Greetings from Tanzy

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Greetings to all
After a miserable few days cooped up in a windowless conference room and eating all my meals in this hotel, I finally escaped. But I'm getting ahead of myself. This hotel is well, let's just call it special. It really isn't for the foreigners. As a matter of fact, this evening a woman said, "Mzungu!!" (whitey) when I came in. In any case, today the toilet didn't work. Yesterday, I had to wait in line for the iron and hairdryer. The hotel employee stood outside my door waiting for me to finish because of the queue, he needed the items back rather quickly. That's cool, I'm down with that. No need to stock a bunch of irons and hair dryers. The conference room (and the hotel) are put of something like an open air mall. I can't really explain it. But, the bathroom is public for the shoppers. It's great after lunch.I don't think the toilets flush, or else the water is yellow - you decide. What's really odd is I walk by some store that stocks respiratory equipment, like a bad dream out of EOH. I can't remember the acronym for them. Tomorrow I move to the Holiday Inn which is in downtown Dar. I'm excited, because I'm out in the boonies by a graveyard and pit for burning trash and into the city next to historical sites.

I also was a complete dork and ingratiated myself to my colleagues until one of them asked if I wanted to go to dinner. We went to the "Rose Garden" down the street. An outdoor dining experience.

Long story short - remember Malawi where I talked about the pitcher that came around to wash your hands to use your God given utensils? Dude, that is so me. I did it. I ate with my hands. And I ate goat. Yes, I ate the three billy goats gruff. And then I used the toothpick and everything (even though I was disgusted by my self for using the toothpick). Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Not a single tourist around. As a matter of fact, the waitress said something in Swahili and stared at me. I said, Asante sanaa, which is thank you. Wrong answer. So she kept staring. Then my dinner companion, Dr. Mango, told me what to say. Which sounded a whole lot like sanaa, but maybe I'm wrong.

And it keeps getting better. I didn't fall into the hole or the bidet bucket in the lav or go on my pants. Which after a few of the Tanzanian Brewing Company's finest, is a bit surprising. hahahahaha

Tanzania is the coolest ever and tops everything so far. Well, I don't know, the people in Malawi were so super nice, but I think Tanzanians come close! (and of course they beat the Mozambicans hands down)

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