Saturday March 25, 2006

I woke up early again this morning, and I’m paying for it as I write this. We were going to wake up at 7:45 anyways, but I was up about an hour before that cause I had a lot to do, particularly packing and organizing. So I started gathering my stuff and took a shower at about 7:30 or so. James gave me some of his muslee, which is granola and yogurt, for breakfast. After that, we picked up his friend Rebecca and we went to the triangle market for some last minute souvenirs.

I had also wanted to buy a few of these shirts I had seen elsewhere that say “muzungu” on them, which is what they refer to the white people here as, it’s actually rather derogatory and the literal translation means: person who wanders around aimlessly. We looked all over town, but could not find them. I did however manage to secure some PS2 games that I think will work on a modified PS2 system, so I will have to look into having that modification made, it should only cost about $25-$50, and I bought 6 games for the price of one cheap one in the states, about $20 or 18,000 KSH.

Then we ate at the Diamond Plaza where you just sit at a table wherever you want, and the guys from the restaurants bring menus to you, and I mean they ALL bring them to you. We probably had 8 guys with menus hassle us to order from them. James ordered from just a few of them. We got beef shish-kabobs, some chicken in spicy buffalo sauce and an Indian flat bread and some potato chip thingies. It was a pretty good meal, we were all full, and it cost about 1,000 KSH ($13 USD).

After that we headed to Nakumat which is the African version of Wal-Mart because James needed a few groceries. Then we headed back to the mission, on the way a child was asking for money, but instead of giving her any, I just recorded her on my camera and then James drove away. Proving once again that I am King of the Jerks. But, the kid was smiling and happy, so was probably just a beggar by trade, not by necessity.

We got back to the Hampton House at about 1:00. We went to the on property dorms (which house maybe 20 kids) and hung out with Natalie, another Journeyman. We watched an episode of project runway, Jessie would be proud of me for that. Then we went over to the Mays’ house (also on property) and chatted with them for about an hour. They are coming off the field in a few months and James told them I would get them into the parks in Orlando. I also used their PS2 to try the games which is how I figured out they would only work on a modified system.

Then we went back to our rooms and I began packing. Amazingly enough we got everything packed and even got it all checked at the airport later no problem. At about 7:00 we met up with Rebecca and Natalie again and we went to dinner. I had some tasty fajitas with beef. I also spent my last 1,000 KSH note, leaving me with nothing but a $50 bill that James bought some of my other currency off of me with.

After dinner, we took the girls back to the Hampton House and then we headed right for the airport. It’s about a 20 minute drive, but we had plenty of time before my 11:00 flight. James pulled up to the curb under the international arrivals sign, which I thought was a little strange and I told him we should be at the departing area, but apparently he was a little confused. He left me there with the luggage to go park the car, and when he returned on foot, he realized what I had been asking and that we were in the totally wrong place.

So we got a cart and moved my stuff to the departure area. I had my 40 gallon action packer, my super huge duffle bag, and a 5’ by 4” wide piece of PVC pipe. When I entered the airport after saying goodbye to James, I had the PVC pipe attached to the large duffle by one of those plastic wrapping stations. It was $8. Then I got in line to check in, and the young lady who handed me my form for leaving Kenya asked me how to pronounce my last name while she was looking at my passport, and I told her and said it was Spanish, to which she replied confusedly “but you are American” so I told her my dad was Spanish and she said that must be why I am so handsome…first time I’ve ever been hit on by a Kenyan!

At the desk the lady checked my bags through to MIA, but could only give me my boarding pass for the first leg. So at Heathrow later I got my next one. Then I went to my gate and sat down for a bit, it was about 10:30 or so by now, and I had my action packer thoroughly searched at the first check point and my carry on searched twice.

