Mount Meru Puns

Hi everyone! I will be in Arusha next week and would like to hike up Mount Meru and go on a safari (Serengeti, Ngorongoro). All trips I found online are extremely expensive. Starting at $1000 for Meru (4 days) and $1500 for a 4-day-safari. Do you know where to find more affordable options? I'm totally fine spending the night in a tent or something really basic.

Thanks!

“Meditation is one of the most important activities a Jedi can perform.” Lail spoke softly, his voice carrying across the empty meditation room. In front of him were 21 Jedi Initiates, legs crossed and eyes closed, as Lail led them through a meditation lesson. “It gives us time to think; time to learn, to reflect and to organise ourselves spiritually and mentally. Your connection to the Force is stronger when you meditate, as you close yourself off to outside distractions. Your senses are enhanced and you will feel more in touch with the Light.”

Lail slowly lifted off the ground, his robe falling down below him. Above the meditating students, Lail’s Lightstaff hovered, drawing lazy circles in the air above the class. “Keep your back straight and your breathing steady.” Lail’s staff came down gently behind one of the students, a human boy, who was slouching slightly. The staff pressed itself against the boy’s back, causing him to instinctively straighten up. “Keep your eyes closed, and open your mind and your spirit to the Force.”

Through the Force, he could feel the Initiates as they distances themselves from the world within their physical reach, and reached out with the Force. Some became more relaxed, leaning into a meditative state, whilst Lail could feel spikes in mild anxiety from some of the students; those with active minds that were hard to quiet. “If you are struggling to quiet the thoughts in your mind, think of the Code; There is no emotion, there is Peace.”

After a quiet minute, all of the students had now entered the meditative state, the mild anxiety replaced with a calm serenity. Once Lail was satisfied their minds were all elsewhere, he reached out with the Force, slowly, gently lifting all 21 students into the air. A few flickers of concern rippled through the air as they slowly rose to a meter off the ground, but the levitation was so smooth it felt like being lifted on a cloud, and the concern vanished quickly; the rest of the students had yet to realise they weren’t on the floor anymore. The students continued to rise off the floor, now nearing the ceiling.

A small smile broke across Lail’s face. He kept the students near the ceiling as the minutes dragged on, the Initiates allowing their minds to expand outwards, pushing themselves to the limits of their fledgling abilities. The Mirialan master spoke again, the first sound to enter the room since he’d last spoken. “However, the life of a Jedi is not always peace, nor serenity.