Tierney's 6th Birthday at Ngorongoro

For Tierney's 6th birthday we went about 2 1/2 hours northwest of Arusha to stay at a lodge just outside of Karatu. It was about 10 minutes to the main entrance to Ngorongoro crater. We weren't sure if we were going to go visit the crater because it's very expensive ($200 for a vehicle plus $50 per adult), but once we decided to stay 2 nights at the farm house we figured 'why not'....this is exactly what we came to Africa to do. The farm house was more than we could have hoped for...with resident rates and a pool, what's not to love?

Since Friday was Tierney's birthday we figured it was a good excuse to take the kids out of school and make a full day of it. On the drive down we caught up with a TNC trustee trip to Manyara Ranch so Matt could give his talk about the work that they are doing there. Here we spotted giraffe and elephants (the kids first sighting of elephants). It was a great start to the weekend. After dinner we has asked that they make a cake...little did we realize the celebration we would get. It was so fun!

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oLF4WKX8uA

The kids also made fast friends with a little girl, Savannah, who is Canadian, but is living in Naroibi for 6 months. She even came and had dinner with us at the new house in Arusha. They loved it!

Saturday we packed a box lunch from the farm house and took off for Ngorongoro Crater. It was worth every penny! The view into the crater from the rim was amazing. It's a very steep, windy road into the crater and we passed several Maasai villages with children all along the way asking if we wanted to take their pictures for $1. As soon as we dropped in to the crater we saw herds and herds of wildebeest and zebra. We saw elephants in the distance, but we were determined to find one up close and to also find a lion. And boy did we succeed! The lion walked right up to the car and walked right next to it. The kids were scared and sort of freaking out, but then when they realized she didn't really care about us they were excited to look out the sunroof at her. Same thing with a big elephant that we saw. It was just like the Discovery Channel. I wish the pictures did justice to what we were seeing - zebra, wildebeest, reedbuck, and gazelle in the foreground with hundreds of flamingos in the water behind. In Tierney's words "this is the best safari EVER!" (in her vast wealth of experience).

[Interesting tidbit: I didn't know until I was reading the guidebook on the way there that there are no giraffe in the crater. They don't really know why, but think maybe it's too steep for them to get in/out.]

On the way home we let the girls pick out a few Tinga paintings to decorate their room which also made them very happy.

More pics here: http://tandapictures.shutterfly.com/1858

Back at home we are settling in to our new house. Sunday was our first night sleeping here and it's so much more relaxing. We are experiencing a few new house hiccups, but it's still better than an apartment. Seems there are constantly fundis (workmen) around fixing something else...water leaks, doors that won't shut, etc. Mama Jackie has helped set us up and it's been invaluable having her to help with Anderson as there seems to be an infinite number of errands to run....try setting up a house without Target! Very hard! We also decided to hire her daughter, Elizabeth, to help around the house so that Mama Jackie has more time to devote to Anderson. We weren't sure if we needed (wanted?) an additional person, but we finally decided to just do it as much to help them financially as it is to help us. Matt drove mama Jackie home one day and saw where she was living: a cement one room house(?) with her daughter and three grandchildren....everything was done in that one room: cooking, sleeping, etc. That definitely made it easier to decide to offer Elizabeth a job. Her first day helping was today and they were both very gracious about us offering her the job. I got a lot of "praise Jesus' ". I think it will be good for all of us.