Welcome to beautiful Tanzania! I went to visit my sister, brother in law and new and adorable niece this February. It was quite a trip. I went by myself while Jason and Kaleb fended for themselves at home. My parents were there at the same time but we travelled there separately.
The first full day we were there we went to church in a small village. This is one of the women standing by her house.
When we arrived at the church they had seats prepared for us at the front facing the rest of the church. We were "guests of honor". This is the church choir singing away. They sang one song that we actually knew..."Nothing but the blood of Jesus". We sang in English while they sang in Swahili. It was pretty cool to know we had something in common with this people that were completely different from us in so many ways. Church lasted 2-3 hours and then they invited us to stay for lunch...sooo, about 3 hours later we were finally sharing a meal of rice, dagu (small fish) and a tomato (but looked like eggplant) dish with our fellow Christians. It was neat to get to know them even though we couldnt communicate with them unless Brett or Christie were right there. They were so friendly and giving. They owned nothing but spent 3 hours cooking and providing lunch for us.
Christie and Brett had only moved into their house a week before we got there. It is not even finished, but livable. They had a beautiful home and although they had spotty electricity and concrete floors and walls, I was very happy to have a hot shower!
So our big vacation part of the trip was going to Robundo island that is situated in the middle of Lake Victoria. The plan was to drive an hour to the shore and take a 30 min boat ride to the island...BUT...we took our hour drive, but when we got to the shore we had to wait 2 hours for a storm to pass...well, we thought it had passed and got into our little boat (w/ precious Baylor in her car seat) and headed off...well, right way it started raining off and on again. 3, yes 3 HOURS later we were all miserably wet, exhausted and frustrated when our boat driver said "look ahead, you can see our beach from here"...then capoo! we ran out of gas! ahhhh!! we were in the middle of the lake, and as you can imagine, cell phone service in africa is not so hot, so we could not get a hold of anyone to tell to bring us gas or come save us....at this point i was seriously thinking that we may have to spend the night on the boat...we finally floated to where Brett got some reception and waited another hour in 6 ft swells for someone to come bring us gas. Ah, once we got there we literally wanted to kiss the ground.
Once we got to the island, it was pretty fabulous. We took a walking safari tour that morning and saw huge hippos (shown above), crocadiles, bush bucks and many tropical birds. They fed so so well! It was delicious and we stuffed ourselves at every meal. Below is the bandas that we stayed in. I got one all to myself and the first morning I woke up to monkey running across my roof. Apparently they had been sitting on my front porch when Brett saw them and came to take a picture and they all ran.
This is my adorable little niece Baylor taking a dip in Lake Victoria! She had the best cheeks!
This is saying goodbye at the airport. It was such a great trip and I have many more pictures for anyone thats interested, just give me a call...i love to share my pictures! Thanks for a great trip Brett and Christie!!
The first full day we were there we went to church in a small village. This is one of the women standing by her house.
When we arrived at the church they had seats prepared for us at the front facing the rest of the church. We were "guests of honor". This is the church choir singing away. They sang one song that we actually knew..."Nothing but the blood of Jesus". We sang in English while they sang in Swahili. It was pretty cool to know we had something in common with this people that were completely different from us in so many ways. Church lasted 2-3 hours and then they invited us to stay for lunch...sooo, about 3 hours later we were finally sharing a meal of rice, dagu (small fish) and a tomato (but looked like eggplant) dish with our fellow Christians. It was neat to get to know them even though we couldnt communicate with them unless Brett or Christie were right there. They were so friendly and giving. They owned nothing but spent 3 hours cooking and providing lunch for us.
Christie and Brett had only moved into their house a week before we got there. It is not even finished, but livable. They had a beautiful home and although they had spotty electricity and concrete floors and walls, I was very happy to have a hot shower!
So our big vacation part of the trip was going to Robundo island that is situated in the middle of Lake Victoria. The plan was to drive an hour to the shore and take a 30 min boat ride to the island...BUT...we took our hour drive, but when we got to the shore we had to wait 2 hours for a storm to pass...well, we thought it had passed and got into our little boat (w/ precious Baylor in her car seat) and headed off...well, right way it started raining off and on again. 3, yes 3 HOURS later we were all miserably wet, exhausted and frustrated when our boat driver said "look ahead, you can see our beach from here"...then capoo! we ran out of gas! ahhhh!! we were in the middle of the lake, and as you can imagine, cell phone service in africa is not so hot, so we could not get a hold of anyone to tell to bring us gas or come save us....at this point i was seriously thinking that we may have to spend the night on the boat...we finally floated to where Brett got some reception and waited another hour in 6 ft swells for someone to come bring us gas. Ah, once we got there we literally wanted to kiss the ground.
Once we got to the island, it was pretty fabulous. We took a walking safari tour that morning and saw huge hippos (shown above), crocadiles, bush bucks and many tropical birds. They fed so so well! It was delicious and we stuffed ourselves at every meal. Below is the bandas that we stayed in. I got one all to myself and the first morning I woke up to monkey running across my roof. Apparently they had been sitting on my front porch when Brett saw them and came to take a picture and they all ran.
This is my adorable little niece Baylor taking a dip in Lake Victoria! She had the best cheeks!
This is saying goodbye at the airport. It was such a great trip and I have many more pictures for anyone thats interested, just give me a call...i love to share my pictures! Thanks for a great trip Brett and Christie!!
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