Tanzan-imals!

I'm alive! I've been in Tanzania since Monday and have only gotten to an internet cafe this morning. What a fantastic country! We are staying in Tengeru, right outside of Arusha, in the shadow of Mt. Meru. Oh! How I love mountains! Sometimes I'll forget it's there, and the clouds will suddenly lift, and there it will be, grand and stately. The other day we were driving on the Moshi-Nairobi Road, and suddenly we saw Kilimanjaro peaking out behind Mt. Meru. It was probably 80 kilometers away, but it was awesome awesome awesome.

But that's not the story I want to tell toay.

Yesterday, Dave, Fr. Kamanzi, Fr. Godfrey (aka- My Man Godfrey), and I went to Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area. (I have very limited time right now, otherwise I would link to it. You should google it because it is pretty fantastic). Basically, this crater formed from a collapsed volcano many millenia ago and, over the years, the various fauna of Tanzania found its way in and never bothered to find its way out. The crater is a huge, lush valley with every kind of terrain, from lakes to swamps to forests (think: The Great Valley from Land Before Time). We circled the entire crater in our (totally bad ass, semi-convertible, ideal-for-a-zombie-apocalypse) jeep, and then descended into the crater, switch-backing down an impossibly steep slope. We were immediately greeted by a herd of Zebras (which, for the record, are donkeys with stripes). As we drove through the crater, we saw everything! Full grown bull elephants eating in the woods; a lioness stretched out, resting next to a recently killed buffalo, and a hungry hyena circling in the distance; an enormous herd of wildebeests, milling around and grazing; a pile of hippos lazing by a lake; a group of young male lions lounging carelessly by the road (literally inches from our car!); zebras, zebras, and more zebras! It was such an incredible experience, to be so close to these creatures in their natural habitat. I had to keep reminding myself that I wasn't at a zoo!

I can't wait til I'm home and can post some pictures!