The VATICAN CITY...

We made it to ROME and our first stop was the Vatican City. I was really pumped to go see it, and it didn't let me down. The whole city is so royal and lavish. We went through the Vatican Museum (that houses the Sistine Chapel) and then headed to St. Peter's Basilica. This is the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo (it's bigger than a football field).
This is one of the many crazy hallways leading up to the Sistine Chapel. We kept thinking that we were in it, but, no...it was just another hallway! We were super nerdy in Rome and downloaded audio guides to all of the big places...Rick Steves is the man!
Just marveling at the statues in the museum courtyard! It's sometimes hard to take it seriously with all the anatomically correct-ness!!!
Saint Peter's Basilica was one of the most breath-taking places I've ever been. It is so impressive and huge. We got there in the evening, when the sunbeams were dancing all over the church! The afternoon mass was going on, the organ was doing it's thing and the crowd was dwindling...it was magical! A nun (below) waits to go into confession.
The church from the outside. There is so much symbolism in the architecture and artwork. It was totally worth it to be nerdy and have the audio guides!!!
This is the altar, inside the altar. The bronze altar was built by Michelangelo and is meant to make the space feel more homey and intimate (not quite sure he accomplished that feeling). It is only used by the Pope when he conducts mass here! The altar behind it is where everyday mass is held.
Peter himself...in all his glory. This statue is meant to bring you good luck if you rub his right foot. The basilica itself is built on the hill where Peter was crucified upside down. It is such an intense feeling to know you are standing where these great men died for their faith!
The Square outside the Basilica. So many Christians were once murdered here, before it was legal to believe in Christ.
Eric and I outside of the Basilica.
This is the famous statue of Mary with her dead son, Christ. It is held behind bullet proof glass...crazy!
I loved visiting the Vatican and seeing the artwork and history. It was very moving for me to be inside the church and kept thinking of my Grandpa Mike! Wish he could have been our tour guide...he'd have made the tour much more exciting than Rick Steves!! ...Katie

Souvlaki!!!! oh yeah...and the Acropolis :-)

So, our travels took us to Athens for one night...giving us just the right amount of time to fall in love with the city and want to stay longer. We managed to pack in 3 souvlaki rounds, a tour around the ancient buildings and a sunset over the city into 24 hours! The Parthenon was spectacular! It was cool to be standing where so much history has been made!
This is my favorite Greek delight! Souvlaki! Basically, it is roasted lamb with tomatoes and yogurt sauce in a pita! Eric actually liked it too! We ate it for lunch, dinner and breakfast...delicious.
The Parthenon at night!!! So beautiful!!!
This was at the amphitheater that Aristotle used to teach at...so crazy!
The buildings were fantastic at night! You could see the columns and details so much better! They just towered over the city...watching over Athens.
We were lucky enough to get two of the cheapest "deck seats" on the ferry from Athens to Ancona, Italy. We camped out here...at the very front of the ship for the whole night. It was a crazy experience...but, we met some other people and got to see some beautiful, ocean views. We set up chairs into make-shift beds and tried to sleep! There was a super loud snore-er who kept us up though...I wanted to throw a shoe at him!...Katie

CRATER DAY!

We went into the Ngorogoro Crater. It was sooo crazy to see all of these animals in one place! It is the perfect spot for them. They can all get all of the food they need in this crater. This first photo was from the top look out spot. It is about 10-12 photos put together(thanks Photoshop) to make one panoramic photo. It was soooo amazing and made us feel sooo small. Also thank you Macks (www.Bluebeanie.com) for making the photo look cool with the filters. Click on it and make it bigger to really see what was going on.





This is where we stopped to eat lunch. It was beautiful. We had to eat lunch in the truck or the birds would swoop down and steal it. The picture below of Katie was also taken at this lunch spot next to the lake that was there.
The elephants in Africa are so much bigger than the ones in asia. It was pretty cool to see these now that we have seen the asian elephants and pick out the differences. The African ones have way bigger heads and ears that are shaped like Africa. shown below

This was a common site. There were so many places where zebras and wildebeests would just hang out and watch out for each other. Lions and cheetahs were everywhere(even though we only saw one lion and just barely)This is Peter. He was our guide. He was super knowledgeable and was super patient with the annoying people that were also on our Safari tour. (notice there are no pictures of them) I actually asked them to take this picture of us:)
Trying to figure out where to go. Since rainy season(The Long Rain) had began many of the roads looked like this.
.....Eric

Safari - Lake Manyara - Day 1

Eric and I were lucky enough to get to go on an incredible 2 day safari in Tanzania! We went to Lake Manyara the first day and to the Ngorongoro Crater on the second day! We were blown away by the kinds of animals we got to see and the beauty of the landscape! It was AMAZING! We got to ride in the most hard-core jeep I've ever been in, with the top up so we could look around at everything! We felt like little kids and were having so much fun spotting animals and bouncing around in the back of the Jeep!

