zzzttzz...First things first:
Thank you to everyone who has left us comments thus far on our entries!! We love the lil tid bits, and feel connect to you when we read them!! This being said..the new rule is that if you read our blog, you MUST leave a comment!! It does not necessarily have to be pertaining to what we wrote, but maybe whats happening in your lives!! We would love that so much, so you must follow the rules!!!!!!

Ok...now to hear more about us and Tanzania.

We arrived in Dar Es Salaam late in the evening, went straight to our hotel, woke up at 6 am the next day to catch a bus to Arusha. That was supposed to be an 8 hour bus ride, but of course the bus broke down at one point and the ride lasted more like 10 hours!!..uughh.. I was so over it..although the drive through the country side was absolutely stunningly gorgeous. The ride was long and bumpy, but the chance to see the crimson earthen roads boarded by crumbling mud and stick huts was magnificent. Just getting a chance to view the simple but beautifully adorned people, the women in their brightly colored pattern outfits wrapped and tied in a way that no westerner could figure out, and the shells and beads of their jewelery dripping and draping off their neck and huge stretched ears. I loved it. The color of most peoples skin is the darkest espresso bean color and only gets richer day by day in the steaming sun I suppose. Then, of course, the greenest of green farmland and trees and bushes, practically glowing against the opposing crimson/russet earth.

Life in Tanzania is certainly different. There is no such thing as laziness...it could not exist. Unless one works and walks and carries staggering baskets and bundles on their heads with the babies wrapped and snuggled against backs they would not survive. It makes you take a step back in awe at how functioning everyone is here. It is amazing, and hard, but everyone has a smile on their faces showing off brown stained teeth, perhaps from the too good coffee available.

I am getting used to the new smell of a city or town, and actually look forward to using my sense of smell more. The quiet scents brewing from home and small shanty shacks is always inviting. Even the smell of the earthen ground here is stronger..and I like it. As we were driving through the mountain tops on our way down to the Serengeti I even had the urge to just get out of our safari car and get in the cool beautifully colored mud!! It would have been a fierce photo shoot!!!!

Speaking of photo shoots...I cannot wait to get our film from the safari printed. For a girl who does not love animals too much I was blown away with all the ones I saw on our safari. The closeness that we got to experience them was just unbelievable!! I could have literally reached out and touched zebras and lions!! Of course I did not, nor are you allowed, but to be so close, and look into their eyes is something of a wonder. We saw animals so huge you can just not understand from photos or picture books. Our Guide Hamisi was perfect for us, he was super laid back and had the eye of an eagle. He spotted things in the bush we would have never seen with or untrained city eyes. It just seems as if so many of my senses have been heightened from Traveling. In city life everything is so jumbled together that your senses never get a chance to fully eplode into their true glory. Where in here, they are just all heighten by what is true and raw.
ok...out of time
xoxoxoxox Alicia Claire