update

Okay, enough not-so-subtle hints. I am updating. I was supposed to go camping this weekend so was waiting to update after that with exciting camping stories and photos but the trip has been delayed for now so that will have to wait for another entry. Not a whole lot to say in meanwhile really. Things here are settled into their own little rhythm. I have not been doing much new exploring recently though I really need to get back on track with that. Amazing how laziness sets in. Mostly just been working during the week and hanging out with friends on the weekend. Must make more progress on the swahili front as well... have been slacking badly.

I have to admit, in the last week or so I have taken some serious losses in the war against mosquito bites. I have at least ten million bites on each foot and thousands more spread elsewhere. I got a bite near my knee while wearing full length jeans! How does that even happen? Between that and a few days with a minor stomach bug, things were looking pretty miserable for a while. But I am regrouping and getting ready for round 27 and hoping the 26-0 record will start to turn around because I can't handle the itchiness any more! I'm considering creating a full body mosquito net outfit that will just go permanently over my regular clothing. The search for 100% DEET begins...

Bagamoyo and SUSHI!

Sorry for the posting delay... power cut out on me Friday so couldn't get this posted. So this is actually from a week ago.

Bagamoyo

The day after the accident I'd been planning to go to Bagamoyo for two days with Marika... so with very little sleep, I packed my bag and we took off for the weekend. Ended up staying for half a day and coming back. Not because it wasn't nice but because it really wasn't that much of a hassle to get there so we'd rather just go again another time and we were both feeling tired and lazy ( I blame the massive headache I still had). But we had a really nice visit and even found a local to give us a little tour around - the guy teaches wood carving and has offered to come to Dar for a lesson some time... Really want to do it and the lesson itself isn't so expensive but the cost of the wood is quite steep so haven't decided yet.

Bagamoyo was the capital of colonial German rule in East Africa and a very important trade port in its day (in particular- slave trading). It's an hour north of Dar by Dalla Dalla (and they drive FAST). The architecture has colonial as well as arab and indian influence though the buildings have not been kept up very well. There are quite a few areas to wander and Marika and I really only saw a small part of what there is on this trip - preferring to spend some time enjoying the beach which is now a centre for boat construction. I most enjoyed just walking around and taking in the most vibrant colors nature has to offer - every color of flower and even the leaves were an amazing shade of green.

Sushi

Yesterday I had sushi for dinner... highlight of my month for sure! They don't have any salmon here which I'm quite devastated about but the tuna sashimi was pretty darn good and they had a fantastic spicy tuna roll. I even liked the california rolls. My mouth is already watering for more.... mmmm

Eventful weekend

So... the weekend got off to an interesting start. Friday night I was meeting a friend for a quick drink before dinner which got detoured into going to a BBQ with a large group of South Africans. Had a really nice time and a great dinner and we all headed out for an early night. And never made it home unfortunately. Not long into our drive home we got rear ended by a guy driving way too fast and not paying attention to the speedbump that we had just gone over. He took a little flight over it and ended up hitting the very bottom of our rear bumper pretty hard. Their car made out a lot worse than the pick up I was in but we still got bashed around a little. Fortunately we were wearing seatbelts so just got a bump on the head from the headrest and a slight hit on the shoulder from the seatbelt. However, car accidents here, especially when concerning Foreigners in one car and locals in the other I imagine, are a bit of a hassle. No mandatory insurance like at home. So we spent a good chunk of time waiting for the police and so on and then had to go down to the police station for a while. The police were actually fairly easy to deal with it seems (though I mostly tried to stay out of it). They didn't want to let us take the car home in case more damage happened before the inspection. The police officer was asking for my phone number... he'd already seen my phone and I didn't think saying no would help us out very much so I made sure he agreed to let us leave with the car before giving him my number :( Hopefully will never hear from him again. That was my friday night. Will write about the rest of the weekend later.