A recap of the last week

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So the flight was long... very long. We got roughly 2-3 hours of sleep over the course of 35 hours. By the time we made it to Dar last night, we could barely stay upright long enough to enjoy an amazing meal on our road of butter chicken, prawns, Of course accompanied by a bottle of Tusker beer! I felt sick for the first 2 days just getting used to the water and food but im still not eating too much of the street food.

Daresalam is a city alive with people everywhere, at all hours of the day. We had no idea that African street food could taste this good. And yes, Alykhan tried madaf (coconut), victoria, prawns, pilipili corn, sugar cane, guava, barazi, mishkakhi and loved it! We have tried many of the foods offered on the street, but i am still wary on eating street food because i dont want to fall sick. I prefer eating in the little shops, my favourite so far is KT shop which sells really good kebabs, parathas, etc. We are all learning swahili and can speak tidbits here and there. Alykhan only picked up kitunguu (means onion) and says that to everyone. Its fun and the people here especially ismaili's are really nice and hostpitable. Alykhan has made friends with a Masai, named Mourani he's real nice, carries a HUGE knife and knows some english. We taught him to say yo whats up! We usually take him everywhere we go ... just in case...

Dar is hot, busy and full of life, there is always something for everyone. However, the things that we will likely not forget are: the friendly people, the HOSE (used in the bathroom becuz there is no toilet paper), the horrific traffic (here, cars have the right of way), the strange smells that seem to always catch you off guard and the cheap beer/food. Dinner tonight cost less than $7, and comprised of 5 dishes (chicken, beef, prawns), 4 drinks, 4 chai, and coconut water and monthar for dessert. We are going to all come back 30 kgs heavier!

We have visited a resort town called Kunduchi beach which is a private beach with white sand, huts, king crabs, and tons of seashells. Alykhan spent most of his day pickup up the seashells to make a necklace and later found out that he could buy one for $1000 shilllings (which is like 80 cents)HAHA. We also booked our serengetti tour which we will be going on next week after july 11.

There are alot of things going on for the golden jubilee as well. cooking (from scratch) all of the dinners for every night, music parties, ghazal nights, rasra, etc. There is alot of excitement here and alot of Canadians have already started to arrive in Dar. They are expecting about 5000 more from abraod. Two days ago we helped out with the food commitee to roll and make 2000 parathas, karaia gosh, sev, etc. its fun because all the women and maas get together, "Gossip", and share stories while we help cook and prepare the meals. (kind of like a huge family). They place a huge importance on family and religion here and that's one thing that is missing in Canada. We go to Dharkhana jk mostly and have visited Upanga jk as well. There is a hall( like the roundup specifically built for MHI called the Diamond Jubilee hall. We also saw the scale used to weigh MSultanMshah in diamonds.

Hope all is well in Calgary (and beyond), and we will post some pix when we get to an internet cafe with a card reader!

Thanks for dropping by, and we'll fill everyone in on our adventures soon from wherever we end up!


Miss you all!

Zahra & Family

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