Eating food with your fingers, who knew it'd be so much fun??

Africa » Tanzania » North » Arusha
July 17th 2009

Published: July 17th 2009

7/17/09:

Hamjambo everyone. Time for a blog session...I think I'm behind a day or so..

7/16/09:

Today was our last day of presentations for class. They were really good and very thorough...I think the best ones were today. Emily's especially, my roommate, her presentation was AMAZING. She did it on the "largest hospital" in Northern Tanzania, one that caters for almost 11 million people....but don't think it was anything like a US hospital. She made such great recommendations for how they could improve in each sector, I told her she should seriously send her presentation to the director at the hospital. Taina, my other roommate, also did a great job. Sipho embarrassed me and Emily again in front of everyone, telling them we got 29 out of 30...again, not a fan of the public praise. But he also gave me back my paper...I had sent him my thesis that I wrote for Dr. Beckman's independent study and he gave me some great feedback which I was really happy about.

After class, Emily and I ventured off to find this Ethiopian restaurant we've seen signs for. We took a wrong turn and ended up walking a mile in the wrong direction, but it was such a beautiful and serene side street we didn't even mind. We finally found the place and it was actually a really cute little bed and breakfast. We sat outside under this canopy of plants and trees and flowers. We split a veggie platter and we got to pick which four dishes we wanted...we went with split peas, lentils, spinach, cabbage/carrots/potatoes and it was served on this like, spongy bread stuff (called injera), think an Ethiopian version of naan, only less bread like, more polenta like. It was so good and you just scooped it up on the injera and ate it, or just ate it with your hands. It was DELICIOUS, so fresh, and so flavorful. We finished off our meal with some real, dark Ethiopian coffee, with the grinds still floating around inside. It was so good, but really strong so we felt a bit cracked out afterward, haha. But it was perfect because we wanted to explore some more and we found this great fair-trade center for Maasi women, but it also doubled as an NGO. Their goal is to educate Maasi women and get them into school, as well as providing a fair trade center for their crafts. We ended up talking to this guy for a while who is studying law at a university close to Dar Es Salaam and he walked back with us a bit, showing us a nice short cut down a beautiful side road.

We were going to explore another craft market, but it was across a busy street and while Emily managed to scurry across, I hesitated and got way too scared. The road was just too busy and cars and buses were just whizzing past. I got hit by a car in the States, at a crosswalk, so me crossing a busy Tanzanian road at 4 in the afternoon...not happening. But we had a great afternoon and spent some time on the side streets instead of the hassle filled main drags.

I just relaxed and showered then had dinner and used the computer after. Some of us sat around watching Sex and the City for a while then everyone except me, Tom, Emily and Ariel went to bed. So we just sat there drinking wine and having a great, deep, philosophical life discussion until like 3:30 in the morning. It was nice, I like having those kinds of chats with new people and I really liked everyone that I was talking with at that point. I was definitely a chatty Kathy, as I was on my third glass of wine (my last one being rather large thanks to Tom) but it was a great time. Tom had to have been hurting this morning because he was leaving at like 5am for a 3 day hike up Mt. Meru!

It was a good day 😊

7/17/09:

Well thank god yesterday was good because today was horrid. Emily and I didn't wake up until like 10:30, and the hotel people were nice enough to still make us breakfast. After breakfast, I had planned to just put on my headphones and walk around alone, exploring and taking photos. But, my stomach got HORRIBLY upset and ended up putting me in bed all afternoon.

I managed to crawl of bed around 4 and made myself a pb and j, drank like a gallon of water, and proceeded to spend the rest of the afternoon reading. I mean, I'm trying to finish this book anyhow, but it definitely ruined my plans for the day. Emily had gone out for lunch and she came home in even worse shape than I when she got home, so she was then forced to lay in her bed the rest of the afternoon / evening. I don't think it's the food itself here, I think it's the sanitation or the lack of. Hand washing is not common here, I don't know how common veggie washing is, things sit out a lot and there's not a lot of refrigeration. I think it just breeds bacteria that our stomachs aren't used to.

Anyhow, dinner didn't improve the situation much because they served me curry veggies, so I just had some rice and soup. I had really wanted to go out somewhere after dinner and have a glass of wine, but Jessie's knee has developed some weird infection, Emily's stomach is still bothering her, Taina doesn't drink and the rest of the group is either in Zanzibar or on safari. I've got cabin fever like you wouldn't believe!!

Oh well, might as well just relax and take it easy tonight since we leave for safari tomorrow at 8:30 😊

I won't have my computer all weekend, so I'll probably write in my notebook and then transfer it onto here. I plan on taking lots of pictures so I'll try to get them uploaded ASAP.

Have a great weekend everyone, I'll be off romping with animals in Tarangerie!

Ciao!
<3<3<3

Eating food with your fingers, who knew it'd be so much fun??

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