Before Zanzibar & After

Ok, so internet is being ridiculous! I was going to try and post separate blogs but I think I should just throw them together and hope it loads up! Sorry for the typo’s! Enjoy…

11/11/08

So I posted my blog this morning but I have so much to say and I figured I should start typing before I get yelled at for NOT typing and before I forget or decide not to type. Oops!!

As you know, I hiked to campus today in hopes of finding my piano professor and sure enough I found him! After class I hiked back over to the Administration office to get some internet. I had over 200 emails and over half was junk mail. Goes to show how much I care about that email account. I was able to email Ally about my classes and I have conveniently still not been able to email KEI. Ugh oh, I wonder what will happen with that whole scenario. Just I was about to tap into my Bank of America Privacy Assist my laptop died. I had about 3 notices in my email about suspicious activity with my credit. Yikes! Nothing I can do so I hike home because I am starving and too cheap to pay for lunch on campus. I guess it’s about 1,000 shillings which is nothing more than 1 American dollar, but food is free at home! Amanda was surprised to see me, but probably a bit relieved because this meant she didn’t have to carry my drum anymore. I noticed Amanda had finally cleaned up her messy side of the room, which is leaving me feeling obligated to also clean up my side. Cool off, chow down on some food, and head off to campus with my drum in hand…

I am at the end of our neighborhood when I notice a large crowd of people walking. I take a closer look at where this crowd is headed and I see them surrounding the Udasa club. It was an endless stampede of locals making their rounds on campus. I pick up my pace, curse myself out for not having my camera, and start following the crowd. I actually need to pass by them to get where I am going so as I am cutting through the crowd start yelling NGOME. They wanted me to play my drum and sure, if I was good at it, I would have been more than happy to play. However, Amanda and I were meeting with the boys because we SUCK! I laugh and shake my head with a NO! I am suddenly being approached by a few locals and my thought process: a) maybe I should have brought the pepper spray Amanda’s father gave her which she happened to leave one on my bed today (THANKS to Amanda’s father!) and b) they want to destroy my drum because it looks like I am going to class! One man did take my drum and I was more than happy to hand it over. I was going to put up a fight and thankfully he didn’t destroy it! I finish walking up the hill with a local following me. Our reaction to this strike seems to have gotten most people off the talk of politics. He was asking me all sorts of questions. They don’t have strikes in America? They have campaigns instead? Why are you all fascinated with this strike? Why are all the foreigners taking pictures? It’s crazy, but I remember unions on strike while growing up in Vegas. It’s not like I haven’t ever witnessed a strike, but to be affected by a strike is completely different. This is the first time it has ever affected ME personally.

Anyways, I find Tony who is flaunting some mighty short shorts that are a bright florescent green. I chuckle slightly because I wouldn’t even show that much legs! Minutes later we spot Amanda and head back up to his dorm roof top. We find us a shady spot and start drumming away. [Side note: The dorms across from Hall IIII are filled with lots of Chinese people. Apparently at night they stand on their balcony’s and shout across the Hall’s to their friends. The boys find it annoying and so their payback—make as much noise as they can with their drums.] We have a fairly good rhythm going when Amanda gets a phone call from either her father or mother. She walks away and the boys and I keep messing around. All of a sudden Tony notices there is a Chinese girl on her balcony with a video camera. He jokes and says, hey we are being filmed. Joe, Max, and I all turn and look. Dead give away that we have been spotted. Joe laughs and says, nah they must be taping somebody across right below us. We all laugh—yeah, right! Amanda finally comes back to joins us and within minutes this Chinese girl is on our roof top with her camera in hand…. “can I tape you guys?” Ugh, sure… She got some good footage of us all making complete asses of ourselves, and then when she left we all joked about it ending up on Youtube. Maybe in a few months we can do a youtube search of American’s playing drums on a Tanzanian roof top. Would be quite the ending to a drum class…and we told her to come back at the end of the semester when we had finished learning—not three weeks into class. I bumped into them as I was leaving and they wanted to know how long we had been playing for and began praising how well we had played. Yeah riiight!

A few things I forgot to mention before posting my previously crappy blog.

Amanda is still sleep talking, but I can’t ever make out what she is saying. I try and try to antagonize it, but unfortunately I don’t think I will be able to write a blog solely on her sleep talking. Great sadness, yes, I know. However, I will write what happened weeks ago.

Amanda is sleeping and I am playing around on my phone. I roll over or move in my squeaky bed which tends to set her off. She stumbles and says something about scissors. I reply, “what about scissors?” In a pissy voice she goes, “I was wondering where they went?!” I hesitate and I am not sure I want to keep pushing this conversation because of her tone. So I pause and decide, eh, why not keep it going? I proceed to ask her, “Why do you need them?” In a semi-bold voice she states. “Because it’s HOT.” I left it at that, but nearly died laughing. What is she dreaming sometimes and of all things to need when it’s hot: scissors?! I suppose she wanted to cut herself out of the mosquito net? Maybe she wanted to cut off her clothes too?? Who knows, and I am not denying it’s not hot, but scissors are not the first thing I think about when it’s hot. Maybe some ice or ice cold water, but SCISSORS!?! Seriously?!

Speaking of dreams, my dreams continue. I was in a forest with a bear trying to find my blackberry. I am sure Amanda loved that dream! I am currently drawing a blank with the other dream.

