Africa 2005 reflections - safari company

We started planning our Africa vacation back in the Fall of 2004. We researched websites of safari companies located in Arusha, Tanzania and emailed them for initial itineraries and prices. Through continued communication and decision making, we ended up choosing Nature Discovery (http://www.NatureDiscovery.com). They were able to provide us with the custom safari we were asking for, and at a great price. In fact, throughout our safari and Zanzibar vacation, they were great! Our driver, Albert, did a great job of taking us through our safari itinerary and his keen eyes often found animals we hadn't even noticed. Nature Discovery got us some really nice accommodations at lodges throughout our safari. The thing I appreciated most about them was that they were able to accommodate our custom plans and ideas, like specific camps we wanted to stay at and things we wanted to do or see.

Africa 2005 reflections - friends from the past

During our days in Arusha, I was able to meet up with several people from my previous time in Tanzania back in 1993. We visited the ELCT office and I met up with my former boss. We also visited a Sunday morning church service at the Arusha Community Church (ACC), the English language church of which I had been a member; there were only a couple of recognizable faces in the crowd but it still brought back some memories.

The best experiences, however, of my time in Arusha and even of my time in Africa is the opportunity that I got to visit with two sets of friends. First were Christopher & Diane Mwakasege; I stayed with them for the four months that I lived in Tanzania back in 1993. They are close friends and I was very happy to see them again and introduce them to Leah and the Grimwoods. The others quickly befriended the Mwakaseges; they found them so easy going and friendly. And the Mwakaseges were so good to us. Diane took us shopping for souvenirs and helped us get good prices for them. They also had us over for tea, took us to their Swahili church and had great conversations with us; it was exciting to hear accounts of Christopher's preaching (he's an evangelist and holds seminars and crusades around the country).

The second set of friends were Sig & Joy Feser, Canadian missionaries living and working in Arusha. They're a dynamic couple, visionaries with lots of great ideas and plans for ministering in Tanzania. Their focus is more on training up the leaders and pastors so that they are properly equipped to minister to their own congregations. The Fesers are leading a small community of missionary workers on a variety of projects, many of which are cutting edge (such as animation production, teaching video distribution with portable DVDs and such). All four of us were amazed at the work they are doing and we had a great time visiting with them and talking with them.

Yes, above all the travelling, the safaris, the beaches, etc., what I enjoyed the most about my Africa vacation was the chance to spend time with old friends and reconnect.

Africa 2005 reflections - Arusha, our first day

The first part of our stay was in Arusha, Tanzania. This is the same city that I lived in for four months back in 1993. It has grown quite a bit since then, especially with the abundance of internet cafes, ATM machines and cell phone service.

Our lodging for those 4 nights was the Outpost Lodge (http://www.outposttanzania.com/), a quaint B&B place close to town center, and it was located pretty close to the house where I used to live. On our first day there, after checking into the Outpost, I led the four of us on a walk into the town centre (on the same road I used to walk daily back in 1993). When we arrived in town, we were quickly mobbed by "touts" and "fly catchers"; these are people who try to sell you safaris, souvenirs, etc. They look for the white people ("wazungu" in Swahili), because they are obviously the tourists. And I mean mobbed. We easily had about 10 guys standing around us. Their strategy is to befriend you and use it to make you feel obligated to buy something from them. I had been used to this (from 1993) but Leah and the Grimwoods were caught off-guard. Being nice Canadians, we were all very polite and did talk to them... bad move; it caused them to stick to us like glue. I slowly taught the others to ignore these people and keep walking, all the while politely saying "hapana" ("no" in Swahili). I think this first experience was the worst; it probably didn't help that our first moments in town were ones of bewilderment and just standing there trying to get our bearings.

With this bit of culture shock, we quickly went to get some money; Leah and I used our PC Financial card to get some Tanzania Shillings from an ATM machine (wow, it worked in Tanzania!) while the Grimwoods exchanged some traveller's cheques at a Bureau-de-Change. We then slipped away from the touts into a hotel for lunch and a rest. Afterward, I led them to the ELCT office, Lutheran Church head office where I used to work in 1993. I introduced them to my former boss (Mr. Aminieli Mungure), who vaguely remembered me; my former co-worker (Farajika Mlili) had married and moved to Dar Es Salaam so our visit was brief.

We finished our time in town walking along a couple of the streets, looking into some stores, buying a couple of supplies (drinking water, etc.) and we then headed back to the Outpost Lodge to relax and calm down from all the excitement of our first day.

