Trip update

Hey everybody. We are now back into traveling mode again. It makes me feel a little selfish. Things are a little more hectic now because we are moving around the world while trying to build an orphanage. It adds to the stress a little. Last time I emailed I only had a couple min and I didn't get all the info out so I want to just give a detailed update on the progress of the orphanage. Last Thursday we left the orphanage to go on a quick safari trip before we left the country. The night before we left, everyone met together and thanked us for the work that we had done. Almost everyone cried. That town was by far the hardest place to leave of our trip. As I said before the work is going slower than I had expected but the budget is the same. Right now the roof should be finished and the center should look a little more like a home. There is still much more to do and a lot of money to be used. Because we previously arranged our tickets we were forced to leave Tanzania before the work was done so we are transferring the money to Hannah (who is the American volunteer at the center) and she will keep detailed records of how each penny is spent. Some people have inquired about the total amount that has been donated so I wanted to let everyone know. As amazing as it sounds the total was $3913. Add that to our donations and the total is $5913. It has turned out to be much more of an experience than we had ever expected and now we here that word of the orphanage reached the first lady of Tanzania and she will be visiting the center in the next couple days. I want to thank everyone for all of your emails, donations and support. I cant wait to see how things turn out.

As for our trip, we had an amazing safari in the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, and Lake Manyara. We saw much more than we had imagined and we have tons of pictures that could easily make it into National Geographic. The day we left Tanzania the parents of the woman who runs the center butchered a goat for us and made a feast filled with tradition and fun. As we had expected Tanzania was the highlight of our trip. It was a good thing that we had allotted more time in Tanzania than anywhere else. Now we are in Egypt where yesterday was spent riding camels around the pyramids of Giza, visiting the museum in Cairo and we finished with a light show of the pyramids. At ten o'clock we hopped a train to Luxor where we just arrived this morning and will spend the next few days.

If anyone has questions about the orphanage then please write me as I will be writing only simple updates from now on. Thank you all for the help and Happy Thanksgiving!

---Blair