Tanzania for Autumn

I took A LOT of pictures. To make the process of showing them all to you shorter, I have created google photos albums of each day of the safari and each day of Zanzibar. I take a lot of photos, just a warning. You do not, in any way, have to look at all of them. ALL of the photos are mine, shot with either my Nexus 6p smartphone or my Cyber Shot Sony Compact Camera. I hope you enjoy the photos!

The links for each album are below (in chronological order from the end of the trip to the beginning):

Zanzibar

End of Trip Culture Day

My Birthday in the Ngorongoro Crater

Serengeti Day 2

Serengeti Day 1

Driving from Manyara to Serengeti

Lake Manyara

Mto Wa Mbu+Masai Village

Tarangire Day 2

Tarangire Day 1

Arusha

Now, those are just pictures. I've been told many times that y'all love hearing my thoughts. So....here goes.

I have a list of things that I am now more grateful for than ever. Mom and Dad have shown me and told me how lucky I am since I was born, and so I thought I already knew how lucky I was. I was completely aware of other people on Earth that have less than me, and I felt bad for them, and I was grateful for what I had-to a certain level. This Tanzania trip has taken my gratuity to another level, a level an infinite amount of times higher. No one who hasn't been to an impoverished place in Africa (or any other 3rd world country for that matter) will EVER truly understand how lucky they are. I sure didn't. (Sorry for the complicated and confusing sentence, what I'm trying to say is hard to put in words)

Some of these things might seem silly, but I am truly forever grateful:

Seedless fruit (oranges, watermelon)
A clean place to live
Good infrastructure
Bakeries
French's yellow mustard
Books
Good public school
Being able to brush teeth with the tap/uncontaminated tap water
Wood or stone or linoleum flooring
Parks
Musical instruments (piano, flute, etc.)
Fresh fruit
Clean clothes/being able to afford new ones
Shoes that always fit
The ability to feel safe at night
A mattress
Tender meat

 And so so so many other things, but I bet you're getting bored by now, so I'll stop.

 I think that the African people are beautiful (So does my mom). Their braids and twists are so intricate and pretty, and they are all unique. So many colors of clothing go with their skin tone, and their features (eyes, lips, body shape) are beautiful as well. They also have amazing voices and rhythm (I got to experience this the multiple times when they sang for me for my birthday :)  ). Both my mom and I agree that we completely do not understand how people are racist. The African culture is amazing, friendly, and just...beautiful.

 During security at the Zanzibar airport, my piccolo almost got taken away. I kind of had a mental breakdown after the fact that that was possible, even though I eventually got to take it on the plane. The reason for this is because I love my piccolo. It allows me to be able to have a chance at doing marching band in high school, it reminds me of Grandma and Grandpa back at home, and it reminds me of all of the band people (especially Lizzy, Ella, Rachel, Lydia, Emmy, Analise, Molly, and Julie) (Hi guys!) back at home. It's one of the only extracurricular activities I do that I could take with me on this trip.

 I don't really know what other thoughts to share...hmmmmmmm....if any of you reading this have any questions to ask me, feel free to ask! (about how I felt, how I thought about something, how a condition actually was etc.)