Fat German Lady Steals Coral Reef and Wreaks Havoc

The six of us left Arusha for Zanzibar via Dar es Salaam on July 16. After staying out all night at Maasai Camp just having fun (on a Tuesday?!), we were up at 4:30 so we could grab a cab to the Dar Express office. We had to report by 5:30 for our 6 AM bus. We're sitting forever on the bus, so Meg and Peery decided to run into a duka (shop) and get some snacks. Without warning, the bus starts driving away! Sana, Mara, Adam, and I all start yelling at the bus driver to stop. He does, but Meg and Peery have to sprint to catch us before he starts driving again.

After 10 hours on the bus (some sleeping, eating, bottles of soda (on the bus?!), and watching weird Nigerian love films before switching to one of our bootlegged DVDs), we arrive at the Dar port to Zanzibar. We are literally the last people to get on the 4 PM ferry (last one out for the day) and there are no seats. But we find a way upstairs and outside and lean on the deck, watching the land go by. We watch the sunset on the boat. The 1.5 hour ride is actually 3 hours, don't let them fool you. Then we have to go through a little immigration stand, but since we all have residence permits and are considered residents we didn't have to bother. Then we take a van to Bandari Lodge, where the rooms are huge but boiling out. The lodge is also in the slums of Stone Town, Zanzibar and it smells like fish and shit. Mara termed it Shitmaki (simaki means fish in Swahili).

For dinner we head to Mercury's. Supposed to be a great restaurant. It's not. We paid too much for too little food. And it wasn't even that good. The others smoked some hooka, I passed out on the table (a recurring theme for the rest of the week). Then we headed back to the lodge.

The next day, Thursday, we walked around Stone Town, saw some sights, did some shopping, followed some random rasta guy through the alley-like streets of Stone Town (it looks a lot like an old European city...). Then we get a van to take us up to the north end of the island. We had booked a room at Kendwa Rocks, on the Kendwa beach. We told them we would be coming late at night. Little did we know what kind of trip ours would turn into once we arrived at Kendwa...

We spent two hours arguing with reception. They tried to charge us more than they had originally said, tried to tell us they were out of rooms. Bullshit. They wouldn't let us all stay in one quad, so he gave us a "deal" and gave us two quads, one for the price of a double--we were supposed to only let two people in this room. That one of course turns out to be the ballin' room on the second floor of a bungalow: the one we had originally booked. Of course. We all snuck in that one and slept because the other quad was terrible.

The stress of the long day, the ride to the north, and the fight at reception meant, of course, that we must have then headed for the bar and proceeded to drink until I passed out on the table (see, recurring), Mara fell out of a hammock, and Peery was asleep who-knows-where on the beach. We may have spent a few hours chasing crabs and sitting in an old boat/restaurant that is now shipwrecked on the beach.

The next day, the breakfast took forever, but was surprising delicious. We got kicked out of our room at 10:30 (check-out was 10) because someone needed it. The guy said we were just sleeping in because we were tired (very patronizing) and I said, no, it took you an hour and a half to get us our breakfast. It's your fault. It's okay, we paid them back. We couldn't find the lock for one of the rooms. Turns up two days later in Peery's bag... Who knew?

We stayed the next night at Sunset Bungalows. Slightly more expensive but we got a fantastic bungalow on the beach (what we wanted in the first place) and we had our own bathroom and shower and the beds were actually big enough for two of us to sleep in (because of course we put 6 people in a room for 3).

We spent the day laying out on the beach, swimming in the Indian Ocean, and going on a rough snorkel trip. We got smoothies, food, cocktails, beers. Lovely day. At night we grabbed dinner, showered, and then met a huge group of mostly Europeans who are teaching English on Zanzibar. Awkward. When everyone had a party but us knows each other, it gets less fun. So instead we went skinny dipping in the ocean. Best idea ever.

Meg, Sana, Mara, Peery, Adam, and I left the next day. We had run into another part of our group, but they were staying longer. We had to get back to get Sana on her plane home. It was sad to start seeing everyone leave. We spent some time at Zanzibar Serena Inn (high class). The coffee there was fantastic and we got kicked out for laying by the pool. Peery, Mara, and Adam went to a Reggae party that night, but Meg and I were grandmas and went back to our hostel (Flamingo). We all had to come back separately anyway because the staff were sticklers for having too many people in the room and we were again doing 5 people in a triple.

The next day we sent Mara off with Carolyn. Also sad. Then Adam, Meg, Peery, and I spent the day walking around and watching the sunset at Tembo Hotel. We laid out on the beach then got some gelati. After we went to dinner outside of Africa House. There is a food market there and they have the best fresh seafood and Zanzibar pizzas. We went there every night we were in Stone Town and made friends with the locals.

Meg, Peery, and Adam left on Monday for Dar so they could catch their flights home. I spend the day with Sara and we walked around and did some shopping. We found the amazing coffee they have at Serena, so I bought tons. Duh. Mainly because I don't have room to carry it.

