February 19, 2008 by Claudette.

Well we’ve been in Africa for almost a week and we have yet to see anything remotely wild animal-ish except maybe a stray cat or two. Our first 2 days we spent in Dar Es Salaam, which is the major economic city in the country. Luke wasn’t feeling well and on the morning we were taking the ferry to Zanzibar, I took him to the hospital to make sure he didn’t have Malaria. Good news was that he didn’t have Malaria, and we made our 10:30AM ferry departure for Zanzibar.

We’ve now spent 4 nights In Stonetown on Zanzibar Island. Everybody in finally healthy as Alex was sick for 2 days after arriving here. Yesterday we took a spice tour and went swimming at a remote beach north of Stonetown. Today we are heading to Moshi, which is at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Originally I wanted to take the ferry back to Dar Es Salaam and then a 10 hour bus ride to Moshi, however Rick finally convinced me that the 55 minute flight was more worthwhile than the 2 days of travelling so we fly out of Zanzibar at 7:55PM tonight.

We are just making the finally arrangement for our 5 day safari through the Serengeti and a couple of other places. The price basically works out to $170/person/day or $850 each for 5 days. I’m sure it will be worth it, and we will finally see the wilds of Africa.

Take care for now, we miss you all.

Posted in 2008-02 to 04, Africa | 1 Comment »

February 19, 2008 by AJ.

Now we are in Tanzania! It is quite hot here! We spent 2 days in Dar el Salaam and now we are on an island called Zanzibar. We had to take a ferry to get here. Now we have all gotten sick in the past few weeks with the same thing! I think I almost had it the worst. It stills pains me now even though I “recovered” a day ago (or 2?). we went on a spice tour today which was lots (!!!!!) of fun! We first stopped at a few spice farms and saw (and smelt), cinnamon, lemon grass, ginger, coriander, mace, nutmeg, cloves, and a few others. And they was some village boys who didn’t have school then, so they kept following us and making really nice things out of huge leaves. I got a very nice ring, that had an add on so I could put in some stuff, put in some cinnamon and lemon grass (which turned out to be the best combination!). And a basket, bracelet and a few of the spices (that I couldn’t manage to be the last one smelling). In the end they wanted money (which we did give to them) But they really took advantage of Luke, he just couldn’t say no! He got one of everything (except for a ring to put things in like mine and some corriander). He has thing really funky hat, a weaved frog, a basket, a tie (weaved) and tons of other spices and stuff!

After that we went into a cave called the “slave cave”. It is where one of the kings kept his slaves when the British were in Tanzania. It was very hot underground!! I thought it was going to be nice and cool, but it was almost as hot as above ground! Our guide said he (the king) had 200 slaves in their! I couldn’t believe it! Maybe 100, but not 200! There was a little pool of water where they would take drinks. at both ends of the cave they are these big kinda holes (except they are really wide, maybe 50 meters) and you could escape from there. On one side it was impossible for anyone to survive, because it was so hot, and if you didn’t go at the right time, the high tode would kill you. But on the other side some slaves actually made it out(the ones that knew how to swim. It takes about 3 hours ands it 30 km (I think) when above the cave it takes about 15 minutes! But there was a guard above the cave. Then we went for a swim an it was so nice! The lady who was sitting at the back of the bus with mom let me borrow her goggles and I got some very neat shells! I got on that would be awesome for a necklace, and one that was the beginning of a conch shell and two other ones. S’all for now! Buh-bye!

Posted in 2008-02 to 04, Africa | 1 Comment »

February 19, 2008 by Luke.

When we got into Tanzania I thought this was nothing like India and I was right there is not as much horn honking just as much as fort smith and the Tanzanian aren’t as crazy drivers as the Indian there is not as much pollution as India and definitely not as much dogs I have only seen three !!! We stayed in an O.K hotel for our first two nights in Tanzania the second night we were there I got sick I was having the same symptoms as you would if you had malaria ( dun du dun )
worst of all a very high fever 38.26 . I was having a lot of diarrhea I had to go 27 times in one night mom took me to the hospital the next morning and I got two needles one to help my fever another to test my blood the one to test my blood hurt more . We went on a ferry to get to another Island about a half an hour after I was at the hospital the ride was not smooth but not bumpy. I Had trouble finding the toilette when I did find it I just sat down and went not looking for toilet paper as you probably guessed there was none and yet I only noticed it half way though my poop. Luckily mom had some in her bag and dad brought it to me when we arrived All i wanted to do was lie down to make a long taxi drive short I did . I ended up being sick for a day and a half after the trip to the hospital and still have the sniffles .As I got better Alex got sicker and when I could finally go out to eat Alex could not . my first day I had a meal with mom and dad was breakfast I got a brownie I saved one bight for Alex who was stuck in the room mom had got Alex some toast that alex said tasted like bannock Alex also said that it was the best meal she had had in a while that night we called a few family members and Tim to say hi we gave a little update on what was happening we went to the spice area the next day there were a few boys making leaf crafts for the group We saw cinnamon trees lemon grass coco beans and a lot more the funny thing was the boys just continued giving us stuff I got a hat a tie a frog a necklace a ring and 3 bracelets all for one dollar total in the end I only kept the hat and the tie ( I lost the frog wa wa wa it was really nice ) The hat Is something Ian would LOVE and the tie is just cool anyways I think I’m starting to blab on and on and on like dad so see ya : ) : )

Posted in 2008-02 to 04, Africa | 2 Comments »