May 14, 2018 - Lake Manyara National Park

Today we went to the park but there was much flooding. We tried to get to several sreas but the roads were washed out. Therevwas so much rushing water! Instead we went to the local market innthe village. We went to the vegetable and grain and house hold areas. Then wevwent tobthe tourist and craft sreas ehere we were hoiunded bu salrsmen! No money today! We returned dor lunch at the hotrl. I opted for an afternoon at the pool and seam a few timed. Mona and Cindy joined me and we had Kikimanjaro beers. Early dinner and off for a night safari...

May 13, 2018 - Lake Manyara National Park

Today we traveled to Lake Manyara National Park. It took a couple of hours but Adam drove sliwly. We arrived at 11:30. We are staying at Lake Manyara Serena Hotel, overlooking the Lake. It has been raining here so there is lots of mud. We we ate lunch at the lodge and went on a game drive. We saw zebras, wildebeest, baboons and hippos!!! Lots of other monkeys were around including the blue ball. We returned to the lodge at 6:00, watched the acrobatic show at the pool, ate a nice dinner, and slept soundly.

May 12, 2018 - Tarangire National Park

Game drives today, looking for elephants, buffalo, and Zebras, as well as lions and leopards. We had breakfast at the lodge, fruit and cereal, and omlet station with Swedish pancakes. I was up about 6:30 and had coffee on the fabulous stone terrace overlooking the river, watching a herd of impalas. We hunted (looked for) animals all day. We found many elephants. We would their behavior 15-20 minutes then move on. One young male even charged at the vehicle, but turned away... trying to impress some females, ie Mona!!! We saw the solitary...

May 11, 2018 - Tarangire National Park

Departed after breakfast for Tarangire National Park and arrived in time for lunch. Lunch was a buffet of many choices, beef and fish and many vegetable and grain sides. Our lodge, Tarangire Safari Lodge, consists of spacious tents with en suite bathrooms. I love it! My tent has a large queen size bed and zippered-off bathroom with toilet and hot shower! We were told to ask a guard to escort us home after dark since we are living among wild animals! After lunch we went on an afternoon game drive, looking for elephants. We enjoyed the hunt...

May 10, 2018 - Arusha National Park

Today we went to Arusha National Park for an all day game drive. We had breakfast at 8:00, met the "briefer" -company guy - at 8:30 and headed to the park at 9:30. It took about 45 minutes to get to the gate. We drove on a very bumpy muddy road in the rain and saw lots of baboons, giraffes, zeebras, Cay Buffalo, warthogs, water bucks and flamingos. We Had a lovely picnic box lunch over looking a lake. Then we met a park ranger named happy, with a big gun, and took a walk through the grasslands for about 90 minutes. The sun came out. We...

May 9, 2018 - Arrive in Tanzania

We will be staying at the Arusha Serena Lodge for 2 nights while we visit Arusha National Park, our first of five parks. We arrived at the Tanzania airport on time about 8:00. We already had our visas so we moved thru immigration fairly wuickly. We grabbed our bags and met our guide Adam. We were expecting John... not sure about that but Adsm seems great. We arrived at the Arusha Serena (formerly Lake Dulai) and got our single rooms; lovely!!! I like the beautiful mosquito netting, giantic bath, andbalcony! I had a glass of wine and caught...

Feb 19, 2018 - Zanzibar and Starting Home

I spent a couple of days in Zanzibar mainly walking around the stone city . The island is very pretty with wonderful beaches. Looking down from the plane on the water, there seem to be many places that look very shallow, large patches of turquoise water in a dark blue sea. Zanzibar was an important slave port until it was taken over by the British as part of an effort to ban slavery. The "stone city" is the old part of Zanzibar city with some very narrow streets laid out however. I walked around until I was hot and tired then used google...

Feb 17, 2018 - Leaving Arusha

So the biggest thing that happened is Kieran McIntyre Moe was born, a little early but a healthy weight. I am so excited. I am cutting the trip by a couple of days which is fine. I am going to Zanzibar but just cut it short. I am on miles but Emirates had availability for me to leave on Tuesday rather than Thursday and my good friend Jan got it arranged. Because my miles are on Alaska, I had to rebook through them. I can’t call them from here and am not eligible to rebook online. My last day at school was yesterday (Friday). The director...

Feb 15, 2018 - Final teaching

Tomorrow is my last day at the school and is a half day. I am looking forward to moving on but I will miss the teaching in that I feel I have become more valuable as time has gone on and can better determine what is going well and what areas could use some help. The reading method might be tedious, but it is cheap and effective so now I am looking for ideas to help problem solving, critical thinking and world view. I guess that is a tall order for five year olds in a place without much for resources. As I have mentioned, story time is a...

Feb 13, 2018 - Etc.

Power is out (all over Tanzania from what Mama Liz says) for some unknown reason so this will be quick. Well, it turned out not quick enough. I use my old notebook computer which doesn't give any warning before it shuts down but the power is back on. At school, story time seems to have some staying power. It continued while I was gone and since I have returned. I think tomorrow I am going to hit up a couple more book stores to see if I can find some additional story books in Swahili. The children really get so excited. Another one of the...

Feb 11, 2018 - Serengeti 2

I am back in Arusha. It is nice to be clean but I miss my safari family. Such a wonderful group. Our third night of camping was on the rim of the Ngorongoro crater. For the first time since I arrived in Tanzania, I was cold. It wasn’t cold by our standards but cold enough that I actually wore my coat. When I went out to my tent, there was a man with a gun who told me some wild buffalo and zebra had wandered into camp and to be careful not to leave the tented area. We could just see their eyes. This was a larger camp with even a wider group...

Feb 9, 2018 - Serengeti

Michael and Shannon talked me into going out to see animals and I am glad they did. I've had a great time. I left Arusha about 4 pm Wednesday to go to join up with a safari. The first camp was fairly nice, not luxurious but comfortable. I was in a tent but with a bed and bathroom. I was very lucky because I really like the other five people in the group. There is a couple, Dinka and Odin. He is from the Philippians and she is from Indonesia. They live in East Africa. Visiting them and coming on this trip is her mother, Ria and a friend of...