BRRRR!!! Iringa!!!!!!!!

So!! As great as Zanzibar was, it was good to get back to the mainland and more reasonable prices. Our feeble Peace Corps salary was not made to go to safi tourist places. When we got back into Dar, we hit up Subway. Sandwiches might be one of the things that I miss most! After that, we napped and then snuck into the center where PC had all the new Education volunteers locked down. We spent a few hours getting to know them which was great! Now we just have to wait 7 weeks to find out who our new neighbors are. On Saturday, we decided to sleep in a bit and catch a later bus to Iringa. We got to the standi, and bought tickets. Well it just so happens we bought tickets on a super nice bus. They even served us cold sodas and water! Talk about service. We got to Iringa Town around 6 and met up with another volunteer, Glenn. We dropped our stuff at the guesti and then went out for Chinese food and a couple of beers. Honestly, the greatest thing about travel is getting to see all of your friends scattered around the country. That night, we also discovered just how cold it gets in Africa. I was wearing my North Face fleece and was still freezing. I slept under the thickest blanket I have ever seen, pants, and my fleece and was still a little cold. Glenn had to leave early the next morning so Kathryn and I slept in and went out for a late breakfast. We went overboard and ended up getting omelettes, french toast, and yogurt. After becoming entirely too full, we decided to hike up to a big rock that has a great view of the entire area. We spent a couple hours hiking up and then took a nice nap, well actually Kathryn napped and I fidgeted. Then we went back to the guesti and napped more (writing this makes me realize just how much we sleep!). That night, we did something that I did not even know was possible in Tanzania, we ordered DELIVERY PIZZA!! It was delicious and actually reasonably priced. That next morning, we had cold pizza for breakfast and then two more volunteers, TJ and Carly, got to town. We went for lunch at this amazing place called Neema's. They have amazing food, we got bacon avocado paninis, and also have cool crafts. The entire establishment is staffed by disabled Tanzanians. For example, the entire serving staff is deaf. It was amazing to see a business that allows Tanzanians with handicaps to support themselves. Elswhere in the country, their only option is begging. That day and the next day, we spent playing board games and hanging out at Neema's and spending way too much money on food and crafts. Iringa was a plethra of handmade products!! The motherload for a craft-lovin fool like myself. Also, Iringa is full of yummy food. A Peace Corps Volunteer must! I even had a warm cinnamon roll and homemade yogurt, am I in Africa anymore? Yesterday morning, we loaded up onto yet another bus bound for Moshi and almost exactly 12 hours later, made it! So far, I've had a bacon bagel and 2 cups of real coffee!!! Sorry if this blog seems a little scatter-brained!! Blaim it on my caffeine high! Thats about it for Iringa. Tune in next time for the down-low on Moshi! Peace out!

Island Paradise

So after my ever so exciting bus ride, nothing could have been more welcome than a relaxing trip to Zanzibar. For those of you who are not familiar with this African paradise, Zanzibar is a short ferry ride off the coast of Tanzania. The island is covered with Spice Plantations and white sand beaches. The main town is called Stone Town and thats where we have stayed for 5 nights. The town is amazing! It is made up entirely of alleyways, so it is easy to spend an entire day, walking around getting lost. Zanzibar is such a strange collision of worlds. The island is 98 percent Muslim, so all native inhabitants are extremely conservative. With the boom of tourism in the last 10 to 15 years though, a swarm of skantily clad tours are mixed among the women in head scarves and full covering. When asked about what he thought a booty shorts and bare shoulders, a local Muslim man compared it to drinking alcohol. He said that the first time you taste it, it is not good, but as you continue, it gets better as you get used to it. Now what a man of Islam knows about drinking I have no idea, but he got his point across. Here is a run-down of our days here in our island paradise.
Sunday: On Sunday, Kathryn and I got up and were just going to wing it. It turns out we caught the 9:30 ferry. Of course, we left around 10. Its about a 2-hour ride and I ended up popping a Dramamine. As soon as land was out of sight, my motion sickness popped up and threatened to make it a messy ride. We hit land around noon. We had a friend from Pemba, an island just north of Zanzibar, meet up with us and also another volunteer, Eric, and his friend from the states. Kathryn and I had made reservations at a hotel called Zenji Hotel. We went and dropped our stuff off when we arrived. This hotel is incredibly cute. If I had one word to describe it, I would say "quaint." The best part has to be the roof. They serve a complimentary breakfast on the roof and even met us with complimentary drinks when we arrived. The breakfast is to die for: homemade breads, homemade jams, fruit, fresh juice, eggs, and REAL coffee!! Quite the spread for someone who has been living in the bush for 9 months. After we put all of our stuff in the hotel, our group went to just walk around a bit and hang out on the beach. We ate lunch(Chili Guacamole Burger!!) and the boys got fed up with Kathryn and I's shopping (although you should really call is browsing since our budget doesn't allow us to actually get anything). That night, we decided for just street food instead of a sit-down place. We had some pretty good Tandori chicken and hung out.

Monday: Monday, we got up, filled our bellies with breads and jams, and went on a Spice Tour. For something that sounds extremely touristy, it was well worth the money. They bus you about 30 minutes north of Stone Town and you visit one of the several local Spice plantations. You walk around the grounds and are shown more spices than I have ever seen: pepper vines, cinnamon trees, vanilla, ginger, tumeric, star fruit, nutmeg. Basically everything a well stocked kitchen would have. While showing us, they let us taste everything and told us about processing, harvesting, and even traditional medicinal uses. After the tour, they took us to some ruins, and then lunch. Lunch was pilau (spiced rice) that was prepared with all of the spices we had just seen. After lunch, they took us to this extremely secluded, beautiful beach and we explored a cave where they used to illegally hold slaves before shipping them out. After all of this, we showered back at the hotel, and went out for a nice dinner for the boys' last meal on the island. We found a rooftop restaurant called House of Spices that processes all of their own spices and makes DELICIOUS pizza in a brick oven right next to the table. After dinner, the boys left to catch their overnight ferry back to the mainland and Kathryn and I enjoyed a relaxing night on the roof of the hotel.