Yesterday was a productive days since there was no class. We went to the orphanage and finally I got to play with some young kids! Totally made my day and despite the language barrier I had more than half the kids following me. I brought them in the mosque and threw them around on my feet, played a rock game, a little hand game (which helped me with my counting), and then this card game which was basically all different sizes of cardboard with pictures on it. It was similar to Spoons but with 1 bottle cap. There was only about 16 pieces of cardboard though. The kids loved it and I hope to go back a few more times. It’s very difficult though because of the language barrier, but it was amazing how much fun we all still had.

Then last night had a very awkward moment at Mwenge while teaching. They asked me the meaning of ‘gringos.’ Shouted over to Amanda for some help and she proceeded to describe it as when locals here call us an ‘azungu.’ The students laughed and then another student asked if it was a polite word. Amanda was like, ‘nah man, it’s not really polite when you call us azungu.’ They laughed again and then this extremely nice and polite female whom is always there looks up and says to me, ‘oh, like you call us nigger’s?’ ::GASP::GASP::GASP:: Moses (the head man of this volunteer teaching program) gazes at her and says, ‘Nooo, shhh!’ She put her hand on her face and began laughing slightly realizing that was not exactly kosher. I was speechless and wasn’t exactly sure if I should explain it or leave it. I left it. Figured maybe it wasn’t a good idea to continue talking about and Moses changed the topic rapidly. It was awkward for sure.

So, off to Zanzibar tomorrow—take II.


ZANZIBAR DELIGHT

WOW, Zanzibar has so much more to offer than what Amanda and I saw the first time around. Take II was by far one of my African highlights. I haven’t laughed or enjoyed myself and my surroundings as much as I did these past few days. I knew this trip would be better, but I didn’t expect it to be this amazing. It was a total hit with bringing the Swede boys. For the reference of this blog, I will refer to them as Brown Erik (he’s the older of the two—28) and Blonde Erik (he’s the younger—23 I believe). They both have the same name so I distinguish them as Blonde and Brown. I will apologize for the length of this blog ahead of time. It might just turn into pages upon pages, but there really is so much to say. Here it goes…

We started off in hopes of getting on the early ferry around 10:30 am Wednesday morning. Amanda sent a text to the boys telling them we had to ‘leave’ Mwenge at 8 am. Apparently they were more excited then us and arrived at Mwenge at about 7:30. Due to the strike Amanda and I had a tough time getting a dally to Mwenge—at least that’s the best solution we could think of. We arrived there and tried to catch a dally to Posta, but of course there were few to none. We finally found one and mashed ourselves in to claim us a seat. Three out of the four of us managed to grab a seat while blonde Erik was left standing. Somewhere along the push and shove of boarding the dally he managed to get his phone snatched straight from his pocket. So as he said, “The trip started off OK, and then…”

We arrive at Posta and head off to buy our ferry tickets. We managed to purchase them for 25,000 shillings, but it wasn’t first class again. Same price but not same class—argh! Blonde Erik was a tad hung over for the ride over, but he survived. Approximately three hours later we arrived and were once again attacked by locals for taxi’s and hotels. We decided to eat at Mercury’s because the boys were starving and as Amanda said, it wasn’t a far walk. She was teased relentlessly for the trip about her description of the walk because the boys prepared themselves for a 5 min walk when in all reality it was about a 30 second walk. It was great fun and instead of pizza I ordered some sort of red meat with pepper sauce. Wasn’t sure I would like it because of the sauce, but DAMN it was DELICIOUS! I shared a piece with everyone and brown Erik said, “I ordered the wrong thing.” He sure did because I had eaten their pizza the last time and nothing compared to this hunk of meat. MMMM MMMM GOOD!

After we ate we were off to find the hotel we had decided on and drop off our stuff. We were attacked with some offers when we left the port, but we were fairly set on this one location. One fairly persistent man got us to come and look for free at this place called “Zenji Hotel.” It was nice, near the port, and a reasonable price. We said OK. It would only be later that we found out how truly amazing this place was. The best shower any of us had taken in over 2 months (hot water and excellent water pressure) along with some of the best breakfast ever and free internet that worked amazingly fast! It was run by two western girls and it was like Heaven. I certainly didn’t want to come home! The boys stayed in the ‘Treasure Chamber” accompanied by a treasure chest and Amanda and I had the “Room of Wonders.” It gave us something to laugh about, that’s for sure.

After we dropped our stuff we headed off to explore Stone Town with the boys. Amanda and I had strolled through it before, but it was much more fun with them. Brown Erik and I tend to walk much faster and believe me, I have tried to walk African pace but it’s just down right HARD! After the hot and sweaty stroll through Stone Town we head home to shower and get ready for the evening! I took a nap after I showered, while Amanda and blonde Erik went hunting for alcohol. After they found some alcohol and had a few shots, we walked to the meat market where all the fisherman display their fresh raw fish and cook them after you choose what you want. I took some lobster and barracuda (never tried it before) because one of the Erik’s said it was good. I can’t say it was great, but may have been just the plain grilled, fishy taste. Nonetheless, this is where we met Alex. Alex is a local Tanzanian man who does spice tours and that’s exactly what we wanted to try and do on Thursday. He is also the same man who told brown Erik that if he ate lots of Octopus it would help him out in the bedroom. Erik took lots of Octopus that night! Alex was funny and we semi-agreed to him that we would use him for the spice tour. We finished eating and slipped away to Livingstone.