While waiting at the gate, I talked to 3 Americans who had been in Kenya for 1 month as medical exchange students. They had been working mostly with AIDS patients and said it was amazing the extent to which people are suffering. They share hospital beds, 3 people to a twin sized bed. No privacy whatsoever. They said the primary problem is there is just not enough money being spent on medicine because they have seen the clinics where they are treating patients with medicine and they are doing much better. After chatting with them, we boarded the plane, and I have been flying ever since with limited sleep. It’s been a great trip and I’m glad I came all this way to see James, we had a blast. I’m sure I’ll be back one day with Jessie, she never lets me have all the fun.

Friday March 24, 2006

Today was a pretty long day, but it had a nice slow beginning. James and I both woke up really early, like 6:00, so we went to watch the sunrise, how romantic? It was pretty sweet. While staring into the horizon, I had a question, if you were to head due East through the ocean, what do you think the first piece of land you would hit would be? James said India, I at first thought the California coast, but realized you would probably nail one of the Indonesian islands in the Pacific Rim first.

So after being up so stinking early, we both went back to sleep for a while. We had gone all the way down to the beach, although the view from the second story room we had was pretty sweet. After waking again we got ready to go to the beach, I’ve gotten a lot of sun since I’ve been here. To rewind all the way back to the safari walk, I neglected to apply sunscreen that morning and my arms were pretty red, although not quite burned. It seems I also burned my ears pretty well, because today a blister (or what I’m hoping was a blister) popped and oozed, yeah, I know, gross.

So taking that lesson to heart, I’ve been putting on the sun screen I brought. We went to the Ketete Restaurant first and had breakfast at around 7:30, pineapple, mango, toast and hot cocoa. Then out onto the beach. It’s a little strange on the beach because there are still beggars coming around and asking for money, it’s a little awkward, because they just stand there and stare at you, while you’re on vacation and they are trying to scrounge up enough money to eat or survive on.

We just laid on the beach, read, played sudoku and chatted. We were also bothered by the hotels dog, which is a miserable looking beast, and it was attracting all kinds of insects to our shady umbrella area. The lounge chairs are wooden framed with ropes acting as the most uncomfortable cushions ever. So after thoroughly enjoying the nothing we had been doing, we went into the water for about an hour while the tide was in and did some more nothing till about 12:00.

Then we went to the room, packed and showered and then went to the restaurant again for lunch, Hawaiian pizza, and ice cream…sweetness. The beach had overall been an extremely relaxing experience and it was there that I realized I would be back at work in just a few too short days. Dreadful. After lunch we grabbed our bags and went to settle the bill. The room actually cost us $10 less than we had though, which was good, since we were running low on cash.

Overall I hit the ATM 3 times this trip, withdrawing about $100 each time in local currency. We settled the bill, signed the guest book and then our pre-arranged taxi arrived at 2:00 and we were off. This is where the day really took a turn for the not so great times. Well, the drive itself was uneventful. We made a quick stop on the way to the airport so James could buy a sticker of the flag of Tanzania.

We made it to the airport at 3:30 for our 4:40 flight. While waiting at the check-in counter, we were just standing in the line and sweating profusely, it was blazing hot, it was pretty miserable, and it only lasted like 15 minutes, but we were near soaked in sweat when we finally got into the airport. But, there was an air-conditioned lounge for international travelers and that was us. We also used the airport store to waste our remaining Tanzanian shillings, so we bought sodas and candy bars. That was of course before we heard our flight had been delayed due to technical difficulties and was running about 2 hours late.

The small Zanzibari Precision Airways representative was however, authorized to alleviate our displeasures by attempting to bribe us with another soda and candy bars. Well, I’m not sure about in Africa, but in America, 2 hours of my time is worth a whole lot more than a snickers and a coke. On top of that, what had been booked as a direct flight from Zanzibar to Nairobi was now stopping at Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro Airport and then NBO.

When the plane landed in Dar, we had to change aircrafts because the one we had been on couldn’t make it that far. On top of that, the plane they herded us into had its rear door open, and the engines had been running, so the plane was extremely humid like it was outside and filled with exhaust fumes. The pilots have usually turned the planes off completely so the air inside stops circulating, and they become flying saunas! You can be sitting in a plane dripping sweat. We did get served another drink and a sandwich on one leg of the flight.

