We are on the way home! YAY! We haven't had internet access for a few days, so no chance to post anything. We had a lovely evening of celebration with our Tanzanian family on Saturday night - a great time of singing and dancing and the giving and receiving of gifts, which is a very important part of Tanzanian culture. Perhaps I'll take a chance to talk about that more in the future.
We have spent the last two days journeying through the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area through to Arusha and we saw some amazing sights througout our time in the Serengeti especially - in terms of animals. We spent part of the evening the first night watching a leopard hunt for some guinea fowl - he missed, but then we watched him prowl through the long grass for about 20 minutes afterwards - it was an incredible sight. We came upon a pride of lions earlier in the day and then the day after found three lionesses devouring a fresh kill of a warthog! What a bloody sight - truly. I don't think I'll forget the blood soaked face of the one lioness in particular. We also saw a cheetah! We were aching to see him run, but he was intently watching a group of gazelles. We waited around for about 20 minutes thinking we might see a live hunt, but no such luck. It's crazy to think we were there and saw such things...an amazing way to absorb the wonder of God's creation. Serengeti means "endless plains" in Swahili and they truly are endless. It was also dusty...dusty, dusty, dusty - we were convered in dirt.
When we entered the Ngorongoro, our driver Vincent talked with us about the history of the Masai people, who inhabit the Ngorongoro - they are the only people allowed to live within the park. He talked about how the Masai people believe that all the cattle in the world belong to them - including the ones in Canada! He also shared how they believe their god gave three things to his son: a stick for herding animals, an arrow for hunting, and a hoe for gardening. The Ngorongoro was remarkably dusty with dirt blowing across the plains. It was beautiful to look out and see the shape of a tall, slender Masai walking across the plains in the distance - clouded by the haze of dust and wind.
It is almost time to board and so I need to close this up. I promise that I will post photos sometime upon arriving home. I am anxious to you to see the faces that I have shared life with over these past weeks. Thank you for your prayers...over and over again...thank you.
See you soon.
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