Livingstone is a total mzungu hang out in Zanzibar. It’s a nice little place right on the beach. I was surprised when we arrived to see a fellow man standing there waiting to serve us—that is, a fellow azungu. This was the first time I had seen a mzungu working at a place like this, but didn’t think anything of it. He came over to order drinks and I said ‘maji.’ He asked me again and I said, “maji ::pause:: water.” That’s when I realized he didn’t speak Swahili. After waiting on us and listening to the Swede boys talk with their accents, he came over to ask where they were from. Ends up being he is Danish and only here for a few weeks. This is where we met the 2 Danish boys from Denmark. Adam was a 20 year old with long shaggy hair and Svend was a 19 year old who looked older than Adam. Svend invited us to go out with him and his buddy to a Danish school on the East coast for a beach party on Saturday. We exchanged numbers and headed home.

Took full advantage of our open roof top and went upstairs to play drinking card games. My cup consisted of water, but all was good. Crawled out on the edge and watched the sky for a bit before I went off to bed. Got a few hours of sleep before the sun turned our room into an oven and not to mention I was suppose to wake everyone up for the day. So at 7 am sharp I pound on the boy’s door and Brown Erik answers it—I have a huge grin on my face saying, “time to wake up!” I thought we had to be ready at 8 but apparently we didn’t have to be ready till 9. I never heard the end of that one—waking everyone up at 7 am. That was almost as bad as Amanda saying Mercury’s was in walking distance. The owner approaches us on the roof top asking if we had settled with a tour and we told him yes, but twenty minutes later he came to our room saying he would advise us not take the tour with this man Alex because it’s not safe and he is a drug addict etc. I was a little unsure, but we all decided to go with a tour agency in the book and took our owners advice. Have I mentioned our hotel owners were kick ass! Okay, now I have! So Alex is waiting for us outside and we dodge him saying pole sana pole sana, but he was not a happy man. Oops.

Spice Tour:

Spice tour was fantastic! The tour guide really knew his information and he could tell you the name of most spices in multiple languages. That’s a huge bonus when you have people from all over Europe, America, and other countries. We got to taste all sorts of different spices and I tried them all, despite the fact that I had no water. I really enjoyed the star fruit. It was a bit tangy but it washed down the pepper seed I had just previously chewed. At the end we sat around on some logs and we got to try all sorts of other fresh fruits. Some I like, but I wasn’t too fond of. After we finished trying the fruits, we headed off to a bath house and then to lunch. Lunch was chapati (not my favorite, but I am getting better at eating it) and their spiced rice (pilou?) which I hate. So, I basically ate a chapati and that was lunch. Oh, and lunch is where we met our Irish friends. We had briefly chatted along the tour but we were a group of four and needed two more for lunch so they sat with us. Meet Kate and Killian. They were a cute, young Irish couple who had been traveling around Tanzania for about 8 weeks. They were in their final 2 weeks when we met them. Anyhow, we chatted with them at lunch and then headed off to the slave cave. It was an intense climb in, but nice and cool inside. It was this enormous cave that actually leads into the ocean. After hiking back out of the cave we hiked to the beach where we had an hour to swim. No bathrooms to use for changing or restroom needs. Fantastic, eh?! Yeah, so Amanda and I hiked up about 10 feet and changed and then she left so I could pee. You know, now that I type this, Amanda hadn’t peed all day?! How is that possible?! That’s besides the point—hung out on the beach and then headed back home. Exchanged numbers with the Irish kids so we could meet up for dinner and drinking later.

Showered and napped again while Amanda and Blonde Erik went for another liquor run. I had a decent nap when I was rudely awoken by Brown Erik. Amanda had the key to our cabinet so I couldn’t get my clothes. All I had after my shower was a towel and that’s what I passed out in. So Erik was making fun of me for sleeping and not getting dressed when I answered the door still in my towel and half asleep. These keys were tricky on who had them and where to keep them. Eh, it was all good and fun.

When I went upstairs to the roof top to meet everyone I noticed our group had grown significantly. Brown Erik said he was waiting for 3 Swedish friends to arrive. Then he changed the number to 2 and apparently when they actually arrived it was 4! I didn’t catch their names, but we headed out to dinner where the 8 of us met up with our Irish friends and searched for Monsoon restaurant. That turned into a duck hunt. A group of ten with 2 people insisting we passed it, another 2 people saying its up ahead, and the 4 new Swedish bunch taking the lead and powering ahead. This is a prime example of why Amanda likes small groups, I am sure! Not to mention we were stopped by Alex when passing the meat market because we decided not to go with him. He gave the Brown Swede a bit of a hassle and then attacked Amanda hard core. Some locals jumped in and said back off and Amanda finally walked away. We all finally agreed if it was not at this particular location we will eat anywhere, even if it meant Brown Erik getting stoned to death by Fina (that’s their German roommate who said they must eat at the Monsoon restaurant or she would stone him to death). Thankfully, we found it or thankfully for Erik we found it. I sat at the end with Brown Erik and Killian. The three of us primarily had our own conversation going on. Somehow we got on the topic of natural disasters and they started questioning me about hurricanes and such. It was an interesting conversation and Killian was describing how it had been raining in Ireland a lot. He was complaining that it rained too much and his exact quote was, “It rained for 64 days straight. Now that’s some biblical shit!” Dinner was served and I once again order some sort of peppery meat steak. It wasn’t as delicious as Mercury’s, but it was ok. I let Erik try another piece of my meat and he said again, “shit, I ordered the wrong meal again!” He had order a king fish I believe.

