Arusha

Well, we finally made it to Arusha.  Everyone is here safe and sound.  It’s weird to be back in a large group.  Colleen and I have been so independent this last week.  It’s also strange to have hot water, a real toilet, and to see so many tourists in one city.  While Lushoto had some tourists, Arusha definitely has more!  You can’t walk down the street without someone stopping to show you their business card and trying to get you to arrange a safari.  It’s actually quite obnoxious.  I thought I was pretty good at getting people to leave us alone but the guides here are relentless. 

Colleen and I arrived in Arusha yesterday after our 7 hour bus ride from Lushoto.  Ironically, it was raining when we left Lushoto.  Perhaps the mountains were sad to see us go.  I was glad to have my 2 dollar umbrella that I had bought when we first got to Lushoto.  And although the umbrella is awkward and huge, it worked wonderfully and kept me dry.  The bus ride was uneventful, except for the fact that it was raining most of the way.  The rain makes riding on a bus extremely gross; the floor is covered with mud and water constantly drips from the ceiling and windows.  My backpack is so gross from being on that floor.  If I only I had a washing machine to wash it!  We walked to our hotel, Monje’s Guesthouse and checked into our room.  It was fabulous.  We had a toilet, a shower with hot water, and TV.  Colleen and I took our first showers in 8 days and were instantly happier.  Then, we walked around the town and explored a little before eating dinner at Pizza Arusha where we had, yes, you guessed it, PIZZA!  It’s funny the things I crave here in Tanzania.  Although I not a huge fan of pizza, I get really excited when we have it here just because I can’t have it whenever I want.  Then, we went back to the room to watch Criss Angel on TV.  Hah, what an evening. 

This morning we woke up and had a complimentary breakfast at the hotel of eggs and toast (well, it was actually just bread).  Then, we loaded up all of our gear and headed for our two mile walk to the Outpost Lodge, where we were meeting the group and where we are staying tonight.  Colleen and I were cheap and didn’t want to pay for a taxi so we navigated the streets of Arusha with our giant backpacks and duffle bags.  It was an adventure and I was really proud of Colleen!  She didn’t really want to walk that far, especially after our hike from the bus station yesterday, but she made it, and later told me that she was glad she had done it.  Someday, I will take that girl hiking (she’s never gone before!).  We dropped our stuff at the hotel and then went into town to the Maasai Art shops where they sell a variety of souvenirs including carved wooden statues, scarves, beaded jewelry, and paintings.  We spent all of our money, literally every coin we had, and then went to lunch (don’t worry, we didn’t have all that much in our wallets to begin with, and we got some awesome stuff!).  I bought a purse with elephants on it, among other things that cannot be named because they are going to be Christmas presents.  We had no idea where to go for lunch (we were in a part of town with few restaurants) and ended up at a small diner that served rice and beans.  What a surprise.  But, we were able to handle wali na since we had had pizza the night before.  Truth be told, we are both getting a little sick of rice and beans after eating it for two meals a day, for 8 days straight.  On our last day in Arusha, I went to the market and bought some veggies, cut them up, and then asked a guy on the street to make me an omelet with them since I couldn’t handle anymore rice.  By the afternoon, Colleen and I were pretty tired and we just went back to the hotel.  We reunited with some of our fellow ACM students and we all exchanged stories about our breaks.  It was good to see everyone again!  We all hung out by the pool, and relaxed.  Colleen and I watched the discovery channel for a while and I took a nice hot shower again.  You’ll be happy to know that I finished my third book this week today.  Guess I’ll have to find another to read soon.  We have a sort of book club in operation here.  We each read a book and then give it to someone else when we are done.  I think by the end of it, we very well may have read all of each other’s books!  Anyway, these past two days were extremely successful and it’s amazing what a hot shower and good food can do to one’s spirit.  Colleen and I have been wearing smiles ever since we have gotten here. And surprisingly, it’s nice to be in a city again.  Well, it’s off to dinner right now.  Hopefully I can post this when I return!

Erin

Well, we finally made it to Arusha.  Everyone is here safe and sound.  It’s weird to be back in a large group.  Colleen and I have been so independent this last week.  It’s also strange to have hot water, a real toilet, and to see so many tourists in one city.  While Lushoto had some tourists, Arusha definitely has more!  You can’t walk down the street without someone stopping to show you their business card and trying to get you to arrange a safari.  It’s actually quite obnoxious.  I thought I was pretty good at getting people to leave us alone but the guides here are relentless. 

