ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!!!

I'm pregnant............



Just kidding :) We are FINALLY going on safari tomorrow until tuesday! :D I'm not bringing the laptop or the internet with me because its just too much of a hassle and more weight for me to carry so there will be no blog posts until tuesday evening or wednesday morning. fear not - there will probably be like 4 seperate posts of pictures. It's the dry season so all the animals are out and about looking for water.

BE EXCITED!!!! :D

Bamba Session

Here's some more pictures from Bamba. Before our session some of the kids were playing outside the window and were talking to us.. soo cute. They were playing keep-away with a ball that it looked like they made themselves which i thought was neat :) .. We did review of malaria, tb and hiv that we talked about the past few weeks by playing jeopardy and everyone was SUPER competitive... it was actually funny :P. At the end the two teams were tied and there was such an uproar we decided to do a tie-breaker question. They retained a lot of what we taught them and in really good detail which made me pretty happy - always good to see your work is paying off :) 

We also seen our FIRST monkey on the way there and he was adorable  but i didnt have my camera out and we were just driving by, but we leave for Safari on sunday so there will be looooooots of animal pictures and awesome scenery pictures to come :) i can't wait for vacation time! The weekend before I come home we're going to Zanzibar to the beach too which should be amazing :D lots of awesomeness now.... i don't want to leavvvve *tears*

Jelena and Norbert

The girls running away from the camera :P ... they always just run right back which is funny.

More of trying to escape the camera

Playing keep-away 

Game of Crazy 8s before we started because we were waiting for more people... this is where the competitiveness started

Both teams on either side and our taxi driver Juma in the middle... he's hilarious :P an he knew the answers to everything too because he always comes an sits in on the sessions. 

The outside of the school we teach at in Bamba 

Just a cool palm tree picture with mountains in the background... Bamba is literally surrounded by the mountains and its beautiful.

Oldest Trees in Africa

\These are the Boabab trees that we drive by on the way to and from Bamba every Wednesday and Thursday. There are probably about 20 of them on the way there and they're absolutely fascinating. They're some of the oldest trees in africa and their trunks are huuuuge. There is one that we drive by I havnt gotten a picture of yet that looks like 20 people could stand around it comfortably. They're massiiiivvveee. The guys said it flowers in the summer an they're beautiful. Apparently a tree 5m  in diameter is about 1000 years old and i know we pass trees that are just as big if not bigger than that. They also don't really have any leaves which makes them a little creepy surrounded by all the vegetation but at the same time that much cooler. It's hard to describe without actually seeing them... they're just plain cool :P

Huuuuuge..... and this isnt even the biggest one we drive by i just couldnt get a picture of it this time.

Picture one of those people standing beside that tree and you can kind of understand how huge they are.

More Bamba Pictures

Today Me and Franki went to Bamba and taught about HIV.. Most of the lesson was kinda for the participants to self -teach themselves that material because they've had sessions on HIV before so it was a pretty easy day. Tomorrow we are going back and reviewing all the topics we've done so far with them (Malaria, TB, and HIV) so it should be pretty fun. I'm much more focused on our safari on the weekend t be honest, so I've just planned a lot of games for the next few classes I'm teaching since it's easy and fun and makes the time go by faster! :P Before our class started a lot of the kids were on their lunch break so they stood outside the room and sung us the Tanzania national anthem, a song about Africa and i think their school song. It was really cute and I have videos but they wont load on this computer for some reason....sorry guys :P. 

Today also marks the half way point for our trip. We've been here for 4 weeks and only have 4 more to go. When I first got here it felt like this was going to be a really long two months, but I've fallen in love with this culture and this country and the only reason I'm coming home is because I have to go find a job and I miss my family lmao. If i could bring everyone here I would never leave!! It's so much more relaxing and its beautiful here. Every day is a new adventure and I don't think I can ever remember a time when I enjoyed my days as much as I do here. Time is flying and I feel like we've accomplished so much but not done anything at all... so strange. It's truly paradise here and I feel completely removed from all the "bullshit". I want this life forever!!

Franki and Norbert ... Loving the Casualties shirt, especially since he had no idea it was a punk band and just liked the "live free" at the bottom lmao.

Swagger.

More swagger.

This is my view on the ride to Bamba. We go a little bit around to the other side of these mountains.

This is one of my favourite spots on our drive. There's a whole section of huge palm trees like this and with the clouds its mesmerizing. 

Some of the kids that were singing to us.

They multiply... i think there was about 40 of them outside :P

Some more silly pictures from today

So today I gave Ashi the camera and he went nutssss with it.. I actually have about 100 pictures just of us in the kitchen watching Sophia cook and listening to music. Him and Neema are so funny and I can't even understand what they're saying.

The kitchen!!  Any behind us is Sophi's bed and headboard/dresser. 

Our Dada Sophia!! She's so shy all the time but she's a lot of fun. She makes awesome food and we have something different all the time - never the same meal twice in a row.

Me and Neema... She was acting like a baby. there are other pictures of her with a pineapple as her baby but I kept those dozen pictures to myself

Silly faces lmaoooo she didn't understand the "grr face" concept but this works

The boys (Robert, Michael and Nasa) came in and they love the camera as much as the kids do.

Look at all that swagger!!

Me and Sophia :)

Cuuuute

Ashi has his name on the back of his soccer jersey but it was really faded out so I fixed it for him :) he was really excited it was cute haha.

These are my nights... love it :)

Ricky's

This is us at our little breakfast spot on Fridays when we have our weekly staff meeting (more like talk about our vacationing plans and zanzibar meetings). They have coffee, which is a rarity around here, and some pretty good omlettes (not like at home at all... but good lol). We decided to go there for lunch today since we had walked to town to get our bus tickets for our Safari on the weekend. It was only 5000 tsh each for chicken sandwiches an fresh juice and chocolate cake to split!! We're still getting used to the money here.. It always sounds like we're spending a ton of money when we're really spending $3 on food :P.

This is Ricky's!! It's a pretty good spot about a 20 minute walk from our homestay which is nice. There were a ton of wazungu there today which was really odd... seeing a bunch of white people anywhere now is just strange to me hahaha. We're some of the very few in the entire city so when we see more it's exciting. 

Jelena and Linda with the trees in the background :P

Me and Jelena... I sooo loooooove seeing myself now after not seeing mirrors in 4 weeks.... (not...)

The weird bags of liquid that they hang around the restaurant for decorations ... we still dont really understand it.

After we left today there was a vendor selling things that we went to look at... i bought some more souvenirs for people :) Looooove some of the carvings and paintings they make here.

Newest Souvenir!!!

This is the newest addition to awesome things that I've bought for myself ... Get ready to be jealous. The guy Linda and I bought our Batiques from (my cloth painting... theres pictures down below somewhere) came back to the house today with these carved coconuts. Linda had seen one he had last time but we didn't have the money for it. This time we didn't really have it either, but we wanted them so bad!!!

They're carved and finished little boxes that have all the continents on them. When he brought in two at first they looked the same and I was weary that they were just manufactured but then we looked at them and the one Linda brought compaired to mine is very different and they're both very unique. They're so well done!!! This is my new favourite thing I've bought so far. At this rate no one's getting souvenirs but me lmaooo

(and maybe my cousin's friend Chris... Still searching for Kony for his autograph but have had no luck yet)

This is the side with Canada ....

There's the side with Africa.....

That's how it opens ...

And that's how I found Mickey when I left it in my room... he has a new home. Lmaooo