather work and carpentry shop. It is run by an indian family that has been in business for over 50 years. The owner employees handicapped people that can't find work elsewhere. They make beautiful leather creations as well as cultural carvings. This is the place we decided to spend our money! They don't mark up their prices too bad and we are supporting a very philanthropic business. I would tell you what we bought but we would be spoiling some people's gifts!
Our final adventure of the day was the most "African" experience we have had all trip. Our Masai guides led us into the rice paddies
and on into the jungle... It was amazing to see Kili out from underneath the cover of clouds. In the jungle we saw tons of monkeys in the Acacia trees. One of the Masai boys had an affinity for blondes and dressed me in their traditional clothing.
He declared me a Masai wife...nice...I get to milk cows for the rest of my days.
Anyways, it was beautiful and we loved getting to spend some time out in nature. Our day ended with a pool game of Mombo Poa, a Swahili version of Marco Polo.

Salama! Brittany

Wednesday May 14th, 2008...Mosquito Nets

2008-05-14T07:47:00.000-07:00

Last night, we couldn't get the DVD player to work, so we decided to get to know some of the other people staying in our hotel. It was cool because there is a group of 14 people from the West Coast (ages 24-38) that just got done with Kili and a safari. I loved picking their brains about what to expect, and Douglas and I ran them off the table in cards....needless to say...it was a good night!!

So today we went to the National Park Main office and learned about how they protect their wildlife and run their national parks. The lady was very interesting and gave us some great informational magazines that I'll get to read on our 2 hour drive back to the hotel. I am so excited about our safari and Kilimanjaro, everytime I see pictures, I get more and more pumped!

After lunch we went to the A to Z mosquito net factory. It is one of the largest suppliers in the world. The sell for only about $5. Wow.

They take synthetic plastic beads from Japan with insecticide infused in them, then melt them down. This is a machine that takes the melted plastic and pulls it into thread.
The threads are raveled onto large spools and then woven together into the nets. The nets can last up to 5 years with the infused insecticide that kills the mosquitos that land on it.
The nets are cut into the size that the buyer wants.
And then they are sewn into a huge square pattern. The picture at the top of this blog is an example of a finished product. These nets have been able to rid many African areas of malaria. What a business. They employ about 1200 people and and even give them housing in the compound for their families.

As we were leaving the factory, President Adams and Provost Mace pulled up in their Land Rover. They are checking out some land that may be donated to UGA for a permanent campus here in Tanzania...how awesome would that be. We have dinner with them tonight. There are 13 students on the ILA business trip that I am on and 18 students on the African Studies maymester program. Tonight we are going to spend our first night all together. I am excited to get to know the other students.

I heard the Dawgs took out Tech at Turner field...awesome. And both tennis teams made the cut for the final 16 in Tulsa for NCAAs. Georgia sports are still rolling.

By the way..I uploaded pictures to all of the past posts, so check them out. And check out the other blog at www.ugaintz2008.blogspot.com .

Until tomorrow, Kwahere from Tanzania!!

Tuesday May 13th 2008...Swahili

2008-05-13T01:29:00.000-07:00

This is Kili...patiently looming in the distance from our hotel...I can't wait to tackle that.
Finally, a full night of sleep. I think I have reached an equilibrium with my jetlag. This morning is so realaxing with the sun lazily falling on the banana trees that shade us as we eat our breakfast. We get to stay at the hotel for much of the day today, so our leisurely breakfast slowly sauntered into our Business Swahili class.

The people here are so friendly...their children run up to the bus.....They know we are giving candy away so they love to see the white faces in the bus.This language is so hard because there are not cognates like Spanish or French. We're learning how to negotiate in Swahili which will hopefully really help our prices. This culture is very assertive and opportunistic. If you want to take a picture with a group of Masai in tradtional clothing you have to negotiate a price, but BEWARE...the price is for only one of the guys, so you will have to pay that to all of his friends too.