Colleen and I arrived in Arusha yesterday after our 7 hour bus ride from Lushoto.  Ironically, it was raining when we left Lushoto.  Perhaps the mountains were sad to see us go.  I was glad to have my 2 dollar umbrella that I had bought when we first got to Lushoto.  And although the umbrella is awkward and huge, it worked wonderfully and kept me dry.  The bus ride was uneventful, except for the fact that it was raining most of the way.  The rain makes riding on a bus extremely gross; the floor is covered with mud and water constantly drips from the ceiling and windows.  My backpack is so gross from being on that floor.  If I only I had a washing machine to wash it!  We walked to our hotel, Monje’s Guesthouse and checked into our room.  It was fabulous.  We had a toilet, a shower with hot water, and TV.  Colleen and I took our first showers in 8 days and were instantly happier.  Then, we walked around the town and explored a little before eating dinner at Pizza Arusha where we had, yes, you guessed it, PIZZA!  It’s funny the things I crave here in Tanzania.  Although I not a huge fan of pizza, I get really excited when we have it here just because I can’t have it whenever I want.  Then, we went back to the room to watch Criss Angel on TV.  Hah, what an evening. 

This morning we woke up and had a complimentary breakfast at the hotel of eggs and toast (well, it was actually just bread).  Then, we loaded up all of our gear and headed for our two mile walk to the Outpost Lodge, where we were meeting the group and where we are staying tonight.  Colleen and I were cheap and didn’t want to pay for a taxi so we navigated the streets of Arusha with our giant backpacks and duffle bags.  It was an adventure and I was really proud of Colleen!  She didn’t really want to walk that far, especially after our hike from the bus station yesterday, but she made it, and later told me that she was glad she had done it.  Someday, I will take that girl hiking (she’s never gone before!).  We dropped our stuff at the hotel and then went into town to the Maasai Art shops where they sell a variety of souvenirs including carved wooden statues, scarves, beaded jewelry, and paintings.  We spent all of our money, literally every coin we had, and then went to lunch (don’t worry, we didn’t have all that much in our wallets to begin with, and we got some awesome stuff!).  I bought a purse with elephants on it, among other things that cannot be named because they are going to be Christmas presents.  We had no idea where to go for lunch (we were in a part of town with few restaurants) and ended up at a small diner that served rice and beans.  What a surprise.  But, we were able to handle wali na since we had had pizza the night before.  Truth be told, we are both getting a little sick of rice and beans after eating it for two meals a day, for 8 days straight.  On our last day in Arusha, I went to the market and bought some veggies, cut them up, and then asked a guy on the street to make me an omelet with them since I couldn’t handle anymore rice.  By the afternoon, Colleen and I were pretty tired and we just went back to the hotel.  We reunited with some of our fellow ACM students and we all exchanged stories about our breaks.  It was good to see everyone again!  We all hung out by the pool, and relaxed.  Colleen and I watched the discovery channel for a while and I took a nice hot shower again.  You’ll be happy to know that I finished my third book this week today.  Guess I’ll have to find another to read soon.  We have a sort of book club in operation here.  We each read a book and then give it to someone else when we are done.  I think by the end of it, we very well may have read all of each other’s books!  Anyway, these past two days were extremely successful and it’s amazing what a hot shower and good food can do to one’s spirit.  Colleen and I have been wearing smiles ever since we have gotten here. And surprisingly, it’s nice to be in a city again.  Well, it’s off to dinner right now.  Hopefully I can post this when I return!

Erin

School!

The students at the primary school

The classroom

The teacher of the primary school

Alright, so I'm all caught up with my blog postings finally.  I have been typing up my blogs on my laptop in the hotel, but everytime I go to the internet cafe to post them, I either forget my flashdrive or the internet is out.  But alas, I am finally blogging in real time.

I have to say, this past week, I feel like I have experienced more of Tanzania than I have in the 6 weeks at the University combined.  At the university, we are still so sheltered. There are tons of people who speak English and many of the students and teachers are really used to seeing foreigners.  And when we go on weekend trips, we usually travel to touristy places, so I feel like I haven't really gotten to experience rural Tanzanian life yet.  Interacting with the people at the market, the school, and at church has been really cool and we have gotten to meet some very kind and friendly people.  We see our tour guides from the hike all around town and last night some of us even went out to dinner with them.  Plus, we know a lot of the shop owners and cafe workers now just from being in town for a week. 

