Hey there all!

I finally have enough time to write more! This is a re-cap of the whole trip so far from the beg until now!

When we landed in Dar Es Salaam the heat was intense and standing there with 30 other people- 1 of who I knew was intimidating - but so exhilarating as we discussed the traveling and adventures that we would soon have. We drove out of Dar the next day to Bagamoyo -a beautiful town on the coast with about every type of tropical vegetation you could imagine- and swam in the Indian ocean which felt like bath water! It was a great place to start the trip and begin building relationships. Then we drove to a spot by the road where we waded out into a boat carrying our backpacks over out heads and boarded. It took us to Lazy Lagoon Island which is a private island that was uninhabited except the resort we stayed at and viscious bush pigs. We stayed in huts where we could just walk from our front porch to the beautiful blue ocean. We went snorkeling the next day and saw starfish every color of the rainbow as well as a 2 1/2 foot long sea worm that adhered to your skin when you touched it- neat-o! At night a guard armed with a spear would courageously escort us through the thick forest to protect us from the bush pigs to our hut where we would cuddle up in our mosquitoe nets for the night.
From there we headed to the Mikumi Game Park for our first round of safaris. We drove in to find towering giraffes and elephant herds all around us right away. Not to mention we also drove past a lovely lady lioness and a couple of her cubs and friends that were just chilling right by the road- they were just hanging out -not stalking anything .. but they blended in so well we wouldnt have been able to tell if they were about to pounce on us, so who knows-we might have almost been eaten- hah. That night we hung out and watched rattels and bush babies from the deck of where we stayed. Those rattels (honey badgers) are aggressive - pure muscle - a cool animal that can own a leopard or cobra- I had never heard of them before. And I captured a bush baby with its big eyes and long bushy tail for my sis Rachel... well maybe not but I thought about it.
The group that we are traveling with is amazing and it is such a huge blessing to be experiencing all of this with them. Just amazing people from a bunch of different backgrounds and rich character- so good!
We have spent a lot of time at our campsite which is called Masumbo near Iringa mjini- (town)- where we stay in tents that they built beneath hollow, permanent huts. We have stimulating lectures everyday with our professor who has lived in Africa for almost all of his life. His stories of growing up in the bush as an MK with leopards pacing outside of his paper-thin tent, almost getting crushed by a rhino, translated the Bible with the Murle people of Sudan, etc etc are amazing and he incorporates them into his lectures to make them so interesting and applicable that it is unbelievable.
We also went to Ruaha Game Park and saw some amazing things there - a hippo and croc pool where we saw at least 60 crocs (mambas) and fighting hippos (viboko)- and everything else in between. Plus a bug the size of goliath- a rhinocerous grasshopper I believe. The whole time we rode on the top of the Land Rovers and tried to pick out where the animals were from the beautiful panoramic view. What a compact re-cap of Ruaha but can't contain it all in here.

The traveling and sights have been amazing, but the culture is even better. We walk into the village right by our campsite and people ask us in just to sit and talk, or to play with the kids, or eat ugali (their main food staple)- it's great! The past 24 hours have been an up close and personal experience of African culture, too- one of the hilights so far! My friend Megan has sponsored a child through Compassion International in Iringa which is only 30 min from Masumbo (our campsite) for about a year and so she arranged to visit him and took me along. His name is Absalumu and is 6 yr old and is an amazing little man - so we visited him 2 days ago and found out that this sunday at church he was having a special service at 7:00 Sunday to celebrate the recovery from his surgery (he had surgery on his legs bc they were bent when he was born)- and Megan and I decided that we wanted to go. So since there is no daladala -(bus) - that runs that early on Sundays our prof suggested the we just go on Sat aftternoon and ask Absalumu and his family if we could stay with them and then go to church with them. In the African culture showing up at someone's door who you just met without any warning and asking to stay is surprisingly acceptable - not imposing at all- for real. They were so excited to have us and we went to the market with them to get peanuts, ate ugali with our hands, played with the kids outside, talked to their neighbors, and just experienced what actual everyday life is like here. It was difficult with the language barrier and everything and resorting to playing the English =Swahili game with 6 and 7 year olds -I say car you say gari, I say banana you say ndizi, etc really makes me feel smart-hah-jk but it's a process and Im learning. It's all about the effort- so there was a lot of laughing and motions to communicate -it was hilar. We had a blast and learned a lot.
So this doesn't even begin to explain everything I've experience but it's my best shot- so hope that you are all well and I would love to hear back from you about how you are doing!

Miss you all and are keeping you in my prayers!
-Laura Schmucker

my contacts:
http://schmuckerintanzania.blogspot.com/

My address until April is:
Houghton in Tanzania
PO Box 934
Iringa,Tanzania

Then after the 2nd wk of April it will be:
Attn: Laura Schmucker
C/O CMF International
PO Box 2582
Arusha, Tanzania
East Africa