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| Enjoying my last morning coffee, reflecting with Mama Jean |
We are leaving Oldonyosambu today! We are all very sad to say goodbye to Pauline and will miss all of the people we met while in OS. We learned so much from the students, the Maasai people, and the culture. But we have new adventures still ahead.......
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| Enjoying our last breakfast... |
We enjoyed our last breakfast and the women that cooked for us sang beautiful music! Elizabeth and our guides arrived shortly after breakfast to load up all our luggage and take us the short trip back to Arusha. We went back to the Lutheran Guest House to drop all our luggage and head out for the afternoon.
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| Two of my favorite people....Pauline and Elizabeth |
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| Getting ready to go..... |
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| Euni's beautiful home |
Our first stop was at Eunice Simonson's home. Euni is an amazing women. She moved to Tanzania from Minnesota with her husband David in 1956. He was a preacher and she was an RN. They raised their 5 children in Tanzania and were missionaries that effected the lives of everyone they encountered. David Simonson founded Operation Bootstrap Africa and the Maasae Girls Lutheran Secondary School to name a few. David passed away in 2010. To read more about David and Euni, they have several books available on Amazon....The Cross Under the Acacia Tree and I Count My Blessings.
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David helped to build their beautiful home! Their home is located on the top of hill in Arusha, land given to David by the Maasai people as a gift. Once we arrived, we were greeted by some local women from Nyiramba that had some amazing baskets they made and were anxious to sell. They were wonderfully made baskets, and we all purchased several for gifts and to keep for ourselves.
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| beautiful baskets we purchased |
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| The guesthouse - view and property |
Euni was very welcoming and allowed us to wonder all throughout her home and property. David's handiwork could be seen everywhere. The home had beautiful artwork and many African collections. Euni currently lives in the home with her daughter. She had baked us some cookies and had coffee and juice for us to enjoy and she shared some amazing stories from her life (most of which are in her book, I Count My Blessings.
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| from top left clockwise - the floor is made from an olive tree that they didn't want to get rid of - kitchen- looking down from the loft above - staircase to the loft and bedrooms - dining room |
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| Enjoying refreshments and listening to Euni's amazing stories!  |
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| Connor stands in front of the propeller from the plane that Euni had been in when it crashed |
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| David Simonson is buried on the property. |
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| Some of the people and shops on our way back to town.... |
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| Duka La Dawa = pharmacy |
We left Euni's house and went to Stiggbucks Café for lunch! Stiggbucks was highly recommended by Elizabeth, not only is it her good friend, but it was a great choice for lunch. The food was excellent and the presentation was equally good. Brett and I shared a delicious chicken salad and chicken sandwich. After lunch, we walked about to a few shops. The boys got ice cream. We found a great place that had fabric, shukas and handmade purses.
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| Yum - Chicken salad! |
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| Exchanging money so we can shop!
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| We had some local 'guides' walk us to the market.... |
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| treasures |
We returned to the Lutheran Center. Almost everyone walked to the Maasai market that we had been to earlier in the trip. The boys picked out some knives, key chains, bracelets, bead work, etc.
We ate dinner at a pizza place just down the road from the Lutheran Center. It took a long time to get our food, but it was very good! They also had free wifi, so we could post messages to our friends and family back home.
Tomorrow, we head off for our 3 day safari adventure......
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