My Africa Experience – Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda

I am the Africa program coordinator for Global Crossroad and have recently returned from a whirlwind adventure that was also a working vacation to tour the African countries of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Upon arriving in Africa I was joined by each country’s respective ground coordinator from November 14th through December 9th, 2007. We place volunteers and interns from all over the world in Africa, Asia, Spanish speaking countries and other countries on other continents as well.

My job allows me to help our volunteers and interns improve our complex and troubled world with people helping other people, hand to hand and heart to heart. I truly feel fortunate to play a small part of it all. Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda exhibit several tribes, languages and religions. The predominant ones are Christian and Muslim. The national language for Kenya and Tanzania is Swahili.

My brother Dwight and his wife Dee Ann’s son Travis Smith accompanied me. We visited sites where some of our current volunteers and interns are serving in Kenya and in northern Tanzania. We offer projects such as orphanages, HIV/AIDS, medical clinics and hospitals, arts and crafts, wildlife and plant conservation, journalism and many more specialized programs. We met and visited many of our volunteers and interns serving in the field in their respective projects along with the directors if their programs.

We left Kenya and headed for Tanzania where we embarked on a five (5) day safari that encompassed Arusha National Park, hunting with the bushman, and dancing with the Maasai while touring their traditional boma with mud huts. The company provides safaris and treks at a special discounted rate for our volunteers and interns since we believe there are two sides of Africa to experience, which are her people and her wildlife. Tanzania is the home for several wildlife conservation programs. The endless red clay dusty plains of the Serengeti are the largest and most famous in the world. In the same area is the Ngorongoro Crater that offers climbing and descending into a massive crater in a range rover where the wildlife lives in its natural harmony. The animals never leave with the exception of the migrating birds. Some of our volunteers enjoy climbing the glacier-topped Mount Kilimanjaro even though it takes a minimum of seven days.

Our range rover crossed the dusty plains of the Serengeti and climbed and descended into the magnificent impressive Ngorongoro Crater. Naturally we witnessed the majestic Mount Meru and Mount Kilimanjaro. While looking upon what must have been part of the populace of the Garden of Eden we were fortunate and captured on film, the Big Five, which is the lion, the leopard, the elephant, the rhino and the African (water) buffalo. These magnificent animals used to be hunted for their hides or ivory or for their heads to be mounted on walls. Fortunately, today we mostly hunt them with cameras.

We got dusty dirty and sweaty from the loose red clay and the African sun. We fought mosquitoes armed with DEET, and camped out in tents while being captivated by majestic sunsets, full moons and breathtaking sunrises. Africa cast her hypnotic spell upon us as we soaked up and treasured every moment of it. Travis and I saw a wild turkey on Thanksgiving while leaving Arusha National Park and thought a moment or two about family and friends enjoying traditional feasts back home and smiled at each other thinking we got the better deal. After Travis’ departure I traveled south to middle and southern Tanzania. I visited the beach at Bagamoyo on the Indian Ocean and the mountains of Morogoro. In Uganda I took in the birthplace of the Nile River and saw Lake Victoria around Jinga while visiting our volunteers and their sites. In each country I visited prospective new sites to place our volunteers and interns as well

Africa offers great opportunities through our volunteer and intern programs to serve poor children and their communities plus travel and exploration. Beautiful Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda have wonderful landscaping; friendly people, amazing wildlife, and a rich cultural heritage. My own African travel was life changing and I extend an invitation to you to join our volunteers and interns through our programs in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania where you too can help change the face of Africa by helping her people hand to hand and heart to heart.

I would be glad to answer your questions and share my African travel experience with you, just give me a call at 1-800-413-2008 or email me at: Africa@globalcrossroad.com

Sincerely

Cheryl Owens
Africa Program Coordinator
Global Crossroad