June 30

hi everyone. i hope my email got sent last night that i sent out because it took a lot of time to compose and also the computer wasn't doing what i was wanting it to do.

The internet here is just like everything else-it kind of works some times--that is the way the electricity is and other things also. It is funny because you see Obamas name on many things here. it must be a brand- you see obama pencils and school supplies and obama pants and yesterday i took a picture of the Obama Hair Salon. In a small town when we were on our safari there was a Hilary Clington Shop- it was funny. Our driver said last week it was Obama but was changed to Hilary Clinton because she was in town.

Well, i found the girl i want to bring home with me! About 8 of us went to Tuleemi orphanage in Moshi. It was a small compound surrounded by a tall fence and a gate. We went in and there were about 20 smaller children running around and I also noticed several teenage girls. They were very friendly. We went around and played with the kids and talked to the girls. This 14 year old girl named Rose came and sat down me and started asking me all kinds of questions. She had the typical African hair style for young girls-a shaved head and then she had the most beautiful smile of straight white teeth. she asked me many questions about where i live etc and i asked her many questions also. She asked me about my family and i happily told her about everyone then she said- i don't have any parents. i said oh, i am so sorry how long have they been gone and she said 4 years. i asked if she had any brothers or sisters and she said-no just me. i said well now this is your family and you have many brothers and sisters and she said yes that is true. it broke my heart though because i could tell she longed for her real mother. i wanted to just tell her she could come home with me. we talked for quite a while and then she wanted to show me her room. the compound had a long cement building about 6 rooms long and there were 1-3 bunkbeds in each room. she shared her room with another girl about her same age. there was a sewing machine in the room so i asked her if she knew how to sew. she said she did and showed me a rack of skirts etc that she and the other girls had made. she said do you want to buy anything? So erika and i picked out 2 items and paid for them. after a while all the kids started getting in a big circle and we all held hands and took turns leading songs or games. like princess Pat and duck duck goose and ring around the rosies etc. they had some funny games like meatsie meatsie. some one would stand in the middle and call out animal names and everyone would either say meatsie if you could eat that animal or be quiet if you can't eat that animal. if some one screwed up then they would go in the middle. we played games like that for a long time. we got to meat their mama. she was an amazing woman who had taken in 48 orphans. the older boys and girls live in her house with her. all the children go to school if they are of age and she has 9 employees. i don't know how she does it. a bunch of us want to go back today and teach the teenagers how to tie the embroidery floss bracelets and then give them all our floss and instructions that we brought with us. erika is going to take some of her clothes that she doesn't want any more. i would also like to make a donation to them.
it is incredible how much need there is here and i am finding out that there are many people who are making a difference but it only scratches the surface. This is just one country in Africa and i am sure many of the others need just as much help. But for the most part people are used to how things are and they accept it and try to survive the best they can. i don't think they collect taxes of any kind- i will have to ask some one-but i am grateful we do have taxes so that we have money to pay for good roads etc. Remember what Don said-that it is a privilege to pay taxes.

 love you all. we will see you soon.
-Mom

June 29

The safari was incredible. We saw just about all the African animals except for leopards and cheetahs. We saw a whole pride of lions eating their fresh prey. They hunt at night and this was early in morning. There were 2 male lions about 6 female and 8 cubs that we could see. Many of them had bloody paws and faces from eating. Then they would go over to the river to drink. We watched for at least an hour. we saw some elephants way up close and some giraffes and thousands of zebras and wildebeasts. The hippos were in the water so we didn't see them too well. The rhinos are shy so they won't come close to you- I'm not even sure it was rhinos -even with binoculars they weren't very distinguishable. Rhinos are on the endangered species list and the rangers have to account for all 6 of them in the park each day. So we had an incredible experience.

On monday I went with our room mate Jen to TAFCOM. It is a small business started by a husband and a wife to help families affected by AIDS. There are many tragic stories. We went and visited 4 families. The one that sticks out most to me was an 80 year old woman who struggles to care for herself but her neighbors- a husband and wife both died of AIDS and left 3 children who are HIV positive. No one wanted to take them in so this sweet old lady who struggles on her own took in these three kids. When we visited her the roof of her mud house had fallen in and the timbers had hit some one so there were repair men there trying to fix it. But Bea was smiling and said it was a good day because she actually felt good and so did the kids. She was a real sweetheart and would just look at you with her loving eyes. We couldn't communicate in words.. Nea and Bea talked for a while. Her home was just mud and she had a small fire on the dirt floor. The children were sweet but quiet. We gave her a gift of sugar and some money. There is so much desperate need here it is incredible. our poverty in America is like Tanzania's middle class.

love you all
-Mom

Baboons

Hyena

Wildebeast

Baboon butt check

Sleeping elephant

Lion Pride- a rare sight!