This is a view of the lake from our picnic spot! It was breathtaking! There were over 20 giraffes and zebra, wildabeast, and tons of other stuff! In the lake, there are hundreds of pink flamingos, but they are too far away to see in this picture! The lake is actually salt water and covers over 1/3 of the park. It's crazy how perfect of an environment this is for all these animals!
My FAVORITE!!! This one is for you Acadia!! We drove through a family of 5 giraffe and got to see them so closely. One was eating off of a tree and this one eventually ran away from us...which was really cool to see!
The zebras were way cooler than I thought they would be! Their coats are so crazy and amazing! When there are a lot standing next each other, it's like looking at a crazy rug!
Of course, we saw some amazing elephants! They were enormous...way bigger than the ones in Thailand! We saw two families of them, but this one was by far the most impressive! I wouldn't want to get too close to that tusk!
We saw a ton of baboon! They could care less about us and made us drive around them! They are stubborn, but pretty cool. We drove up on a tree of them fighting...that was a loud crazy experience.
Awww... look at the baby! I think baboons are weird looking, but the babies are cute! We had an amazing first day of our safari! We have many pictures and will try to put more up soon! ...Katie

Mesha

I wanted to show you this video of one of my favorite kids at the orphanage. (I know I have lots of favorites.) He is one of the hardest players there. He is always going at full speed and right about lunch time everyday he crashes. On this day we had to keep him from falling asleep and putting his face in his food. Right after this is potty time and Mesha could not stay awake through potty time. HAHA this is hilarious.
PS: This is not the video I wrote about in my last post.

mesha sleep potty from Eric White on Vimeo.

....Eric

Saying "goodbye" to Moshi

This is one of my new favorite meals! We got it all the time at Hannah and Freddy's! It is potato and bean stew, chapati and cabbage and carrots! You eat mostly with your hands and it gets a little messy, but it is so delicious! On our last night, we asked Hannah to make us our favorite dinner! She did and she taught me how to make chapati! She is such a great cook, hopefully I absorbed her chapati-powers! We had a lot of fun in the kitchen...but she put me to work! She cooks most of the food over an open flame (says it tastes better that way) and makes her own juices and sauces!
This is just a little friend we found one night, and it happened to be a night without power! These guys look even creepier in the light of a lantern...yuck! Eric was such a stud and killed it! We also were lucky enough to find a cockroach that night too!!! We are getting so brave.
Eric just washing his clothes! We took forever to do our laundry, but it was satisfying! Our fingers got so raw washing all of our stuff! The big concrete thing he is sitting on is where they collect all the rainwater! We used the rainwater to wash and shower with!
Our neighborhood chameleon!!! Woah! I've never seen one of these up-close. It hissed at Eric a couple of times...but he was just a good guy!
This is what the majority of the houses we see in Moshi look like. We are very lucky to live in such a nice place! Only 40% of the people in Tanzania have electricity and most have dirt floors. Makes you look at all our blessings a little differently!
The most amazing family! We will miss them so much! Hannah and Freddy and two of their kids, Mary and Michael! We had so much fun getting to know them and feel blessed to be welcomed into their lives! We will miss Moshi, but we know we want to go back!...Katie

Our Last Day at Upendo!

These are some photos from our last day at the orphanage. It was super sad. It was very hard to leave these kids knowing that they will most likely never get adopted. Some of them can't get adopted since they still have known relatives. I will be posting a video I made soon. Now that I have a "real" internet connection I can actually put stuff up on the interweb.
Bryan and me
Katie and Lucy

This is my favorite of the older girls. Vickie
Somehow we managed to get most of the group together for a group photo. Click on it to view it bigger. This pic does a good job of getting a glimpse of some of their personalities:)
Katie and Neema. Neema is a disabled child who found herself a really special place in Katie's heart. She really had a hard time saying goodbye to her.