Tuesday: On Tuesday, Kathryn and I decided to shop. Well for normal people, this would not be a problem, but most of what we saw exceeded our meager Peace Corps budget. All the same, it was fun to just walk around the narrow alleys and have no clue where you are. We did find a lady that was amazing at henna and would do it for a reasonable price. So after getting henna, we met up with Claire and her visiting boyfriend, Rob. We had lunch at a fun little Indian restaurant. After that, we headed back to the hotel to nap and play on internet. That night, Kathryn and I went and had some beers on the beach and then decided to try out Zanzibar pizzas. This is not like a pizza at all, but really tastes like a hamburger. They take dough, fill it with meat, vegetable, and mayonaise and cook it in a wok. Sounds weird, but it was pretty tasty.
Wednesday: Wednesday, we decided to take a day trip out of Stone Town. We hopped on a dala dala to a town on the northern tip of the island called Nungwi. We spend the day relaxing on the beach at a resort. It would have felt like a completely different country, enjoying sangria and guacamole, if it had not been for the Masai that had parked his cattle on the beach next to the sun bathers. It was an intersting sight. After our skin got about as much sun as it could handle, we caught another dala dala back, showered, and went out for seafood. Kathryn started not feeling great and I was tired so we headed in early (we are such party animals, right?) and internetted and went to bed. Just give a Peace Corps volunteer wifi internet and they are satisfied.
Thursday (today): So far today, we have slept a lot and eaten breakfast. I think I might try to make it to one museum called the House of Wonders later, and also buy our ferry tickets for tomorrow. Tonight, we have plans to meet a volunteer that lives on the island for dinner. As an overall assessment, if you ever have the chance or for some reason are in Tanzania, visit Zanzibar. It is a beautiful place and a unique experience. Thats it for now! I'll try to keep you updated on the rest of our travels. Peace out!

Watch Out For That Tree

So I know that I have always said that transportation here in Tanzania is bad. Well this level of bad just hit rock bottom last Friday on my trip to Dar es Salaam. Due to no other buses leaving my village, I was forced to take a bus company with an extremely poor reputation. A friend bought my ticket for me, and so I ended up in what we volunteers refer to as the "kill zone." This is the very front seats of the bus and the dangers the present with the travel situation here. At first I was worried about this, but shook it off thinking "Ahh...nothing with happen." Then, once I got on the bus, put my backpack in front of me, and was still able to stretch my legs out completely, I thought I was in for a good ride. Every thing started out fine, we only left 30 minutes late (right on time by Tanzanian standards), and were making good time. Then, a couple of hours into the trip, we stopped for about an hour while they worked on some unknown mechanics of the bus. After an hour, we were on our way again. Now the first thing you need to know is that I live on the Makonde Plateau, which is about 900 feet tall. The second thing is that this particular bus line goes a back way down the plateau, winding through small villages and descending down a road that the locals call "the dirty way." This road is extremely steep, winding, and rocky. Because of this, we were slowly making our way down the road when all of a sudden we started to gain speed at an alarming rate. By the time we had reached a rate that people were getting tossed from seats into the aisles, people began to panic because is was very obvious our breaks had gone out and we were out of control going down a cliff. We continued to gain speed and very quickly approached a sharp turn. Our bus driver then did probably the best thing he could have and did not attempt to make the turn. Instead, we careened through the forest, blazing out own path until 3 large trees were good enough the stop us. Right before impact, I grabbed the 2-year-old in front of me, put me feet on the barricade in front of me and braced for impact. At this point, everyone in the bus was thrown to one side of the bus, landing in a huge pile. Once we were stopped and even before we were out of our pile, everyone on the bus was screaming versions of "Asante Yesu!!" which means "Thank you, Jesus!" We then began to slowly untangle ourselves and stand up. After standing, the bus began to smoke and everyone started to panic and chaos errupted and a stampede towards the front doors began. There was no way to quickly exit that way, and so I called a Babu (grandpa) over to the window, handed about 4 small children out, and then climbed down one of the trees that stopped us. By the time everyone was off, it was obvious the bus was not exploding any time soon, so I went back to get me backpack and then made the almost 100 yard hike out of the forest where we had stopped. We all then got to sit on the side of the road and hope that some sort of vehicle passed on this scarcely used road. After about 3 hours, I was able to pay a vehicle to take me to the nearest volunteers house, and then caught a bus onto Lindi where I procured a ticket for another bus to Dar the next day. The next morning, I got to hop on another bus, yeah! The ride went amazingly smooth. I would just like to point out though that I have the worst transportation luck because even on this bus, only one person on the entire bus got hit by luggage flying off the overhead rack, and that person was me. I got whacked by a flying bag, which ripped my pants and cut my leg and hand. We then broke down for about 3 or 4 hours overall, finally making it to Dar after 12 hours. I was at least greeted by good friends and Lebanese food. Overall though, I was extremely lucky. The big man upstairs was really looking out for me. Now, after all of the drama, I am enjoying my first real vacation in 9 months, relaxing on Zanzibar, an island of the coast! More to come on that later! Peace out!