Buffalo

Pumba the Wart Hog

June 28 (short email)

It just took me about 10 minutes to get to this point so this will have to be quick. our taxi will be here soon. This past weekend was so much fun. Our safari driver, Joseph first drove us to a Masaai village. It's crazy. These people haven't changed their ways for centuries. They live in cow dung huts with a thatched roof and sleep on cow hide. They greeted us with a song and a dance and then included us with them. They must not bathe for weeks- they look very dirty. They were very nice. One son had learned english and took us into a hut and talked to us about how they live. His father has 15 wives. They don't eat any vegetables- they are for the animals they say. So they only eat meat and blood. They entire wealth is based on the number of cows they have. They wrap themselves in tribal plaid cloth. The young children tend to the cows and goats each day. It was very interesting. Then they wanted to sell us jewelry. It cost more than it should but this is one way they make a living. We bought some bracelets and necklaces. The Joseph took us to our campsite. It wasn't too bad. Erika and I shared a tent and Jen and Dana shared one. We ate dinner and went to bed after talking to Joseph-----I have to go our taxi is here sorry

Our welcome dance

"Give me some money"

Mother & son with Erika

Maasai children

Our guide who knew some english

-Mom

no time! -June28

Well, I only have about four minutes to type since it took forever to
load at the internet cafe and our taxi will be here any minute! Our
safari was absolutely amazing! We also got to go see the Maasai
tribe which was a very interesting experience to say the least..
I'll have to write about it more later.. Yesterday we had a batik
making class and made sweet pictures! Today we get to go to
an orphanage and then we are having a big dinner in some park
and learning a cultural dance! Can't wait! We have a pretty planned
week.. tomorrow we're spending all day in arush which is an hour
and a half drive and then thursday and friday placements and
leaving saturday.. bittersweet. anyways we're alive and well!
love you all and can't wait to see you at the ranch!
-Erika

June 23

Yesterday they didn't have us go to work instead we went to Marangua for the day. we started out at some local "shops" and then we took a tour of some underground Chaaga tunnels where they used to hide from their enemies. We had to stoop down really low-almost crawl to get through them. They taught us all about it-how they would have guards to stand watch for 6 hour intervals and kill the intruders and hide their bodies  then at night they would chop up the bodies and float them down the river--cool huh? Then we went on another hike to a waterfall. this time it was a huge steps going down but not that far-probably only took us about 30 minutes and we saw another beautiful waterfall which was runoff from Mount Kilimanjaro. We went down a few more steps and most of our group went swimming. Erika wasn't planning on it but kind of fell in with her clothes on. Ha ha-i think on purpose. some of the other girls offered her some dry clothing after. then we had to go back up those huge steps to get back. My legs were just shaking because of our last workout but at least it wasn't very far. I could feel my asthma again but I survived. After we went to a museum of Chaaga tribal stuff and then went to a beautiful hotel for a refreshment-outside. The hotel was majorly luxurious. Our guide wanted to show me his house so I got some other people to go also-and some protective cadets followed us for protection and Joseph showed us his humble abode which he built himself. He was very proud of it. Most people don't have running water or electricity here. They cut their grass with a machete and the don't have dishwashers or washers or dryers. Everything is done by hand.Even if you had them the electricity is not reliable so why have it... Well I need to go but we are leaving on our safarai tomorrow so we won't be able to talk to you for a few days...don't worry! Maybe by Monday we will talk again. The internet won't allow us to upload pictures sorry.. Love you all very much and we miss you. It is another world entirely here--they are at least 50-60 years behind us. It's crazy but they have many good happy people.

A banana tree with a banana flower hanging below

mambo-June 23

Thanks for all the emails! It's nice to hear how everyone is doing. Sorry internet has been iffy the
past couple of days so we had to go to an internet cafe. Let's see today we had placements. I am
so in love with my kids! I really had missed them over the weekend so it was nice to be back. I
taught letters a through g to my 3 year olds.. then we let them practice drawing pictures and letters.
Some of them just look at the paper.. like what the heck do you want me to do? haha it was fun
teaching them how to draw and just the look on their faces when they finally got it was priceless.
The next half of the day I spend with my older kids. They know English a lot better so it's way
fun interacting with them. We made name tags for all the kids and now we're just trying to
find safety pins somewhere in town so they can wear them. They got really excited today when
I showed it to them though. As much as I miss you all I don't know how I'm going to leave my
kids... it will be very sad. So tomorrow after placements mom, Dana, Jen, and me are leaving on
our 3 day safari! I'll have to write all about it but from what we know so far we will get to see
the Maasai tribe as well. I'm so excited!! I don't know how excited mom is for the camping out
part of it but I'm sure she'll enjoy it. Every Wednesday we don't have placements so yesterday
we went to a Chagga tribe village, some caves, a sweet waterfall where we went swimming,
and some other markets and a nice hotel. It was a long day but so much fun. It's a very
different place here but I'm kinda hooked.. haha sorry dad but I want to come back here :) Oh
and no..... don't you dare cancel the ranch! We are still up for it 100%. Have you started food
shopping yet?? I can't wait to see you all up there! I hope everyone is well and I love and miss
you! You probably won't here from us till Monday.. kwa heri!

