Overview

Karibu - welcome - to our blog. We'll see if we can make this work as a way to keep you all up on our adventures and to help us remember the highs and lows. We think the challenge will be sufficient internet speed to upload photos and upload the blog posts. I doubt we'll be daily posters, but will try for weekly.

At this point a few days before departure we're all feeling anxious about getting everything done, sad for leaving our friends (particularly Ian as 6 months is forever to him) and excited for the adventures and the great change of pace. Ian's a little bummed to have to start school a month earlier than normal, but he also gets to have all of January off.

Here's the town of Moshi, we'll be 2 miles outside of the town in a neighborhood called Shantytown. The name is a little ironic neighborhood as it's one of the wealthier neighborhoods, near Ian's school. Mt. Kilimanjaro is in the background, it's around 18,000 feet. Moshi is the main launching town for those who want to climb Kili. Tourism is the main source of wealth for this town.



And here is our house but that's not our car. We're still trying to acquire a vehicle as apparently we'll need one even just for our five months there.

You can see Moshi below on the NE border with Kenya. The Serengeti and Ngorongoro crater are two big safari spots to the west of Moshi, west of the larger city of Arusha. Zanzibar is the island off the coast, above the capital Dar es Salam. We likely won't get much more travel in beyond these spots. Most Tanzania tourists just do this northern circuit plus Zanzibar.



About Moshi:

• 125,000 population. 
• It's at about 3,000 feet elevation. Days will be 80's to low 90's. Nights mid-60's. Some rains but not all-day. Bugs?  Some malaria in Moshi area. Most people don't take malaria pills, we will. 
• People tell us the town is quiet, welcoming, surrounded by stunning nature, and quite safe. 
• Apparently Moshi has the highest concentration of Christians in Tanzania as it has always been a missionary hotspot. The coast has higher concentration of Muslims.

Ian will be attending the International School Moshi  On 50 acres, 300 K-12 students, half are boarders half are day students. Students from 25 countries, 45% are Tanzanian. An International Baccalaureate curriculum. Ian will be in 5th grade there (Primary 6 or P6 in the British curriculum lingo). His teacher is British, taught in many IB schools, married to a Ugandan man with 2 kids. Has lived there a couple years. His uniform each day will be shorts plus a school t-shirt, various colors - not bad.

About Tanzania:

• Identifies as part of the East Africa region with Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.
• Presidential elections mid-October. Current president will not run.
• Tourism is huge with the safaris, Mt. Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar.
• Independence from British in early 1960's.
• Swahili and English are the official languages though English is more a government and business language, kids learn it in secondary school. 

And lastly, to answer the "what are you and Keith going to do?" We won't be working and aren't going with any pre-planned volunteer gigs. We mostly want to take a break from the schedules and expectations of being busy, to have time to wander, to meet people, to learn, and to just live differently. And, we will surely find ways to engage with people and organizations, likely putting skills to use at times, we'll see what that is when we get there. Stay tuned.