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Welcome to Mwanza, Rock City!

Ferry to Mwanza

Ferry to Mwanza

After our failed attempt to take the mythical ferry from Kampala to Mwanza, we eventually got a bus and made our way to Mwanza, aka Rock City (They call it Rock City because the town is built on top of and around giant boulders). We arrived in Mwanza, Tanzania about 9pm after riding the car ferry with our bus. It was dark and we had no reservations, no Tanzanian money and no idea where we were exactly. We stumbled around in the dark (not a lot of street lights in Tanzania) and finally found a place to stay for the night. It was questionable at best (there was no shower door and a hole in the shower floor) but the owner was nice enough and she quickly made friends with Liz.

Over an extremely overpriced dinner (the owner was nice enough to join us at the hotel restaurant) she invited us to Church with her the next morning! We agree without a second thought, people in Tanzania are so friendly!

The next morning we arose and met our host and realized on the way to church we were going to a Catholic church… I say, “No worries, Liz, I got this… 8 years of Catholic education finally paying off. Just follow my lead!” #OverConfident

FOUR HOURS. 

NON-STOP. 

ALL IN SWAHILI.

We understood ZERO. We were trying so hard to “pay attention,” stay awake and not offend our host but we had no idea how long it would be. I expected a typical 45 minute mass; I think I whispered “10 more minutes max.” probably 15 times. It just kept going and going; 4 separate offerings where EVERYONE walks up to the front to give money (everyone together, just the girls, just the guys, everyone together again). There were over 600 people (I counted to pass the time for a while). I tried to laugh along with everyone else to the jokes in the sermon.

Somewhere around the 3 hour and 30 minute mark I must have started looking a little bit bored and wasn’t as “focused” on the priest when I heard “something, something, something, Muzungo, something, something Muzungo” and then EVERYONE looks at Liz and I and starts laughing. Muzungo, basically means “white person” in Swahili. Apparently the priest made a joke about the 2 Muzungos in the crowd making it through the whole mass and only “a few more hours left.”

After the service we waited for another 30 minutes for our host to get her gallon of holy water blessed and then it was on to the market. Our host did her grocery shopping and then finally called her taxi driver to take us all back to the hotel. When we got back to the hotel our host stuck us with the bill for her taxi for the day! Then she was asking us what we wanted to order from the hotel restaurant for lunch, it’s almost 4PM now, and we had to politely get the heck out of her hotel before we went broke with our “new friend.”

Our first stop after leaving the hotel was to the ATM (she had taken us for all we had at the time) and we ran into an American girl at the ATM that was getting out of a safari jeep. We had wanted to look into safaris in Mwanza, so we asked her about her experience and next thing we know we’re in the jeep with her guide going to the Hostel she was staying out to see if there was room for us (which there was for 1 night) switching our luggage from the crazy hotel and finally breathing a sigh of relief.

So we had ourselves a safari guide and we worked out the details of our safari!

Zanzibar

Cow on Nungwi Beach, Zanzibar

First off, it’s just fun to say. Zzzzanz-i-baaarrr! 

After hiking for a week, the beach sounded like a lovely option, so we were off to Zanzibar, plus we wanted to practice our newly certified scuba skills.

Flying in we got a preview of the beautiful beaches.

Flying into ZanzibarBefore we could get to the beach we got stuck in a Zanzibar traffic jam for a few minutes. It gave a whole new meaning to “This is bull!!”

But we had no idea just how beautiful they would be. Zanzibar by far has the best beaches we have seen on this trip!

Naguwi Beach, Zanzibar We indulged in fresh, delicious seafood dinners right on the beach almost every night.

Nungwi Beach, Zanzibar

Nungwi Beach, ZanzibarAnd hung out with the herd of cows that hung out on the beach everyday.

Cow on Nungwi Beach, ZanzibarOur scuba diving was fun, but we were a little sad that we missed the whale sharks.

All in all, the beaches were just incredible. We couldn’t get over it!! Crystal clear water, powdery, ridiculously fine white sand. It was pretty awesome.

