Lake Chala

What a great weekend we had camping at Lake Chala this weekend.  Lake Chala is a crater lake located on the border between Tanzania and Kenya:  gorgeous setting, great facilities (flush toilets AND showers AND a bar!), and great friends.  Despite the reports from 9 years ago that a girl was eaten by a croc in this lake, we did ultimately decide to go for several swims in the lake (we did our research and consulted many locals about the chances of this happening now).  This is also the lake where Mama Jackie’s nephew drowned last spring, so I was feeling particularly wary of this lake.  It’s no surprise that many locals think that this lake is haunted with things like that happening in it.  (You can see Kenya across the lake)
We invited new friends, Ted and Sarah, to come along with us.  They are a couple from Boulder that are taking a year to travel the world.  They are friends of friends; we had met Ted in a parking lot in Boulder one time and said “If you make it to Tanzania, give us a call”.  He took us up on the offer and we’re glad that they did.  They spent a few nights with us, and the kids immediately took a liking to Sarah – she was amazing with them (Ted too even though he kept trying to steal Tierney’s ‘Girls Only’ diary ).  They were a great addition to have along on this camping weekend with the Banks and the Phillips clans. 

The 30 minute hike down was steep and well worth the effort (and carrying Anderson was great training for my trek of Mt. Meru next weekend).  The kids impressed me with their ability to do this climb 4 times over the weekend without complaint.
     

And in case you were wondering, this is what your back will look like when you let a little boy eat Pringles while you carry him up a mountain side.  I shouldn’t have been surprised by the amount of flies on my back after this.

The campsite was great and we awoke to amazing views of Kilimanjaro. 


Even when David had to go searching for his tent that had blown away into Acacia trees, we were still happy with the spot.
We swam, jumped, fished, and Anderson and Matt even caught a little trip on a local fishing boat.

 

Our cute (and sassy) Ashy

We did see some wildlife:  baboons and colobus monkeys; lizards (even little baby ones); and some cool red crabs that were fun to throw at Ted (if you look closely, you can see it going right over his head).      [And NO CROCS!!]


Lake Chala:

International Day at ISM

This weekend was ISM’s annual “International Day” where many of the different countries represented at the school get a chance to set up a booth and show off something about their culture.  The Asian tent had homemade noodles and chili sauce and dumplings (yum), the Israelis has falafel and pitas and tahini (yum, yum), and we had hot dogs and marshmallows.  I must say that Joey did a great job organizing and coming up with a project idea.  Since she’s Native American (maiden name Journeycake…can you believe she gave up that name for Banks??), she set up a craft table where kids could make their own headdresses with paper, art and even feathers (our chickens were none to happy about the attempt to pluck them).  Then she had a campfire set up to roast hotdogs and marshmallows.  The school made tepees based on one play tent that she already owned.  There were also bow and arrows to practice with (which was fun until we caught some kids shooting them at other kids on the basketball court behind us).  Based on the number of headdresses and sticky fingers I saw around campus, I’d say the entire idea was a huge success (Thank you, Joey!).

 

There was a lot to do around campus.  Lots of great food, cultural shows, and  even horse back riding. 

 

Ashlyn, Tierney, and Ellesmere ready for the day.

 

Tierney.  Henna on her hand from the Indian tent and in her birthday outfit from Mama Jackie.

 

Maasai and Indian Dances

Maasai women

Maasai Jumping

And a festival in Arusha wouldn’t be complete without Khan’s Indian Barbeque

 

It wasn’t until the festival started winding down that the real ‘adult’ festivities began.  I think many of us did our part to support ISM by making frequent trips to the bar.  Unfortunately Matt was still very sick and took 2/3 of the kids home early.  But, luckily that meant that I was able to stay a little later and play, too. 

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The countdown has started for my climb of Mt. Meru.  I’m going to climb it with 3 other women next weekend (March 18).  It’s planned as a 3 day/2 night trek.  I’m a little nervous because it’s supposed to be a harder climb than Kilimanjaro:  It’s shorter and much (!) steeper – luckily there shouldn’t be the altitude issues as there is on Kilimanjaro.  Since I stare at it out our front door every day, I feel it’s a mountain that I should at least attempt to conquer.