Weekend on the Beach

I can't believe it but it's already been a month since I left Vancouver and two weeks since I arrived in Dar. Time is swishing by and I have yet to do anything productive.
I finally got out of the office long enough to enjoy the city a little. Saturday I got a tour of the neighborhood from a friend who lives/works where I live (there are a few flats that are rented out and then the main house where he lives with the owner). He took us through the smaller routes around the area and then to a nice quiet beach that's a little out of the way and so not so busy. Marika and I weren't expecting to be out so long and so didn't think of sunscreen. oops. But we weren't fully sunburnt... yet.
Sunday we went out to Bongoyo Island which has a really lovely beach and was not very busy. It was quite expensive to get out there and then we had to pay a park entry fee but it was a nice day at the end of which I must admit I have received my first ever sunburn. Just a little patch on one shoulder. I put on sunscreen and was in partial shade most of the time but the malaria meds make you sensitive to the sun so I guess it was enough. But it is nice to have a tan at last! I did take photos over the weekend and hopefully this evening I will get to the internet cafe to upload them.
I neglected to comment on food in my last post... Though the food is usually pretty good, there is very very little variety. A standard meal is rice or ugali with meat of some kind (always prepared the same way as far as I can tell). Often there is a little bit of veggies with it, sometimes some beans or cooked banana. Sometimes there is Pilau or Biryani which is basically the same thing but with flavored rice. The other option is chipsi and mishkaki (french fries and beef on a skewer)which can be excellent but sometimes the beef is very over-cooked from sitting on a grill until purchased. Fortunately, almost any type of food can be purchased so cooking at home adds a little variety to my meals. And there are lots of cheap, fresh fruits and veggies to buy so I'm trying to inject some health into my diet that way.

Thanks everyone who has made comments... it's nice to hear your thoughts (though maybe not the one about the mice... which, by the way, seem to be doing very well)