One more family photo before we go.

I couldn't resist this one of Kulsum and her father. We hiked up the rim of a crater and around the edge and down again. Pretty simple, and simply pretty awesome.

Happy birthday brother

It's my brother Stephen's birthday today, November 2nd. It was also my brother Mark's birthday on October the 24th, but we were in the air at that time. Both of these young men are incredible. Mark is solid as a rock in his commitment to his friends, family and God. And he's quite smitten with his girlfriend as well. Stephen is a man of integrity who has married a wonderful girl. He's the most perserverant man I know in Canada (there are a few internationals who take the cake). Much love to them.

Michael

Potions anyone?

I hear that the 'Nyaki Enternational African Medicine' shop is having a sale tomorrow morning. Anyone interested?

Kids

This one made us happy to see. Kids with their arms around eachother walking to or from school. It was a bit of espionage work taking this photo as I took it while walking and holding at waist level, so I don't think anybody noticed. Maybe the lady in the red bandana but I think she was cool with it.

You will often see two men holding hands walking down the street talking to eachother about something that they laught about. And girls hold hands as well. Not too many couples, other than the foreigners who don't want to lose eachother in the crowd.

Maybe I'll take this up when I get home. Dave? Christian? Mike? Carlo? Anyone? Or maybe not.

Hennafied

Here are some before and after photos of Andrea receiving some Henna art from Sukaina. I think they'll be doing the left hand tonight as well. Don't worry mom, it's not permanent. Although I do find it quite beautiful.

We'll be leaving Arusha tomorrow morning to go to Dar es Salaam and the island of Zanzibar. Our intentions of going to Zanibar are quite simple, there are two 'zeds' in the name. You can't say that about to many places other than Brazzaville. Does anybody know any more?

I think we're going on a hike this afternoon up one of the many smaller hills in the region. We can't really fork out the $2000 for the Kilimanjaro trek but this is a close second. And a camel ride might be in order which would make Andrea as happy as a peach.

There is a girl who works at Sticklings whose name is Henna or Hena, or something to that effect. This post is dedicated to her. Just for fun.

Knife sharpening with a bicycle

I love how everything is so open in Tanzania and Kenya. By open I mean that all the wood-working, welding, bicycle repairs, and tailoring is done on the side of the street for everybody to see. This is a scene which we found particularly interesting. The men are sitting backwards on the bicycles and have elevated the back tire and set up a belt to a grinder. With the spinning grinder, they sharpen knives. What ingenuity! No electricity needed at all. All for 100 Tanzanian shillings and with an exchange rate of 1200 shillings to the Canadian dollar, I think we should have brought the knives from the Silver Bean. Getting through customs may have been difficult though.

The Boss

When people ask if I want to buy something I usually refer to Andrea as the boss. "She's the boss, ask her." But then I normally have to do the bargaining. It's a bit tiring after a while to see nothing with price tags on it and know that you're in for a battle to pay at least twice as much as the locals. Whatever, it's more of a game now than anything, just like auctions back home.

If anyone has a couch in an earth-tone colour I have a young couple who are currently looking for one. They are specifically looking for one that's less than four feet in length (more like a mini loveseat) but they are open to other offers. I know it's a stretch but I love these guys a lot.

Michael

World Vision Office

We stopped by the World Vision Office for Tanzania today to drop off a letter and soccer ball for Richard. I hope he likes it. I'm still a bit frustrated with communication problems but things really have turned out for the best having met Khalil's brother's family (can I double punctuate on the apostrophe?).

We saw another truck on the side of the road on the way their. This one was a two-tonne dump truck full of rocks. The side of the road had deep and steep concrete ditches in this area of town. All I have to say is that with the way these guys drive here, I think that deep ditches was a bad idea.

Maybe they can fill them up a bit with the rocks from the truck.