Yesterday, I decided that we should go to a school to check out a Tanzanian school.  We got up and got dressed, and then wandered out into the streets of Lushoto around 8:30 am where we immediately spotted several young kids in school uniforms.  I told Colleen that we were going to follow them, and well, that's exactly what we did.  Was it a little weird and creepy? Yes, but it was totally worth it.  They took us to their school and we met the teacher.  We told her that we were American students and we wanted to sit in on her class that day.  She was more than happy to let us in and the kids were so excited to see us!  We sat down in class and proceeded to learn.  The class had about 20 kids in it, ranging from 3-6 years old.  We sang songs, recited nursery rhymes, learned the english alphabet, did math problems, and just hung out with the kids.  While the older ones were learning math, the younger ones played with legos on the ground.  We got to help the kids with their math, using bottle caps to help them count and add numbers together.  The kids were served porridge at 11:00 am and were excited to eat it.  Colleen and I didn't stay for the whole day, just until about noon and then we went to lunch.  The teacher was so ecstatic that we came and we are considering returning again one of these days.  She gave us both a huge hug when we left!  We ate lunch at a super small little shack by our hotel that we hadn't noticed before and had rice and meat.  Then, we set off to find Carla's group and ended up hanging out and hiking up to the Irente viewpoint.  It was absolutely spectacular!  It was so high up and we could see for miles since the rest of the land was so flat.  We enjoyed just sitting and talking up there until it began to get dark and we headed down to the town for dinner.  We called a taxi since the walk is about an hour and a half long. 

(Ok, sorry, I'll have to finish this later, my time is up at the internet cafe!)

I'm back! So the end of that wonderful story is that the taxi broke down in the middle of the mountain and we ended up waiting 20 minutes for someone to bring us more gasoline up the mountain.  When we finally got gas, the car still didn't start and we had to wait another 15 minutes for the taxi driver's friend to come tow us down the mountain.  It was definitely crazy!  Well, we made it down and parted ways with Carla's group.  They left the following morning for Moshi while we stayed here in Lushoto.

Yesterday, I went to the primary school in Lushoto with Agnes, a girl (12 yrs old) who I met in town.  I got introduced to the head of the school and several of the teachers and then got to help out while they learned math, English, and science.  It's funny how slowly class seems to move in Tanzania.  Because the kids don't have access to enough books, rulers, or pencils, everyone has to share, which takes forever.  Even in math class, they didn't have graph paper so each kid had to spend about 10 minutes drawing a grid so that he or she could do their math assignment.  After the kids are done with their assignments, they turn in their notebooks and the teacher corrects their assignment.  But, while they are waiting for the rest of their classmates to finish the assignment, the students have nothing to do.  Needless to say, it can get quite chaotic.  But, it was great to see how a school functions in another country.  It makes me appreciate the fact that we have smartboards and powerpoint projectors.
After eating lunch at my favorite cafe (rice, beans, tomato salad, and sauce), I went to the market to pick up some bananas and oranges.  Surprisingly, I saw many of the students there and they all remembered my name and said hello.  It was great to feel like a part of the village.  I can now walk almost anywhere and have at least someone recognize me and call out my name.  I was going for a walk yesterday afternoon when one of the students from the primary school saw me and decided to tag along.  We talked for a good hour and a half (I understood maybe half of what she was saying) and she showed me to her home.  The people here are so friendly.  Everyone invites you into their home, regardless of your age, sex, or race.  I don't think that if I were wandering about town in America, that people would randomly invite me into their homes.  Colleen and I spent some time in the evening reading and I finished my second book here.  I had to go to the tour company this morning to look at their book swap books.  Seeing as we have a 7 hour bus ride tomorrow, I think I need something to keep me occupied.

