you belong among the wildflowers

I spent last Saturday at Ngorongoro Crater in northern Tanzania and it was incredible. And even more incredible for me to think of was that this was my third visit to this amazing spot.

Hands down, among the biggest “perks” of my job are these kinds of opportunities. Some people enjoy company cars or airplanes, memberships at clubs or season passes to famous ski resorts as a result of their jobs. For me, because much of my work at Compassion has included hosting visitors to the countries where we work, I get to see some of the great sights our world has to offer.

I’ve gone fishing for piranhas on the Amazon, wandered through Mayan, Aztec and Incan ruins, seen the sights of world cities like Bangkok and Calcutta, rummaged through the stalls at dozens of interesting local markets, and seen the ocean from numerous beaches on both sides of Latin America, as well as in the Caribbean, Asia, and East and West Africa. Perhaps my favorite though, I’ve been able to see Africa’s animals up close and personal on several occasions. (On a day in 2005 after an especially close encounter with a cluster of giraffes, I returned to the hotel to find an email from my dad, who knew I was on safari, entitled “Have you kissed a giraffe?” I wrote back, “I didn’t, but I could have.”)

And I get to do all this in the name of work.

After a week of all-day meetings, as we headed to the Crater this time, I looked forward to the day with expectation, knowing how gorgeous that spot of earth is. But adding to my enjoyment was the fact that I had a special guest along this time -- my Compassion sponsored child, Godlisten. Fast approaching his 14th birthday now, Godlisten was just seven years old when he and I met on my first trip to Africa in 2001 a few weeks after I became his sponsor. We’ve managed to see each other a few times through the years, meeting for dinner or a day at a park or ice cream or, when all else failed, for a few minutes together at the Compassion office in Tanzania.



















Phoebe & Godlisten -- this is, if I remember correctly, our fifth visit together. Godlisten doesn't realize that most Compassion children never have an opportunity to meet their sponsor. For him, it's just normal for me to show up every 12-18 months.

A few years ago, Godlisten had gotten to spend a few hours on a short safari close to home that Compassion arranged for his entire student center, and in the intervening years at various points in his letters he had mentioned how much he liked seeing the animals of his homeland. So when I realized I had an opportunity to take him with me to the Crater, I jumped on it. Early as it was when we departed Arusha, Godlisten headed out on this new adventure with his big beautiful eyes wide open, ready not to miss a thing.














A very happy Godlisten looks out the top of our safari vehicle moments after we got to the bottom of the Crater.

And what a view we got. In my opinion, Ngorongoro is a stunning place in any weather and at any time of year. But this particular visit may have spoiled me forever. As we began to descend into the 100-square-mile Crater, we were at first swallowed in a fog that kept us from seeing much beyond the deep green of the very closest trees and plants. But turning a bend, we were suddenly met with sunshine and very soon after, the sight of an incredible landscape below us. Tanzania is coming to the end of its rainy season, and so every surface was lush and green from the moisture.

What I did not know until this visit, though, was that at this time of year most of the valley boasts mile upon mile of wildflowers. Yellow, royal blue, pink, white -- it was absolutely incredible. And then among all the flowers, there were countless gazelles, zebras, wildebeests, hartebeests, buffalo, elephants, ostriches and numerous other types of birds. The lakeshore was so densely populated with flamingoes that there were stretches of solid pink, broken up only by the occasional flapping of the birds’ large wings. All this made it easy to understand why Ngorongoro has been nicknamed the Garden of Eden.














There were lots of babies everywhere -- zebras, baboons, wildebeests and more -- trying to keep up with the rest of their families and herds.

In a day filled with breathtaking sights however, two stood out. In six years of safaris, I had previously never seen a rhino, save for a black dot I once viewed through binoculars while a guide said “that’s a rhino.” But on this day, as we were driving along we suddenly came on a massive rhino, perhaps 60 meters from the road, nonchalantly munching on the wildflowers and paying us no mind at all.














My first rhino sighting! They have a reputation for staying far away from people in Ngorongoro, but this one was not at all phased by our presence.

Not long after, we came across two different pairs of lions, even closer to us than the rhino. In each case, a male and female lion lounged together among the flowers, for all the world looking as though they were enjoying a lazy afternoon on holiday. The moment we spotted the first pair was perfected as Godlisten, with eyes wide and jaw dropped, said “simba” (Swahili for lion) under his breath. He told me later it was his favorite sight of the day.














Mr & Mrs Lion on holiday... I know I have a lot of lion photos here, but I just couldn't get over the scene and wanted to include as many as possible.














From the first day I met Godlisten, when asked what he wanted to be when he grew up he always answered “a driver.” He has always been fascinated with cars, but coming from a very poor background has ridden in them only a few times. I still remember that when I headed out for a day of story gathering on that 2001 trip and invited Godlisten to come along, he was ecstatic. Not because he was going to spend the day with me so much as because we would be going from place to place in a taxi, and it was his first time in a car.

During his years at the student center, Godlisten has been encouraged to continue his education for as long as he can and to dream big about what he might do with his life. He has listened to this advice, but it has never changed his love of cars, and somewhere along the way, perhaps two years ago, he began saying that he would study tourism so he could become a safari driver -- quite a good career in an area of his country termed the Safari Capital for East Africa.

I think our day together, bumping along in an old Land Cruiser with the sun and the wind and all that incredible beauty all around us, only solidified his dream. When I asked if, perhaps 15 years from now, I could count on him to take me and my family on safari, he didn’t even have to wait for my question to be translated into Swahili. With his big wide smile he said -- in English -- a resounding “yes.”















Two Phoebes! For the first time in my life, I have another Phoebe around. Up to now, at no point had I ever shared my name with anyone at school, university or any job I've had. But now that I've moved to Africa, there is another Phoebe working with me in the region. She is from Burkina Faso and is such a dramatic, smiling, laughing person and I love to be around her. Though after years of never writing my last name on anything and always knowing that if someone said "Phoebe" it was me they meant, I will confess that it's an adjustment to stop and confirm which Phoebe is being spoken to at times.