We eventually made it to NBO, got the car from long term parking and drove back to the Hampton House (the Baptist Mission Compound). We met up there with a Journeyman friend of James’ named Rebecca, and we went for a late dinner at about 10:30. We went to the Java House, and I had a bacon cheese burger, with fries and a chocolate milkshake. After that we went back to the mission and slept, so good!

Thursday March 23, 2006

We ended up sleeping in rather late, till about 9:00, we were supposed to check out at 10:00, so we took our morning showers and packed our bags for the next leg of our trip. We were able to leave our baggage in a room at the hotel after paying $32 for the one night at the hotel. We realized that we had the only air conditioned room in the place, so even without the light it was the best unit. We started walking towards the coast where we had dinner last night at Farodana Park. We headed to a fort, which was free to enter and quite impressive. It even had a stage for performances and the entire place was built in stone.

Then we went to the Palace Museum which I’m assuming was full of artifacts and historical stuffs. We also went to the House of Wonders, which is called the House of Wonders because it has an elevator, which James and I have both encountered before, but it was the first elevator on the island. Then we went through the market again and James bought a painting he liked, and I bought a few more things from a lady named Mama Rose. She told us she was from Nairobi, and that she used to be in the hotel business which is how she ended up in Zanzibar, but she decided to start working for herself and she bought this shop. She said now she can make her yearly salary in one or two good days! We were talking about the weather with her, and saying how hot and humid it is here, and she was agreeing, but then said she was only sweating like this because of the malaria, which she said “but, we are used to it.” I think she meant both, the heat and the malaria.

From the market we went to the Fort and caught a taxi to St. Monica’s where there was supposed to be another taxi waiting to take us to the East Coast of the island for our last nights stay. The taxi was there when we arrived at 1:00 and we were on our way! The drive was about an hour, and the island is very tropical, the landscape is covered in shrubbery and palm trees. I saw my first baobab tree on the drive, and we passed through a national forest and saw a Colobus Monkey, (which apparently only live here and in Brazil) perched in a tree right by the road.

We arrived at the hotel at 2:00 and were lead to our room, but the man did not have our reservations, and James thought something was a little off. But, we unpacked, covered our feet and looked out the windows at the gorgeous beach. Then James noticed the sign on the hotel next door “Katete” and said we were supposed to be staying there. So we packed everything back up and hopped over the dividing wall without telling anyone. We found an employee there who had been expecting us, and he is also the one James had arrange the taxi. Too bad the guy had them drop us off at the wrong hotel. The wrong hotel is called Paje Beach, but that’s also the name of the actual beach both hotels are located at., so you can kinda see what happened.

This new hotel was much nicer, I had a queen sized bed with mosquito netting, even though there haven’t been many mosquitoes the whole trip. There is a fan, lights and a private bath too. After dropping off our stuff in the room, we went back to the Paje Beach hotels restaurant since we had already ordered lunch there. We had grilled calamari with chips (fries) and onion and tomatoes, it was quite delicious.

Then we went to the beach and chilled for a bit, I did some Sudoku puzzles while James slept and I worked on my tan a bit. The beach here is rather strange. When we first went down to it, I wanted to go in for a quick refreshing dip, but the water was really really warm! Beyond that, you would have to wade 300-400 yards just to be more than waist deep. So, bottom line, it wasn’t that refreshing of a dip. We also had an ice cream bar while chilling at the beach, which was quite a treat.

We came back to the room at around 5:00 or 6:00, took showers and went exploring along the beach. We wandered about one hour in one direction, there are lots of vacant lots on the beach, which is unusual. We had been looking for a restaurant, but didn’t find any, so just had a nice cold soda at a bar and turned back. We ended up eating at Arabian Nights, which is two hotels north of ours. I had fried calamari with chips, very tasty! James had coconut encrusted fish. Then we went back to our hotel for another ice cream. We sat on the beach and ate it, staring at the amazing African stars, which are always awe inspiring. We came up to the room @ about 10:00 or so and talked a bit more before going to sleep.