Safari in Tanzania!

Safari in Tanzania was really beautiful! But we were not lucky enough to see some of the most famous animals in Africa like...hyenas, rhinos, CHEETAHS and LIONS!! 

I know! What a pitty...but it was anybodys fault because we went all around the park and they were anywhere! I really don't know where they were hide because there weren't that many trees and the "grass" was very short! Maybe it was a liittle bit our fault 'cause we went there right in the afternoon when the sun is burning everything! 

I'll show you the pics that I took in Mikumi national park:

The Amazing AFRICAN SUNSET!

♥

Amazing Experience 😅

It's timee for you guys to know what I did last month! Are you readyyy? Exactly 1 month and 4 days ago I came back frooom...TANZANIA!! Yes, I WENT TO TANZANIA FOR THE FIRST TIME!!! Yaaaay!  \(^_^)/

I mean who has the opportunity to see a country in Africa, not for a normal holiday vacation maybe in those 5 stars hotel near the ocean...NO! But for an amazing VOLUNTEER SERVICE experience in a remote village in the middle of the nature!? I DID! And it was the most meaningful, special and...and speechless journey that I've ever done! 

I have always travelled since I was 14 months old but I have always done: Italy-->Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka-->Italy, that's all! Yes...I've always transited in different cities (Vienna, Paris, Dubai, Qatar, Amman, Kuwait, Male) but I've never gone out from the airport for a vitis around...not even once! What a shaaame (T_T)

Aaaanywaays ◕ ¸ ◕ it was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G! For real, I think I won't ever stop telling this! I'm like crazy of Africa...you can't really understand when people talk about "Africa sickness" until you try it yourself! 

My school organize every year, for the students of the 4th year of high school, this trip for volunteer service in Tanzania...and every year 10/11 students spend three weeks of July in this Stimatine missionary situated in a village called Msolwa! 

We were a group of 7 girls and 4 boys (17-18 years old). We knew each other but not that well because 5 were from "classical high school", 3 from "compute science high school" (I'm in that group) and 2 from "science high school" and a boyfriend of one of the girls...but after this journey, living together for 3 weeks and 24h/24h, we got to knew so well that I think thanks for this experience, now we are a family that shared everything in a unknown country and doing this thing for the first time ever! And...I LOVED IT! Maybe 'cause I'm an only child and even if my family is huge...I got to know how was having 6 big sisters and 4 big brothers! 

The 11 of us before the adventure began! (This was taken at our school the day of departure)

Us with our "BATMOBILE" ;D

One of the places where we worked! (Sunflower farm/field)

Us in the LAST week in Tanzania! We are all changed inside...FOREVER! (one of the boys was taking the pic)

  

We arrived there on the 11th of July to Dar Salaam (capital of Tanzania) and then we started our journey for Msolwa (the village where was our missionary) stopping by a small city called Morogoro. Our missionary was really nice and there was a Secondary School too runned always by the missionary! We were surrounded by so much nature that it reminded me of Sri Lanka and maybe this is one of the reasons why I loved Tanzania: because there were small little things that reminds me of Sri Lanka so bad!

We stayed there until the 1st of August and then we moved again to the capital because we had our flight on the 2nd. It was soo sad leaving the village where we stayed for almost 3 weeks because we (at least the most of us) felt like we were living there since forever. 

Every morning we woke up at 7 o'clock and then had breakfast at 7.30 am all together and then at 8 am we were leaving with our awesome white jeep for work.                              We were working most of the time in the fields; we planted, watered and covered small coffee plants and plants that in the future will give to the local people good quality wood or some times we were in the farm nearby and removing the seeds from the sunflowers! When we were doing the last thing (sunflower work), the other girls were going always crazy because we would find any type of bug or caterpillar! It was soo funny because when they were screaming the local women working with us were laughing too! XD ahaah! 

Working in the fields

Working at the farm!

Then at 12.30 am we used to go back at home and have always a great lunch, cooked by a woman called Stella.

 

Our smiling Stella and chef!

She was helped by 3 other women...this 4 women were all Tanzanian but they could cook like real Italian chefs! All what they cooked was amazing! But how you should already know I LOVE FOOD! 