After dinner the 4 new Swedish friends went back to the hotel and the 4 of us and the Irish couple went back to Livingstone for some more drinks. Our buddies were working again and they came to join us when they were done. We had a lovely mix of 2 Danish, 2 Swedish, 2 Irish, and 2 American’s sitting outside on the beach chatting away. After they had a few drinks the eight of us walked back to our hotel and went upstairs for a few more drinks. The Danish boys left and later Amanda, Blonde Erik, and the Irish couple went to some sort of a local club. Not too sure since I stayed home, but it seems that we didn’t miss anything but a bunch of prostitutes. I was too tired and apparently so was the Brown Swede. He managed to lock himself out of his room so I ended up sharing my bed with him. It wasn’t so bad except he was drunk and talking a lot when all I wanted to do was sleep. Then Amanda came home so all three of us were sleeping in the same bed and I was stuck in the middle. Wouldn’t have been so bad except no AC and 3 sweaty people trying to keep that inch of space between each other’s sticky body—Erik finally woke up and went back to his room. As he was leaving he joked, “this will be the longest walk of shame.”

Brown Erik sleeping in our bed turned into a huge joke. He didn’t remember much of what he had said to me the night before so I was constantly teasing him with stories ranging from eating Octopus to what he wanted to do with his biceps. On one particular dally ride he picked something out of my head and goes, “I can do this now that we have shared a night together.”

The Irish couple left as quickly as they came and I think we all fell in love with them. They were simply amazing and we were sad to see them go.

Friday turned into what Lacey wanted to do. Not sure how or why, but I was more than happy to choose. I love monkeys and have been wanting to catch one since I have been here. About 2 weeks ago I was chatting with Mama Dorica’s nephew and he said he would catch a monkey and a mongoose for me. Our neighborhood has had lots of baby mongoose’s around and he assured me he could do it. Anyhow, you’ll understand the moral of this story in a few minutes. I choose to go to Jozani forest and find some red colobus monkeys! There is something about the thought of hiking through a forest I just love too. I left it up to our geography boys to figure out how to get us there and thank GOD for them. We really couldn’t have lucked out better with picking to boys to travel with. I wouldn’t tell them to their face, but they were pretty damn good at getting us around Zanzibar. He he he! We decided on taking a dally since it would be the least expensive.

*** Dally Side Note and FUNNIEST moment***
Here is the deal. The dally system in Zanzibar isn’t quite like Dar. They use numbers instead of names, but fear not—we found the right dally. Zanzibar dallys aren’t quite the same as Dar either. They are basically a flat bed cab truck with bench seats and a roof and 2X4 on the side. They seem to be more efficient for a rural area because you can load tree branches and such on the roof. The four of us duck our heads and crawl into the back of this empty truck. We tell them where we want to get off since we don’t really know our location and they assure us they will drop us when we need to be dropped. We pass a few stops and our dally slowly starts to fill up when we come to this one particular stop. Brown Erik is sitting on the right of me and Amanda and Blonde Erik are to the left. Some local man walks up to Brown Erik and says my name is Sherridan and gives him a punch high five. He does this repetitively and Erik finally says my name is Erik. Than this man moves on to me and wants me to give him a punch high five. I do so and he sort of walks away. He returns for more and changes his name to Paris. He has something in his hand and it looks like he has Ugali smashed all over his face—therefore when he talks, he sprays it all over us. Another local Tanzanian man sitting next to Brown Erik on the dally says something to this strange man in Swahili. Amanda tried to get what he said, but we really don’t know. By the man’s reaction, he probably said something along the lines of ‘back the fuck off.’ This man outside the dally went CRAZY! He tried to start punching him through the dally, ran off to a near by tree and did some karate moves, ran around to the back of the dally and peered in as if he was going to come in and start a fight, ran to the left where Amanda and Blonde Swede were, etc. He just lost it and for a minute I was slightly scared. How can I get out of this dally and when is the driver going to start going. What is happening and what sort of drugs is this man on?! He makes a few rounds and we sit as patiently as possible watching. This Sherridan/Paris man walks away about ten feet and turns back around towards us. He comes back to the dally and takes a bite of this raw potato in his hand and spits it at the other local Tanzanian but it went everywhere. He does a few more kung fu moves, throws his potato on the ground, pounces to the potato, takes his hand and tries to hammer it. After a few missed hits, he slams a good one and the potato flies behind his head. He jumps up, startled like someone stole his potato, finds it and pounces to it again. Hammer’s it again, picks it up, takes a bite, and walks away. PRICELESS and as we drove away not only were we laughing, but all the local’s laughed too.