Hannah, Kara, and I hung out with some of the Maasai men that sell jewelry at the food market. They were hilarious. Melubo would randomly break out into Maasai singing and dancing while sitting next to me. Insane. We kept the night short, because Isaac started trying to get Hannah to come with him to the beach. Not down for that. It was a fun night, though.

Sara and I left for the Zanzibar airport on the 21st. Hannah and Kara headed for Dar the same day. We were the last people to leave, me the very last. The Zanzibar airport is also bootlegged. Precision Air gave us the sketchiest tickets ever. Don't worry, I kept it for memories. The flight to Dar was about 10 minutes long--biggest waste of fuel ever. I also thought I was going to die the whole time. Most people in TZ don't have driver's licenses but still are allowed to drive, so I was wondering about the pilots...

We made a transfer in the Dar airport for our flight to Kili. I had to put my bags about 10 rows away from my seat so had to wait for everyone to get off the plane before I could get them. Then my bag arrived and a strap was broken and I was missing the bungee that connected my two bags. Fantastic. All the experiences of the day made me really dislike Tanzania and I can't wait to get home. Because then Sara and I had to rush to say goodbye so I could catch the Precision Air shuttle to Arusha. It turned out to be full. WTF. Fortunately, I was able to get a taxi for 20,000 Tsh (about $15) instead of 50,000 Tsh.

I paid extra money to stay at a nice hotel last night--Impala Hotel. I needed a place to relax by myself and not stress about finding food. It was dark by the time I got to Arusha, so I couldn't really walk around with all my stuff and find the hostel I was originally planning to get. But I got a nice hot shower at Impala and some good buttered dal for dinner. Delicious. Then I turned on some BBC in my room so I could feel at home and not alone listening to Western folk talk again. Can't wait to get back home. Even Amsterdam will be nice, because they have things like customer service in Europe that they just don't have in Africa.

Today I head for Nairobi (because of course my 6AM flight on July 23 was cancelled so I couldn't make my 8:40 Nairobi-Amsterdam flight). I get in in the evening and have a shuttle going to a hostel that comes highly recommended by my organization. I'll be paying everything in dollars (including the $50 I now have to spend on a visa) because it's a waste to exchange to Kenyan shillings. Then I'll head to the airport on the morning of the 23rd and leave for Amsterdam. Everything will be wonderful once I am on that flight. I don't think I've ever looked forward to anything more.

Well, I'll do a final sign off for the summer once I arrive back in the good ol' United States. There've been good and bad things about this trip, but overall it's been fantastic. I'm lucky to have come here. Stay tuned for a few final entries!!

Today We Leave Our Homestays

Our last week in Babati went by so quickly. I can't even remember most of what we did. We had four days of teaching and Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were our community days. Our teaching was pretty normal. We went to our school on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. We tried to do our community teachings, but no one showed up to any of them. We actually had a lot more down time than expected.

The Ward Executive Officer for Maisaka B is named Ernest. He helped set up our community teachings. He's also very creepy. He's short and stout. He has really soft hands, which always creeps me out, especially when we're in Africa. Aren't you supposed to be doing some sort of physical work? Plus, he likes to hold my hand much longer than necessary. He doesn't do this with anyone else. He stares. All-around creep. I voiced my thoughts to Frank one day, who then decided to offer me to Ernest as his second wife. Last time I ever do that.

We also did some shopping this week. Got plenty of fabric to give away as gifts. Or keep for myself. Haven't quite decided yet. ;) I tried to get a dress fixed that I had made the first week. It was too big around the very top and around my stomach, but fit everywhere else. I told the tailor what I wanted and got the dress back a few days later. Still loose around the stomach, now too tight on my boobs. I can't even zip it up. Wonderful. So I didn't get anything else made. But we had a good time meeting up with other groups in town and buying fabrics and deciding what we were going to do with them.

Community days were long. We set up on a big field and had testing and volleyball and soccer tournaments. Each group taught for one hour if anyone had questions. We just hung out all day and answered questions and brought people to testing. Mara, Meg, Sana, Peery, and I were regulars at New First & Last Bar, where we ordered our favorite dish: chips mayai (a fry omelette). Don't you worry, I will be making those for everyone at home to try. We smother them in salt and ketchup and chili sauce. Delicious. On Sunday, Mara and I had to eat at home because our mama got offended that we weren't eating lunch. Boo. I got chips mayai anyway. Meg came for lunch that day and we had TONS of potatoes. She got to experience what Mara and I experience everyday. Then I went back to First & Last and got chips mayai.

We got about 300 people tested every day over the weekend. We almost beat the SIC record of 2400. We only needed about 100 more people and we were going to get that on Monday because we were going to test the prison. But then our counselors decided they didn't want to work, so we couldn't test the prison. This happens all the time. When my group did testing, our counselor just decided to stop working an hour before our testing day was over. Frustrating! Oh well. We still got tons of people tested and we are very satisfied with the work we did.

Monday we just did some packing. We cleaned up our room and gave our mama our empty water bottles and passed along some gifts. We had our last cassava night with everyone. Loads of fun. We had rice and beans--our favorite meal! We took pictures with our family and took pictures of the house. We tried to get our last chips mayai in the morning (mid-morning snack, see). Two hours later and still no chips mayai. So we left and went to lunch at our house. Then I went back later with Meg to eat some chips mayai. Best decision ever.