10/7/11

Today Colleen and I went back to the market in Soni (it is every Tuesday and Friday) in hopes that our chapatti lady would be there and we could kill some time making chapatti with her.  Unfortunately, she wasn't there, but we saw some of our friends from the other day and helped them go through tea leaves for chai, grate carrots for the beef, and make ugali.  At the market, I bought a pair of shoes for 4,000 Tsh ($2.50) which I am really excited about!  Colleen and I ate lunch at a restaurant in Soni and had rice (Colleen had pilau), beans, and cabbage.  Then, we bought our bus tickets for tomorrow and headed back to the school to visit the kids once more before we left.  We taught them the hokey pokey and then took pictures with them.  It was so much fun and the teacher was so appreciative of us.  After seeing the kids fight over the one eraser in the classroom, I bought a bunch of erasers at the stationary shop and gave them to the teacher to have in their class. She was so happy!  She is probably the sweetest person I have met so far in Tanzania.  And I hope that someday, I can come back and visit her.  Right now, Colleen and I are just hanging out, waiting for the other crew (the group of ACM students who went to Zanzibar) to arrive here.  They didn't leave Dar until 9:00 this morning, and last we heard, they had a flat tire, so we aren't expecting them until 6:00 or 7:00 tonight.  Anyway, hope all is well.  I couldn't help but notice this headline on the newspage I opened up on the computer: "Admit it -- you'll probably tune in to see Kardashian and Humphries say 'I do' -- but instead ... you could take 16 long showers.".  Well right now I would gladly take 1 shower, let alone 16 showers.  I think this is a new record.  As of tomorrow, it will be 8 days since I have showered.  Surprisingly, my hair is doing pretty well.  I think the cool weather here helps.  Anyway, talk to you all soon!
Erin

Erin

You haven’t experienced Africa until you’ve peed in front of 20 people. [10/1/11]

I’m a bit overwhelmed right now.  Our adventure to the Usambara Mountains has been…well…an adventure to say the least.  It began yesterday (Friday) with my trip to Mwenge, where I got pick pocketed and lost my student ID, bus ticket, and $100.  Luckily, my passport and credit cards were not with me so they were not stolen.  I called Paulina and had her talk to the bus company so that I would be able to still go to Lushoto even without a ticket.  I was a bit bummed about the lost money, but at least it wasn’t anything more valuable like my passport!  I had my wallet in my backpack and had just taken it out to purchase a shirt at Mwenge.  After I put it back in my backpack, I went to walk back to the bus stop and when I got on the bus, my backpack was unzipped and someone had taken my wallet. 

Well anyway, I made it to Usambara so no worries.  We left the house this morning at 5:30 am by taxi and then proceeded to go to Ubungo to the bus station.  Good thing the taxi driver helped us find the bus or else we would have never gotten here!  The bus left at 7:00 am and we didn’t arrive in Lushoto until 9 hours later.  I’ll give you an idea of what the busride was like.  First of all, picture a run down tour bus with no luggage storage underneath.  That meant that all of our luggage had to be stowed in the racks above or below our feet.  Then, imagine that every seat on the bus is full.  Now add about a dozen 50 kg bags of rice and corn in the aisle way.  Then stack people on top of the rice and corn.  Oh, and don’t forget about the bugs that come with the corn-they like to crawl all up and down your legs.  It wasn’t the most unpleasant thing I’ve ever experienced, but it was definitely an adventure.  And at one point, we stopped to go to the bathroom in the middle of nowhere and everyone proceeded to run into the bushes to pee.  Well, I didn’t have to go, but Carla and Zoe did.  They came back and said, “well, you haven’t experienced Africa until you’ve peed in front of 20 people”.  Apparently there weren’t very many bushes where everyone was peeing. 

When we finally reached Lushoto, we were all happy to get off the bus.  We said goodbyes to the other four girls who were with us and then headed off to find our hostal.  It was pouring down rain and I immediately bought an umbrella from a little boy selling them on the street.  A man helped us find our hostal, which was completely full and had no rooms for us despite the fact that we booked in advance.  Oh well.  They showed us a different hostal for the same price and we took it immediately.  Let’s just say that this makes Hall Three look luxurious.  Our room is small, with concrete beds, two tables, and a window.  We have only one mosquito net (don’t worry, they are getting us another tomorrow) and we conveniently have only one pillow and one sheet for the two of us.  Good thing we brought sleeping bags!  Our floor is a constant swamp due to the rain this evening.  Apparently rain is typical during the evenings here.  And we have squat toilets and no shower…well…I guess we have a bucket shower but it’s a BYOB (bring your own bucket) type.  Colleen and I settled in (there’s not much unpacking to do when you don’t have anywhere to put things) and then headed off into the town to buy some toilet paper, water, bananas, and snacks.  Hopefully we will survive! Hah.  We are both feeling a little homesick right now.  I think that happens whenever we go to a new place.  It’s really weird to be on our own.  We are so used to being in a group.  I can tell we are going to have a lot of down time here and I will probably get a good start on my quilt.  We are thinking of booking a tour or two for the following days and are excited to see the rainforest and such. 

Swahili Word of the Day: Mvua [mmm-voo-ah] = rain

Today I learned how to cook chapatti!

