I documented my recent trip to Tanzania with a journal and my camera, and here is the result. Be sure to click on the picture thumbnails (like the cows, above) to see larger versions and read their captions. If you want to go to Tanzania too (which I highly recommend) then check out Simon's web site to find out how.

October 25 2001 - Airport & Village

Our flights went from San Francisco to Minneapolis to Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro, very smoothly and mostly in the exit row (yay, legroom!). Amsterdam was cold and cloudy, so arriving in Africa to an 80 degree, humid, starry sky was quite a contrast. Simon (our guide) met us at the airport, along with several friends. And in customs I learned my first Swahili word: "jambo" means "hello". The plan was to drop us off at a hotel near the village, but I guess because there were just four of us (Alice, Terry, Mark, and myself) we got the privilege of staying right in Simon's village. The road took us within about a half a mile of his house, and then Simon called his brother on the cell phone (!) and in a few minutes, about six guys came out of the woods to help us carry our bags down the trail, across the river, through Simon's cow pasture, and to the house.