Just Be Free

Wow, a lot has happened and unfortunately I have not had the convenience of my lap top at my fingers daily so I am going by memory and going to summarize a ton as I would rather read my book than type at this moment…I just know we are headed to campus in a few so I thought I would type something and try to upload a set of pictures to facebook! Anyhow, I have a few notes in my phone I will touch on first before I venture into our Safari ordeal!

*Sometime last week Amanda and I were in downtown Dar with Kilma…they jumped on a daladala and the daladala almost left me! I was terrified for a moment that I wasn’t going to get on it before it continued to drive away. I totally trampled my way to that door. That would have been BAD!

*Amanda makes me feel like a girly girl! She is a dirty kid who rarely showers or washes her hair! I could write an entire blog on how dirty she is, but will refrain because slowly but surely I am catching up with her dirty ways! Oh, and she has had a year of Swahili in the states, but failed to mention this to me until a week or so later! Evilness! Here I thought she was just extremely brilliant with being able to pick up the language so fast!!

*Well, I am still eating lots of food. Hopefully when school starts tomorrow we won’t be pushed to eat as much. It’s funny and a tad awkward. Amanda and I always eat alone. It’s like, feed the American’s and feed them often. Too funny and I have given up on relying on Amanda to tell me whether or not something is good or bad because she eats anything and everything! We work well as a team though because I will eat the meat and she will eat everything else. It seems to be a compromise we’re both happy about.

*Amanda I decided to take a walk around Arusha Friday night and I said jokingly but in all seriousness, this is fun amusement. It’s very entertaining when they shout “wazungu” and I haven’t figured out why I think it’s funny, I just do. Anyhow, when we were in the museum in downtown Dar last week a group of school aged kids came in and wanted to take pictures with us. When they asked Amanda why not, she replied “do I look like I am part of the museum? Save your pictures for the museum.” It was really mean, but very funny because almost all the kids wanted to take a picture with us, but evil Amanda was firm in saying no, I am not a part of the museum!

*David, before I forget, thanks for the new pills and it was nice to hear a familiar American voice! I hope they do the tick and give me back some of my sanity!

Ok, so a brief touch on this past week. Amanda and I packed our bags Wednesday night to head for Arusha for the weekend. We were suppose to come back Sunday so only packed enough clothes for 3 days. It was a good ten hour bus drive north, but we made it and settled into our beautiful hotel accompanied by a few a little roaches and sometimes warm water to shower. Anyhow, we met some of mama Kaaya’s family and her friend Noel. Somewhere along this journey Amanda and I decided to check into hiring a guide to take us on a Safari. Long story short (don’t feel like typing) we found us a guide and a chef and ventured out to camp in Manyara for one night, the Serengeti for two nights, Ngorongoro Crater one night, and the Tarangire National Park our last night. We ended up extending our stay by well over a week which meant we were wearing lots of dirty clothes and showers were far and few as we were camping. Our chef was awesome…great cook and funny man even though I couldn’t understand anything he said and he couldn’t understand anything I said. Amanda and I had lots of candle lit dinners. We looked like a lovely couple! Everyone else either came as a family or a couple and then there was Amanda and I…it was very entertaining to say the least. We managed to get 6 flat tires, which I found to be hysterical. We only had two spares so after we had no spare tires I asked Ali, what happens if we get another flat. He laughed and didn’t answer so I thought ok, it must not be a big deal but to my surprise he was worried because he brought us back to the wrong camp and confessed he had done so because he had been thinking about the tires. That was comforting, not! No worries though, he went and repaired them and we continued on just to continue getting flat after flat after flat. He had to change one flat in front of two cheetahs! They just watched his every move. Oh before I forget…one night Amanda started sleep talking but not like usual. She was actually having a one on one conversation with me so I wasn’t sure if she was awake or sleeping so I continued to question her. Apparently I pissed her off with all my questions and she sat up in our itty bitty tent and said “sweetheart, listen to me…!” She was rambling on about my luggage and worried whether or not it was going to make it though customs because of possible weapons?! At that point she was awake and was trying to defend herself, but I couldn’t stop laughing. I was literally in tears! She confessed the following morning to it starting off as sleep talking, but because of my persistent questions that must have pissed her off, she woke up and tried to play it off. A few nights later Amanda and I decided to shower at our last camp. She had no intentions of washing her hair, but I convinced her to use my shampoo and conditioner. Just moments later after using my shampoo, her shower head loses water pressure and literally just starts dripping. I try turning off my water head to see if that helps her water pressure, but to no avail, it does nothing. Priceless! I thought one night we had lost Amanda. We were eating dinner on top of the crater and Amanda says to me, it’s beautiful out. I thought to myself, it’s flipping cold out so I ask her, what do you mean, it’s beautiful out?! She proceeds to tell me, the sky is beautiful. I think nothing more of this and we finish eating. She helps the chef bring some of the stuff back into the other building and I sit and chat on my phone for a few when Ali comes and asks me where Amanda is. I tell him she is in the tent and don’t hear anything back from him. I finish talking on the phone and go to the tent where I discover Amanda is NOT! I walk over to the open fire and stare relentlessly at a bunch of foreigners looking for her, but don’t see her. Ali walks up behind me and asks, where is Amanda? I reply, I thought she was in the tent, but now I don’t know. He says he had checked in the tent when I sent him there and she wasn’t there then either. I then tell him she had mentioned the sky being beautiful and she might be laying down looking at. His response, “that’s dangerous.” Sigh, needless to say after calling her name and using my phone for a small flashlight, we found her doing just as I thought. I was worried for a moment we had really lost her! Well, I typed more than I had planned on typing so for more details on all the animals we found etc, check Amanda’s blog!

School starts tomorrow, finally! Will try and keep writing as there is much I haven't said, but as you can see, it will be less and less…Hello to all and thanks to all!