Tanzania Safari!!!

So this is long overdue, but here's some pics from our safari in Tanzania. I don't even know how to begin describing how amazingly beautiful and wild and wonderful it was...so here's the pictures!



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Back in January we did an HIV/AIDS Know Your Status Campaign in our community. We had a local filmmaker produce a film about HIV in the local language and it then showed it in conjunction with HIV testing and counseling and condom sales and demonstrations. Most of the implementation of the project was done by our supervisor Joe, who really did an incredible amount of work simply out of the desire to help the community. He makes our job so easy. Three hundred people were tested that day and over a thousand participated in at least some of the event, hopefully learning a little something. the film has been passed around to individuals, shown in another Peace Corps community, and will hopefully continue to be shared in years to come. We're hoping to have enough time to do another HIV event in our community before we leave.

JJ with some of our neighbors.

For funerals, people bring baskets of millet which will later be turned into food and alcohol and served to the guests.

A guy playing a local guitar.

At a big funeral, this guy comes out and starts playing with fire, breathing it out and dancing around with it!

Kirsten as Wardancer!

JJ as Wardancer, keeping Death from taking anyone else!

One of the many dance parties that happen during the funeral season here.

Random shot of a street in Bolga, the regional capital where we do most of our shopping, internet, meetings with people, etc.

Baby on moto!

This is Ayo, and he's quite a character. He's got style, as in he often wears safety goggles around and his bike is decorated with a stuffed elephant! He's really into planting trees and gardening and is a really really hard worker who's always happy to help out with projects.

This is Akuriku, the old man who lives next door to us, and because he's the oldest person in the big compound house he's called the landlord. He raises dogs and is always very interested in all of our animals. He gets a pretty big kick out of us and all of the wierd things we do, like eat oats and occasionally sleeping past 6am. He comes over most mornings to greet us, and he's a pretty big part of our life here.

Kirsent and I spent a day on an island off the coast of Zanzibar. It is a nature reserve and only open to a small number of visitors each day. We snorkled and hiked, saw the elusive coconut crab (large nocturnal crab that climbs trees and eats coconuts).

stonetown

zanzibar

how beautiful is Kirsten?

Kirsten looking all elegant in Zanzibar. Mike and Mara gave us a dinner at an amazing restaurant on a rooftop in the middle of stonetown (stone town being the main town on zanzibar, called stonetown because it is super old and made of stone/coral. The town is intersting because of it is very old and well preserved and also because of the diverse cultures that have coalsced there (omanie, indian, african).

Puppies!

Kirsten looking super-fine in some Tanzanian fabric.

I had a neighbor of ours weave this smock for Kirsten for Xmas. It is a traditional dress that women wear for special events.

Me and my new buddy Morgan Gama-Lobo!

So our cat is like 9 months pregnant now (or the equivalent in cat months) and she looks ready to burst. She barely moves these days, she wakes from her near constant napping to drag herself over to her food and then back to napville. This is a pre pregnancy shot. We will get out photos of her post birth with her babies when it all goes down. We also need to get a picture out of our dog with her puppies. We just discovered that she has five puppies, we thought that only three survived (she keeps her puppies tucked away in a small crevice where its hard to see them).

Just down the beach from where we stayed with the fam was a super old slave castle in the midst of a fishing village. (These pics are a bit disjointed - sorry)

Kirsten celebrating the Nabayeska (harvest festival) with some of our neighbors.

Does it get any better than hanging out on a beach and playing in the waves?

Mom and dad look happy here, mom's enjoying her pre-sickness time.

Mo seemed to enjoy Kirsten's company, specially when he was grabbing her necklace and her cool hat.