Mambo family and friends,

Our trip to Africa was a journey of a lifetime. It is hard to try and put into words all of our experiences, but we'll give it a try. We were in Africa for one month. Each week brought us to a new place and new adventures.

Chidya village

Upon arriving in Africa we were met by two of Justin's PCV friends, Mike and Michelle. They took us in tow in Dar es Salaam and helped us exchange money, purchase bus tickets, make plane reservations, and just gave us guidance navigating the streets of the big city. What a tremendous help they were. Saying goodbye to them we then set out to meet Justin in the town of Mtwara. What a joy to see him after over a year! He looked great and we talked nonstop. We went with him to the market to pick up the food we would need for our stay at his site. The market consists of many stalls and narrow lanes with the goods sprawled about the stalls. It is a bustling place and much bargaining goes on. Bargaining finished, we needed to get to sleep for an early day of bus riding.

At 5:30 am we boarded the bus from Mtwara to Masasi. By 6 am we were on our way with our luggage strapped (we hoped) to the roof and our bodies crammed into a bus holding lots more people than a bus should hold. It is a 6 hour ride to get to Masasi, with many stops and many more people getting on the bus. We passed many villages with houses made of mud and thatched roofs, as well as houses made of bricks. Each time the bus stopped we would be surrounded by people selling food, water, juices, fruit, cashews, sunglasses, toothpaste, cell phone minutes, even children's toy cell phones. It was always a carnival atmosphere. We and our luggage arrived intact at Masasi where we located the cantor (truck) that travels to Justin's site. As honored guests Chris and I were given the coveted truck cab seats to make the 2 hour incredibly bumpy trip. When Justin told us that the roads in Tanzania were bad, he was not kidding. He rode standing in the back of the truck along with the villagers making the trip that day.

We arrived at Justin's house and found it to be very nice. Justin immediately set us to working. We had to sift through his rice for rocks and sift through his beans for holes from insects. He got his charcoal grill going followed by his kerosene stove and proceeded to make us an outstanding beans and rice dinner, as well as a loaf of fresh baked bread. He was so excited to show us how he lived and how much he had learned. We were impressed. Our week at his site was a whirlwind. We took trips around his village, met his coworkers, had clothes made by the village tailors, learned many of the kiswahili greeting words, helped Justin cook, clean, wash cloths, grade exams, and just had a wonderful time.

The people of Justin's village are very poor, yet very generous. We were given many bags full of mangoes and tomatoes, as these were the crops in season. The children were wearing clothes donated by Americans. The girls favored the frilly dresses while the boys wore t-shirts with our American team names. The women of the village wore colorful kangas. These fabrics are comfortable and light, which help in the intense equatorial heat. Everywhere we went we saw babies strapped to their mother's backs with the kangas. They would have the baby on their backs and be carrying various heavy loads upon their heads. They would put a 5 gallon bucket of water on their head and walk for miles with it. They were truly amazing. Both men and women did their farming by hand using a hoe. They worked early in the day as the afternoon heat was oppressive. Most houses were made of sticks and mud with thatched roofs. Most of the living was done outside of the house, especially the cooking. Bicycles and walking are the two major modes of transportation. The young children are taught some very elementary English and tried out some of the phrases on us. Justin was very good about helping them say things correctly. We really enjoyed our stay in Chidya and were sad to say our goodbyes.

Safari

Well, there was no easy way back to the airport. Two hours down the bumpy road to Masasi and then six hours in the coaster bus to Mtwara. In Masasi we had a traditional breakfast of beans, chapati and chai. The women start cooking very early and we ate under a bamboo and thatched roof open-air hut. We also got to meet Justin's friend Steph. She is teaching biology in an all-girl school about a 3 hour journey from Justin. She was on her way to meet her parents in Mtwara, so the 4 of us crammed into the bus. In Mtwara we got to visit the fish market, swim in the Indian Ocean, and meet Steph's parents and 2 other PCVs. How do I describe the fish market? Dhows, the local sailing boats, return from an evening of fishing filled with a boatful of fish. As they heave their catch to the beach, an impromptu auction is held. Large baracudas are split down the middle or chopped into steaks. Other large fish include mahi mahi, sharks and tuna. Small sardine-like fish are sun dried on the bottoms of upturned dugout canoes. Meanwhile in the shacks on the beach some of the fish,squid and octupus are prepared for immediate consumption. We sampled some squid and shark. The shark was so fresh and moist. What a treat! Then we flew off to the town of Arusha to begin our safari. Now the word safari in kiswahili means journey. Any walk we took in Justin's village was considered a safari. So the safari from Arusha was a journey, and quite a spectacular one.

