A Great Vacation

Last episode of my blog, I left off while sitting in an amazingly Americanized coffee shop in Moshi.  So much as happened since and I have either not had internet or been too lazy to type.  So we hung out in Moshi about a week.  Basically all we did was lounge around and eat all kinds of food.  One day we did muster the strength to venture to the used clothes market, Memoria.  This trip was made a success when I purchased a rather snazzy Patagonia rain jacket.  We also did make a trip to Arusha.  Kathryn and I loaded up onto yet another bus, and made to short trip to Arusha.  After arriving, we had no idea where we were or where the guesti was so we wandered for a good amount of time.  After a suggestion from another volunteer, we finally found a place to stay that was within our budget, which was quite the quest in the jungle of high-end tourist hotels that is Arusha.  After getting to our room, we rested a bit and then later decided to explore the wonders of Shop-Rite.  This extraordinary find is a real-live grocery store.  Overall, we spent over an hour, browsing the aisle upon aisle of rarities such as raspberries, coffee creamer, and fresh-made breads and doughnuts.  Basically we were happier than Charlie was in the Chocolate Factory.  Oh commercial bliss!  After Shop-Rite, a.k.a. "Land o' Plenty," we met up with our friends that had just climbed Mt. Meru at a sushi restaurant.  When I say sushi restaurant, I mean it.  A Japanese expat had settled in Arusha, recruited a real sushi chef, and founded my favorite place in Tanzania.  We had dumplings and sushi and I was a happy, happy volunteer.  The next day, after attempting sushi again (alas the sushi chef has Tuesdays off) we headed back to Moshi.  After a few more days of hanging out, we loaded up onto my 7th bus in much to short of a time, we hopped over to Tanga, a region of the northern coast of Tanzania.  Around 6 1/2 hours later, we met up with all of our friends.  Overall, there were 20 volunteers gathered in Tanga for our 4th of July get-together.  The next day, we went swimming at a beach.  Swimming in Tanzania is always an awkward experience.  Everywhere I have been in this country, there is always a swarm of children, and sometime even adults, wanting to just stare at your glorious whiteness in your swimsuit.  Because of this feeling of being put on display, you must approach swimming with strategy.  First, you must get out of your clothes and wrap a towel around you as quickly as possible.  Next, approach the water fully concealed under your towel.  You must then drop your towel as close to the water as possible without the chance of it getting wet.  Then submerge your body in water up to your shoulders, there-by revealing nothing.  Luckily for our swimming experience this day, we were met by a hoard of other white people so the awkwardness level is significantly decreased.  The next day, on July 2nd, we celebrated the 4th of July early.  A couple of volunteers had arranged a boat to take us out to a sand bar.  We then spent most of the day on the sand bar, eating, drinking, and being merry.  Also swimming in the Indian Ocean.  This section of the ocean proved especially treacherous though.  We had one girl step on a sea urchin and then get to spend a good chunk of the day getting the spikes dug out of her foot and there were also jellyfish about.  The day was wrapped up at Toten Island, the Island of the dead, where there are a number of ancient German graves.  On that next Sunday, Kathryn and I, accompanied by a couple of our friends, bussed down to Dar es Salaam.  When we arrived, there was a bit of confusion and the bus did not stop where we needed it to, hence, we did not get our tickets to head back to Mtwara the next day.  Instead, we gorged on delicious Indian food.  The next day was the 4th of July, so we decided to celebrate with a Subway sub, Twix, and cold Pepsi.  We also went to the bus stand and bought our tickets for the next day.  That night, we celebrated our last night in Dar with Lebanese food.  Nom, nom, nom!!  The next day, we loaded up onto the bus, and headed back to home, sweet Mtwara.  We actually made it in record time too, pulling into Newala at 5:30 p.m.  It was glorious!  The next couple of days, I spent marketing and visiting with people.  I also spent almost an entire day washing my huge number of dirty clothes.  Overall though, there is no better feeling than getting home after a long spout of travel!  That's all for now folks!  Peace out!