Tuesday October 28

Tuesday Oct 28

We got up at 8, showered, packed, had breakfast at the hotel which was pretty good - eggs on toast and some fruit. Machek came and picked us up and took us to the Shop Rite. We headed out of town and on the left we saw the parking lot full of safari jeeps and plenty of foreigners packing up for their safaris. I used the bank (it only took MC) and then we shopped. It was a big store - even a bit bigger than the IGA. We got some apples, a bunch of juices, water, a coke, some fanta, a bottle of red wine, some candy bars, some cookies - basically some snack foods. Next stop was the the Phon Shack. Not the Love Shack but the Phon Shack. I bought a cell phone for about $40 and loaded on about $10 worth of minutes onto the SIM card. This way I can receive calls for free and make any Tamzanian calls for very cheap. Itís even cheaper to call the US from that then calling from my Blackberry.

Back into the van and off we went.

Driving out of Arusha the streets were very busy - everyone was on the way somewhere. Lots of hussle and bussle. There is a mark4t there everyday and you could see many people pushing wheelbarrows or pushing carts full of things to sell. It was all just amazing to see, to soak inÖ.

As we drove out of town we were entering Masai lands. You could see them all on the sides of the roads - walking, walking, walking. Many were herding their cattle. Cattle everywhere. All sizes. Even young boys were herding as well.

We could also see small Massai villages - small round mud huts with thatch roofs and a center circular area that had a fence made out of all sorts of branches - for the animals at night.

The land is very dry right now - no water anywhere. The (short) rainy season starts sometime in November -  and I think they canít wait! 

We passed through a couple small villages and then one just near the Rift valley that apparently has a huge malaria problem. The Rift valley is just beautiful and we learned it runs 8,000 km through lots of different countries. The rift is almost like a cliff - we had to drive up that and then about 30 more minutes until we reached Karatu. The directions seemed easy enough on paper - but provided us a little bit of difficulty. We took a wrong turn here or there and went through some pretty rough roads with the van. A jeep with a higher suspension would have been much better. It was also a single track so there was no way we could pass another car. Oh and the dust - the dirt all around Karatu is a reddish orange and it was flying everywhere!

As we drove and drove, we really realized we were going to the middle of nowhere. Finally we entered the coffee plantation, passed through a small village, the GÖ.. primary school, another small village and then we came to the Rift Valley Childrenís Village.

Just beautiful - flowers everywhere. Really nice buildings - clean and well kept. And when we arrived, no children! Jessie gave us a tour around - going into the Volunteer house where we are staying, the main office, the library, and a couple of the childrenís houses. All very clean, neat and extremely well organized! Slowly we began to meet the children - there are so many smiling VERY happy children and to me, right now, they all look the same. Which is ok with them because by the end of the afternoon, they were already teasing me and re-introducing themselves with all different names. Not fair!

Back at the volunteer house, we got a chance to have a bite to eat - peanut butter and pineapple jam on fresh bread. Hit the spot! And we got a chance to look over our schedule and some other paperwork we need to fill out - most importantly for our Class C residence permit which is on top of the visa that we already got just to enter the country.

So much to see, so much to learnÖÖ

Was able to log on to Jackís mac and write a couple emails and then headed out to watch time. We are on for bath time everyday for the rest of the week starting tomorrow so we figured we had better see what we have to do. We then walked out of the village to watch Andrew do a little bit of soccer training - took some photos of some local children and then headed back for the childrenís dinner time. They are all so happy! And they all have their own jobs - cleaning the floor, the chairs, the table etc.

Finally dinner for us - by this time Jack was starving. Meatballs, French fries, cauliflower and fresh bread. All very good. We ate with the other volunteers ; Molly, Andrew, Andy, Mike and Jessie - the latter three are here are the longer volunteer plan. They are all a wealth of information and I find it amazing and inspiring that they have chosen to come here and stay for the length of times that they have.

When going to bed, they told us the hyenas are out so weíll hear them and we might here bats and rats above our head in the roofÖ. OK I can deal with bats, but RATS! I am definitely not a rat fan.