Market at Soni

Lots of shoes!

Cooking Chapati

The crowd watching us cook chapati

The Market yesterday at Soni was amazing!  It wasn’t that much different from most markets here; it included second hand clothes, scarves, kangas, fruits, vegetables, and a variety of other clothing items.  But, the best part was that we befriended a whole group of women who were making breakfast and lunch.  We sat down next to where they were cooking and asked if we could watch.  As always, they were extremely thrilled to talk and interact with us wazungu.  One woman was making chapatti and after watching her for a while, I asked if I could try.  She let me make chapatti for the rest of the morning! It was great and I got the hang of it pretty quickly.  Then, we moved on to another woman who was making rice, beans, and spinach.  By then, we had attracted a huge crowd of Tanzanian onlookers (maybe about 20 or 30 people) who thought it was hilarious that us foreigners were making chapatti and cooking with the Tanzanians.  It must have been great for their business!  Every person who walked by would get introduced to us.  Colleen and I made the beans and helped cook the rice and then we got to make ugali (a cornmeal porridge).  It is so thick and so hard to stir!  We kind of failed at that, but we had a great time.  In the end, we bid farewell to our Tanzanian friends, were given some of our handmade chapatti, and headed back to Lushoto.  It was lunch time by the time we returned and we ate rice and beans at one of our favorite cafes here.  It was just what we needed.  We then met up with Siri’s group and headed to the bank to exchange money.  Strangely enough, the closest ATM is in a town that is 2 hours away, so some of us are running low on money (Colleen and I are doing just fine, but Siri’s group is heading to Moshi early because they are running out).  We had to wait in line at the bank for about an hour and then the bank wouldn’t even take some of our bills because they were too wrinkled.  But, we got the money exchanged.  We went back to Siri’s gang’s new hotel.  They switched hotels because theirs was getting really creepy.  The owners would constantly complain about how loud they were and wouldn’t ever really answer any of their questions about payment and rates.  But, all is well now and their new place is very nice.  We hung out, talked, read, and watercolored at their place to kill time before dinner.  We parted ways for dinner since they didn’t want to walk back into town and then have to catch a taxi back because it would be dark.  Colleen and I ate at a little roadside stand and had ugali, beans, and spinach.  Unfortunately, the power had gone off so when we got back to our room we had no electricity.  It’s always weird when the power goes out, because your brain thinks that it’s automatically time to go to bed.  I think we went to bed at 8:30 just because we didn’t really have much else to do.  I’ve already gone through a book and a half here.  Luckily, everybody brought a bunch of books to the field to share so I’ll have plenty to read there when we meet up with them.  Anyway, hope all is well!

Erin

Swahili word of the day: Soko [so-koe] = market

Don't you love the hillsides? They are so sweet, like chocolate

Chameleon

On our hike

In the Magamba Rainforest

Lunch!

The Hike Continues

Waterfall

This morning we woke up and headed to the tour company for our rainforest adventure.  We left around 9:30 and began walking towards the Magamba rainforest, taking a variety of trails and roads to get there.  It was kind of psychotic to get to the rainforest though.  We were climbing up these steep hillsides with narrow trails and we were so winded by the time we got to the top that we couldn’t breathe!  Apparently switchbacks aren’t used here.  We rested for a bit at the top and our guide said to us “I just love the hillsides. They are like chocolate – so sweet!”.  That made us all laugh and we continued to quote him throughout our trip.  On our hike, we got to see several chameleons.  And we even held them! They are such cool creatures.  One of our guides, Mudi, stopped on the trail and said, “There is a chameleon, I can smell it”.  And sure enough, we looked around and there it was!  From then on, he was our chameleon hunter, and was legitimately able to smell the chameleons before he spotted them.  He has a crazy nose and our joke for the whole journey was, “can’t you smell it?”.  He claimed to be able to smell avocado trees, chameleons, and a variety of other items in the forest.  Once we reached the Magamba rainforest, we hiked through it and immediately spotted some huge black and white colobus monkeys!  Now we have seen vervit monkeys in Dar, and red colobus in Zanzibar, but these monkeys were huge and black!  It was crazy to see them all.  The rainforest was awesome and it was interesting to see the vegetation change so rapidly.  Never before have I been in so many vegetation types on one hike.  We saw everything from pine tree forests, to rainforest, to dessert, to villages, to wetlands.  It was all so varied.  After the Magamba rainforest, we travelled to Holland (well not really, our guides just called it Holland because we were finally on flat ground).  We stopped for lunch at a nearby village and ate our packed lunches of homemade guacamole, chapatti, hard boiled eggs, bananas, oranges, rice fritters, and sambusas.  It was delicious!  Their guacamole was slightly different from the Mexican version and included avocadoes, carrots, cucumbers, onions, green pepper, and tomatoes.  Plus, they even let us help cut up the vegetables for it!  Then, we journeyed onwards towards the Mkuzi waterfalls and probably walked for a good 2 or 3 hours before finally reaching it.  It reminded me a lot of the rapids and waterfalls up in Northern Wisconsin.  After sitting at the waterfall for a while and taking in the sights and sounds, we headed back out of the jungle where our van awaited us.  It was slightly crazy to ride in a van on the dirt roads, it felt like Costa Rica all over again!  But, we made it back to the hotel and I got on the internet at the internet cafe.  Colleen and I ate dinner at a bar/restaurant down the street and I had rice and beans and spinach for 2,000 Tsh ($1.25).  They were the best beans I have had here so far!  We have found that many of the restaurants here serve only rice and beef.  There are very few other options, so we have definitely been on the lookout for some variety in our food.  Anyway, off to Soni to visit the market this morning. 

