Tembo, Twiga, Simba!

So many exciting things happening around here! Today we visited another village. There were many children and we all played games where they called out names and they could laugh at us trying to dance in the middle of the circle. Everyone is so very hospitable. We were privileged to present some books and supplies (and a soccer ball-- or football to the rest of the world). There was a ceremony to make the school in that village "official" so now it is recognized by the government. For dinner they even gave us Pepsi and orange soda from glass bottles. When we left we had two dozen kids trying to pile in the back of the SUV with us.


The last few days we spent on safari. When we were asked to describe our experience later words like "phenominal" and "WOW" were echoed throughout the group. At the beginning we were excited to see giraffes in the distant trees. By the end of the night we had seen zebras and elephants feet from our bus, crossing the road and next to our vehicle. We spotted lions (Luka found them first) nestled in grass and driving by later we saw two of them lounging in a tree with a cub trying to climb and join the others. Pastor Hafermann says that since he's lived in Tanzania, in the mid-1960's, he has never seen lions in the trees. They too sauntered across the road just a few feet away from us. Later we ate a nice dinner and watched the huge sky of stars while impala grazed right outside of our thatched roof patios.


The next morning we weren't sure what else we could see after such good luck the first afternoon. We got even closer to giraffes though, and found hippos, waterbuffalo, birds, jackels, and a leopard. A leopard! They're hard to find since they're mostly solitary but we watched one wake up from a nap in a tree and climb down. Luka lives in Tanzania and travels with Pastor Hafermann often and this was only his second time ever seeing a leopard.


Everyone is acclimating nicely. The first day we arrived we were shocked when we saw the students here wearing bright blue sweaters for their school uniforms. Now we stand around for midmorning tea drinking hot beverages and wearing long sleeves. Returning from trips it's like coming "home" when we reach the seminary.


Saturday we're spending visiting a youth prison and the Maasai Cattle market.