As promised they dropped us off right where we needed to be. We headed in to find us a tour guide and with Amanda’s Swahili and the Erik’s passport’s to prove our residency, we got the resident price. How exciting is that! Found the red monkeys (!!!!), hiked to the mangrove’s where it felt like we were walking on water through the tree’s, fed some sea turtles, and then hiked through the forest. The forest was a short hike, but it was nice. Amanda and I learned how to weave. You see, despite the lack of education at the university we really are learning! Then, it was another dally off to home. This dally was packed and of course I was last to get on so I had no where to squeeze into. I started of with sitting on Amanda’s lap, but everyone insisted on my sitting. I just kept saying Nzuri Sana and they kept insisting otherwise. Finally I gave up and squeezed onto the floor with everyone’s feet. Nope, that wasn’t good either. Than some elderly lady leaned over and said, you have to sit because of police. SAWA, ASANTE! I get up and Amanda asks what was said and I say, apparently there are police regulations to abide by. Who knew! We smash a local Tanzanian man into the corner—I mean literally, all you could see was his head. He no longer had legs, a chest, or shoulders. Just a head! Ten people must have gotten off, but we were still smashed. It’s unreal.

Made it home, showered and off to find the Lithuanians at some fancy resort right on the beach. For the record, this is the man who said when school was cancelled for another week due to the moon showing up, ‘dats a good one.’ Anyhow, we head off to find dinner after they have a beer. Found some little restaurant and hiked up three flights of stairs to eat there. I order some sort of meat while Amanda and Brown Erik got some crab. Blonde Erik had a seafood platter and the Lithuanian’s had already eaten so they had a drink. I wasn’t happy with my meat, let Brown Erik try it and once again, ‘he ordered the wrong meal!’ He offered me some of his crab, but I declined. I like fish, but not when you can taste the fish hard core! After we ate the Lithuanians went to their hotel and we went to bother our Danish friends working at Livingstone. These Danish boys were pretty kick ass, if I haven’t mentioned that yet. Anyhow, while sitting at this restaurant I notice a local Tanzanian sitting at my table has something in his shirt. First time I hit Amanda and said, “he has a monkey in his shirt!” She laughed it off and basically called me stupid, which is far from the truth but I know what I saw. Then I spotted it again and she got a small glimpse. I asked him if it was a monkey and he told me it was a puppy. PLEASE! I know the difference between a puppy’s head and a monkey’s head. A few minutes later he stood up and grabbed my hand to take me to the beach. I laughed and said, “where is the monkey?!” He said he would show me when we got to the beach, but I couldn’t see the monkey anymore under his shirt. It magically disappeared! In the middle of a really nice mzungu restaurant I give a local Tanzanian man full bodies pat down trying to find this monkey. I couldn’t find it, but I took his word and headed to the beach—Amanda brought her camera and sure enough, I GOT TO HOLD A MONKEY!!!! He likes beer so when they gave him beer and took it away, he bit both Amanda and I. NO WORRIES…he did NOT cut us with his bite. He was just a baby and it caused no harm, but I got TO HOLD A MONKEY!!!!!!!!!!! =) So yeah, we hang out there till the live music is over and then we head home. I am beyond tired and head straight to bed. It’s about 2 am and Brown Erik says the same, but adds in “I promise I won’t pull a stunt like last night” (in reference to him locking himself out of the room). Ah man, you mean we won’t have to try and dodge each other’s sweaty bodies all night again, and then to hear him say the next day, “It didn’t happen. You didn’t do it.” (cuddling!!!) He really thought that night when all three of us were in the same bed that we would cuddle with him? Maybe if it had been 20 degree’s, but when it’s 95 degree’s and you’re dripping sweat—I think I will pass—even if you are the sexiest man to walk the earth!!

Amanda and Blonde Erik head out to meet the Danish boys at some local joint for a few more beers. I wake up at 7 am to Amanda entering our room. Whoa, how does one stay awake so late! I guess they got lost and couldn’t find our hotel and then the sun was coming up so they went to the roof and watched the sunrise. Yeah, I had finally a solid night’s sleep and felt great. Amanda and Blonde Erik, meh, not so much! We all slept till after 10 and missed breakfast and damn did that suck. They had some great food! Oh well, packed our bags and headed off to meet the Danish boys at the dala dala station.

