Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Lest we forget the beauty of Zanzibar
From our balconies overlooking the Indian Ocean...
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Jubilee to Safari to Zanzibar
Our last pictures were from our trip to Songea town over one week ago on Saturday. The following Sunday the big even was a dance party that we organized at St. Laurent's primary school. This is the school that Ben taught at when he lived in Hanga so he still has good connections there and the headmaster offered to get one of the local DJs to bring his speakers and equipment to come set up a dance. A great time was had by all! The kids especially liked Erik's moves.
The crew walking back towards the monastery through Hanga village after the disco...
Monday was the final day of preparation before the big feast on Tuesday. The big event on Monday was the arrival of nearly 30 bishops including the cardinal to Hanga! All students from the schools in Hanga lined up along the entrane road to welcome the caravan of bishops. It was quite the site to see so many nice cars with a detail of security leading them into Hanga!
Tuesday was the feast. What a party. We came early to get our seats (sat down at 8:30am...the Mass was supposed to start at 9:30am) Mass didn't start until about 10:00am and it got over about 1:30pm :)
Here is a picture of the bishops during the procession. There were a lot of them!
This is the whole group of bishops that were there. Again, this feast was to celebrate the 50th anniversary of one of the bishops being a BISHOP. After he retired from being a bishop almost 25 years ago, he became a benedictine monk of Hanga Abbey and has been living there ever since. This is why the celebration was in Hanga.
From the road...
The day after the Jubilee we left Hanga for our safari! It was difficult to say goodbye to Hanga, but also good to know the fun that was ahead! We drove all day to reach Udzungwa Mountains National Park where we stayed in a beautiful hotel for one night and then hiked to a mountain waterfall to go swimming the next day. B-E-A- Utiful.
After the hike we drove about 2-3 hours to the town of Mikumi where we stayed for two nights. After a restful night we woke on Friday June 10 to head into Mikumi National Park! There are many pictures from this day (including pictures of LIONS that we saw just as we entered the park!) here are just a few samples...
After our second night in Mikumi we traveled on Izzy's birthday to Dar where we stayed at the benedictine guest house in Kurasini again. After Mass on Sunday morning we caught the ferry to Zanzibar!
Walking around stonetown (Zanzibar's main coastal city) I saw this kid jumping off of the ledge into the water. I asked him if he could do a flip for me and I would take his picture. As he jumped he held both hands out to his side and screamed, "SPIDERMAN!"
We had breakfast on the roof our our hotel on Monday morning and then started our day of adventures. Izzy specifically mentioned that she doesn't want all of our adventures shared before we get home, so we will simply say the morning was spent swimming with dolphins off the south coast of the island and the afternoon was spent visiting a spice farm and taking a tour of the different plants that have made zanzibar famous! quite the day.
From our spice tour...
Here is the beach at the hotel we are staying at for two nights to finish off our stay on Zanzibar. Pretty out of this world. If you are finding us on a map look to the northern part of the island-Nungwi Beach.
All for now. tomorrow afternoon (Wednesday) at 3:30pm we catch the ferry back to Dar Es Salaam where we will spend the last night at the monk's guest house before catching the flight to America at 11:00pm on Thursday, getting into MSP at 3:30pm on Friday if all goes well.
What a trip. we will be talking to and seeing you all soon!
Breakfast overlooking the Indian Ocean. Paradise.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Pentecost in Kurasini, then to Zanzibar!
When we returned to the monastery guest house, they had prepared a cake for us to celebrate Izzy's birthday! it was nice.
This morning we went to Mass with the monks at the guest house. Mass was celebrated by the former abbot of Hanga, Fr. Alcuin, and he did the Mass mostly in english so we could understand. that was nice. Then we caught the ferry to Zanzibar at 9:30am and arrived on the island at 11:30. We are staying at Funguni Palace Hotel (www.fungunipalace.com) tonight and Amaan Bungalows tomorrow and Tuesday night should be awesome.
We have already made plans for a tour of the spice plantations as well as a boat/snorkeling adventure where we may get to see some dolphins! Should be a good day. Then Tuesday we will probably just hang out on the beach :)
hope all is well back home.
-ben
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Back in Dar
more pics to come when time allows. we are out at the "mall" in Dar right now just to see another side of this city. pretty shocking after 3 weeks outside of a major city. After the mall we are heading out on a mission to find an Indian restaurant for dinner tonight to celebrate Izzy's 19th bday!
talk to you soon!
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Songea Town & Peramiho
Today was very relaxing. After waking up early for church that lasted two hours, we enjoyed breakfast and time to ourselves. Some read, others ran, explored, and cooked, but some just napped. This afternoon we are hosting a disco dance party for the students of St. Laurents primary school in Hanga. It lasts three hours and should be a great time! We are also looking forward to the Jubilee on Tuesday which celebrates the fifty years of service from the Bishop in the Songea region of Tanzania. The former president is scheduled to make an appearance which will be amazing. Lots of preparations are being done in Hanga and it is started to look quite beautiful.
We miss you all and love hearing from you!