In the Chaaga cave

Entrance into the cave

Chaaga hut

June 21

hi everyone,
things are going well. i guess erika told you about our hike from .... if i had known how far and how long i would be hiking up a steep incline in a good 5 inches of thick mud in my running shoes i don't think i would have ever have started but the thruth is i was glad i did it and that i didn't know. it was the most physically exhausting and challenging thing i have ever done. if you strapped 5 pounds weight on each foot and added some pull to that and went on a steep incline for about 2 hours that is what it felt like. i was always behind everyone but there were others struggling also and everyone was so nice and said there was no way any of their mothers would have attempted what i was doing. that helped me get through it. when i finally got to the top i was about ready to cry but had many of the group congratulating me. then we went to the coffee demo. the taught us how coffee is made from harvesting the berries and crushing them to get out the nuts then roasting them and picking out the bad ones and then grinding the beans into coffee. i had to taste it--shhh don't tell the bishop. after adding sugar i had a sip or two and it was pretty darn good. then we hiked -again! this time up to a beautiful waterfall. the hike was more level and not as muddy so it wasn't bad. At one point we had to cross a pretty scary bridge the fall could have killed you but everyone made it across safely. when we finally got to the waterfall it was worth the entire hike. it was beautiful. the most beautiful i've ever seen. we had to put on raincoats because of the mist.  you'll see our pictures later. i still haven't been able to up load any. i'll keep trying. then we had problems with our bus-getting it turned around etc. so we had to go back down the road but by this time the mud had dried enough for us to walk on top of it.  there were many people who lived on this hill and it is a daily stroll for them in fact they will walk into town every day if necessary. they were friendly and always greeted us with mombo! and then we would answer back poa!   it was very rewarding aftter the fact. well, i need to run and let the others waiting have a turn.

i love and miss you all. thanks mindy for doing our blog. there just isn't time to do everything i would like to here on the computer. give paxton a big hug and kiss from me.   love, mom

Adventures in Tanzania!! -June 20

Today we were back at out placements for the week. The kids were just as cute as ever! We walked to the supermarket the other day and bought them all suckers so we took them in today. They call them pee pees... haha I'm pretty sure. They loved it though so it was fun. Everybody has just been exhausted today so it's been pretty low key.

Yesterday mom, my 2 roomates, and me went to a Lutheran church meeting. It was all in swahili so we didn't really understand. The choir sang and danced a lot so that was really cool. After our whole group went on a hike to a coffee plantation. It had rained a lot so it was super muddy and our bus got stuck on the way. We decided just to walk the rest of the way to the starting point however little did we know it would take 2 hours of walking uphill in mud. Haha.. i wore my chacos so my feet were caked in mud. It was pretty challenging for everyone.. mom was a trooper though and finished it out. We finally got to our destination and met our guide Oscar. He showed us the process of coffee making and made us some. After we hiked awhile to the most amazing waterfall i've ever seen! It was absolutely breathtaking. The hike was really pretty too and not nearly as hard as before. We saw some cool things on the way like a giant slug, chamillion, spiders.. all sorts of creatures!

 There were kids walking most of the way with us that were obsessed with Obama...  everyone is obsessed with Obama, Shakira, Rhianna, and Bob Marley. It's pretty funny actually. My kids like to sing shakira's waka waka song. Anyways the walk back was not too enjoyable but we made it to the bus.. which got stuck again haha.. but we survived and i got only a few blisters! I'm not sure what our plans are the rest of the day.. we just had kiswahili lessons and the cadets are doing pt (physical training) haha.. anyways things are just peachy in Africa! Love you all!!!

