the Serengeti

When I started planning my time in Tanzania, it never occured to me to go on safari. My goal was to help the children and learn as much as possible about poverty, HIV and just life in general in a developing country. After much encouragement from my mum, and a mass decision from the volunteer group, I left on Thursday morning for the Serengeti. It was a wonderful experience and something I will never forget. We spent two days in the Serengeti and a day at Ngorongoro Crater. The animals were beautiful and it was so nice to see them in the wild. I don't think I will be able to go to the zoo after seeing a lioness play with her cubs a few feet away and a herd of giraffe happily eating together on the Serengeti plain. The safari was an extremely different reality than what I had experienced for a month in Mwanza. Instead of being the only cluster of Muzungos in town, the only Tanzanians we saw were 'servants'. After being used to beans and rice (or ugali) for weeks on end, the buffet table had every Western food you could imagine. Instead of walking or catching dalladallas everywhere we had our own driver. It was quite surreal to for us (the volunteers) to be able to enjoy ourselves to such an extreme extent after witnessing the every day struggles of most people here. It was a fabulous experience, but one that I am extremely glad I had after seeing what Tanzania is really like.