Nungwi Beach, Zanzibar Nungwi Beach, Zanzibar Minus the three days that our bungalows didn’t have water… that set us up for our 40+ hours of straight travel, including the 19.5 hour flight from Dubai to Buenos Aires. I really like to shower before that long of a flight, but not so much this time, Just a bucket bath.

Nungwi Beach, Zanzibar

Kilimanjaro Journal: Day 5 – Summit Day!

Kilimanjaro Summit Day Uhuru Peak

Day 5 (well kinda, starting at midnight on Day 4) — Jan 28, 2015 

I didn’t sleep too much before our midnight wake up call, but I still felt wide awake to begin our summit. Our guides told us that you have to start around midnight and climb the 4,000+ feet in the dark, so you make it to the summit right at sunrise… because as soon as the sun comes up the wind starts up. The wind is extremely strong, basically it’s blowing from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic with nothing to slow it town at that elevation on the whole continent. We had also heard that the clouds start to move in soon after the sun is up, and based on what we’d seen so far with the weather, we had no doubt.

Kilimanjaro Summit Day

We had been warned that it would be cold and windy and COLD! We probably didn’t have the best attire to summit Kili, let’s review. I had:

  • a very cute trenchcoat rain jacket from REI (it’s from REI, yes, but let’s just say it’s not exactly “technical alpine wear”)
  • a nano-weight down jacket that we’ve been carrying everywhere, it’s lightweight… it’s the lightest weight down jacket they make
  • nano-weight down vest (same deal)
  • lightweight hiking pants
  • pair of leggings
  • charming charlie’s cheap-o cotton scarfy thing
  • 2 tank tops
  • 1 t-shirt
  • 1 thin long sleeve t-shirt
  • Buff to be used as a hat like thing
  • My ole reliable hiking boots
  • A pair of borrowed gloves from a porter

And I wore every single piece of clothing I could…. Kinda felt like the Pillsbury Doughboy.

Rick had:

  • Hiking shorts
  • Lightweight hiking pants
  • Ski pants (yep, he wore all three!)
  • 2 Icebreaker t-shirts
  • 1 long sleeve Icebreaker t-shirt
  • Marmot nano-weight, very well loved down jacket
  • rain jacket
  • Merrell trail running shoes
  • Buff to be used as a hat like thing
  • A pair of borrowed gloves from a porter

Basically, we proceeded to put on EVERYTHING we had with us and hoped for the best!

Turns out that almost all of the other groups left at midnight. But thanks to our guide’s amazing confidence in our speed hiking abilities, or more likely his lack of desire to get up any earlier, we left at 1:15 AM. He assured us that we would have plenty of time to make the summit by sunrise… he failed to mention that was conditional on us basically doing a light jog up the 4,000+ feet to the summit. Okay, maybe it wasn’t a jog, but it felt like a powerwalking death march, as we passed group after group after group. More on that later…

We started up by the light of our headlamps. We could see other trekkers far ahead of us on the mountain, like a small trail of ants shown only by their headlamp light. Marching up the mountain in the dark only being able to see the back of the person in front of you and about a 4 foot circle of rock illuminated by head lamp gives you a lot of time to think… or sing. I sang the only song I’ve found that I know all the words too, Roger Creager’s, Everclear. Thanks, college. Thanks, Anne Jenkins Roberts. Rick was thinking “Strong Like Lion. Slow Like Turtle. Gassy Like Antelope.” Did I mention it was freezing cold and dark? Turns out we don’t take many pictures when it’s freezing cold and dark.

Luckily the sun does come up eventually to and way before you see the sun you can start making up the ridge line and then rocks around you and then finally the glacier and crater. We’re almost to the summit.

