Zanzibar is paradise

Zanzibar is paradise with it’s beautiful sunsets, endless seeming sandy white beaches, and clear blue ocean. We are so happy to be relaxing and staying in a place for more than three days!! Every afternoon and morning my mom and I go out to the ocean and swim. I love Zanzibar and will hopefully be back next year. I think this will be the last post so I want to say happy birthday to my BFF Ang. I miss you so much and hope you have a good birthday!! Zanzibar is a great place full of happy people, amazing food, beautiful corals and shells, exotic fish, and dolphins. Unfortunately we did not see dolphins. But we saw sea enchants, octopus looking things, and lots of hermit crabs. On the first day I spent almost the whole day in my bikini so I got very sunburned on my shoulders which was not good because we had a massage and pedicure scheduled for the next day. The next day we went to the massage and I had to change from my clothes into a blanket. I changed into the blanket then lay down on the massage table. The woman who gave me the massage was obviously an amazing masseuse. It felt AMAZING!!! Then she gave me a pedicure which looked nice. I got my toes painted gold (they had just been painted silver so I didn’t want to get silver again) and my mom got purple. I hope to do it again. 

I will post photos tomorrow because it is late here.

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANG!!!!!

Going to Zanzibar

We did a lot the past few days so I will not give you all the details. We visited some schools but that was not the big highlight . The big highlight was getting to Zanzibar. First our flight was changed so we had to buy a new one then the flight was delayed three more hours and we wouldn’t make the flight to Zanzibar. We talked to the flight attendant she wasn’t making any sense and she kept saying it was the same equipment. Then she said someone who would arrive on the plane we leave on would help us. My mom said I should act like I am sad so someone might try to help us. When the man who the flight attendant said would help us arrived and saw me “crying” so he tried to help us. He said that the same plane that we would fly on next would then go to Zanzibar. YAY!!! We made it to Zanzibar and my mom and I were SOOO happy except for the fact that it was 2am.

Not much happened today

Not much happened today so I will post some random things. First I will tell you things that mean different things in Africa so here they are: you are a baby until you are eighteen, a flashlight is a torch, simple is NOT simple, R is pronounced as L, the date is day/month/year not month/day/year, when you meet someone it is rude to say hi, fifth grade is class five, high school is college and college is university, the forest is the bush, and Brit is Bright or Pit or Beijing. I’m considering telling people my name is Carli. Maybe they would pronounce that better.

        Now I will give you a Swahili lesson. Jambo = hello, Quahari (pronounced Qu-hairy)= goodbye,    Habari = how are you, Habari zassubui = good morning, Habari zam chana = good afternoon, Indeo = yes, Hapana = no, Mojo = one, Mbele = two, Tatoo = three. If you want to learn any specific words comment which ones. BYE!!!!🇹🇿🤪🤪

Safari photos!!!

Big bull elephant 

Just a small  sample of our amazing animal sightings!!!!!

Young lion pride

The hippo pool

 Hippo outside of the pool

Nile Crocodile

Two leopards in a tree

The beautiful view from our hotel 

Another pride of lions

Cheetah by the road

Lion scaring a jackal away from its food

Lots of zebras in the Serengeti

More leopards in a tree

Spotted hyenas 

Water buffalo

Giraffe (or twiga in Swahili)

Cheetah on the hunt for gazelles

Lions eating a zebra (do you see it in the  back)

Lion right  outside of the car 

Me and the lion

Two brothers after they killed the zebra

Wildebeests (also known as no brained animals)

Giraffe going to an acacia to eat

Lone bull elephant 

My mom and I at our hotel

Me in the pool

Me "surfing" in our car

Even more leopards in the tree

Lion pile

Pride of Lions

Another lion pile

Cheetah looking for prey

Lion killing a zebra

Brothers after the kill

Beautiful sunset in Africa

This post is LONG

Oct. 23, 2019

             So  many things happened to me in the past few days so I will not give all of the details. On  October 20 we left the  luxury  hotel and drove eight hours  on the bumpiest road possible. It was like an eight hour roller coaster that had fallen off its track. We arrived at a hospital and asked our  driver why we had stopped. He said that we were staying there for the night.