Yes, it’s time for another dally experience. This little adventure is all up to the Danish boys and some Danish girls they happened to meet, so we only know we’re headed east to Paje. They speak to the dally man and he says he will point us in the direction when we get off. It was a long ride and very little leg room. Literally, Svend had to pull his leg up and lay it on my knee. Everyone on the dally got to smell his lovely feet. Truth be told, I just wanted to know how they were so damn clean. I didn’t tell him why but I asked him how often he wears sandals. Seriously there wasn’t a speck of dirt under his nails. Just seems impossible and he has been in the area for a good 2 weeks and aside from Tanzania traveling for a good 6 weeks elsewhere. I can’t imagine how bad my toes would be if I didn’t have nail polish covering them. Anyways, Svend lost his note with details of where to tell the dally to stop and about three times they stopped to try and figure out where we wanted to go. At one point they even turned the whole dala dala around and tried to take us back, but it was a failed attempt. Finally they said they wanted to go to the end and then drop us off on their way back. A lovely 30 minute detour, but no worries we found the Danish school and a beautiful beach. Six bunks in one room—perfect number for us since there were only 6 of us, Amanda and I being the only two girls. All was good though. We changed and headed off to the beach. Went out as far as we could, which was fairly far and then went back to rinse off and get dressed for the night. We walked up to the football field (large patch of beach sand) and walked around to different vender’s selling food. We stopped at Jambo on our way so they could have a few drinks. While here I vanished for a bit to go check out the sky. The moon hadn’t risen yet so the sky was spectacular. After a while I decided to join them and once again our group had expanded. Two other men were sitting and chatting. One man started telling stories of incidents that had happened in Paje. I will leave details out, but it was more than enough to make me sketchy walking 800 meters back to our hostel with my bag. I told the boys they had to be my body guard and I latched onto the pepper spray Amanda’s father sent (thanks!!!!). We made it back with no problems and headed upstairs to play a card game. I had one drink for the first time the entire trip and then 2 shots. It didn’t have any effect on me, which given the fact I don’t drink and the lack of food I had eaten that day, it didn’t make sense. We head back to the field for the live music and I stuff a few shillings in the top of my dress and take the phone and my pepper spray. Brown Erik and I don’t dance so we sad along the side for a bit before everyone headed back to Jambo. I went back to the beach because it was too gorgeous not too. Everyone followed me, but they stayed on the shore. It was low tide so I walked as far as I could. I followed the moonlight and all of a sudden I see a large lump. I walk over to it and stare for a minute. Is this really what I am seeing? I take my phone and use it for a light. Sure enough, it is, it is a huge starfish with a diameter about the size of a five gallon bucket. I have nothing for a picture so I haul ass to shore and snatch Adam’s camera. I run back out to the ocean trying to follow the same path to find the star fish again when I let out a fairly decent yelp. My excitement got the best of me because had I been walking and taking my time I wouldn’t have stepped on whatever I had. Not sure what it was, but maybe a sea urchin? Something definitely spiky and truth be told, I only felt the one spike. It wasn’t until I got back to shore with a light that I noticed my entire heel was covered in spikes. Amanda and Brown Erik picked what they could, but the deep one that hurt the most wasn’t budging. I was pissed I didn’t find the starfish again and mad I had wounded myself. I took the key and pepper spray and went to fight the beasts alone. Something about that pepper spray makes gives me a bit more confidence. I am almost to the exit gate when I notice Brown Erik following me. I assure him I am fine and that he can go back to everyone else. He says no way, you were worried about walking home with ALL of us earlier and now you are okay to do it alone. Earlier I had a bag and now I have pepper spray in hand! Duh! Anyways, the two of us make it back to the hostel. I take Blonde Erik’s pocket knife and start butchering my foot. I got the deepest one out and it was about ¾ of an inch deep. That’s the bitch that made me scream. Somehow I let Erik try to remove a few and that didn’t turn out so well—maybe he was a little too intoxicated?! The two of us decided to stay in for the night; I mean it was already near 2 am. He tried to sleep, but our room was soooo HOT. We had no fans and ONE window. I was up by 7 am because I just couldn’t sleep, not to mention I had a ton of mosquitos in my net. I spent the night covering myself with my sheet and only exposing my two hands to hold the sheet over my head. I woke up with 3 bites on my two hands. Go figure. I just need to get out of our suffocated room because outside was a good ten degree’s cooler. I snatched Amanda’s camera and walked to the beach. I was hoping the tide would be out and maybe, just maybe I would find another star fish. Argh, still pissed about that. We hung outside for a bit while everyone gradually woke up and then packed our stuff and headed off to find us a dally ride home. Amanda noticed at dally station that she had forgotten her camera that I had left on the table. Oops. So, the two of us headed back to the hostel which originally didn’t seem so far, but limping a tad bit from my heel made it about ten miles longer. We knew a dally was coming shortly so we decided to run. We got the camera and met the boys just in time. As we were boarding the dala dala Brown Erik make a lovely comment along the lines of “I like the two shades of your shirt.” I actually think he was being nice because I think my light gray shirt was literally so drenched it was a solid dark gray, but I knew what he was saying. The Swedes were too funny!

We made it back to Stonetown and searched for a ferry ticket. I was most unhappy about this decision and I think we were totally lied to and if we weren’t lied to, I think we could have gone elsewhere and gotten a better priceless. Nonetheless, it’s done and over with. It was the only time during this whole trip that we sort of had a split decision and a bit of hesitation, but I honestly think Brown Erik was ready for home and just wanted what he wanted. Oh well, so it goes. Ferry ride home was MUCH better than the last time. I didn’t actually fall asleep ever, but I stayed in a decent state of mind with my head down. The sea wasn’t as choppy and it felt great to be home. Showered, cleaned my foot, and ate some good ole African food before I passed out for the night.

Side notes:

When we were in Dar getting ready to board the ferry we were standing by a large group of men. Two of them approached us and asked if were Canadian. We laughed and said no, but they turned out to be a really awesome group of guys. Amongst them they could speak over ten languages. When we said we were from America they were shocked and said, “Americans aren’t well traveled.” When I mentioned I was born and raised in Vegas they called over a fellow man who apparently was also from Vegas. He asked my name and after I told him, he joked, now what’s your real name? If I was quick enough I would have given him a stage name, but I laughed it off and thought nothing more off it. Well, it must have killed Brown Erik because he waited till AFTER the ferry ride and till AFTER we ate before he had me alone enough to ask me. We were walking to find this Zenji hotel and Amanda and Blonde Erik were in the back. Brown Erik says to me, “Hey, I have a question.” He said it in such a serious voice I was scared! He wanted to know if that man had offended me when he asked what my real name was or am I used to it because I might get it often when I say I am from Vegas. ::sigh:: I actually get that response more when I am IN Vegas than when I am outside of Vegas, but definitely wouldn’t have ever thought I would get it in Africa. Most people in Africa have no idea about Vegas. And to answer the question, no, it doesn’t offend me. Should it, probably.