Kilimanjaro Summit Day

Kilimanjaro Summit Day

 

There is another peak “Stella” of sorts that is on one side of the crater that stopped at briefly before climbing the last hundred meters past the glacier around the edge of the crater on the way to Uhuru Peak, the summit of Kilimanjaro, the highest point on the continent of Africa and the highest freestanding mountain in the world!
19,341 feet above sea level (5985 meter).Kilimanjaro Summit Day

Kilimanjaro Summit Day

 

Kilimanjaro Summit Day Uhuru Peak

 

We made it! We tried to keep up the tradition of “Airplane” on the summit, unfortunately we didn’t get a great photo of it. It just looks like Rick is kicking me in the stomach WWE style.Kilimanjaro Summit Day Uhuru Peak Then it was Down. Down. Down.

Kilimanjaro Journal: Day 4

Kilimanjaro

Day 4 — Jan 27, 2015

We woke up on day 4 of our Kilimanjaro trek to quite a bit of ice on our tent this morning, definitely a cold night. But we have clear skies and bright sun.

Kilimanjaro Kilimanjaro Kilimanjaro
After breakfast we tackled Barranco Wall, the wall that had been ominously staring at us all evening. It ended up being really fun! Rick and I agree it was our favorite part of the hike. It was more of a rock climb than a hike really, as we scaled the volcanic rock wall. At the top we took a quick break to acclimatize to the 1,000+ feet we had just ascended, and got to take some awesome pictures with the peak in the background.

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Barranco Wall, Kilimanjaro

Kilimanjaro

From there it was a lot of ups and downs through canyons and ridges, as we made to our lunch spot at 12,900 ft. The landscape started to get really sparse, even more that before with just gravel and perfectly round stones from softball to tire sized.

Kilimanjaro

Kilimanjaro

Kilimanjaro Kilimanjaro
After lunch we had 3 hours of hiking to make it up to base camp. The morning hiking wasn’t bad at all… But in the afternoon part of the hike I started to feel the altitude, lack of oxygen and fatigue a bit. We dipped down pretty far into a valley, so the last hour and a half push was straight up the steep mountain side. But when we made it to base camp we got a fabulous view of the summit, especially at sunset, we felt well rewarded.

Barafu Camp, Kilimanjaro
Base camp, called Barafu Camp, is over 15,300 feet. With only 3 days of acclimatization under our belt we could definitely feel the lack of oxygen when we moved around. The 400 ft walk to the outhouse from our tent was was quite an undertaking — the outhouse was far town a steep, scree covered hill — I’m embarrassed to admit the return uphill trip may have required a breather break midway for me!

Barafu Camp, Kilimanjaro
We will leave at midnight tonight to start the summit!!! CRAZY!! So we ate dinner as soon as we arrived into camp just about and were told to go to sleep at 6:00 while it was still light out. We knew we were in for a cold night, plus getting up at midnight to start the summit would be tough, so we got everything ready and slept in the base layers of clothing we would hike in the next day.

Barafu Camp, Kilimanjaro

Kilimanjaro Journal: Day 3

Day 3 — Jan 26, 2015
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We woke up to a beautiful clear blue sky and amazing view of the Kibo Summit of Kilimanjaro, which is the highest point and where we will summit… assuming all goes well.

P1110903We were well above treeline at this point, just tons of rocks and boulders, and these really cool little ice formations everywhere. P1110902There are lots of lichens and moss, and a few little succulent looking plants that are really cute. No more animals though.

P1110923We had been told that today is our first really hard day. It was supposed to be 8+ hours of hiking, but we did it in 6 1/2 hours! To acclimatize we hike up to over 15,000 feet, but we are sleeping at 13,000 feet tonight. (Hike high, sleep low) The peak we went to today is called Lava Tower.

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P1110906 It had some really impressive rock formations… Which we only got to see for about 2 minutes of the hour and a half we were there, because of the massive clouds/fog that rolled in. Man it was COLD!!! Seriously, look at the clouds!!

P1110916 P1110918The crew had a tent set up for us to eat lunch in and we pretty much stayed in there the whole time and were still cold even wearing all of the layers we brought in our day packs.

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We were excited to head off the Lava Tower for our mostly descent to camp. It was probably one of my favorite sections of the hike so far. It was otherworldly with the clouds speeding across in front of us, revealing glimpses of huge bowling ball shaped black and grey volcanic boulders. We soon started following a hidden creek bed that was only revealed by the Silencio Trees growing in a line; they are water indicators and beautiful. We soon saw a small waterfall and plants that looked like outer space succulents.