Jabbir, Sukaina, Hasanain, Kulsum, and Ali Jawad (in reverse order)

What a great family. We went out to McMoody's last night for dinner and had pizza, chinese food, spring rolls and fries. It wasn't as good as the best meal we had the previous night, but it was still an honour to be treated by them to a night out on the town. Andrea is getting henna done on her hands tonight by Sukaina and I think Kulsum is making a card for her. And one more thing, I think Jabbir's father is making curried chicken tonight. What a giving family. I don't even know when we'll leave. I'm almost half way through my War and Peace book but I think the other 679 pages to finish the second half will take me at least into Malawi. The boys went to mosque this evening and appropriately so, we were left behind.
We had an amazing opportunity to visit the projects that Jabbir has been referring to. Him and about 14 other friends specialize in removing cataracts of needy people in Tanzania. They literally do give sight to the blind as they go in with teams of surgeons, opticians, transport specialists (Jabbir's line of work), and managers. We saw the PowerPoint presentation of how they have assisted different areas and I think they average about 54 operations per trip and about 5 trips a year. Very simple and greatly needed aid to people who need to see. It's probably a bit more dirty than the PowerPoint alluded but it was very clear that they were honest men doing noble work in a way that they could.

I asked Hasanain where he wanted to work when he grew up and he said, 'With my Father of course.' I've been thoroughly impressed by this young man. Intelligent, respectful and loves his family.

Sukaina has taken to Andrea and I think that they'll make cookies and do henna this evening. Isn't that what all people do when they're in Tanzania?

And this man, he has impressed upon me quite greatly. He's a keen businessman who is really busy but he really makes time for his family and the guests in his home. And for all that he has given us, all he asks is that I keep him in my prayers, so I will. God bless this man, truly.

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.

http://august17th2008.blogspot.com/

http://august17th2008.blogspot.com/

36 to 100 hours

This morning has been a bit disappointing. We just found out that Richard Ntambala Masanja lives in a different town quite far from here. From our Lonely Planet guide, we have determined that the back-tracking ride on a bus will be between 36 to 100 hours. I wouldn't be too excited about the 36 hour bus ride, but the [daunting] possibility of a 100 hour bus ride is a bit too much. I'm frustrated because all of this could have been taken care of ahead of time with a bit clearer communication between the Canadian office and the Tanzanian office. Arg. So, I don't think we are going to visit him as that could put us too far in the wrong direction (I'm disappointed with myself for even writing that because I know it would mean a lot to him and me to see eachother). Also, we're really hoping to make it to Lilongwe to work with Visionledd in at least a couple weeks. So, if some other transportation option opens up (or whatever) we might still go to see him. Please pray that we would have wisdom to make the right decisions.

---

On a more positive note than the communication blunders, we are having a really good time with Jabbir's family. The kids seem to like us and they have been intent on treating us so kindly here. So, other than potentially not visiting Richard, everything is going really, really, really well.

Somebody said this, "Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding."

Protect your life - Fasten Seatbelt

Little Lake Canoeing

These girls have been emailing so they deserved a photo of themselves on the site. It seems like one was happy that we were leaving and the other sad. Maybe not.

This photo was taken the day before we left for Africa. It was a nice way to say goodbye to the city we love so much. I'm not sure why the water is higher on the left than on the right though. It seems like an unstable lake.

Some more photos

These are the parks where we went. First, Lake Manyara in the bottom centre of the page and second Ngorongoro CA on the left. We are staying in the city of Arusha currently. Lake Manjara was breath-taking. Known for it's birds and monkeys, the park is comprised of water more than land and the sights on the first day were incredible. The mass amounts of flamingos bathing in the lake and swooping over the hippos.

The second day at the Ngorongoro crater was even better. We drove up through clouds to descend again into a crater that is a natural haven for just about every African animal you could think of. If you find the crater on the map, we drove around the small lake in the centre stopping every few minutes to enjoy a new sight. The lions came so close and we thought they were going to chase after some wildebeast or zebra (the migrate together because the wildebeast can smell the lions but see poorly and the zebras have excellent vision to see the lions coming) but they were a bit more lethargic than our anticipations. The hippo pond was full of hippos (crazy eh?). There were also the symbiotic snowy egrets that your teachers talk about that eat the flies off the hippos backs. We saw hyenas and jackals which the driver referred to with a bit of disdain as being the dirty animals. Thompson gazelles, warthogs, elephants, giraffes, ibis', thousands of zebras and wildebeast, 4 young male lions, impalas, ostriches, what else? I'm not sure, but Andrea kept a list as the driver went on showing us them all. It was incredible.

Just the two of us and the blue African skies. Ahhh, I love Andrea.