Around 1 pm we always finished eating and until 2.30 o 3 pm we were free. In that gap of time we were always inside the missionary but all of us were doing different things: there was always a group of girls sunbathing in front of our house, 2 o 3 people washing the cloths, some were sleeping in the room or reading a book and then there was me and another girl o sometimes even another of the boys always...ALWAYS walking around the missionary. So we were inside the school or in the school playground, near the female dorms, behind the missionary or near the house of the sisters or even near the male dorm or even near the missionary's workshop and we were always talking...talking and talking or laughing and taking pics (that was me most of the time)! 

Then when it was 2.30 or 3 pm we always went around to explore! And our father (Don Zanon) the one who always organizes this volunteer trip in Tanzania (for 21 years now!!) brought us everywhere and showed us every single thing of the Yovi Valley (the valley where is located the missionary)! And he showed us:

• the monkey village
• the banana village
• the water falls
• the baobab village
• a lot of schools and churches that the missionary built true the past years
• a lot of villages
• a safari in Mikumi National Park
• an african wedding (and we were dressed like the Tanzanian woman!!)
• and a lot of other things!   

 Around 6 or 6.30 pm we were always back at the missionary because around 7 pm we always had dinner (tasty as always (⌒-⌒) )! But before dinner we were always down in the village...at the bar, sitting in front of our (mine and a couple of other friends' one) favourite drink: the STONEY TANGAWIZI!!!! ≧✯◡✯≦

 

MISSING YOUUU!

After dinner, most of the time, we usually were in the only wifi spot in the mission, uploading some pics that we took with the cell phone or chatting on facebook or facetiming with the family or friends until 10pm when the generator of the mission was switched off!

Yes! We had electricity but only at a certain time like in the morning from 6.30 am till 1.30 pm when the school needed. Then at 4 pm we had light for only 30 or 60 minutes and then again we had to wait till 6.30 pm and last we had light till 10 pm.

After 10 pm we were always together talking and laughing for stories around a fire that we built in the afternoon usually after our walks. It was amazing and fun because we were surrounded by the nature...far away from this technological world that sometimes let you forget of the simple things that are as great as internet, cellphones and video games! 

Have you ever heard about the night sky in Africa? Never?? Well...IT'S THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING IN THE WORLD!!!!! 

I'll show you why with a photo taken from one the boys called Enrico Marcantoni (he has a Canon D650)

AMAZING! This was taken form one of the guys that come with me

On saturday and sunday we didn't work and we went always out on adventures! On sunday morning we always went to see the mass and the african mass it's awEsome! Full of dance moves, music, ladies screaming in the typical african way and it was just a beautiful moment to be at (AND I'M A BUDDHIST)!

I really really enjoyed staying there! Every single thing that we did it was amazing and there are so many other things to talk about...REALLY! MANY OTHER THINGS!! I know that all the things that I said about Africa are things that many other people have said but you really can't understand the feelings that every single of us felt staying there! You must try it yourself to understand it!

I think I've got AFRICA SICKNESS!! (Ç_Ç)

I want to thanks my parent for sending me there...especially my MOM! THANK YOU MOM!! 

sad days :'[

I'm sorry! I didn't post anything for a really looong time! And a lot has been gone on this past one or two months! Happy and bad as well :'(

The happy thing...I'll talk about it in the next post but today I want to write about the very bad thing that hit our family...my dear nanda (nanda= in srilankan is aunty) DIED! She was my dad's big sister  and I had to tell him that his sister passed away all of a sudden! 

And what do you say in this occasions?? "I'm sorry"?! But sorry for what?? 

NO! This is not what do I feel! I felt sad, frustrated and guilty because I couldn't see her for 3 years and I think the worst thing to be a srilankan born and raise in Italy or in any other country that is not Sri Lanka, is that in occasions like this we can't just take a car for a 30 minutes ride and go see them! No!! We have to buy a 700-900 € ticket and then after 10-14 hours of flight we get there!! But it's anyways sad because you don't go there for an holiday but just for a funeral of a very loved person!! And...I know I kept telling this but it's sad...R.E.A.L.L.Y SAD! 