P1110924The color palette around us could have inspired designer decorated house or impeccable wedding – heather gray, mossy green, lichen blue-green, highlights of bright thistle purple and sunny yellow. And the Lobilea Plants! These were once of our favorites.

P1110926We made camp at Barranco Campground.

P1110931 P1110921We can actually see Moshi from it when the clouds clear. And again we are fortunate to have amazing views of the summit! As we look up at it we what our guides tell us is the start of our trail for tomorrow, The Barranco Wall.

P1110942 P1110945The name wall is not an understatement! It is straight up!! I’m intimidated. Their sage advice was “just don’t think about it and it will be hakuna matata” (as you know from the lion king, hakuna matata means no worries. Yep, that’s actually Swahili and they actually use it!) well, comforting strategy, huh? Climbing 1,000 ft in an hour. Eek

P1110957Another Swahili saying we learned today was “ahh! mama yangu” meaning “oh my mother!” Kinda like “aye yay yay” or “mama mia” It’s pretty much the answer to anything, from a steep assent, to a funny joke, to another one of the porters running past us up the mountain.

P1110965Here’s a pic of our dinner set up. I will say, this is not our typical hiking experience, having plates and a full dinner and someone else cooking it, but it’s pretty nice. Of course, comes with a price tag… Which, as I said before, we wouldn’t have paid, except that it’s required that you have all these people to climb Kili. It has it’s pros and cons. My favorite part is having a tent set up and ready for us when we get into to camp and not having to break down camp in the mornings. I’m not such a fan of someone else determining the speed at which we hike, where we stop and which route we take. I’m leaning towards I’m an independent hiker… and our budget agrees with me.

Kilimanjaro Journal: Day 2

Day 2 — Jan 25, 2015
P1110844
Today was the “easy day” only about 4 hours of hiking. As soon as we left camp, there were no more trees. We learned new Swahili today – we were told “Pole, Pole” (sounds like the Polly in Rolly Polly bug). It means “Slowly, Slowly”. We got in trouble from our head guide for hiking too fast yesterday (errr, talk to your assistant guide). So we hiked very “pole, pole” today… and still passed all of the other groups… but it was more enjoyable. I have a feeling we’ll be getting more and more “pole, pole” as we get higher up!
P1110851P1110858The day started off nice and sunny, but a few minutes after we got to camp the clouds rolled in with the wind and it got quite cold! So we spent most of the afternoon hunkered down in the tent. Especially when it started to lightly rain for a few minutes.

P1110846
Just before dinner we went on a short little hike up to the ridge above camp. Passat when with us, showing us some really cool caves along the way, and then an awesome view. But really we went to help with acclimating, it was 200M higher than the campground, and tomorrow we have some really big elevation gain. Altitude sickness is the biggest risk here. Tonight we are sleeping around 12,000 feet at Shira Camp. The summit is over 19,000 feet and that will be the highest we’ve ever been… And 4 days is pretty fast to go from sea level to that high.

P1110869

P1110872
The food has been pretty good. We have a cook (required to have on the trip), and we eat in our tent since we took the cheap plan and didn’t pay for a mess tent. We get fruit, rice or pasta, some kind soup at every meal, and so far we’ve had meat at every meal. The first night was fish – which if you’re gonna have fish on a 6 day trek, you wanna have it on the first night! Today we had chicken… Which feels like it’s starting to be a little sketch. I mean it’s not like there is refrigeration, it’s cold at night but not thaaaaat cold during the day. I’m suspect, hoping that’s the last of the chicken we see. Our sweet porter “Manny” we called him because we couldn’t quite get his name, brought us hot water, tea, coffee and all of our meals to the tent. It was quite nice, especially when the temps dropped and the wind picked up, we could snuggle up in our sleeping bags and eat our meals.

