Tuma's Family

We woke up early this morning excited for the adventure we were about to have, but weary of the long day of traveling ahead of us. We drove to Dar Es Salaam and boarded a one-hour flight to Kilimanjaro which was pleasantly short compared to our original twelve-hour flight to Dubai.

After arriving, we met our safari guides, Abbas and Mwita, at the airport, who then drove us to Tuma’s childhood home to meet his family. Tuma’s aunt Donista had prepared a delicious meal consisting of bananas and beef as well as large cups of their homemade banana beer, which we enjoyed while meeting other members of Tuma’s family, including his 107-year-old grandmother (bibi), Mary, as well as another of Tuma’s aunts, Christine, his niece Salma and nephew Celvin. Tuma gave us a tour of his home and we spent a couple of hours making introductions and enjoying each others’ company.

From there we left for Tuma’s wife, Emma’s, childhood home where she was to stay along with their son Derrick. After more introductions and delicious food we had a sad good-bye and left for one last stop at Tuma’s mother’s home where Tuma introduced us and showed us a house he has been building.

After all of the activity, most of us found it easy to get some sleep on the following four-hour drive to the Rhino Lodge in Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area. There we settled in and enjoyed a wonderful dinner before heading into our rooms for the night, looking forward to safari the following morning.