I know this is life: born, grow up, built a family, create great memories with all the people that you really really love but with just a thing called "death"...the people that you create memories with are...distorted inside with all the sadness of the world! 

I can tell all this because I saw it in my dad's eyes! He is a chef and now here in Italy is high summer season so he couldn't just leave the work place for a few days 'course otherwise he would lose the job! No...he wouldn't :) but...you know...is not fun not having a chef in a kitchen in high season! 

So yeah...what could we do? Nothing...I think it's just...L.I.F.E! Now the important thing is not thinking about the bad things but let's just think how MUCH YOU LOVED (and still love) even if I couldn't show it every time! 

So what I want to tell at the end is...to the people that you think are important show them THE UNCONDITIONAL LOVE THAT YOU FEEL FOR THEM...ALWAYS! 

Yes...that's all I guess! Just for the last time...I'LL MISS YOU NANDA! <3 <3 :)

Oh shoot! I wish I had a beautiful picture of her right now!! 

♥

OMG!! ˙❤‿❤˙

=^ㅅ^=

Isn't she the cutest thing on earth??? Ok...this what happened yesterday night around 11.15 pm.

There was going to be a biiig storm here at Verona sooo me and my mum were on the balcony (because we live in an apartment on the second floor) and pulling inside the house all the flowers and many other things and...

we heard a small little kitty crying like crazy. At first I thought it was the kitty of our "on the left-neighbor" but later my mum looked down and she saw this small black dot on the floor moving everywhere! And I was like ❁o❁ 

Like a crazy I took a plastic plate, some milk and a torch and the Iphone and ran down to rescue that little thing! Like...like...eeehm...a...wonder-kitty-savior! ◭,◭  She was the cutest thing EVEEER! So friendly, playful, cuddly and small like a...yes, like a kitty ˙❤‿❤˙ 

I stayed there for maybe half an hour with my mum on the balcony and the "below-us-neighbors" on the balcony too talking with me; then a woman from the house in front of us came because she thought maybe it was her kitty...but she wasn't! But she took her anyways for the night because she had other kitties at home too :) 

The end of the story? It was the kitty of our on the left-neighbor! I can't really thing how that small animal jumped from a very high second floor!!! :O

♥

Shaaazam! ✌

Ü ok...I'm...sorry! Didn't post for a really looong time! But anyways nothing special really happened in this first week of summer break...ups! :) It was soo intense that I....NEVER SLEPT SO MUCH! Seriously, never! 

But!! I'm not that much lazy  ◠‿◠ I cleaned the house, I went to the hospital for my little broken finger, I went to the lake for scuba diving (yes! One of my many passions is DIVING! ✌), cooked because cooking is another of my loong list of passions and I worked out a lot...a lot, sweating like a horse! >.< 

You might ask "what...did I cooked?"...no, you don't!? You are not even a bit curious?? ๏̯͡๏ Never mind! I'll tell you! For the first time I baked...MAACAROOOOONS! And...here the pics only for you special guys:

Shazaaam!

BOOOM!

Baaang!

   hey! It's my first time...not so good-looking :( but tasted SOO GOOOD!! :D


♥

I'm noot ;)

dad's new hair style!

Hi everyone! Well, this----------------> what happened on tuesday! :) 

This man is my "Papà" (is how you tell dad in italian) his name is Upali and his off days are only tuesday. You may ask yourself what's his job...right? Even if you don't :) I'll tell you...he is a chef and maybe  that's the reason why I LOOOVE FOOOD! For real...I couldn't live without food! I know :( I've got an addiction...and my body proves it ;D

Anyway, I usually go out with my dad because it's the only day that I can hang out with him everywhere and this week we went grocery shopping, to the bank and window shopping in some shopping malls.             

Then we went to this place called 'Flover' and you can find any thing for the garden and I saw this little tree...and I thought "mmm...just like a wig" and this what happened at the end...ahaahahaha! He was hilarious!

How I told you guys before, we went to a shopping mall and he bought me a new nail polish...so freaking beautifuuuul!

beautiful

THIS...IS...NOT...ANOTHER ADDICTION! :o

mmmm...oh gosh! I'm addicted to this too! :'( Ah! Who cares :D I'll show you one day my small collection of nail polishes.

cray cray!

