We had a great year in 2015, and here are some of the reasons why (not in order necessarily):

15. Alabama (Nathan’s team) and Clemson (Shannon’s alma mater) will be playing each other for the National Championship.

14. Shannon is teaching and loves it.  She is a student teacher at a private school in Dar and also helping Ubongo Kids with science and math content.  This is why there are very few blog posts lately!

13. We finally know how to ski (Shannon) and snowboard (Nathan) after a week in Austria.  We are still not very good…

12. Shannon organized and led a No Barriers Youth and Roots & Shoots trip in Tanzania and it was a success.  We did community service with Tanzanian youth including building stoves for several families that use less firewood and produce less smoke and also did a safari where we saw the Big 5 and a cheetah kill a gazelle.

11. Seeing Ubongo Kids on national TV.  We paid for cable for a couple of months mainly so I could see the cartoon each Saturday morning and it was totally worth it.

10. The Ike Bike.  We love spending time with baby Ike, and of course his Alabaman parents, but a highlight was being there for the official launch of a bajaji in his name that is now used by a maternal health and delivery clinic to transport mamas.  It’s called the ‘Ike Bike’ – adorable.

9. Visiting the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust‘s elephant nursery in Nairobi.  They rescue orphaned baby elephants, rehabilitate them, then release them back into the wild.

8. Christmas in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.  We were able to see many friends from GIZ, visit every Christmas market possible, eat roasted chestnuts, and drink gluhwein daily.  These might be the best places in the world to celebrate Christmas if you can’t be home for the holidays.

7. Having friends visit us in Dar.  Paul, Erin, Christina, Katrin, Nathan’s family – it was so nice to have you all visit.  Karibuni tena!

6.  Lots of snorkeling (Shannon) and SCUBA diving (Nathan).  We are trying to take advantage of living on the Indian Ocean as much as possible.

5. Feeling content/happy/confident in our decision to move abroad.  This year was overall problem-free: we have good friends, we read a lot (and watch less TV than ever before), we love our apartment, we are happy in our careers, and we eat much better than we did in the US (read: lots of veggies, very little meat).

4. We had a great trip home and were able to see lots of family, friends, and Max and Shasta.

3. Running the Kilimanjaro and Lewa Conservancy races.  They were both awesome and we are hoping to do them again in 2016.

2. The beaches.  We have never lived so close to beautiful tropical beaches and have been lucky to watch sea turtles hatch on them, take everyone who visits to Zanzibar, go kiteboarding (Nathan), and go on countless day trips to different beaches near Dar.  We started 2015 and 2016 on beaches in Zanzibar with friends and family and look forward to exploring some new beaches this year.

1. Fifth anniversary road trip through Uganda.  Mountains, lakes, birds, mountain gorillas, volcanoes, canoeing, otters, hiking, and spending time together after a really busy Fall.  It was perfect.

Wishing all y’all a great 2016.  Happy New Year!

Ike in the Ike Bike

Ike, the confused Auburn fan

Zillertal Valley, Austria

Apres Ski, Austria

Service project with No Barriers Youth, on Mt. Kilimanjaro

Just after the hunt, Serengeti NP

Look carefully in the grass, Serengeti NP

Ubongo Kids on TV!

Ele at Sheldrick that had been rescued from a snare

Visiting Katrin in Bonn and Cologne

Zurich is pretty…expensive!

Munich Christmas Market

Zanzibar snorkeling

Zanzibar snorkeling

Equator, Uganda

Mutanda Lake, Uganda – on the border with Rwanda and Congo

Our geodome on Bunyonyi Lake, Uganda

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda

Bwindi Park, Uganda

It was banana season

Outside Lake Mburo NP

Uganda is beautiful

Famous Ugandan cattle

NERD ALERT: 

There are an estimated 800 mountain gorillas left in the wild, living in only two national parks: Bwindi and Virunga.