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.

HAPPY EASTER - Upendo Style

Eric and I hung out at the orphanage on Easter and had a blast! Easter is a huge deal here...they celebrate for 2 whole days and the orphanage was no exception! The sisters slaughtered two pigs for the feast (Eric was lucky enough to witness that process... I thought he might pass out afterward) and they brought out soda and balloons and had a party! The kids all have fancy outfits they get to wear on special occasions and they were decked out! They all looked so cute and they were so proud to show off their formal wear. Instead of playing in the playground all day...the kids and the mamas danced and sang around the courtyard. They were so joyful and so excited to celebrate! This is Poli (below)! He is one of the younger boys and is one of our favorites. He is still learning to walk and talk, so he squeals all the time and walks like a drunk guy! He's hilarious!

This is Sister Rupert, but we call her Sister Sweetness! She is by far the coolest nun I've ever met! She plays tricks on people, is constantly running around like a crazy woman and loves these kids to death! We have become pretty close to her and she's taken us under her wing...teaching us Swahili and inviting us to choir practice! She's even taught us some sewing!

Everyone in their Easter-best clothes! It's hard enough to get kids to stand still for a picture, but for some reason Tanzanians have a hard time looking at the camera!

Eric and I and some of the kids!!! I'm holding Poli and Eric is holiding a kid called Kelvin. Kelvin is constantly peeing his pants, but looks pretty good in this picture. The little girl in front loves playing with Eric and is always striving for his attention! We love it here!! It is like one HUGE giant family!

Kilimanjaro decided to show herself! Since rainy season began, we haven't seen much of Kili...but Easter came and she showed up! Eric and I are constantly amazed at how huge this mountain is. It just towers above everything! It's crazy to look up and see snow and know that Moshi will never experience a snow storm!...Katie

Preaching in Moshi

This past Sunday I had was incredibly blessed with the opportunity to preach at a local church here in Tanzania. I was pretty nervous because I have never had an opportunity like this before.
I was originally supposed to speak to the youth group but on Sunday morning the head pastor asked me if I could tweak my sermon to preach to the entire church for 45 minutes. I was like heck yes I can! It ended up being between 75 and 100 people that I ws speaking to.
One of the reasons it was super fun was that the crowd was really getting into what I was saying. They were lifting their hands, yelling AMEN, and Praise the LORD! It was super encouraging for me while I was up there.


It was so much fun and I am so thankful for this opportunity. Preaching with a translator is sooo much fun too. After about 40-45 minutes I was done but i didnt want to be.Freddy, my translator did an awesome job! Thank you freddy!!

Livin' the Moshi Life

This is where Eric and I are living at the moment. It is a beautiful house and right now, Hannah is turning up all the soil to plant Maize seeds! I love it! The power really likes to go out here, we were without electricity for over 24 hours the other day!!
Freddy brought home a cow's heart the other night to "snack on". I did not find this too appealing, I'd rather look at it and name all of the anatomical structures! Eric, on the other hand, loved the heart. It was enormous! Hannah and Freddy just sprinkle some salt on it and eat it like potato chips. It looks raw, but it's actually boiled...yum!
This is the orphanage we work at!!
Just a little playground amazingness!!!
Me with some of the lovely ladies!!! ...Katie