Now we have a lecture from a woman from a local bank about microfinance and co-ops for the agricultural sector here in the Kilimanjaro region. Amazingly, their banks here make 15% markup on loans. What a business, or course the default rate is about 50%.
Something I have notice today is the influx of amazing birds around the hotel's compound. Their songs and cheery chirps can go unnoticed, but when I slow down and just be still, their sounds really can make you smile. We loaded in the bus for an hour's ride to Arusha to a rose farm. This was such an interesting new indutry that I knew nothing about. There ia such a delicate balance of everything involving planting, harvesting, and shipping. My favorite we of course the jacquemenot dark red ones, but their multicolor varieties were gorgeous too. From here it is free time, pool, and Hotel Rawanda. Until tomorrow.

Remember to check ILA's blog at UGAinTZ2008.blogspot.com

Monday May 12th, 2008...Moshi University

2008-05-12T03:16:00.000-07:00

All the girls on the trip.

An early wake up was not welcome this morning. It will take a while to get used to the 4:15 prayer drums at the local mosque. Thankfully we had turned the hot water heater for warm showers. We travelled to Moshi University and it was very interesting to see. This is their Dean of Students:They have about 1500 students and a variety of MBA programs. Their housing is unusual with laundry hanging out on the trees. The campus is much like UGA, it centers around the soccer stadium, the only one in the town.

The ususal pic with Chad...we're at 3 continents together now.

Just checked the Blackberry...Diamond Dawgs are SEC champs in a 12-10 over Vandy. Wow what a year for the Dawgs SEC titles in baseball, basketball, gymnastics, mens and women's tennis, golf...man they're good. Congrats guys you deserve it. i'm excited about hosting a regional and maybe a super regional. Thanks to all of my ESPN contacts that send me constant updates and play by plays.

These ladies are amazing...they carry everything on their heads...Wow!

After the unviersity we stopped by the police station to meet the chief of police. We thanked him for our armed guard and motorcade that protects us everywhere we go. He looks just like Grandad with black skin and it was hard not to run and give him a hug.

When we got back to the hotel, we jumped into our awesome one piece bathing suits (love Islamic culture) and dipped in the pool and caught some rays and a nice lunch. (Some of us changed)

This afternoon we drove out to the foothills of kilimanjaro and walked around some beautiful waterfalls. It is so counterintitive to have a rainforest in the middle of Africa, but it was nice to get out of the sun and be in cooler air. Connor and I took our engagement pics...haha...The water was beautiful and the mist felt great. We stopped on the way back and picked up bananas from local vendors and some grilled corn too. It was wierd b/c it was like popcorn that was still on the cob. When we got back to the hotel, we took a long Swahili lesson with Mama Moshi, but now at least I know the basic greetings and questions for communication. We are now off to dinner and to watch hotel Rawanda. Until Tomorrow. I miss you all!

Sunday May 11th 2008...Overwhelming Vendors

2008-05-12T02:59:00.001-07:00

This morning came way too early, roosters...ugh. Well the mosquito net was a challenge. I don't think people around here are normally my height. I snagged a quick shower, quick from temperature, not being in a hurry...we failed to realize that there is a button to turn on the hot water heater. Breakfast was amazing...I love going to foreign countries, the fruit is so fresh. They serve omelette every morning...nice. We had a debreifing and headed into Moshi Town. the vendors waited just long enough for us to exchange our money then the rush began. There were guys that followed us miles trying to sell us everything under the sun. We travelled to a WWII cemetary, local hospital, pharmacy, and local shops. The town was a great taste of rural Africa. The local children are so cute, but they charge money to take pictures. We all headed back to the hotel for a quick dip in the pool and lunch.

So I just found out that the Dawgs won game two in extra innings, way to go guys... After lunch we gathered in the lounge, one of two rooms that "have" air conditioning units. It's more like small bursts of slightly chilled air. Mama Zara, the owner of this hotel, told us the story of her business. She is an amazing woman. She started as an airline booking agent and is now the owner of 3 hotels and 2 tour companies (lead trips to Kilimanjaro and Seregeti safaris), and shee books outside tours for her guests. She is one of the few employers that pays a base salary plus tips, and she gives her employees benefits too. She is consistently donating and working with local schools and orphanages and tries to employ the local Masai people as well. What a sharp woman. I will definitely be recommending her accomodations to everyone. (She's about $3000 cheaper than all of the US booking agencies too) Took a much needed nap this afternoon.

