A Bright Spot in the Weekend

With the wretched events on Saturday, we had a late start on our planned activity, a hike up Mt. Meru. We started late, but it was a perfect way to take our minds off of what had happened and enjoy the beauty of Tanzania with good friends. The hiking skirt is a new thing--but we were going through villages so shorts are not an option. That's our friend Steve O'Neil and his daughter Anna, who is Cameron's age. The Tanzanians are the requisite followers that seem to accompany us wherever we go. The trees behind us, interestingly enough, are pine--real pine--with raspberries--real raspberries--in the undergrowth. A little slice (and scent) of Montana surrounded by banana trees! AND, they're about 10 years old, to give you an idea of how fast things grow here.

This is the extent of the wildlife we saw. The kinyonga (chameleon) is an endless source of fascination for our kids and terrifyingly disgusting to Tanzanians. They will not come near a chameleon and those we passed while carrying Viper on our heads were horrified. It has something to do with the color changing that makes people believe that they can "steal" a person's "color". They also do not like the way the chameleon's eyes rotate independently. But our kids love 'em. Viper here rode all the way home before being released in the yard. In these pics he is black--they change color in response to stress and temperature, not background--but he was kind enough to show off a range of colors, from spring green to almost teal with white spots.

And here's the group. The Hillmans--including a rare photo of Noah--he's just TOO busy to stop for a picture--and the O'Neils (Steve and Denae, Anna, Benjamin, and Thomas). We count them among our blessings here. We have had a great time getting to know each other better here at language camp, the kids (who all match up in age) have been so busy we've hardly seen them, and they were a tremendous source of support this weekend. We're already looking forward to our visit in Dar to see them! Their stories of their own experiences in Tanzania and their farith journey are inspiring and give another insight into life here and attempting to discern what God's purpose is in our lives. They are starting a blog that you can read at http://www.sdoneil.blogspot.com/ or click the link at the left on our blog called "Tales from Tanzania" (do give them a little time to get it up and running, though).