Erin

Swahili word of the day: Wanyama [Wah-nee-ahm-ah] = animals

The Beginning of An Adventure [Usambara Mountains]

So I finally made it to the Usambara Mountains!  Only 9 hours by bus and then a hike in the rain and we were finally at our hotel.  Right now I am sitting in town at an internet cafe, however, I  forgot to bring my flash drive with my blog on it to the internet cafe.  So, you will just have to sit tight and wait to hear about my adventure  here until tomorrow.  Just to leave you with a cliff hanger, let me just say that this little adventure started off with me getting pickpocketed in the market and losing my wallet, money, and bus ticket.....
But, I'm here in the Usambara Mountains, so that means that everything worked out in the end.  I'll post the whole story tomorrow but as for now, you'll just have to wait!
Erin

Our First Full Day in the Usambaras

Part of the Market

Kangas at the market

Dinner!

This morning we woke up refreshed and ready to go.  I quilted for a while waiting for Colleen to get up.  Once we were dressed and washed, we headed into town.  We ended up going to a church service and it was neat to hear the Swahili sermon and the choir singing.  Then, we decided to trek up to Irente Lodge, where the other group is staying.  We didn’t really realize how long of a hike it would be.  It was about 6.5 km and took us an hour and a half.  But, we got to see a lot of the forest and town on the way up!  When we finally reached the lodge, we found the girls eating breakfast and they were very surprised to see us.  They showed us their rooms (they are very nice, especially in comparison to ours) and then we hiked back down to go to the market.  Back in Lushoto we stopped at a little restaurant for some food.  We had pilau, meat, beans, and tomatoes.  It was very good, and just what I needed after hiking for 3 hours.  Then, it was off to the market.  There were tables with school supplies, locks, kangas, second hand clothes, and much more.  It was neat to see such a diverse market.  We also went to Upande Touring Company and booked a tour of the Magamba Rainforest and Mkuzi Waterfall tomorrow for about $25.  I was so excited that we were able to pay in US dollars…I finally got rid of some of my American money!  It was then late afternoon and we parted ways, with the other group going back to their lodge and Colleen and I going back to our hotel.  I have to say, Colleen and I are warming up to this place.  It didn’t rain at all today, and I have to say, it’s much more pleasant here when it’s not raining and there isn’t a river running through your room.  Colleen and I read and relaxed in the room and then headed to dinner.  Luckily, we ran into the tour guide and asked him for a suggestion for dinner.  There are plenty of places around, but they all seem to serve the same thing: rice and beef.  We were hoping for some rice and beans or rice and veggies, but couldn’t find any.   The tour guide pointed us to a little streetside shop that had rice, beans, fish, beef, and spinach.  We ate a lovely meal for 60 cents and then bought an African newspaper in order to stuff in our shoes (they reek from being wet all day).  Overall, the day was a success and we found plenty of things to do.  Tomorrow, we will go on a tour of the rainforest with the other group and I am looking forward to it.  Anyway, I will post this as soon as I can. Hugs and Kisses,

Erin

Swahili Word of the Day: Chakula cha jioni [Cha-koo-lah Cha Gee-Oh-Nee] – dinner *literally translates to food of the evening