This evening a political science professor from Moshi University spoke to us about the political and economic history of Tanzania. I never realized that this country was a German colony and a battle sight during WWII before Hitler turned over all of their holdings. I could bore you with more history but i won't.

The Islamic soldiers headstones looked like this...how cool

My one greatest lesson of the day is negotiation and the price of things in Africa. Here, there are no stated prices and you have to negotiate everything. They have levels of prices ( foreigner, local, and friend) and you have to haggle big time. The hardest thing is that they will not give you a ballpark range, you have to offer the first price. Also, it takes a quick witted person to not get completely duped. The exchange rate is 1180 Shillings to $1 so you have to do very quick math to not get completely had. I refrained from buying anything today, just taking in prices, designs and typical items so that I'll be ready to go when we get to the capital. Space will be a premium so I'm looking for things that could fit in the palm of my hand. Well it's 10 and i'm wiped. The Diamond Dawgs just took the field for the rubber match at Vandy, and a win will clinch the SEC, can't wait to hear how they do.

Good night,
If you are curious, the ILA people are all keeping a blog too and the link is ugaintz2008.blogspot.com

May 9th and 10th...Flights and Jet Lag

2008-05-12T02:48:00.001-07:00

Multiple plane rides and alot of time changes will really mess you body up.We gathered our group of 27 together in ATL and set off for Amsterdam. 3 movies, 2 episodes of the Office and 9 sudoku puzzles (9hours) later, we touched down in the Netherlands. Local time:8am, but our bodies thought it was 2am. Breakfast of champions, Sbarro pizza, and 2 hours of making American noise in the food court left us with just a short stint before boarding our second plane. I'm lucky enough to be travelling with technologically savvy peers that have Blackberrys so I was able to get updates via Gmail. I heard about the Dawgs loss to Vandy and checked notes from friends. A little touch of home was perfectly timed to energize me for the second leg of our journey. I was blessed with middles seats in our 3-4-3 planes on both 9 hour flights. But I practically died on the flight to Kilimanjaro since my body had been awake for almost 24 hours. I tried not to lean too much on the poor ladies beside me.

KLM was a wonderful airline for hosiptality, not so much on the food. But it is just preparing me for the African diet. We touched down in Kilimanjaro at 8pm, went through customs, and loaded up on a bus for an hour's ride to our hotel. When ya'll think I'm roughing it in Africa, you're wrong. This place is gorgeous and so well kept. the Masai boys wilingly ported our bags to our rooms. We each have our own bed with mosqito net. Now for the other amenities: pool,

workout room, massage therapist, manicure and pedicure station, 2 hours of free internet, UGA does it right. No air conditioning will take a day or two to get used to, so will the overwhelming attention from all the locals. Blonde hair and white skin is not a common sight here. Luckily the reception is different from South America, where they just try to hit on you, these people are just curious about my differences.

The guards along the walls have already grown fod of Many and me for obvious Aryan reasons and they helped teach us some Swahili already. Now it is time for bed and my body hates me because it is 4 pm at home and I'm not tired. The Diamond Dawgs just took the field in Nashville and my whole family is at Steeplechase. I'm jealous right now but once I see Africa witht the sun up, nothing will compare. Til Tomorrow

Safe Here

2008-05-11T09:11:00.000-07:00

Hey ya'll...we safely landed in TZ...I will be uploading to the blog tonight...probably while you are asleep. Thanks for checkin in!! Miss all of you!

Welcome...I'm SOO Pumped!

2008-05-08T08:15:00.000-07:00

Thanks everybody that has checked in on the website, I'm boarding the plane at 4 pm on Friday, but we won't touch down in Tanzania until Saturday night...but I'll be keeping daily updates for you!! Ya'll have a great weekend! The Diamond Dawgs better take care of Vandy and Happy Mother's Day Mom!! Love you!!