Day One

We met up with our driver Welking, King for short. We traveled in a Toyota land cruiser with a pop up roof. We picked up box lunches and were on our way to Lake Manyara National Park. We stopped at a snake farm first and learned about the reptiles in Tanzania. Some are quite dangerous and we hoped not to meet up with them in the wild. The black and green mambas are particularly dangerous leaving only minutes to life after a bite. We then entered the park and for the next couple of hours saw our first elephants, giraffes, monkeys, baboons, hippos, impalas, exotic birds, and warthogs. It was in this park that a bull elephant became unhappy with our presence. He proceeded to tell us so by shaking his head and blowing bubbles in the nearby water. When we didn't retreat he came across the water to us and we heard our driver say, "This is not good". He proceeded to get the car moving. The elephant followed us and another vehicle until we were out of his territory. It was pretty exciting. In this park there is an area called the Hippo pool. There were dozens of hippos there and they captivated us with all the noises they made. We were thrilled with our first day. We had opted for the luxury lodging and we were not disappointed. We had excellent views, attentive service, great food, electricity and running water. Wow!

Day Two

We set out for the Serengeti Plain. We took a side trip to the Oldupai Gorge where the Leakeys did their pioneering archeological research. Work continues there even today. The Serengeti Plain was enormous - reaching and extending beyond the Kenyan border. As far as our eye could see were tens of thousands of zebra, wildebeests, cape buffalo, and antelopes. This was the time of the migration. The animals are heading south as the rains come and the grass begins to grow again. On this day we were so lucky to catch site of a cheetah. We also saw lions, giraffes, ostriches, dik diks, and marabou storks. Maasai natives, who still follow their ancient tribal ways, live in this area. They are pastoralists and have vast herds of cows, who graze along with some of the migratory animals. The roads in the Serengeti are quite bad. We tried to help another safari vehicle get unstuck from the mud. We were unsuccessful, but a larger vehicle finally got them free. Our resting place that night was called a luxury tented camp. There actually was a tent on the outside, but upon unzipping the tent you entered into tiled rooms that can only be described as opulent. Again we had a beautiful view with a stork resting in an outside tree, attentive service, great food, etc. It was very, very nice.

Day Three

Today we were in the heart of the Serengeti. Many, many safaris are going on concurrently with ours and the drivers keep in constant communication about what they're seeing. A leopard was spotted and we rushed over, but it was hiding in the grass by the time we got there. We saw many different antelopes, as well as hippos, birds, mongooses, lions, giraffes, ostriches, and monkeys. We passed through the migration area again as we made our way to the Ngorongoro Crater. The lodge that night was at the top of the crater and the view took your breath away. We were up about 7500 feet and the air was crisp and cool. It was the first place we came to that did not need mosquito nets and we had heat in the room! The crater is 12 miles across. Looking down on it you are not able to see any animals and it looks deserted. However this is not the case as we found out the next day. We all agreed that this lodging was the best and it was nice that we ended our safari stay there.

Day Four

This was the day we descended into the crater. How beautiful it was. Thousands of flamingoes live in the waters there. Hippos, elephants, wildebeests, zebra, cape buffalo, elephants, and black rhinos. The rhinos are endangered and very rare. We saw 6 of them that day. This is the place where we had lions walking right next to our vehicle. Luckily they have plenty to eat here. Also we saw our greatest number of elephants in the one forest in the crater. It was magnificent.

So our traditional African safari ended and we now set off to Dar es Salaam to meet Justin's girlfriend Anna and travel to Zambia to see Victoria Falls.

