During our Christmas break we got the chance to see some more of this beautiful part of the world when we went along with some teammates for a few days of camping just across the border in Tanzania.
It takes almost 4 hours to drive – plus at least an hour at the border for 14 people to get through the various steps on either side.(One of our fearless travelling companions Audrey also wrote about the trip on our team blog)
But once you get there- it sure is pretty spectacular.
Basically it’s so beautiful – that you feel like you’re at some kind of private tropical resort – but really we’re just camping a few hours south of our place.
Our family stayed in one large safari-style tent which had a tin-roof overhead, and a little bathroom out the back with running water and a toilet – plus two kids in a tent outside under a thatch roof. It was great – there was a real bed inside, and it was (just barely) possible to keep the monkeys out of things.
Since we were there the week between Christmas and new-years – it was Jonah’s birthday. So in honor of him turning 15 we pulled out a big Toblerone someone had given us as an imported treat – and realized that you can actually make a pretty good candle-holding and easily divisible birthday cake out of a giant Toblerone.
I think these are the kinds of experiences that are so formative in kids lives – and our kids love these kinds of get-away’s. Hopefully now that we are a bit more stable here in Burundi – we’ll be able to get out and expore more that we were able to in our first year or so. There is so much natural beauty around us, and so much to see. Only God knows how long we’ll end up living in this part of the world – but it sure seems like a great opportunity to see amazing thigns that we’d hate to not take advantage of.