P1110837The night was quite cold. It was ok in the tent (I did much better with the borrowed sleeping bag, Rick was a little cold with the knock off from Nepal, but he said with the bag liner and a bottle of hot water it wasn’t too bad). But when we had to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom it was downright miserable!!! It’s pretty much unavoidable though… We are supposed to be drinking 5-6 litres of water a day, plus the Diamox meds we’re taking to help with the altitude make you have to pee. I was up 3 times and each time I thought I might freeze to death!

P1110895

Kilimanjaro Journal: Day 1

Day 1 — Jan 24, 2015

We met our guide Francis and assistant guide Passat at the hostel, we were running late because we had been scrambling to find the things we needed in town like cash to pay, air tickets to get us to Zanzibar since we wouldn’t have time to go by bus now, 6 water bottles, a sleeping bag.  We got a quick briefing and we were off to the base of the mountain. After about two hours of hanging around the ranger station, waiting for paperwork, permits and payments to get worked out (TIA “This Is Africa” meaning it will be done in a languid, jovial, but extremely inefficient manner), we were off!
P1110810
We are taking the Machame Route up the mountain. It’s considered, according to our guides, the 2nd or 3rd most difficult of the seven routes up to the summit. The easiest and most popular is the Marangu Route, nicknamed the Coca-Cola route because so many tourists do it and because there are huts that sell soda at most of the campsites on the way up. We learned as we started hiking that our route is nicknamed the Whiskey Route… we didn’t get a clear answer on why exactly, something about because it’s difficult, something about because it’s for the adventurous… I kinda think maybe because that just what goes with Coke? Will Jacobus, I see a branding opportunity here – The Jack Daniels Kilimanjaro Route!!
P1110811
Day 1 was going through rain forest with these huge, beautiful trees… But it was unlike any rainforest we’ve ever seen! (And at this point we can say we’ve been in a few, from Costa Rica to Thailand to Brazil to Nepal) The rainforest here must be what Dr. Seuss used to inspire his illustrations! There were so many crazy looking plants, from right out of his books. There were giant fern trees, spindly spiky topped trees, stick trees covered in bright bluish-green mosses. It was pretty cool.
P1110815
We hiked with just our assistant guide for this part, and quickly learned how he got his nickname Passat. When he was a porter, he was always the fastest up the mountain, like a car, so they named him Passat. We were passing everyone – all of the tourists and all of the porters! I’m proud to say that we kept pace, but it was a work out. We went from 1,800M to 3,000M.
P1110828

Camp the first night was at 3,000M. We got great Kili views and to see a chameleon! Our guide found him and brought him to show us… An only in Africa science experiment, our guide told us to watch his color as he moved him from his dark-skinned hand to my light-skinned hand, and of course the chameleon adapted to our skin tones within seconds.

P1110825
I did not sleep too well that night, I was cold most of the night. My knock-off “Narth Foce” sleeping bag from Nepal was not quite up to standard. But I made it through, and Rick says he’ll switch bags with me tomorrow night.

P1110836

Kilimanjaro Journal: Pre-Trip

Kili: Pre-Trip Planning – Jan 23, 2015

Well, this part should be a short entry! Before we even left for this round the world trip, people kept mentioning Kilimanjaro and how we should totally climb it. Like a strange number of people, and as we were on the trip it kept coming up. So Rick and I had talked about it long and hard, and researched it. We learned that it’s mandatory that you have a professional guide and porters, required by the government no way around it. And the park fees about $50 per person per day!! We decided it was just WAAAAAAY WAY too expensive, and we wouldn’t really have time to do it, and after much debate, agreed that it was stricken from the list of possibilities.

…..Yeeeeaahhhh… so, you can see how well that went. P1120097After a day in Arusha, we decided that town wasn’t for us. It was a town of two extremes, either you were in the really rough African town part with nothing to do, or you were a VERY wealthy Westerner getting ready to leave on your luxury safari with your 5 butlers and caravan – we did not fit in. So on a whim we went to Moshi, the town at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro. We figured it was smaller, would have better scenery, and mostly, well “why not?” and “let’s just get the heck out of dodge”. So after a few hours in a dala-dala we were there and wandering the dusty streets in search of a place to stay.

