Sunday, September 30, 2012

hopefully not my last post...one day brittnee will be in tanzania again : )


Well, I know this summer is way past over but I just wanted to write one more blog post…because a lot has happened since this last one! : ) Last you heard I had surgery, got my hair braided, and saw the African Acrobats! After all of those happenings, life in Tanzania went on as usual. I spent my last week at Kitulezu with my favorite kiddos! Heather, Chanel, and I did more research and finalized some things for our jewelry business, Mpatanishi Jewelry, with the Albino Peacemaker Group. We even went on a business trip to Nairobi! Ok, it was partially a business trip and also I needed to go back to the hospital for a checkup. Ha! But the cool thing is, it worked out perfectly for us…almost as if the universe wants our jewelry business to succeed as much as we do! So, we went on a Monday for my doctor’s appointment and after we got done we began our search for leather, which we needed for our bracelets. We had found out earlier we couldn’t get them in bulk in Tanzania because they all come from Kenya, convenient that we were already headed there right? Right. Anyway, we do not know our way around Nairobi but somehow or another we ran right into a shop that had the specific bracelets we were searching for within the first 30 minutes of our hunt! The man who worked there gave us info on where we could buy these and guess what? The market that sells them is only open on Tuesdays…well, isn’t that lucky…cause we were spending the night! So, we get our favorite pizza, Pizza Inn, and head to our favorite missionary couple’s apartment, the Olsen’s, for the night. Our taxi driver, Nicholas, happened to be super kind and helpful and agreed to take us to the market the next day. Anyway, to make a long story short we figured out our bracelet situation and were back in Arusha before dinner time! Now, if you haven’t learned anything yet, this doesn’t happen in Africa! Things don’t ever go the way you plan! Seriously though, everything surrounding the jewelry project we’re working on has worked out somehow even when we made stupid decisions, procrastinated, or didn’t know what we were doing! I honestly believe we were blessed. And I think it is because Martha is one of the sweetest most selfless and most deserving people I met in Tanzania. Someone is definitely looking out for this group!

Anyway, I just felt like I needed to share that story cbeause it was amazing how everything came together just in time! Some of the supplies we needed for our business came the day before and morning of that Brenton left to go to Tanzania. And we were able to have a training day with the ladies in the group before I left the team! : ) It all worked out great.

 
our beautful leather bracelets! : )


Martha translating for me as I teach


Heather helpin out at training


Brenton teaching how to stamp the logo onto the bracelets





Mpatanishi Jewelry team!
 



Another thing I did before I left was paint a sign for Family and Friends! I thought this was pretty awesome since it is our teams favorite restaurant and because we became so close with all the people there! I miss them all so much! I am glad I could leave my mark! : )



 
 


Brenton was kind enough to STUFF around 20 stuffed animals, donated by Heather’s aunt,  in his luggage when he came so we could distribute them to our kids at Kitulezu. They all loved them so much!!! They were even out of school that day, but Mama Anna called each of their parents and asked if they could come to say goodbye and get a jifty. It was super fun!!!


Meshack


Happy


Miri


Neema


Widson


Vivi


before we left we made each one of our students friendship bracelets! i made myself one to match Vivi's : ) : ) : )
 
 
I WENT ON A SAFARI!!!
I don’t even know what to say about this!!! It was so stinking fun! I enjoyed every single minute of it! We saw so many animals!!! TONS of lions! I was dying! We even saw lions hunting zebra (no catch unfortunately), elephants get in a tiff, a water buffalo charge a safari car, and a baboon steal one of our lunches from our jeep! Oh I also got my butt grabbed by a Maasai kid while we were taking a picture…mmm hmm…convenient that we don’t speak the same language.









 
 
how cute is this pic? we saw this happen!!! <3






I HIKED MOUNT KILIMANJARO!!!

This may be the coolest thing I have ever done in my life! Thanks Brenton for coming all the way across the world to hike this with me! We were up on the mountain for 8 days and I loved almost every minute of it! I have to say almost because there were times I really wasn’t so happy to be there…but that is expected when you are hiking up to Africa’s highest point! So, I don’t know what else to say about the hike besides that our guides were amazing and our group was amazing and the scenery was amazing!!! The whole thing was just amazing! But pictures are better so I will focus on picking out goods ones instead of writing anything more about it.

 


flat tire on the way there...i would expect nothing more : )


first day!


2nd day! go team youth!


2nd day!


me and mr. passion on our acclimitization hike


everlasting flowers
 
day 4! 




day 5! 



a change in scenery!...so many cool plants! 



one of my favorite parts of the hike! scrambling! 


day 6! 


go porters!!!
 
mt. meru and mt. kili! 


day 7/night of day 6! we woke up at 10 on day 6 and started hiking around 11:30 for the summit attempt! we hiked all night and arrived at the top around 8! 


sunrise on at stella point! oh my gosh. sooooo beautiful!!! 



awesome ice crystals! they covered all the dirt and sparkled as the sun rose! 


mr. passion our head guide and his awesome balaclava! (a.k.a. baclava) 


AT THE TOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 



 glaciers at the top!
 
 
crater at the top! 



off to the left is mwanafunzi, another point on mt. kili 


us and Davis, one of our guides



Mt. Kilimanjaro was the grand finale of my summer! I flew back to America the day after we got down the mountain. It makes me sad even thinking about that day! This summer was the best summer I have ever had! I just want to say thanks again to everybody who helped me get there! For all the donations and other contributions and also for all the love and support I received from you while I was there. I couldn’t have done it without all of you!