Taking a breather before the final straight

Time for a change of pace - and a change in cost!!!!!!

We are now half way through our holiday with son David and friend Lucie. I am afraid photos are going to have to wait as we havn't brought the technology with us. I am writing this in the Internet cafe of a Zanzibar hotel, on a rather hot and humid evening.

Its been a week of variation so far. On Saturday we met David and Lucie at Dodoma and brieefly showed them the city before driving to Mvumi. This was their chance to see real Africa. They excelled themselves on Sunday by introducing themselves to the church in fluent (as far as we could tell) Swahili and Chigogo.

On Monday we got up early to fly from MAF to Kilimanjaro for a start of a 3 day safari. It was like a starving man moving into a land of plenty. We stayed and ate in the best hotels in the area - what we paid for a coca cola would have bought a coke, chips omellette, a cake and a coffee in our restaurant in Mvumi (just over one pound).

We had two safaris - one in the forests around Lake Manyara and one in the Ngorongoro crater. These were excellent and it was surprising that the animals took no notice at all of the land-rovers - we expect because we were no threat to them. However, they rushed away from anybody on foot. The most exciting thing for Irene was that she was the first to spot a lion - even before the guide. It was about a mile away with only its head sticking above the grass. Must have been all the practice looking out for children in the past.

We then had a relaxing three nights at the Mama Clementina Foundation Hotel in Moshi. This is part of a charity which runs a secondary school for girls, focusing on vocational training. It is run by the parents of the Task force manager at Mvumi Hospital. They had asked if Malcolm would return to help them with developing the Financial Management so this was a good opportunity to see what the school is like.

And then the hardest leg of the holiday - a nine hour bus journey to Dar es Salaam and a night in a back-packers hotel before catching the ferry to Zanzibar - we are glad to have arrived.

And what of next week. We suspect not a lot!!!!! Lazying around Zanzibar - perhaps a few tours - who knows? On friday David and Lucie return to the UK and we return to dar es Salaam for our bus trip back to Mvumi on Saturday.

At times, life is hard!!!!!!!