Hoorayy! I'm finally here!
After a LOOONNG journey from Raleigh, NC to Dar es Salaam, I finally arrived in Tanzania!! Parker was waiting for me at baggage claim and we hopped in a taxi that took us to our hotel. After I settled in a bit, Parker and Katie took me to Posta where we went to a khanga market and bought some very cool fabrics.
After Posta, we went back to the hotel and, despite my efforts to stay awake, I took the greatest nap of my life. Later that afternoon, we went to Mwenge where I met all of the amazing woodcarvers who are also Parker and Katie's students. These woodcarvers are probably the nicest, happiest, most talented people I have ever met; they were extremely welcoming and incredibly nice (even though they called me "shiny" because I'm so white...).
That evening, I went with Parker and Katie to watch them teach English to the woodcarvers. However, a few Princeton students have come to take Parker and Katie's place since they will be leaving soon, so Parker didn't get to teach that much. After the class, everyone walked to the "tuk, tuks" together and rode home. Parker and I had a very nice dinner at our hotel and hit the sheets pretty early.
Early the next morning, we hopped a bus to Arusha and 10 hours later, we were there. The next day, we headed off on four day camping safari. (Parker went into depth in her blog, so I will spare you all in this one.) As much as I don't like camping, I found the camping safari to be a very cool experience. Although, not showering for four days is not a good look for me...
After the safari, we headed to Kendwa Rocks in Zanzibar and stayed on the beach for two days. During our stay there, I muscled up the courage to go scuba diving for the first time in four years. I was extremely nervous, so I ran out of air in about 25 minutes....Oops. It wasn't the greatest scuba experience, but we saw some incredible things.
After Kendwa Rocks, we took a bus to Stonetown where we are right now. Last night Parker took me to a market-type place for dinner and they had TONS of seafood, Zanzibar pizza (dough, bananas, and chocolate) and the greatest tea I have ever had. It was so good that we asked Sammy, the tea maker, to teach us how to make it. He said that he would take us to a spice market the next morning at 4:00 or 5:00. We assumed that he meant 10:00 or 11:00 because 4:00AM in Tanzania is actually 10:00AM (it's odd, I know). Anywho, we met him this morning and he told us that he went to the market at 4:00AM and waited for us....Oops. It all worked out, though, and we bought lots of spices.
On our way out of the market, we walked through a place FULL of chickens. Sammy, the spice rasta guy, explained that if you buy a chicken and don't know how to kill it yourself, you bring it outside and someone will kill it for you. Unfortunately, right as I walked by, someone was chopping up a squirming little chicken--it was enough to make someone go vegeterian, but I do love me some chicken....
Since I arrived in Dar, Parker has been teaching me some Swahili. She gives me vocabulary lists and verb conjugations every other day and I listen to her speak to everyone, so I'm trying to learn the language as best as I can. By the way, Parker speaks Swahili EXTREMELY well; in my mind, she's pretty much fluent. The two of us plan to speak Swahili to each other even after we get back because I think it is the coolest language, and Parker wants to get better, too.
Well, that's where I am in my Tanzanian adventure for now! We leave to go back to Dar tomorrow morning and spend about three days there, then Parker and I head back to the States for the rest of the summer. This has been incredibly long, but I hope you enjoyed my Tanzanian adventure so far!
I miss you all and I am excited to see you!!
Kwa herini (bye) for now.
xoxoxoxo
-miranda
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