Zambia

What a pleasure it was to meet Anna. She met us at the airport dressed in a lovely African batik dress. She and Justin had a lot of catching up to do and Chris and I just enjoyed tagging along. We needed to rise very early the next day to board the 28 hour bus to Lusaka in Zambia. Yes, the road was paved. Yes, the drivers drove well. Yes, we stopped occasionally along the way. However, it was a very long, tough trip. Add to that another 6 hours to travel by bus from Lusaka to Livingstone and I have to admit that we were saddle sore. In addition we had a shock at the Zambian border. Our entry visa cost us $100 American dollars each! The price went up from $25 to $100 this past October. We were lucky that Chris had brought a little more money than we thought we'd need. But we were in Zambia and ready to see the famous Victoria Falls. We got our bearings the next morning and then headed to the Falls in the afternoon. They were beautiful. It was raining and it felt as if we had the whole park to ourselves. We took some lovely pictures. This was the end of the dry season and the water runs 25 times this volume at the height of the rainy season. It was hard to imagine.

The next day we had signed up for a boat ride to Livingstone Island for a possible swim to look over the falls and high tea. We were given a brief overview of the "discovery" of the falls by Livingstone and then our guide asked us if we'd like to swim to the Devil's Armchair. We said yes and off we went. Very carefully our guide had us swim from place to place against the current less than 100 feet from where the falls cascaded down about 300 feet. It wasn't too hard and we all did well. Then our guide brought us up to a group of rocks and we were looking at a pool with water then falling over the falls. He told us we were to jump in and a rock ledge would protect us from going over the falls. It was very scary! He jumped in and lived, so Justin went, then Chris, then Anna, and I had no choice but to go too. Very carefully the guide took 2 of us at a time and we inched our way over the ledge and looked down at the falling water, held by our ankles by the guide. It was so exhilarating. We have pictures of this momentous occasion which I don't think any of us will ever forget. After swimming back to the island we sat down to a lovely high tea.

Our final day at the falls was spent relaxing and taking a sunset cruise on the Zambezi River. We saw hippos and some crocodiles, and we also got to see the shoreline of Zimbabwe. So many of the Zimbabwe boats were idle and a luxury hotel was entirely empty. How sad to see what a terrible leader could do to a country. The sunset was colorful and we really enjoyed our last days in Livingstone.

We took a 50 hour train ride back to Dar es Salaam and that story is interesting. From the States Chris had tried his best to arrange passage on the Tazara Rail Line. The train had an inviting web site that said book online here. However it was a dead link. They also displayed a telephone number. Chris called and the phone had been disconnected. Finally in Dar es Salaam we went to the train station and waited in a long, long line only to find out that they couldn't book us from Zambia to Tanzania from the Tanzanian side. We decided that they really didn't want us to travel by train, but we were determined. In Zambia our very good travel agent finally got us a booking on the train. At the terminal we even were able to upgrade to first class. So Chris, Justin, Anna and I had a compartment all to ourselves. It was great and we played many card games and watched delightful scenery throughout the whole trip.

Zanzibar

We sadly said goodbye to Justin and Anna and were finally on our own in Tanzania. We took the ferry over to Zanzibar and checked into a delightful hotel called the Clove Hotel. The breakfast was served up on the rooftop where we had a beautiful view of the harbor as well as nice breezes. We took the famous Spice tour and learned about the many spices and fruits grown on this spice island. It was so interesting to see peppercorns, nutmeg, cinnamon, coriander, cloves, and lemon grass growing. After our tour we did a little exploring around the old Stone Town of Zanzibar. Zanzibar used to be the seat of the sultan of Oman and mixes influences from Arabic, African, Indian, Portuguese and English cultures.

Our last day in Zanzibar we decided to spend visiting museums. We went to the House of Wonders, which is the first house in East Africa to get electricity and running water. The town is known for the beauty of its carved wooden doors. The House of Wonders has the largest carved wooden doors in East Africa. It is now a museum and contains many interesting and thoughtful insights into Zanzibar's history and future. The story of Princess Salme was particularly intriguing.

We ended our trip in Dar es Salaam where we finished up the last of our shopping at the Mwenge woodcarvers market and the Tingatinga painting market. Both markets feature worker artists and craftsman with many stalls selling these native works. We arranged to meet up with Justin one last time before we left. It was a good way to end our African adventure.