Will you be my secret animal?

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7/24/09:

Hello all, time for the daily blog.

To pick up where I left off yesterday...

After discovering the ICTR was closed, Jessie, Tom, Carrie and I decided to walk to a shopping complex called Njiro, where the cinema is. It was like a 3km walk, but we had nothing else to do. Along the way we passed the Kilimanjaro Brewery so we tried to see if we could get a tour. The brewery was like a maximum security prison! More security at the brewery than at the ICTR I swear. Anyhow, we couldn't get a tour because we weren't an "official group" so we'd have to write a letter asking for permission. We continued on the road to Njiro and got some nice sight seeing in....anything that's away from Arusha makes me happy so even though we walked really far I was glad for the change of scenery. The complex was pretty, but they didn't have any worth while movies, so we got some fresh mango juice and then caught a dala dala back to the Impala Roundabout, and from there Jessie, Carrie and Tom wanted to try the Ethiopian restaurant and I had NO problem eating there again, so we had a delicious lunch there.

I spent the rest of the day at the craft market finishing up my gift buying and getting the final gift for my secret animal.

After dinner we all got ready for the party and improvised to make some pretty impressive costumes. A lot of people painted their faces, some wore horns, Carrie created a hippo snout with a waterbottle and bottle caps...Emily drew me horns that I stuck into my hair with bobbypins, and I put on long black earrings that looked like the wildebeest's beard. I was very impressed with everyone's effort, we all looked great. Some people took pictures so when I can get some I'll post them. Andddd my secret animal gave me the best final gift....some really cool silver earrings and a little giraffe mask which I had wanted to buy myself!!

The boys ruled that we had to go out to Via Via with our costumes, so it certainly provided for some interesting conversation starters all night. I eventually took my horns off (luckily I looked normal, as far as my clothes and makeup go) and some people's paint started smearing, but it was fun while it lasted. I drank my fill of Tusker (my favorite beer here) and had a great time with everyone. By 1:30 I was tipsy, tired and ready for bed. It was a great evening 😊

Today was rather boring..it started off cold and rainy, so we had breakfast and then just sat around watching TV. Emily and Taina and I went to the Chinese restaurant for lunch and had delicious dumplings and a spring roll, then we capped it off by getting some cookies at the market on our way home.

I spent the rest of the afternoon watching a movie and napping, it was just one of those days.

There's really nothing else exciting that happened, except the car crash we heard during dinner. They've been working on the road here and there's a big hole and a pile of dirt that they just left in the road, with no signs or cones or anything. Apparently, someone hit the dirt, slid, almost ran into our security hut at the front of our hotel, and then skidded into the ditch on the other side of the road, and then ran from the scene! It was ridiculous...and what's more amazing is I didn't even see any cops come! TIA man, TIA.

Time to go watch a movie and be lazy with everyone else...

Kwaheri!
<3<3<3

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