The Coolest Insects Ever

I often see really cool insects around the school. Usually by the time I go and fetch my camera, they have flown off, but here's a couple that i managed to capture. A beetle and some sort of fly with wings. So beautiful and unlike anything I've ever seen!

Chameleons!

We often see these wonderful, scaly friends around Tanzania and they will be one of the things I miss the most when we leave. I think we're pretty much the only people who like them: many Tanzanians will run screaming from them because they are traditionally believed to be possessed by the devil (because of the horn and because they are thought not to need food and water).

What I never knew about chameleons before moving here is that they move super slowly! And if you touch one they feel somehow more papery than a snake, and dryer. These photos are some of the ones we have been slowly gathering up.

Monkey Business

In Arusha, wherever there's food and trees, there's monkeys. Here's a few I've seen around. They have such long tails!

Safari Njema!

Here in Arusha, where we live, it's the safari capital of the world. Although we've lived here a year and a half, and have been on lots of one day, self drive trips to parks with friends, a week ago we did our first overnight safari. It lasted five days. What prompted us was that my parents came to visit. We went to Serengeti, Ngorongoro crater, and also went hunting with the Hadzabe tribe.

It was very cool to sleep in a bed in a tent! Really cosy, but we could feel the night air and hear the crickets. It was my first time to see leopards and cheetahs in the wild. I'd recommend going on safari to anyone. I've lived here for a year and a half, but never in my life have I seen as much open space as I did in the Serengeti.

Safari Njema means to have a good journey in swahili. In swahili a safari means any kind of journey: not just those undertaken in a 4x4 in a national park.

We moved to Tanzania

Hello, Sunshine!

It's bright and beautiful. I'm teaching some more small children in a less liberal school. Everyone must read and write! It's rather wonderful, though. There are elephants.

I'm taking weekly lessons in tingatinga painting and wood carving from some local artists. I'm so excited to be here!