The Lutheran church we went to with our driver, Daniel

Hiking in the mud to the coffee plantation

Making coffee

Hiking to the waterfall

A chameleon

Jenn, Dana, Erika and Peggy at the waterfall

June 17- Jambo

Hey everyone,
  Tanzania is amazing as usual :) I definitely want to come back here someday.. hopefully soon!
Today is somewhat easy going. We had placements but our nursery was closed for holiday so
mom and I went to the clinic with four other volunteers, two of which are going home this
weekend. It was definitely an eye opening experience. At first I was nervous because it was
so dirty there.. it felt like being at a hospital 100 years ago.. We first "cleaned" the clinic. We
actually had gloves to clean with these dirty rags that you put into pretty much black water.
So we mainly spread the dirt around haha.. After patients started showing up we got to weigh
babies. You put the baby in a diaper looking sling and hook it on to the scale haha its pretty
ghetto. Then me and another volunteer who is a nursing student gave vaccinations. They
actually had quite a supply of vaccinations: measles, tdap, polio, tb, hep.. I mostly gave
measles to babies. Oh they were so cute.. it was sad because most of them cried. It was
a neat experience though. Since it's the weekend we have lots of free time. Sunday we plan
 on going on a hike with the whole group so the safari is planned for next weekend! I
absolutely love my kids at the nursery school. There are four classes so me and mom split and
I take the youngest and the oldest classes. So ages 2-3 and 6-7. The classes are large and
the kids definitely need individual attention. They are at such different levels its crazy. I got
to teach numbers and counting to the youngest class.. haha I went in and she said you
teach today. It went well.. we counted on the board and practiced sorting bottle caps. I'm
already so attached to them.. it will be sad to leave. Holy cow.. they are crazy at free time
though.. we play lots of games but it ends up getting pretty violent! The kids fight over
holding my hand so it gets pretty intense.. They are fascinated with my hair, watch,
camera.. haha it's hard to take pictures because they get very crazy! We're going to
watch a futbol match today that the cadets are playing against some locals! Let's see
something interesting is that cars don't wait for pedestrians.. haha you have to look out
for cars or they may not stop. There are a few mzungu (foreigner) restaurants in town.
We had pizza last night and it was pretty tasty. The best thing i've eaten here.. that's
hard because it's all been very good. The fruit is 10 times better than the states. I like the
potatoes and the juice is yummy.. but pretty much everything to be honest. I could write
so much more but my time is up! love you all!!!!!!!! thanks for the emails :)
love, erika

Erika's oldest class

June 17

Hi everyone. We're still alive and well. It is just very hard to communicate. I have tried calling several times and can't get a line out. Maybe I will have to try at 3 in the morning again-haha. This computer is very slow and there is always a line to use it. Lunch is going on right now so I will just have their leftovers or can fix a peanutbutter sandwich but i didn't want you to worry.

The nursery school work is really fun. Every morning first thing they sing the cutest songs with actions and the kids love it and just shout at the top of their lungs. We will for sure take some movies. the teachers teach the same thing every day. It is just total repetition-point at the numbers or letters and repeat, then do your work in your notebook etc. no creativity. I get to start teaching next week. I am nervous but excited. But today Erika and I went to a clinic for our placement because Bridge Nursery School was closed. It was going back to the 1920s or something. They don't have modern equipment and of course no computers. The pharmacy is a box of medicine, etc. but the nurses spoke english and were very nice. I listened to a couple of pregnant bellies and held some ones hand while they got a shot and Erika gave 2 babies shots.

Our electricity has been out last night and today so no blow dryer or lights or fan or hot water.... it is incredible how these people live. Most children only have 2 or 3 sets of clothes-a school uniform-if they can afford to go to school , play clothes and Sunday clothes if they're religious. Some of the cadets work at a nursery school at a prison- for the guards children. So when they are dropping off and picking up we drive through the prison grounds and we can see the prisoners (the ones who are almost about to be released) out in the fields working on caring for the grounds in their orange jumpsuits.

We are having a good but challenging and humbling experience. Well i'm going to go see if there is any lunch left for me. Love you all.

Singing in the morning

Erika with some of "her kids"

June 13

Things here are still wonderful! We start our placements tomorrow so i'll write more about that then. Today we just had many many lessons on policies and Kiswahili! It's sorta coming along.. We also
did a challenge where we had to go into the village and buy items at a shop. the shop was basically in someone's house. The kids are adorable! We say mambo and they say poa back. We also give them bones which is said nipetano. Then at lunch we got to meet our placement partners who explained to us what we'll be doing. The main teacher Mary and her husband Marco came to talk to mom and I. They definitely knew what they were talking about. I'm excited to meet my kids! I'm a little nervous because they have corporal punishment so i don't know how we'll handle that. After lunch me and one of my roomates Dana joined the cadets in their workout... brutal. haha itwas good for me and i finished that! Maybe i'll come back ripped.. wanting to join the army! Anyways mom wants to type a few lines so talk to you later! love you and missing you! say hi to everyone :)  -Erika

To make you feel better about our safety the Sargeant bought us a telephone today to use for safe taxis and to make reservations for our safari etc. You might get a random text also but we are sharing it with others so don't expect too much. We are also sharing this computer with 24 others so that is why I'm not being very correct in my typing and this keyboard is very different. Sorry! I guess erika explained everything already but just know we are being well taken care of and we miss you and love you tons. Once I am able to get to an internet cafe hopefully we can spend more time and explain more.

