S.H.I.T.

Well, you've all known it for a long time, but now it is official.... I am the champion of S.H.I.T.! Scavenger Hunt In Tanzania, that is! Yesterday afternoon, three of my friends organized a scavenger hunt around town. We were split up into 4 teams of 3 or 4, and we had to run around town collecting things and taking pictures. Some of the pictures we had to take were: carrying something on our heads, getting our shoes shined, getting a street manicure, playing a drum, with the Big 5 (lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo, and rhino), Kilimanjaro (which we can't actually see), a rare bird, riding on a motorbike, getting our hair braided, playing a sport, selling a newspaper, lots of goats, and riding in a dala dala (the local transit minivans). We also had to bring back things like 3 beer labels, 3 bananas (green, yellow, and red), a tinga tinga painting, a piece of fabric sewn into something useful, and team t-shirts. And my team won! Actually we tied, but the other team was penalized for bullying, so we got the trophy. Quite the honour. Haha it was great fun....good way to spend a Saturday afternoon. In true championship style, I later took the trophy to the celebratory party where it sustained some damage. I'll have to post some pics later as I don't have copies of them yet.

School is very busy right now... reports are due on Friday so of course I have loads of marking to do, and report comments. It will be a very hectic week. I've been "coaching" volleyball... 5 kids in grades 3-5 once a week on our outdoor grass court with a sort of flimsy net hung loosely! A far cry from our boys at St. Paul's. I can't really decide whether I'm happy or sad to not be spending every evening and every other weekend in a gym. I certainly miss the sound of a volleyball game, and working with Lloyd and Jason... and those kids. I'm watching with interest how their season is going back home.

Because Shawna and I are cuckoo, we are hosting a Thanksgiving dinner at our place on Friday evening (a week early, I know). We think will have 24 adults and 9 children.... 16 Canadians, 5 Aussies, 4 Americans, 3 Tanzanians, 1 Brit, 1 Irish man, 1 Luxembourgian, 1 Irish Luxembourgian, and 1 Netherlander..... Yikes! What are we thinking??? We spent the afternoon making pies today and it was fun! Hopefully we can pull this off! Stay tuned!

Last weekend I went on my first outdoor pursuits trip... an overnight hiking trip with students in the Pares Mountains. It was a steep climb and a definite challenge. It is a beautiful area, and I really enjoyed it, but... my poor flatlander legs just aren't used to climbing up and down hills. My calves were SOOOO sore! I could barely walk for a few days. I will have to try to get some hill practice in before my next trip in November.

My apartment is in the process of being painted.... as it has been for a week. Nothing happens quickly here. Fortunately patience is my strong suit ;P It is going to look much better when it is done though, so it will be worth it!

Well I need to pull a pie out of the oven and mark some assignments. Wishing you all back home an Indian summer!

It's time for Africa!

I have no idea where to begin.....!!! Just returned from the most fabulous weekend in Tarangire National Park. My dream vacation has always been to go on safari. I was a bit worried that I might be disappointed, but not one bit! It was absolutely, positively, amazingly spectacular! Tarangire is known for its large population of elephants... up to 3000 depending on the time of year, and I think we saw a good percentage of them! They just take your breath away. Tarangire is also known for its baobab forests. I knew those trees were big, but I had no idea just how big. They can live to be over 3000 years old. Many of them are hollow.... this allows them to collect water that they can use during the dry season. So impressive. So between the elephants and the baobabs, we spent the weekend surrounded by the most unbelievable giants. We are in the middle of the dry season, apparently the best time of year for game drives in Tarangire.

We saw many other animals too... giraffes (!), zebra, wildebeests, gazelle, impallas, warthogs, monkeys, baboons, dik diks, mongooses (mongeese??), ostriches, and (apparently) a leopard. On our way back to the lodge the first evening, we came across a safari truck and the guide told us a leopard was on a branch in a distant baobab tree. It was getting quite dark, and it just looked like a bump to me. But when we zoom in on the pictures, it was definitely an animal and the bump was gone the next morning. Not sure I can actually count that as my first leopard sighting though!

And, a couple of our luckiest finds were lion sightings. On the first day, I spotted a lioness drinking from the river. She started heading the away from us along the river, so we turned around and found her up a tree that was full of baboons. The baboons were FREAKING OUT! She looked completely uninterested in them and was trying to have a nap. They finally made a break for it and jumped to the next tree. They were still scared to get out of that tree, and were hanging out on the trunk staring at the lioness when we left them. The next day, we came across a mating pair. They apparently will mate every 25 minutes or so for a few days. We were waiting for them to do their thing a second time when many safari trucks showed up (the drivers radio each other) and it became a bit obnoxious. But THEN four not-so-smart zebras also happened on the scene. The male gave chase (without a great effort) and they all escaped with their lives. The female, though, got a bit annoyed and decided to take off. The male, and about 10 safari trucks gave chase, but we had to head out to get out of the park by dark.

The first night we stayed in the park at a lodge with the most unbelievable panoramic view. I could have sat there all day. You could see a river and all kinds of animals meandering by. The second night, though, we stayed outside the park at another tented lodge... lower budget! But it was also very nice and local masai men were working there as askaris (guards) and the service was fantastic. We had to "order" our showers, and they would deliver the water to our tents, and empty it when we were finished because apparently the lions will be attracted by the water and can cause some problems!

I am still grinning from ear to ear and can't wait for my next safari! I took 750 pictures in two days. Crazy I know! I narrowed it down to 134 for facebook..... much faster to post there than here, so here is the link if you want to check them out and you're not my facebook friend :)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=268391&id=515560952&l=d0865d44ff

Since my last blog post, I have also purchased a vehicle! A 1996 Rav4. Driving is not quite as bad as I imagined, but I have spent a bit of time with some white knuckles. So far no accidents or injuries to report, though, so thanks for your prayers! I am having so much fun, but missing football and football weather these days. And of course Barkley... I had a chance to Skype with him a couple times last weekend when he was at my mom and dad's and it was wonderful to see him. Would love to see some of the rest of you too!