Our first lead from AirBNB was Hibiscus Guest House, but after we walked over there, there was no room in the inn… which turned out to be a good thing, because the price was crazy high and out of our budget! Plus the atmosphere was not so friendly. We were pointed to Karibu Hostel, and the moment we arrived we knew we were home! It’s a hostel that benefits a non-profit school Born to Learn, run by Spaniards. Not only were they incredibly welcoming, friendly and transparent about costs/prices (rare to find, we’ve learned), they spoke Spanish!! Sam, the owner, mentioned she had a connection with a guide service that was honest, gave a low price for her guests and gave some proceeds to her non-profit.We blew it off, since we had already made out decision not to go.

….but as it got to be evening, and after catching astounding glimpses of Kili’s summit, and after, perhaps more importantly, after a lovely bottle of South African Sauvignon Blanc, we looked at each other with the look we’ve come to know well, the “so, I’ve got a crazy idea” look…. What if we could, what if it was affordable, what if we cut our trip a little short to make it work, when else are we going to be in Tanzania…? And off we went to get more details from Sam about hiking Kili, but saying to each other, we won’t decide tonight, we’ll just get some information.

P1110838As soon as we mentioned it, Sam looked at our timing (flying to Argentina on the 2nd and hoping to go to Zanzibar before that), and pronounced that if we were going to go it had to be TOMORROW! She was on the phone with her guy before we could get another word out, and he was on his way to meet us “just to give us more information”…. It was 9:30 at night. Things moved quickly from there and around 10:30pm we were booked on a trek to summit Mount Kilimanjaro… that started the next morning.

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We went in for dinner at the hostel (Spaniards eat quite late) and announced our plan to our new friends. We were, un-shockingly, met with shock. “You go MANANA?!” Another of the volunteers, from Canada, told us that she had been training for months in British Colombia, she had booked her trip months in advance, she had gotten all her gear already and asked quite concerned if we had gaiters, a light rain suit, a heavy downpour rain suit, alpine sleeping bags, our summit jackets, etc. Clearly we did not. She was flabbergasted – “WHAAAAA?!? But how can you….!? I mean, you can’t…. But you need…. I just can’t believe” let’s just say that didn’t exactly put me at ease.

Fortunately, from my quick post to Facebook that night, you guys gave me great encouragement! A HUGE Thank You to Anne J-Roberts, Patrick O’Neil, Gavin Davis, Esteban Delgado and Jimmy Abrams for the much needed encouragement! I’ll admit, on some of the tough moments of the summit I repeated “Always excited, never nervous” and “Crush it, Liz!” to myself. And of course, Dad, your email was awesome…Rick and I repeated it often during the trek “Sounds like a bunny climb. Bernard Goosen made it in a wheelchair… Twice! Just sayin’” 🙂

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So around midnight we finished packing our trek pack and hoped for the best!

 

Thankful for Brinker!

Random topic, right? Since I’ve been gone from Chili’s for almost five months now? I just couldn’t help sharing this though. While in South Sudan Rick and I were asked to give a few business education seminars to the Seed Effect local staff. I immediately felt under qualified for the task and wasn’t sure where to start. Scovia, the In-Country Director for Seed Effect, was kind enough to provide some general ideas to get me started (like time management, attitude towards work, humility and feedback, etc). And as soon as I got to working on the power points, so much of Brinker’s Culture of Accountability came flooding back, and I was on a roll!

DSC_0124But still, I was really nervous when it came the presentation day because this isn’t exactly an ideal environment: 1) I’m no training expert, 2) English is not my audience’s first language, 3) MASSIVE cultural differences, 4) Most of the team does not have any other business experience or education. How the heck is this going to translate?!

But I knew that the concepts I was sharing were some of the most impactful to not only me, but Chili’s Team Members in the field, people across all departments of the organization, even my non-Chili’s friends and family. So I dove in!

