First of all, I have officially competed my first grant with the help of my very cool and trendy friends Toni and Ben (not that being trendy made much difference). For our grant, we conducted 3 days of free HIV Testing and education at our sites. Overall, we provided HIV testing for over 200 people and education for hundreds more. We were lucky enough to score the talents of Ben's theater group who put together some very informative skits and a local HIV positive woman who talked about her own experiences. It was such a good feeling to be able to provide such a service that is normally no as readily available.
After we wrapped up our grant reports, I peaced out for the beginning of my vacation! I made it to Mtwara Town and flew to Dar es Salaam. That's right, instead of the usual 12+ hours trudging through the mud on an overcrowded bus; I spent an hour on an air-conditioned flight being fed juice and sandwiches. I had better not get too used to that though. We got to Dar and met up with some friends. The next day, we set out on an amazing adventure, MAFIA ISLAND! We caught about a 3-hour coaster to the town where the ferry sets out. On the way there, I may or may not have discreetly threw-up into a plastic bag. When we finally arrived, we had missed the ferry so we started looking for guesthouses close by. After asking a few people, we found one and started our few days of marathon arguing. We got them down a bit, dropped our bags, and headed out for a beer to recover a bit. While sitting around, we were approached by some random dude asking if we wanted to make it to the island that same day. Umm...no, I'd rather sit here in the 100 percent humidity paying entirely too much for a place I didn't want to be in the first place. Of course we want to go. After getting him to half his price twice, we had obtained transportation in a smallish motorboat. Our next goal was to retrieve both our luggage and refund from the guesti that we spent approximately 2 minutes at. The very not cool lady said that there was no way we would be getting a full refund. After a while arguing, we got half of our money back and skedaddled for the boat. We got to the harbor and thankfully received life jackets. Then we had a merry little 2 1/2 boat ride in the company of a generator, 4 goats, and 3 hookers (all the necessities of an island, you know). After hitting the shallows and wading into shore, we called up the place we had made reservations at and they sent someone to meet us. When he showed up, we were told that the reservations had been messed up and we did not have a room that night. He made up for it though when he spent about 2 hours calling every guesti in town finding us a place to stay for the night. The next morning, we kicked off our day with some good ol' beans and chapati. Then, we headed for the resort. We were in for another session of bartering when we arrived and were told that the prices to stay there were about twice what we had been told earlier. Because of all the arguing, we decided to go straight out in search of the holy grail of our trip, the whale shark! We got on the boat with our two Tanzanian guides and a couple Germans. On our way to deeper waters, we stopped by some dudes fishing in a canoe and our guides asked if there had been any whale sharks spotted. The excitement was overwhelming when they pointed not far and said right over there. After a couple more minutes of puttin' along, we say a dark fin cutting through the water. When we got right next to it, they dude said jump, and Jordan and I didn't even wait to ask "How high?” We just jumped. Talk about scary. Never in my life did I think that I would be swimming towards that iconic Jaws-style fin. When we jumped in, the shark had switched direction and we couldn't catch up. After we hauled ourselves into the boat, we got to try again. The first time I got a good look at the shark, it creepily appeared out of the plankton thick water coming straight at me. I got out of its way and swam besides it. When it dove, I tried to go with it, getting entirely too excited, forgetting that my snorkel didn't reach that far and choking on tons of salt water. The entire experience was just extremely amazing. It is hard to believe that I was swimming along with a 30-foot shark. At one point, I was swimming by the tail and realized that the fin was taller than me. We developed a pattern. Get in the boat, spot a fin, zip that way, and jump. We continued this for a couple of hours until I was missing the skin off my elbows and the rains were coming. When the winds come, the sharks dive so you can't play with them, so we headed in. We decided to just stay that one night since we did what we came to do, and headed back the next morning. The ride back was not quite as safi as our ride to the island. To get to the actual boat, we loaded about 30 people into a tiny little boat and poled out to another slightly larger boat with a motor. Next, we loaded two tiny boats worth of people into the slightly larger boat and slowly putted out to the ferry. It was mass chaos trying to get into the boats, but we made it. The ferry itself was very pirate-esque. This "ferry" was a wooden ship that they stuck a motor on to. We all loaded on and took off. On the way, we passed through a storm and rode some of the biggest waves ever. I loaded myself up with Dramamine, so I was fine, but the Tanzanians didn't handle it too well. At least 2/3's of the boat was vomiting the entire way and we were getting hit in the face with waves coming over the side. Can you say exciting pirate (and a little bit refugee-esque) adventure? We did finally make it and then headed on to Dar. Overall, amazing time that makes me feel so incredibly lucky to be in PC Tanzania. Next stop, AMERICA! Peace out peeps and if you in OK, come see me!
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