           The next day we  drove two hours  to a school on an even more broken roller coaster. We spent two expected hours there and two unexpected hours as-well. Then we drove two more hours to get to the hotel(which was  in  Serengeti National Park). When we arrived my no one was there to greet us (that  is unusual for Africa) mom and I went inside and nobody was at the front desk,  the lights were  out and it was silent. We saw  a man walking in a  balcony so  we  asked  him where  everyone  was. He  said he would call the general manager and we could talk to him. When the general manager arrived he said the hotel was under construction and it had been closed for two weeks!! Now you must understand that we were stranded in the middle of nowhere surrounded by animals that could kill us and the next closest hotel was 110 km away. At first the manager did nothing but tell us  we couldn’t stay there. I was  thinking thanks alot to the manager but then he brought me brownies and was instantly forgiven (by me at least for a while). The manager said he would have somebody drive us to the closest hotel and he would help us change our flight. Two and a half hours later we made it to the hotel it was night time and we were very tired.

       Today  made up for everything because we went on safari!! We saw seven  different prides of lions, three leopards, a  cheetah, many giraffes, many hyenas, a jackal, lots of zebras and wildebeests,  many different antelope, lots of hippos and crocodiles, many buffalo, lots of birds, some ostriches ,and a few elephants. It was amazing!!

It is very  late here and the internet is slow so we will post pictures tomorrow.

Luxury and Belinda

Oct. 19 2019

                Yesterday my mom and I drove four hours to Mto Wa Mbu. Ask me how to pronounce that, sorry it’s impossible. However, Mto Wa Mbu means "Mosquito Village!!!"  But anyways we drove here and are currently staying at the Escarpment Luxury Lodge. Well I can tell you it lives up to it’s name. Our hotel is AMAZING!!!!!🤯 It is 100% AMAZING!!!  I will post lots of pictures.  When my  mom  and I  got into our room I decided I was going to take a bath in our Jacuzzi. My mom was trying to turn on  the water but she pulled the wrong lever and it snapped!!! We told the hotel manager, and he said "it happens," he told us we were fine and we didn't have to  pay!! Yay!! 😁

This was our vehicle today, the "Bjaj"

It's pronounced "bee ja jee"

                 Last night we went to a Maasai dance at our hotel and they asked me to  come dance with them. Apparently I am a perfect target to pick for dancing every time there  was a new group of people to do Maasai dances they would pick me to dance with them. Dancing is not very close to my favorite sport so it was interesting.

                Today we went to see a student we sponsor named Belinda. She was kinda shy but I don't blame her she is meeting people from  very far away who are sponsoring her throughout her whole education career. Education is not free in Africa. Belinda is very nice, hardworking, and beautiful. I know that she will go places. They have more Maasai dancing tonight so wish me luck!! 

Tanzania

Thursday Oct 17

Jambo!!  I finally  made it to Tanzania!  I am very  excited to be staying in a hotel with no holes in the ceiling.  Today we went to OMAWA, we went to another school, we visited the grandmothers of the girls at that school.  The weather was very wet and our shoes grew an extra 3 inches with the mud.  We saw a mushroom farm, which was kind of gross.  They put mushroom seeds in a small bag with soil and moisture, then let it sit for a month and they eventually grew out one end of the bag.  I won't be eating mushrooms again.  

When I came back I went swimming and it was very cold, but fun.  

That's all for today, Kwaheri "goodbye" in Swahili.

Tuesday Oct. 15, 2019

View over Queen Elizabeth Park

    Today  we went to a park called Queen Elizabeth National Park and another school with the head of the Girls to Lead Africa organization, Kansiime Honest. We went to the school first, and met many more high school girls. The things girls said about themselves were, well to be honest, I couldn't really understand what they were saying so I just clapped when other people clapped, and acted like I was listening.  My mom said it was really amazing because these girls were so strong and confident, although they came from extremely poor families who prefer boys over girls.  The girls beat  many boys in their school  elections. 

    We went on a “safari” and saw lots of animals like: Elephants, Monkeys, Kob Antelope, Topi, Baboon, Water Buffalo,  Water Buck, Hippopotami, Spotted Hyenas, Monitor Lizard, Tree Climbing Lion cubs, and last but totally least, birds. Sorry bird lovers. Tree climbing lions only exist in two parts of the world but we got to see them!  The sad part is they weren’t actually in a tree. They were cubs and  their mother had hidden them in the grass to go hunting, but at least they were adorable!! That is all for today, Britin Richards signing out.

Kob Antelope fighting

The Ugandan Crested Crane is the National symbol

Hippos

p.s. Tanzania tommorow!!❤️❤️❤️