Jambo, Jambo bwana

Hello everyone!
It's good to be home. I just want to say thanks to EVERYONE who was at the airport last night. What a welcoming!
I want to apologize for not blogging for the last 5 or so days, we had trouble finding a computer and the time to sit down.
Here is the last couple of days in a nut shell:
We said our goodbyes to Bunju on Thursday. There was singing and joking, playing and some crying, and many, many, many pictures taken. The next day we all woke up at 5:30 for the 8 hour bus ride to Arusha. Traveling out of the city of Dar es Salaam and into the country was a beautiful transition. We even got to see Mount Kilimanjaro (faintly).
We arrived at the Epiphania Center later that day and settled in quickly.
The next day we left for the Sopa Lodege on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater. All of our students told us that Arusha and the Crater would be cold. We though that was funny because 1) Africa is never cold 2) some of them thought Dar was cold which was insane because the sun was ALWAYS out. The Crater was cold, and not just cold, it was wind blowing, misty, COLD. Here's a link for the lodge where we stayed: http://www.sopalodges.com/ngorongoro/home.html
It was beautifulll. The first 15 minutes we got there I 1) saw a buffalo RIGHT OUTSIDE MY WINDOW, 2) got so excited I screamed to Jenna who in turned screamed, so screaming we both ran outside to find Mandy and Rachael's room to show them and 3) left the key in the room, not knowing that the doors automatically lock behind you.
It was really fun explaining why we locked ourselves out of the room to the woman at the reception desk. Hahah
Our day in the Crater was absolutely fantastic, I honestly could not believe how many animals there were. Hippos, and lions, and wildebeests, and zebras, and antelopes, and hyenas, etc.
We traveled back to Arusha to spend our last night back at the Epiphania Center that Sunday. We went to the Cultural Center where they have every possible souvenir you could think of: bracelets, kangas, paintings, drums, Tanzanite, tshirts, spices, books, EVERYTHING.

Then it was off to the airport to fly for 8 hours, wait 6 hours in Amsterdam, fly for another 8 hours, sprint (seriously) through customs, and finally a quick hour and 15 minutes later we were in Hartford.

Thank you everyone for your support and prayers through out the whole trip. It really means a lot to the whole group when we see all the comments on each post and that everyone at home is really proud of us for what we did.

Thank you so much and God bless
LOVE,
KK