my october 1

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went to tanga last weekend with my austrian friend biate. tangas a fairly large town 6 hours north of dar by big bus. got there just as it was getting dark and found our way to a nice hotel called sea breeze with ocean view, for about 6 dollars a night for the two of us. though the town is dying. i made the mistake of bringing an old travel book so we went around looking for restraunts, bars, even a cinema...all that dont exist anymore. in the morning we rented bikes and it started to pour down rain and we muddied ourselves looking for the famous abani caves...big caves, high cielings, though since the floor is soil no stalagtites. lots of bats, but the guy kept talking and we had to make him turn off the flashlight and be quiet in order to really hear them. then we paid a guy a thousand shillings to ride with us over to some mysterious hot springs--maji moto 'galamos". we got a bit lots and got to be very muddy, but it was a beautiful ride through coconut plantations, intercropped with marijuana. we got to a stinking five foot pool of hot water and spent 15 minutes arguing with the guy in swahili....he was telling us we couldnt bathe in it and i kept insisting we wanted to that it was "cama dawa"-like medicine. and we kept asking if there were hippos or crocks, and finally we just jumped in. he said he was leaving so we had to get out after only 2 minutes even though it was nice and bubbly dispite the 3 feet of muck your legs sink into.
so the ride back was wuite difficult, it was 15 km upp a slow slant. that night we met two guys who took us to a bar that had traditional tanzanian twist music and people actually danced the twist, and we danced too, and it was so nice to see women out that arent prostitutes. there were more women there than men...i liked the place but we spent too long there.
and the next day we went on the bumpies rode ive ever been on with the oldest bus ive ever been on....a short distance took us two hours to get to pangani...and i got there still shaking, it felt good to be on the ground except all these guides hoarded us....which im used to now so i yelled at them because i figure i have to be as loud as they are to me, and we said we didnt need help, as usual. then we proceeeded to try to find a place to stay and realized it is a much smaller village than we thought and that we couldnt find anyplace and the people werent really understanding us, so we went with our heads hung in disorientation back to the guide's "office" and he finally took us to a place we could relax in...a really simple dirty guest house but its right on the beach. we only had that evening and the next morning anyway, and the beach was amazing. no need to go to the expensive resorts outside of town.
thinking it mighjt be a good place to charter a fishing boat though....100 dollars for up to 10 people....its just far far far out of the way. the people there were amazing, after sundown (everyone there is muslim) they talk in the streets and eat lovely healthy street food. fruit cups with peanuts and milk, bungobungo fruits which taste like sour patch kids, sugar cane juice, oh lots of things......very friendly the men and women both which is refreshing.
right--this week is lots of work in a way, just because im not used to it. tests i havent had since high school and some papers i dont undersand what they want me to do (i think just summerize old books)...oh the work here is so different and i worry about the future of tanzania if this is how they are told to learn and think. sorry for my inability of making this blog coherent....and write to me!

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Photos

church in bagamoyo
first catholid church of east africa in bagamoyo

church in bagamoyo
first catholid church of east africa in bagamoyo