'Mama'

I alternated between pacing back and forth and trying to peer through the divider which separated the arrivals lounge from the arriving passengers. Finally, she appeared, luggage in tow and a big grin. It felt so good to see a familiar face and get a familiar hug from my mom!

I think the taxi driver was the first to do it but by the time she left, everyone we met took to calling her 'Mama'. I kinda liked it and so it stuck.

It was almost 9pm by the time we arrived back in Arusha and we introduced Mama to our digs. It was a backpacker's hostel and she didn't seem to bat an eye. I was thankful it was dark out and she probably hadn't noticed it was on stilts above a gas station... Nothing but the best for my Mama. We reasoned that we didn't need anything fancy, just a bed, as we would be up early the next morning to head out on safari. And besides, Mama was visiting us and we thought we'd show her the ropes of budget travelling :).

She opened her bags and, in addition to the items we had asked her to bring from home, she revealed homemade chocolate chip cookies, rice krispy squares, and bags upon bags of M&M almonds! (We vowed to save the M&M's for our Kili climb but by the time we fell asleep, we had taken down at least two...).

We ate and talked and talked and talked. Mom provided fresh ears that hadn't yet heard our stories and it was exciting to talk face to face and hear about home. She finally hinted that she needed to sleep and so we tucked in, looking forward to the morning which would bring the beginning of our 4-day Safari in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater!