We left Ngorongoro early morning, the night having been warmer than I anticipated (having prepared to be cold). I had brought body warmers, large versions of hand warmers you use for skiing, and having had warmer nights in the Serengeti, I had a couple that I was able to use that night.

We took a break on our long drive back to Arusha at a small Masai village that is the the current site of the ongoing Planeterra Project.

One of the reasons I really like traveling with GAdventures is that they try to leave the places they (and their groups) visit better than they found it. One of these is their ripple score (how much of the funds from your tour goes back into the local community), and another is Planeterra, their foundation to make the world a bit better.

The Planeterra Clean Stove the women who are primary caretakers of their family and need a job are trained as engineers for in-home stove and chimney construction. In Masai communities, women are primarily tasked with the cooking, and it is all done over open flame inside the mud hut structure homes. Because of this, women usually have lung related illness from the lack of ventilation and ongoing exposure to smoke. With the construction of the stove with chimney, smoke is funneled outside keeping the living areas of their homes with better air quality.

The first home that we got to see had a traditional stove, with open flame cooking. The air was so thick it had a texture. The next house had 3 women actively building a chimney. The hand made bricks being layered and mortared into place by hand. The ladies working in an assembly line, the stove being put together quickly. The last house that we got to tour had a completed stove and was impressively efficient.

These ladies were so gracious to let our group see this project in action in their homes. We learned that as of our tour the clean stove project had successfully completed 3000 stoves across Masai villages through Tanzania.

That night we got back to our Arusha accommodation, where some of our party opted for laundry service, (warning, it takes a while) while I opted to had wash my few things in the bathroom sink. I highly recommend detergent sheets cut down to fit in an tin mint container. Depending on how gnarly your clothes get, you can always add more sheets. I had to use a few, as everything from my convertible pants to my undies were caked in the dust of the Serengeti.

The next morning I had the opportunity to do a tour of the city of Arusha, do a hike to a waterfall, and see some local markets. Those who know me know that I live for sunsets and waterfalls. Of course I was going on the tour!

On the tour we stopped at another Art co-op where I was able to practice my haggling on my gifts for everyone back home. Once everything was wrapped up to bring home, I noticed that I was the last one in the shop of my group. I duck outside where our ride awaited for going to the waterfall.

We drove outside of town, to a residence were we parked the car and our guide, John, knew the people who’s property the waterfall was on. As a working farm, different local crops were labeled in Swahili as we worked our way down the slicked dirt paths to what I would loosely call a grotto. The waterfall pouring into a small pool with an area of ground cover that we explored. John then told me that in the summer rains the waterfall is much larger, and the pool from the grotto takes up the area that we were standing.

Many pictures later and we make our way back to the car. We went to a small local restaurant for lunch, and then made our way to the market.

Remember to ask people before you take their photo. Before I left the US I wrote down translations for the basic questions, but I found “can I take your picture” to be a really refreshing question for many people. Also, I found that I was more interested in taking photos of the scenes, and would hold up my camera over my head and click the shutter. (This is what I call pulling a ‘Zach’ after an amazing photographer I know who can do this and have complete art work every time he does it.)

I also put my gopro on my shoulder and walked through the markets, where no one person was the subject, making a really cool insight of what the local markets look like.

Next Time: We fly to Stonetown, Zanzibar, meet new friends, eat amazing seafood, and a few more adventures!