DSC_0155 I was able to share the concept of Big Rocks – with a visual demonstration and all! The visual demonstration really resonated with the team – and they totally go it. When it occurred to me to share Big Rocks, since it is the most impactful idea in time management that I’ve ever come across, I thought it was so cool that there was actually a demonstration that I could pull off while presenting in the middle of nowhere South Sudan with zero supplies! What does every village in every country have? Rocks, pebbles and sand (well, more like dirt, but close enough). So after taking a machete to a couple of water bottles, and having most of the staff think I’m a crazy lady running around gathering rocks and dirt – picture “Excuse me Eivans (our driver), could you stop again please? Those little rocks are the perfect size! Tinate” – we had a presentation!

DSC_0171I also got to talk about how Feedback is Priceless. Open, constructive feedback is something that’s hard to come by in the U.S., but in other countries, where offending someone can often be repaid with rocks being thrown at you, or a swinging machete, it’s even rarer. Fortunately, the Seed Effect team is amazing and has a solid Biblical foundation, so introducing giving and receiving feedback was a concept they took to immediately. In true Tony Bridwell style, everyone paired up and practiced “What feedback do you have for me?… Thank you for the feedback”. And committed to asking for and giving feedback in regular weekly meetings.

DSC_0165We talked about ensuring that all teams goals were aligned around the Big Rocks, then setting clear expectations, aligned with your Big Rocks. And how to talk your team through “The Why’s”. And then we got to talk about giving recognition and practice it – Dom Perry, you would’ve been proud!!

Beyond the presentations I spent some time talking with the leaders about leadership (it all start with investing in your leaders), managing a team, ownership and accountability. As I did, it made me realize how much of the Brinker culture had become ingrained in me… in fact, Drew asked, “So do you have like reference materials, or do you just have all of this memorized, or what? You quote it all exactly.” To which, Rick laughed and said, “Yeah, I can quote it all too… we use it at home, too” and then Rick went into how Experiences lead to Beliefs, and you have to give some one new Experiences to shift them from C1 Beliefs to C2. For those that don’t know, Rick never actually did work for Brinker, although there may be some debate from some people… 🙂

DSC_0110It’s funny that I didn’t realize how ingrained it was, but even having not been around it for months, Brinker’s culture is part of who I am now. It’s a set of tools that will be invaluable all of my life, and I’m so grateful for the opportunity I had to be part of it.

…To respond to Drew’s question, after I laughed for a minute, I said “No, no reference materials and no crazy memorization… everyone at Brinker just lives it out everyday. From the CEO to the servers and every person in between. It’s just how you live at Brinker”

And Drew replied “Do you know how fortunate you are to have worked for a company that has that kind of culture and training? No one has that.”

Well, I truly thought I always appreciated it, but being away from Brinker for a bit, and then getting to share the invaluable lessons of the culture with others makes me realize even more how special it was. And makes me incredibly, just over the top, grateful for the opportunity to work there and learn from the best leaders. I’m forever grateful to the leadership as Brinker who took time and energy to invested in the culture and invested in me – Thank You!!!

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Seeing God in South Sudan

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I’ve been trying to figure out how to write about our time in South Sudan for a couple weeks now. To be honest it’s so intimidating and overwhelming to me that I just keep putting it off. I just don’t feel like I can do justice to the way the history and situation seems almost impossible, the hurt nearly every person faces daily… and then the passion and love Seed Effect team has and the incredible things God is doing there. So, I totally wussed out at first and asked Rick to write a post blog about our time there, and he did an awesome job!! Thanks, babe!

But I feel like I want to add a few other thoughts and experiences of mine that aren’t as well organized. The best way I can think to do it is a list of the things that surprised me, stood out to me, and where I saw big impact.

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1) There is so much power in what is considered status quo in a society. Over the last few years I’ve really come to see how much who you surround yourself with defines your worldview and so many facets of your life. But I hadn’t seen such broadly held societal influences have such power. And it’s so sad. The status quo in South Sudan is a deadly and depressing cocktail made with 1 part corrupt leaders, 1 part regular loss of property and loved ones, 2 parts lack of sense of value of human life, and 1 part “no light at the end of the tunnel” visible for most people. And if you’ve never known anything or seen anything different, how could you possibly believe, work and risk for something different??

