Day Three in Lengasti

Why start with day three? Because the first days were spend where there is no civilization; no electricity, no running water, only rice and beans and baked bananas, houses made of sticks and cow dung. Hey, good news we were invited into one of these huts. It's a great place to visit especially in a museum but it's tough to think that a family lives there every day year round and no vacation to "get away from it all."

At 6:00am the first morning the cows and goats paraded by our bedroom with the ringing bells on their neck and their braying to complain about the early morning start. Breakfast was Maasai very thin pancakes, boiled eggs and strong, very strong black coffee. That was about 8:30am so there was time for a walk, bird watching and lots of sitting around and visiting with other guests. Then there more waiting as our local contacts meet to discuss the issues facing the village, which right now are plenty, but that's another story for another time.

Last year there villagers hanging out around the compound almost all the time but this year there almost no one. That's are part of the "other story." Five of the other guests at Gladness' Hotel were from Denmark, a part of a support process from that country. Three others were from Corvallis, a doctor, a nurse and wannabe. And finally there were two local (Tanzanian) doctors who are just finishing up their education. They were the ones who conducted the clinic.

Bird watching is a blast because like Linda our bird authority says, every bird you see is a new one.

Kathy took one of the soccer balls out among the children and after they freely kicked it around awhile, she divided them into teams with a couple sticks for goal posts. After watching for a while we were impressed by the skills and the ability to not fight or argue. It's not the first time they saw a soccer ball but to have new one was very exciting.

Remember how hot the dark continent is reported to be, and we believe it. It's cool enough that the locals wear jackets and even we put on long-sleeved shirts. The skies are overcast and we even had rain most of last night. There were sun breaks today and hints what we might see some of Kilimanjaro, but no we only saw some lower slopes.

Now we're back in Arusha sitting at a hotel to get WiFi and trying to catch our breath after the first whirlwind days. Knowing about this place we should be more consistent with our emails and blogging.

Sent from my iPad