This morning we said goodbye to our family, to Frank and Jarrod's family. Then we have to run some errands and head to a meeting. Mara and I both got the Campus Development Coordinator positions at our respective schools for next year. This means we're in charge of getting SIC known on our campuses and recruiting people for next summer. Hopefully I am successful at this. I thought it would be a good thing to try. But we have a meeting before we leave on when to start recruiting people and such.

Then we head out for Arusha and closing dinner. A bunch of us are planning to get our legs waxed for Zanzibar. We're going to the Burger Stand for a last bite and then out to a Chinese restaurant for our closing dinner. It's sad that we're all going separate ways now. Some of us are leaving tomorrow morning for Zanzibar, so it's a quick goodbye. But it's been fun!

I'll update on the goings-on in Zanzibar when we get there. We're planning to get a bungalow on the beach for the first couple of nights while there are tons of people to split the cost. We are planning on snorkeling, visiting Stone Town, shopping for gifts, and more.

Just take the chapati and run!

It's been a difficult first week back from break. We've had some group issues and everyone is tense and stressed out.

On top of that, our mama has decided to cook us even worse food. We now eat oil and potatoes for lunch and dinner every other day. Not fun. Or even remotely delicious. I don't think she likes us anymore...

As I've said, our homestay has two cats. One pretty little orange thing. One disgusting inbred thing, which currently either has a tumor on its balls or is losing one of them. Not sure which. It's pretty gross. This second cat is the subject of my story. Our family is trying to kill him. Probably because of the growth or whatever it is. But I came out of the choo one day to find our baba holding a bag and this other random man in our house holding the cat (Inbreed, we call him) by the scruff of the neck and trying to put him in the back. They got him half-way in the bag, but Inbreed took off. Baba kicked him, trying to step on him to stop him. This is probably one of the most disturbing things I've seen. Then Mara said, "They're going to put a rock in that bag and drown him." This is probably 100% true. But it's very upsetting. Kind of makes me now want to live with my family. I mean, in the States, Inbreed probably wouldn't have that growth. It doesn't appear to hurt him or anything. But our family is going to kill him.

Now for some bright moments in the week! Since our mama makes us such bad food, we steal all the good food we can get. One day she made us chapati, avocado, beans, and greens for lunch. What a feast! I felt like we'd never seen such luxuries before! Mara and I stuffed our faces. Then we had some leftover chapati that we were going to take to our room and store in sandwich bags. Just as we're about to take them, our entire family comes into the living room. Damn. We're stuck. Can't run just yet. So we sit back down at the table to wait. Our mama starts coming over to clear the table. No!! So I grab for the chapati like I'm going to get more. She leaves. Phew! (Wipe sweat from brow.) I keep my hand on the chapati and watch out of the corner of my eye, over my shoulder, until she leaves the room. Then I take the chapati, grab Mara's water bottle, and run for it! I hide the chapati from our baba, who's sitting the room. I have to spin away from Leila, who currently has ring worm (we do our best to treat her like she has the plague; we're nice that way), jump over the half-wall in our courtyard and sprint to the room. Mara has decided I have no heat tolerance (since I can't drink or eat anything hot--temperature or otherwise), and I am currently burning my fingers on the chapati. We get in the room and finally toss the chapati in a ziploc. Then we proceed to eat nutella on the warm chapati so the nutella melts. We're stuffed already, but it's probably the best decision we've ever made. Then we lay back and pat our stomachs, satisfied with the day's work.

We also had our testing day on July 4. We set up in the market in the middle of one of our districts: Babati Mjini. Some problems with the group. Usual, not at all surprising. Throughout the day, we walked around and got people to come. In the end, we got 148 people! I hear that's a good number for in town, because there are always tests in town. In fact, the goverment had a test just a few days before. So we did awesome. We hit a rough patch when one of our counselors/doctors decided she wasn't going to work anymore (she was tired, see) and turned away about 10 people. Not okay. We had to get the higher-ups involved. In the end, it worked out well.

We also set up a party at Royal Beach (a restaurant on the lake). There was dancing, 4th of July cake, and fun! The Tanzanians and non-Americans actually spent more time at the party than we did! Crazy. We left about midnight, but I hear afterward, people started dancing and waving fish. I'm not entirely sure what happened; I've only heard bits and pieces of the story. But it sounds like it was a good time. Daniel, our VP coordinator, is from New Zealand or Australia (can't remember where he said), but he said he's going to celebrate America's independence day every year!

Like I said, it was a tense week for our group, but we managed to have a good time in the end. Today was our day off. Mara and I did laundry until one of our mamas took our clothes from us and did them herself. I'd like to say I felt bad about it but... I had a lot of clothes to wash. ;)

Okay, off to another cassava night and hopefully some delicious dinner. We had rice, beans, greens, and bananas for lunch (one of our favorite meals). Usually what we have for lunch is what we have for dinner, so cross your fingers!!