OMG... SCHOOL IS FIIINIIIISH!! Yaaaee...let's shout all together a loud "Yeees! It's oveer!". :) Yes I know...I'm a bit excited 'cause my summer has finally started and it's not raining anymore here in Italy. But who knows, till three days ago it was heavily raining :( Oh snap! The sun has already gone! Nuuuuuu D:

Ok...do you guys want to know why this week can be called the craziest week that I ever had?! Let's start from:

Monday... well, my crazy week began exactly on monday (obviously)! At which time? At my P.E. TIME! That is around eleven or at ten to eleven (?!) :) What exactly happened? Well, in my class there are 18 boys and only 2 girls (one out of two is me!) so during our P.E. lesson we almost play like animals and that day we were playing handball.

Guess what happened :/ that little stupid handball came toward me and I tried to catch it and...you know when you are pulling a rubber band and that suddenly breaks making a 'sciak' sound?? That is exactly what I felt! Without the 'sciak' sound :) :'(

I felt like dying! At first I couldn't move my hand and I was laughing like crazy because it hurt so bad that I couldn't cry...ahaaah I know it's insane! 

What happened is that my left hand's middle-finger smashed!

At night my finger was like this

a peachy/orangeyone  and a pearl one

 Tuesday... well, I woke up and my finger was still hurting but I thought "whateveeer"! and after school I went with my bestfriend for shopping but the only thing that I bought were two nail polishes.

But at home around 7pm my finger was a crooked cucumber and the hand was blue! 

So my dad took me to the hospital aaaand after THREE HOURS ( :O ) they took me inside and after a x-ray they told me that a piece of my bone came off...or something like that...and broke! IT'S MY FIRST TIME EVER WITH SOMETHING BROKEN!

 Wednesday... I didn't go to school 'cause I had to go with the group of guys that are going to Tanzania for volunteer service to get the injections that we all need for that journey! Snaap! I had to get 3 injections and at home I couldn't walk and couldn't move my left arm! D:

Thursday... nothing special happened. Just argued a bit with my mom...as always...but at the end of the story she is really my bestfriend :D <3

Friday... another school year comes to an end!! And like every year in my high school there was a talent show with people dancing hip hop or ballet and people singing and it was really crazy...as always in my school :D 

and then after school I went for the first time at a sushi restaurant with my friends, before all of us are going everywhere in the world for the summer without seen each others everyday! :( :)

I LOVE FOOOOOOOOOOD!!

Saturday... ops, MY SUMMER VACATIONS has starteeed!! My school was one of the only to end on friday while some of my friends that go to different high schools in Verona are still...at school! ihihi...That's life! :D Anyways I slept sooo much and at night I went to a theatrical play...my bestfriend invited me to go with her and I accepted because her mom was on stage!

My makeup of the night was like this

I LOVE MAKEUUUUUUUUUP TOOO!

I love to put makeup on and when I go out for birthday parties or for any special occasion. I don't know why but been dressed well with a beautiful makeup on and with all the 

accessories on makes me feel so happy and very beautiful! aah...I konw...girly thinks! :D

 

♥

ops

Ops! I just notice that yesterday I forgot to post some of my favourite Sunday morning's songs :S so here some of them...enjoy:

Nelly- Just A Dream

Bruno Mars- When I Was Your Man

Five For Fighting- Chances

James Morrison- You Give Me Something

Adele- Hometown Glory

Maroon 5- Daylight

Maroon 5- Sunday Morning

Alicia Keys- If I Ain't Got You

Gabrielle Aplin- The Power Of Love

Good mooorning

Good morning every one! How is your Sunday going? I LOVE Sundays especially morning. I love to listen to music...you know that soft, romantic, relaxing, a bit blues and soul songs just like James Morrison's that makes me always dream and happy like nothing else!

I played the piano when I was small. I started when I was 6 years old and for 9 years I didn't stop...I did it with all my love and passion! The words of the day aaare...mmm...DREAM, LOVE, PASSION and ENJOY!

 

this is my shinning piano! And yes, we are buddhist :)

♥