A hawk stole my lunch here. It's true. We stopped here for lunch and I had made up in my mind that I would sit in the shade for a bit and rest my reddening Dutch skin while I ate my lunch. The driver said, "Be careful for the birds for they will take your lunch." And I thought, 'Whatever, I can see a bird coming." So I was enjoying the scenery while holding my sandwich in my right hand (facing the same way we are in the photo but under the tree) and a hawk swooped down from behind, grabbed my sandwich with it's talons and took off. I didn't even feel it until I saw it leaving with my sandwich. Luckily, I had been given a samosa to eat as well or I would have been really put out.

No, I'm not playing in the sand. I am actually hiding behind a below-average size anthill. Don't play around these kids. You might be the king of the castle, but you'll end up with little bites all over you.

MNR

It seems I can never escape my work. They asked for some imagery but I told them I left my terabyte drives at home.

Happy Birthday Lucas

This is just a quick note to our friends at 165 Perry that we are celebrating Lucas' first birthday on the other side of the world. Oh yeah, and it you need my trailer at all while we're gone, you can talk to James or Nancy because they have it. Much love,

Michael & Andrea

Habari za safari?

Just a few photos to quench your thirst. The wildebeast skull is my Halloween costume for this balmy October 31st and the Bone Sky photo is dedicated to Dave Breukelaar for his inspiring photography.

More stories to follow.

Khalil's Family

Today was another good day. A very good day. We slept for 12 hours straight after having skipped a night's sleep on the buses from Kisumu to Nairobi to Arusha, so we woke up quite content and well-rested. We settled on our safari plans with Godfrey and negotiated on a fair price. This happened to be within the AICC (Arusha International Conference Centre). We saw all kinds of billboards and displays concerning the Rwandan genocide and then discovered that this very place was the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. It's slogan was the 'Geneva of Africa'. So we thought, 'This is very interesting that we are here. We might as well stick around.' We met a lawyer from Montreal who was working there as a defense lawyer for the perpetrators of the genocide. Talk about a horrible job! He explained how hard it was to defend someone that the whole world was against. It was a very strange meeting just to talk to him. We then discovered that we could go in to one of the court rooms and listen to the proceedings. So we did. The curtains had to be drawn on the witness who was testifying concerning a man involved with the genocide and there was a point when we even had to leave the listening area because of more sensitive information. It was really a crazy feeling to have stumbled into something so interesting and historical. It's still a bit surreal even 12 hours later. We grabbed a great lunch and went to a cafe for coffee later on. At this point we phoned the brother of Khalil (close friends from Peterborough should remember Khalil from a couple years back. Trent Univ. friend now living in Montreal). We asked the cafe owner to phone him, gave him the number and when he had finished putting it in his cell phone, he said, "Oh, that's Jabbir. I know him." Arusha has about 1 million people within the GAA so this was a great (sic.)coincidence to meet someone who know him. Jabbir (Khalil's brother) came and picked us up right away and brought us to his home like old friends would. Jabbir, his wife, Sukaina, his father, and their children Hasanain, Kulsum (who pronounces her name Kuuuuullllllsum as I forgot the 'L' the first time, and the baby Jawad (in the photo here) have been so welcoming. We've talked everything from the beauty of Arusha, to Khalil and Fatim in Montreal, to politics, to religion, to safari prices and back again and they made the best meal we have had yet on the trip with three types of meat, ungali (a maize product), french fries, salads and sauces. What a treat to have been welcomed so warmly into someone elses home! Our prayer would that we would become good friends with them here and that we would be a blessing to their home as they have blessed us so much already.

We are leaving for a safari tomorrow morning and should have some crazy photos for you in about 2 days time.

Much love,

Michael (Andrea is fast asleep already)

p.s. - Thank you Khalil

Arusha, Tanzania

Well, we arrived in Arusha today after taking the night bus from kisumu to Nairobi (9hrs) then the 6:30 am bus to Arusha (6.5 hrs) so needless to say we were tired when we arrived. We found a place to stay for 12 dollars a night (included breakfast) and are trying to figure out if we will be able to accept one of the million offers a minute we get to go on a safari.
Everyone is really friendly, as we have found africans to be but I think they're extra friendly at the prospect of winning our safari money....
After we went to the hotel to shower and nap we went to the stadium for a soccer game which was wonderful! Everyone was so happy and they all had radios that were playing a different soccer game so they wouldn't miss it. Every time the right team on the radio scored the whole crowd errupted - regardless of what was going on on the field. It was really great to be part of the action.

To all our friends at home, we love you and miss you. Hope everything is going well there.