Obama is amazing, but the Swede’s definitely got a taste of how many Obama comments we get. First thing anyone says to us when they find out we are from America—OBAMA! The joke throughout the trip became, “how about the world cup that Sweden came last in. Why is that the only news, Obama?!” They were a riot, that’s for sure. They definitely made this trip a highlight.

Latest news....

I spent a large portion of last night typing. Unfortunately can't post that blog till we return. I am currently using my phone to type this little update.

School has officially been shut down. Students have 3 hours to leave before police are brought into the picture. Foreigners staying in dorms are allowed to stay from my understanding. Local students are apparently going to continue protesting and not leave. Should be interesting.

What happens from here? What happens with classes? When will school open back up? What happens with the foreigners? So many questions and no realt definite answer. Crazy...

The swede's, Amanda, and myself are currently on the ferry to Zanzibar. Will try to keep ya'll updated with the news....

Warning: Inappropriate language

11/3/08

Well, it’s been a while and unfortunately I have NOT been writing. Why you might ask? Well, I have been too busy sleeping. It’s quite sad and lame, I know. Does it surprise you? Probably not! I have the sleeping reputation while Amanda has the drinking reputation. All is good!

So what has happened? In short, went to Zanzibar and it was a total disaster. We plan on going back for my birthday with the Swede boys and maybe a few others. Should be interesting since they all want me to drink…

Took out my hair and it wasn’t easy. I think it took longer to take out than to put in. I started the Friday in Zanzibar and finished on the following Wednesday night I believe. My head was tender and sore, not to mention the amount of hair I lost! Kathy and Dana would be livid, I already know!

The two best things we saw in Zanzibar—a shark getting butchered (All I could think about was Maddy and how he would be in HEAVEN and then I could hear his little voice telling the men 101 things about ALL the sharks in the Ocean and in particular that shark, what it eats, where it lives, how much it’s maximum weight is, etc. It made me far too sad to say the least. I miss the little man! I mean, I was still finding his toys, shoes, and clothes in my apartment before I left. Sigh.) and our tour guide eating pizza. Most Tanzanians have never had pizza and the sight of seeing them try to eat it, it’s pretty flippin priceless!

Halloween in Africa was interesting. Amanda and I spent the afternoon trying to get my package from Crystal, which turned into a rather larger adventure. We took a dala dala to posta, but when we got there everyone was on lunch break. That was fine until Amanda asked how long till they return and the man said at 3. Wow, that’s a serious lunch break so we decided to scope out the Subway and a local hotel for Amanda’s parents. As we were leaving Posta I got brave and put my bag on my back. Within minutes I felt something like a slash and then swung my hands around my back. Everything felt fine so I continued to walk. Slowly I pulled my bag to the side and then when we were in the clear I examined the bag and sure enough, someone had slashed it. S.O.B.! Can’t complain though because not only did I manage to not loose anything, but I also put the bag on my back. Stupid move and I learned a valuable lesson. I am so cautious when I go to Mwenge at night to teach making sure to only bring 600 shillings and the local phone, but what the hell was I thinking I could walk around Posta with a bag on my back! Anyhow, made it to subway—it smelled delicious, looked like a subway, and was freezing inside. Perhaps that was because we were drenched in sweat or maybe we are just getting used to no AC! Our next stop was the hotel and we looked like we belonged there. After we stalled enough we found our way back to the post office where we could NOT get the package because my name was NOT on the box. I tried but to no avail left empty handed. The box was right in front of my eyes and yet so far and it was Halloween for cripes sakes! Oh well. Stopped at Millimani to get candy and snacks where all the employee’s were probably wondering why all the mzungus were loading up on chocolate! Went home and showered before heading off to find this house where the pastor’s family lives. I was trying to beat the dark, but failed miserably almost giving myself a minor panic attack. I had never been there before, didn’t really know where I was walking too or if I was in the right place, locals walking in the opposite directions were stopping and turning around to talk and follow me, and not to mention I had a large bag stuffed with goodies for the party. My hands were dripping in sweat and I wanted to curl up in a ball and hide, but finally I found the chair and balloons. Big sigh of relief. The house was just as imagined, awesome. It was on a large piece of land with guards, air conditioning, two floors, modern furniture, and much more. I must say though, I prefer our bathroom at home. I seen both of their bathrooms and I am still fonder of ours! Snacks, pedicures, massages (I had my first massage by a Tanzanian in Africa!), games (catch phrase!!), and movies. It was a lot of fun and I was late to the roof party. Everyone there had cars and all night I could only think of how I was going to get back to the university. Someone offered to drop me off with a bahjahjee. The bahjahjee driver wanted me to share it with another local Tanzanian at 11:30 at night. HELL NO. I turned back around and got back in the car. They brought me to the dorms and I found my way to the top of hall 4 with the help of Joe. I had no intentions of drinking, but somehow ended up having a bit to drink. It wasn’t a good thing either. Amanda and I got home, despite the pack of fierce dogs roaming the neighborhood, took a quick pee in the front yard before attempting to wake up someone. That took forever and not to mention mosquitoes were swarming me. Amanda was laughing and I was getting pissed. Why do they love me so much! I seriously feel like a mosquito magnet. I had multiple bites by the time we got inside and a large welt on my back. Argh!

