Jambo!

Jambo (hello in Swahili)!

I'm back from Africa and... Wow!, what an incredible adventure! While I didn't get to climb Mt. Kenya due to the civil unrest in that country, my school buddy Brie and I instead headed to Tanzania for a 5 day safari to the Lake Manyara, the Serengeti and Ngorongo Crater. You name the african animal... we saw it! I'm not big on taking tons of photos but I did manage to get a couple great shots (one of my favorites posted here).

After the safari we headed to the East Coast and then took a ferry to Zanzibar... God that was beautiful (note Zanzibar sunset photos)! I thought of you all often and wished you were with me.

Africa really captivated me, I feel in love with it. Despite the intense poverty and a bit of fear for my well-being here and there, it was like seeing life as it really is... I was able to step outside of my sheltered life in SF and gain a new perspective and understanding of how hard life is for many and just how good we have it.

I kept thinking about what Spiderman says.. "with great power comes great responsibility". We truly have so much power to do so much good in this world. I dream about going back to spend a couple weeks volunteering in Swaziland. Swaziland is a tiny kingdom in South Africa that has an adult aids/hiv rate of 40% and one of the largest populations of orphans due to parent death from aids. They are desperate for people to teach, help build housing for children and to just give kids some love and attention.

Since I had a stop over in London on the way home, I took the opportunity to visit my friend from school who lives in Paris. It was amazing getting a personalized tour of the city. I was there for two days. The first day we pounded the pavement and managed to visit many sites and many of Dan's favorite local pubs. The next day we grabbed bikes from Paris' community bike system called "Velib" and rode all over the place. (See photo of me with my might steed in front of the Louve).

Can't wait to catch up with you all!

Love, t

Scary stuff, kids

Check out this yummy little series called "Steve, Don't Eat It!".

Kooza

In lieu of a holiday party, Blurb took everyone to Circue du Soleil's newest show Kooza on Thursday night. It was pretty awesome.

Best part of it all was the Double Wheel of Death (their name, not mine) . This picture shows them inside the two wheels but picture them also running and jumping rope on the outside of the wheels as they rotated around the central axis. Would love to try it though I'm sure I'd yarf all over.
Don't have a picture of the juggler who was amazing - not a single screwup which I've never seen - but here are a couple other cool things in the show.

People aren't supposed to bend like these girls do. This pic doesn't do them justice at all - it was sort of disturbing.
These guys were way high up without tethers.

Cool!

Africa or Bust

Hi Kids,

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. I'm so sad that we could not all be together this time but who knows where we will all end up. Still thinking about that 5 year plan.

Lee... I'm so sorry to hear about your dear friend and such a terrible loss. It just seems so unfair, in reading about her life she was an incredible women and the world will feel her lose. I find it so hard to understand why so many women fall victim to this.

Well, I'm heading to Africa tomorrow and am very excited about this adventure. Please do your best to check in on my precious Joshi while I'm gone... I'll miss him terribly and want to make sure he doesn't starve while I'm gone. :)

Some of you may have been hearing about the riots in Kenya and thus the reason we have shifted our itinerary from Mt. Kenya to some trekking and safari in Tanzania. Not to worry, its seems as though the country's leaders are working toward some resolutions so all should be fine. Regardless, I'll be staying far away from harm and can't wait to share my photos and stories when I return.

Love, T

May I suggest

that you all see this movie while it's still in theaters. Really.