Africa 2005 reflections - introduction

I had meant to write more in my blog while we were there, but while there was a lot of internet availability, it was still a bit slow and we were busy enough that Leah didn't want me to spend all my time on the computer. Understandable.

So, I'm going to spend the next few posting doing a series I call "reflections". Basically, I'm just going to talk a bit about our Africa vacation and certain aspects that were missed in my previous quick postings. So, if you're patient, please come back now and then and I'll try to keep you entertained.

Our Africa itinerary

Some people asked about our itinerary, since it seems we kept ourselves quite busy. Here's what we did:

May 24 - fly KLM out of Toronto, Canada
May 25 - overnight in Nairobi, Kenya
May 26 - arrived in Arusha, Tanzania
May 27 - met Compassion International sponsor children (one in Arusha, one in Moshi)
May 28 - visited with Mwakaseges, Tanzanian friends of Timo
May 29 - attended Swahili church; visited with Fesers, missionary friends of Timo
May 30 to June 8 - 10 days on safari (Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro parks)
May 30 - visited Tarangire; elephant charged our car
May 31 - Tarangire and Lake Manyara game drives; another elephant charged us
June 1 - cultural tour of Mto Wa Mbu (Swahili for "Mosquito Creek")
June 2 - saw Olduvai Gorge; visited Serengeti; night game drive at Ikoma Bush Camp
June 3 - visited Western Serengeti; overnight at Kirawira luxury tented camp
June 4 - game drives in central Serengeti
June 5 - short day hike in Ndutu area near Serengeti, drive to Ngorongoro Crater
June 6 - day hike into Empakai Crater, near Ngorongoro Crater
June 7 - game drive in Ngorongoro Crater
June 8 - return to Arusha, fly to Zanzibar; walking tour of Stone Town
June 9 - Spice farm tour; transfer to Karafuu Beach Resort on East side of Zanzibar
June 10 - snorkeling in the Indian Ocean; relaxing on the beach
June 11 - more relaxing on the beach and playing in the water
June 12 - fly from Zanzibar to Nairobi, Kenya
June 13 - fly from Nairobi to Johannesburg, South Africa
June 14 - fly from Johannesburg to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe; saw cultural dances
June 15 - tour of the falls; cultural tour of tribal life
June 16 - elephant ride; relaxing at the resort
June 17 - fly Victoria Falls to Johannesburg to Amsterdam
June 18 - fly Amsterdam to Toronto, Canada; drive to Ottawa; we're home!

More Africa pictures online

I've uploaded a couple more batches of pictures, a set from our time in Victoria Falls and another set of safari pics. I also converted the Arusha pictures from really big to the same size as all the others (800x600). You can find them at the same Webshots area: http://community.webshots.com/user/timojaak

Back in Canada

Well, we returned last night from our four weeks in Africa. After 36 hours on planes and in airports, we drove the final 5 hours back to Ottawa (from Toronto) and had a good night's rest.

We had a great four weeks on vacation. As you can see from the brief descriptions in previous blog posts, we did a lot. In the next few days, I hope to upload some more pictures to my webshots account... and I will probably write some more blog posts reflecting on parts of the trip. That's all for now.

Africa update #6 - Victoria Falls

After stopping in Nairobi and Johannesburg during transit, we have been here in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe for the past 3 days. We saw Victoria Falls and it was impressive, very impressive. We also saw some traditional dance, had a cultural tour and bargained at the market. We finished our last day today with an elephant ride; Leah loved it! We head back home tomorrow. When we get back, we'll have plenty of stories to tell and pictures to upload/share. Greetings to everyone from Africa!

Africa update #5 - Zanzibar

Here we are on Zanzibar island. We're still in Tanzania, but we're spending a few days resting and relaxing at a resort in Zanzibar. We flew in on Wednesday afternoon (June 8) and checked into our Stone Town hotel. We then got a walking tour through the narrow, old streets of Stone Town and saw the decorated doors of houses, the Sultan's home ("the house of wonders") and even the Anglican church built on top of the old slave trading station.

The next day, we had a tour of a spice farm; Zanzibar is famous for its spices, and produces 90% of the world's cloves, for example. We then drove to the East side of the island and our resort, the Karafuu Hotel resort centre; we've got a cottage just behind the beach and we can look out at the Indian Ocean. Ah... the beauty. We're here for another 2 nights, and then on with our travels.

This computer doesn't seem to have any working USB ports, so I'll have to wait to upload more pictures from our trip.