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2) The war’s lasting effects include many people who have really only known refugee camps for their adult life. And when they were told to return to South Sudan, they had literally NOTHING to return with. Imagine starting a new life, in a new place with no bank account or money, one change of clothes, no tools, you’ve lost everyone you know, no seeds to plant, no house, shelter or tent even, no food, no containers to put water in…. And then when you think you are going back to the town where your family is from, you show up to find that another family from a different tribe has already claimed that property as their own. Nothing you can do about it. Where do you go from there?!P1110081

3) The passion and energy that the native Seed Effect team has for Jesus is effervescent and incredible! They are GIANTS in faith. I am so encouraged by them, and inspired, and challenger to grow my faith. They are not exceptions to the above two bullet points, they have lived and are living through some big, tough things. But they embody delighting in the Lord like I’ve never seen. And out of the overflow of that, they care for Seed Effects clients and share who Jesus is with an intoxicating enthusiasm. They have seen God fulfill His promises in their lives, even through incredible heartbreak and hardship. Here are just a couple of stories from folks on the team: Scovia’s story and Butti’s storyDSC_03304) The life change, and hope, and joyfulness I saw in the clients leaves no doubt that God is mightily at work in Kajo Keji through Seed Effect!! To hear a woman tell you that she used to feel she was not worth anything to anyone, she had no value in the world… and now, because of Seed Effect showing her who Jesus is and what she means to Him, telling her she does have worth and showing it by investing in her so she can have a business, she not only values her life, but her kids’ lives, and values the lives of others in her village and is helping them know worth and love. It’s pretty incredible. DSC_0262 DSC_0245

5) I felt like there was a “theme” to my time in South Sudan, a phrase that continually ran through my mind like a song stuck in my head, that so many of my experiences fit into… That was God’s Promises. Not an entirely new concept, but it felt like God revealed it to me in a new way. I mean EVERYTHING was like “oh that’s one of God’s promises to us from the Bible”, or “oh, WOW, that’s God making good on one of his promises”. Maybe it was that I was reading through Genesis with Join The Journey while I was there too. A couple of the ones that stand out in my memory:

  • God promises to be our comforter in hard times, and “delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart” psalm 37:4  If he is our biggest delight and source of joy, then our hearts desire will be for a deeper and closer relationship with him. It’s an awesome Catch 22! I saw people who had lost so much embodying these and have a joy shining out of them like nothing I’ve ever seen.DSC_0034
  • God promises he will not allow us to suffer forever and that He is there in that suffering, 1 Peter 5:10 “After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace… will himself restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you” It was a pastor in South Sudan who first pointed out this verse to me, and it echoed in my mind as we visited different clients, especially some of the newer clients who had not experienced as much life change yet. I encouraged them with this verse, but only because I had been encouraged with it from other Seed Effect clients. They saw it in their life – they experienced true suffering, suffering that I can’t fully fathom. And they stood in front of me with huge smiles and this crazy sparkle in their eye talking about how God and the work of Seed Effect had given them hope and strength and joy.DSC_0048
  • ….and that His love never ceases and his mercies are new every morning, Lamentations 3:22-23. God gives us new mercies every day because each day only has enough mercy in it for that day…. We will not have to bear tomorrow’s troubles with today’s resources, God gives us new hope and mercy each day for it’s own trouble. In so many of the stories we heard in the markets of Kajo Keji, there seemed past days when Regina or Kenny’s circumstances were too much for any person to bear, but as they revealed their stories, God had provided just the right event or person to give hope, or a hand up, or love them, or just the right guidance just when they needed it.

I hear God, as He’s looking over South Sudan, declaring “I know the plans I have for you, and you, and you… plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”. I hear that for Rick and I, for Seed Effect’s leadership team, and most loudly for the Seed Effect clients.

Currently, I’m working on more posts for the Seed Effect blog with client stories and more of our experience. As those get published, we will put them on this blog as well. So stay tuned!

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