Kwaheri, Erika and Mom

Our home away from home--not too shabby!

Our bedroom we share with 2 other girls-Dana and Jenn

Erika under her mosquito net

The neighbor's store where we bought some raw sugar

TANZANIA!

We're alive! Everything is going great! Yesterday we were picked up at the airport by John our driver.
He drove us to the home base where we met Fulgence Msaki, Mama Fatuma, Lilian, and other staff.
Everyone was so welcoming and kind. We unpacked, rested, and met some previous volunteers who
were already here. The cadets arrived and we ate dinner after. The food is really good, definitely
 different but not that much. We got to meet everyone and just hang out. Everyone is great! This
morning we had breakfast and had a house tour and town tour. I love everything about this place.
The town is a little crazy... because of all the haggling. Ok.. pretty crazy! Other than that it is great
and the cadets are very protective so it's great. The kids are my absolute favorite. Anywhere we go
they smile and wave at us. I can't wait to meet my kids in our placement! No language problem yet..
we've learned the basics for haggling and what not but it hasn't been too much of an issue. I just
cannot describe the feeling here! It is absolutely gorgeous and the people are amazing. I could live
here haha. Erika.. not mom. Last night was interesting... many sounds and creaking. Last night a
coconut feel on the roof.. which sounded like a gunshot! I saw a pretty big spider.. not bad and a
hedgehog. We drank coconut milk for the first time.. it was alright. The juice is soo yummy here..
fresh fruit constantly! So last night we heard dogs howling and fighting and many unknown animal
sounds.. it will take getting used to. The house and rooms are very nice! I don't know what else to
say but that I'm loving it! Love you all and miss you!
Love, mom & erika

Thursday, June 9

We enjoyed our flight to DC because we were able to make friends with the young man who sat by us named John Flanagan. He was on his way home to his sisters wedding. He was a returned missionary who has been going to BYU and Virginia College in Provo. It's cool how you can feel a bond so quickly with another member of the church. Erika is so good with people and talked to him most of the flight and they played cards. John was kind and had lots of great questions. I'm sure he learned many of these skills on his mission. He helped pass the 4 hours quickly.

We arrived in DC around 11:30 PM but couldn't locate our hotel shuttle in time. They only shuttle until midnight.  We saw it pass and tried to run down to it with our 50 pound suitcases but it left too quickly so we ended up hiring a cab. We are now at the Fairfield Inn. I fell asleep pretty fast but awoke very early and my mind wouldn't turn off - this happens quite often lately in anticipation of this adventure.

Our flight takes off today at noon so we can relax for a little before our long flight to the other side of the world. Our next stop is Ethiopia and we found out at the airport that our  plane will also land in Kenya before we get to Tanzania. It will be a very long day.

Duane has always taken such good care of us and been our protector and guide on trips. This is a new experience and it's good for us to learn how to figure things out on our own. We may not be as smooth as he is but I know we will be fine and will get to where we need to be. I thought I would have to take complete charge but Erika is helping and showing her maturity and ability also. I am so grateful for this opportunity to have this experience together.

-Mom

AFRICAN MUSIC

I think you will enjoy this popular African song which is sung in Swahili-the official language in Kenya and Tanzania. It gets me totally excited for this cultural experience whenever I listen to it. I bet you can't help singing along just like I have to...

The translation is:
Hello, Hello sir.  How are you?  Very fine.  Foreigners, you're welcome.  In our Kenya there is no problem. (Repeated several times)     Kenya is a beautiful country. A wonderful country. A peaceful country. Everybody is welcome. In our country there is no problem.  There is no problem. (till end)

OUR VOLUNTEER PLACEMENT

Yay! Erika and I finally found out where we will be volunteering. We will be working at Bridge Nursery School in Moshi for children ages 3-5. We will help teach them English, basic math, games and songs. We are so excited to finally know where we will be! Now we need to gather some ideas for this age group so we will be prepared to do some fun activities with them.

BRIDGE NURSERY SCHOOL