Brown’s Farm for Birch’s Birthday

Yep, it’s really called Brown’s farm:  located about 2 hours south of Arusha near Loikisale.  Matt and David have been talking to this man, Jerome, about his property that basically borders Tarangire National Park.  He wants to set up a tourist lodge there, but wants to do it ‘the right way’, so wants their advice.  The farm is all set up as a tented lodge, but does not yet have a license to operate, so we all went down (with the Foleys) as his guests to see the property first hand and celebrate Birch’s 9th birthday while we were there.  This place is going to be amazing once it’s up and running.  We saw impala, giraffe, dikdik, and zebra and we heard that there are buffalo roaming around.  The maasai that they have on staff were amazing with the kids (as was their camp manager).  The maasai kept the kids entertained for hours showing them how they start fires, shooting bows and arrows, practicing spear throwing, rock climbing and general kid play on the property.  Really, really great.  And the food and views were amazing, too.

David’s cool photo of the maasai at camp

On the way home we stopped to see where the maasai had dug holes in a dry river bed to get to water for their cattle. 

Ashy reaching through the car roof to get a weaver’s nest for David.  They’re so cool.

An ‘only in Africa’ sighting of a maasai stopping by the gas station to fill up water bottles with petrol.

Oljoro Mountain Bike Race

What’s a great way to start a Saturday?  At 8:00 am have your husband talk you into doing a mountain bike race that starts at 9am.  It was a lot of fun especially since the last time I was on my mountain bike (or any bike) was when I did basically the same race for my 40th birthday (Sept 2010).  As you can imagine, races have a slightly different vibe here and that makes it very casual and fun.  I was happy to get there and see a few other women that I know also doing it just for fun.  I knew I was in the right frame of mind when on the short ride to start with Matt he turns to me and says “Oh, by the way, you can’t use your front derailleur”.  And I said “ok, no big deal. I can just use the gears I have”, but what I was really thinking was “Yeah! Now I have an excuse as to why I’ll be so slow”.  Anytime I wanted to really shift in the front during the race I had to dismount and manually move the chain.

You wouldn’t believe how fast these guys can ride with their tire sandals on the Chinese phoenix bikes that have no gears.  The competition.

It was really hot and I rode most of the way with the other Lisa (Lisa Peterson).  We both ended up “in the money” which really means we finished mid-pack, but it’s so much more fun to say that I got 4th place for the women and won 20,000 T-shillings (about $15).

A couple that plays together stays together.  Matt also won some money (12th place overall)

And you know how I’ve wanted to get a great picture of the maasai that had just gone through their circumcision ceremony with all of their ceremonial make-up?  Well,  it’s just as much fun to have them cheer for you during a bike race.  The kids and families cheering for us from the rural villages was so also much fun.

Ashlyn’s field trip to local primary schools

Ashlyn’s class went on a field trip to try and visit a few different schools in the area and to then talk about why/how these schools are the same/different as ISM.  Unfortunately, we made it to only two of the three planned schools.  We did not make it (again) to the Matonyok orphanage due to road conditions….This is the same place we tried to get to a year and a half ago on another field trip that also was cut short due to the road.

First stop was The Learning Space early years school.  This is run by local expats and has a mix of expat and Tanzanian kids.  I think currently it is only ages 2-5.  Kids had a great time playing on the playsets (LOVE the see-saw), playing with the guinea pigs, and having a snack before we headed over to Olasiti Primary School. 

Olasiti Primary is a local primary school up to 6th grade, if I remember correctly.  There are about 1,700 students and just over 60 teachers. There are over 100 students per class. I can’t even imagine.  I had enough trouble keeping track of the 5 kids in my group for the day.  As soon as we arrived at the school, the school kids were so curious they just came out of their classes to see what was going on.  Then they got closer….and closer until the headmistress came out and shooed them all away. 

Chelsea took her class into one of the classrooms where the kids sang songs to each other and had the opportunity to ask each other questions. 

This is the library for all 1700 students

Ashlyn and Ellesmere

Thought we may have ended up with a few extra students when all was said and done

Ashlyn’s P1 Class

(last photo is with one of her best friends Simone with Maja and Cole peeking from behind)