Travel: friends from the States come and visit- go team

It is so expensive for people to travel and visit us in Africa.  Safari with good reason costs a ton.  I mean you are in the middle of nowhere in Africa and getting electricity, water, good food, and cold beer and wine so it should be.  At Ndutu lodge they have to bring in food from 3-4 hours away for everything they make us and they make us fancy stuff.  We were so glad we got to share our experiences with the Raj, Cindy, Alina, and Caden. 

We stopped by an Iraqw house and learned about their traditional housing.  They used to live underground.  Interesting story they tell as to why it is not so anymore.  When the US sent old slaves back to Liberia and Liberia prospered then other African colonies decided to gain independence but needed support to do this.  When the UN was coming to check out the progress the government in charge in TZ decided houses need to be in villages not rural, in a row, and above ground.  So essentially it was against the law to stay in your traditional housing. Even today there are not underground houses.  This was built to show us history. 

Iraqw people facts

Cole can get very bored believe it or not on Safari – especially day 2 or 3.  So he plays with his camera.  You can see his “ art”.  IF you want real safari pics then you need to look at David’s Facebook page.  Pole. 

Travel: thru town to a fancy hotel

I am so lazy about posting.  For Tierney’s bday we traveled thru town to a fancy hotel- Mt Meru.  Brand new hotel.  The guys were gone so we decided to celebrate in style.  We beg for rain and nothing and then the one day we stay at the fancy hotel with the pool it rained- but the kids didn’t care.  The best part was free internet access so we downloaded Jon Stewart all night. We can’t download more than 150 Mb a day a home and usually it is slow so we time out.  Birch and Cole loved having TV for the night.  In fact TV beat out the pool. 

Lesson: Watch out for mice in your underwear drawer

 

Yes we had a mice catastrophe.  The mama mice had five babies in the chupi drawer and Birch found them at night while getting his school clothes ready. At least 10 pairs destroyed.  We decided the baby had to go outside which would mean that they would die.  Birch suggested since they had to die we might as well take them to the snake park on Sunday because that is when the snakes eat.  So….. my kids are ok with the whole circle of life thing even with cute baby mice- especially if they eat your underwear.

Adventure: Wii for the first time ever in our house

Enjoy the videos if you can. Nana and papa are to blame or thank for these as you see fit. Luckily power outages 12 hours at a time limit Wii screen time. Of course see how opposed to Wii David is when you watch the videos.....

Travel: I am sooooo late with these: Zanzibar

The boys being funny. 

Stonetown in ZBZ

Our sunset luxury boat cruise

Dinner at the finest restaurant in town- kids ate shrimp

The kids talking to the bar man about the bush baby that comes at night

Cole loses first tooth in Zanzibar and tooth fairy brings 650 Tsh  ( 30 cents), but it sounds like a lot if you are in to Monopoly.

Travel: Safari with Grandparents- David loves animals

Went to the Ngorogoro Crater and to Ndutu to see animals for the New Years. The Crater had tooooooo many people but that is because you can see so much. Here are some highlights.

Birch finally saw the one animal he has wanted to see since our arrival- a serval cat. He saw a BBC show with a serval catching a bird mid air and has been obsessed since. Such amazement on his face. Our too since it was the middle of the day and we were leaving the crater.

serval cat info

Coles favorite the bat eared fox and David loves Hyenas more than lions.

Speaking of lions. A male chooses a mate to have for five days and mates her every 15 mintues for 5 days. He takes no food just water. Birch informed us that is 96 times a day. When I pressed him to explain mating he said there definitely has to be a growl at the end. We talked a little more in technical language appropriate terms and he said “how does that happen” and “ I don’t know much about that”. Which is crazy cause Birch knows something about everything with lots of confidence. (just like his dad)

Random picture of love- birds

Cool migration. 30 pass in 10 seconds and kept on coming for 10-20 minutes.

Saw a million cheetahs- which is great because kids had just watched a movie called “Duma” about a cheetah.

Of course we had a sundowner. Kids playing in the park with above cheetahs probably near by…. who knows.

Adventure: XMAS in Arusha

Felt the same except we went swimming the day before, had a Bao-bob Christmas tree, and the kids really didn’t get excited until a few days before since we have no television and commercials.  Santa didn’t bring everything they wanted because Santa didn’t know about some of the American type toys on the wish list until a few days before.  Cole was very excited about his woopy cushion until mom sat on it and the first fart broke it.  Time for new years weight loss resolutions I think.  Birch our birder got his own binocs.  Legos still the hit of the party.