Speaking of mosquito’s, I have been using my net because I have been getting bit relentlessly. My anti-itch tube is near empty. I have two mosquito bites on my forehead because I tried to sleep with my head outside the net. Seriously, my forehead!?! WTF! Two nights ago I was completely under my net and managed to get two bites before I had fallen asleep. I snatched Amanda’s flashlight and about 30 minutes later killed the little shit that was in my net. It just seems inevitable and pretty damn near impossible to avoid the little bastards. Sorry for the language, but I am not happy with the mosquito’s!

11/6/08

I am allergic to Africa or Amanda, can’t figure it out yet. I sneeze often (I literally just sneezed and got the dirty stare from Amanda) and have thought about taking some Sudafed, but I would be taking it daily and something about that doesn’t seem right. Amanda hates my sneezes because they scare her—she jumped a good two feet off her bed tonight when I sneezed. I started laughing and then I got the second degree from her about my sneezing. Apparently if I don’t sneeze twice it throws her off. After first sneeze she is waiting anxiously for next or if I have two sneezes and a third one slips in, she hasn’t prepared herself for that third one. Some of my sneezes are so intense I feel like I could blow down the house with them. I think Amanda should shower more often and that would solve the problem.

I was typing an email last night to KEI when I noticed some mosquito’s flying around trying to be oh so friendly too me. I feel like a walking mosquito magnet and as more rain comes, it will only get worse. I decide I will sit and type under my net instead of using my spray. I only have one bottle left and the worst of the little pests have yet to come, not to mention I switched to taking my malaria pills in the AM which I conveniently forget to take all the time. Go figure. Amanda is peer pressuring me into overdosing, but I think I will pass. Anyways, I got up to use the restroom and came back. I was getting comfy under my net when all of a sudden I was encompassed by a ring, laughing, and asking Amanda for help. Somehow I had managed to pop out the metal wire at the top of my net. How does that happen?! Amanda busted out her sewing kit with a few safety pins and I had some clothespins. We managed to ghetto rig the net for the night and then I had to confront Haika today that I had broken my net. No worries, Haika is magical and she fixed it in minutes! It’s as good as new!

This week has been one of the best weeks in Africa! It started off with OBAMA winning! How awesome is that?!! A bunch of mzungus huddled around a projector in the American Embassy listening to his speech and watching all the live coverage. Found my history professor and I have class Friday. Also managed to hunt down the Piano Man which means I have landed myself in a 1 to 1 piano class. How awesome is that!

11/9/08

Happy Birthday to my one and only FLEA!

To Amanda’s father… Back off!!!! I will post a blog when my lazy ass feels like A) typing and B) bringing my laptop to campus! Joking! I hear lots of great stories about you and thanks for the card in the package. Also, a few weeks ago noticed you had left a message on one of my blogs—thanks! I realized it a bit late! I am typing tonight because you are hassling me, but I haven’t a clue when I will carry my laptop to post this!

So, what does one say when it’s been ages?! Started using my new toothbrush today and my toothpaste is almost gone. My shampoo and conditioner are over halfway empty (Amanda’s on the other hand are basically full to the brim) and my mosquito repellent is gone. All good signs that time is definitely passing. It’s going to be on hell of a last month. So much to do, so little time and I can’t believe I will be home so soon. Speaking of home, Amanda and I cooked a kick ass meal tonight. It was a tad too spicy for the family, but we devoured it! Stir fry, chicken strips, garlic potatoes, and rice. It was the best damn meal I have had since my arrival. Hell yeah!

I am currently in a battle of whether or not I want to take my malaria medicine. First medicine made me crazy and I think the second one creates pain in my chest. One day I am protesting it and refusing to take it and then the next night I am taking the pill. It’s just seems much to risky for me since mosquito’s are so highly attracted to me. Amanda laughs, but if she had the welts on her body like I do mine, it wouldn’t be so funny! She doesn’t even need to put bug spray on, but I on the other hand must remember to bring it with me always! So I can’t decide if I want to fully risk the malaria or keep taking the pills. Decisions…speaking of decisions my indecisiveness drives Amanda wild. Oops!

School has finally started moving along. I have a test in 2 weeks, my history professor is back from Denmark and I have a presentation in that class, drumming is wild, and Amanda and I ruin the entire beat in the class?! Piano has me worried. Yeah, still not sure how I managed to pull that one off, but I thought it was a great idea…until I went to practice yesterday. Holy shit, what was I thinking! I have never played the piano for a grade. It has only been for fun and I am a tad worried what will be expected. I am supposed to meet with him on Tuesday, but it looks like there won’t be class because of the strike. Go figure. My classes start happening a month before I am suppose to leave, only to be postponed until further notice due to a student strike.

11/11/08

Student strike is official. Had no classes yesterday, but I did manage to have a session with the piano professor. He wanted to down grade me a level, but then it’s too easy and I don’t want that. I told him I would practice more. He was impressed with my scales. I got bonus points there and we started chatting about where I was from etc. and found out he had studied a semester in Massachusetts. I guess the Swedes want to leave earlier for Zanzibar and it looks like we will leave tomorrow. Amanda messaged me something along the lines of should we skip class tomorrow if the strike is over. Um, has she forgotten who she was asking that question too!?! I really do have a lot to do for school, but I will worry about that later. Other than that, sorry for such a short, shitty blog! I am getting hell from everyone for not typing…

HAKUNA MATA!