The Belaggio, The Venetian, and The Econo Lodge

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Sunday, July 3, 2011

After a rotten night of sleep, we landed in Dar es Salaam… and talk about hot! It was 7:00AM and close to 75 degrees. The day just got hotter from there.

We were greeted by the VSO Tanzania people and whisked away to our hotel in downtown Dar. The hotel was an Econo Lodge… Not one that was part of the North American chain (the spelling is different... Econo & Lodge are two different words here), but rather a hotel privately owned by very friendly Muslims. Let me tell you, they really put the "Econo" in Econo Lodge.

There were 12 volunteers flying in that day. Our group was the first to arrive. Six of us checked into the hotel, only to realize we would be sharing rooms. My room-mate was Bairu (a retired high school teacher from Toronto). This is where I realized I was no longer in Canada… It was all good, just not what I thought. No worries, I can roll with it all.

Our rooms consisted of 2 single beds, a ceiling fan, a wardrobe to hang up our clothes (but no hangers), and a bathroom. To say it was minimal would be exaggerating.

Oddly enough, our pillows were the most up-to-date items in the room. They were Disney Princess Pillows. Seriously, two grown men who are strangers, sharing a room with Disney Princess Pillows! It was at this time I knew my sense of humour would get me far.

At night, there were no mosquito nets on the bed, so we had to crank the ceiling fan up high. The reason for doing this was so the potentially malaria riddled pests weren’t able to land on us and bite us while we slept. The fan sounded like a jet engine. Surprisingly, I did sleep through it all.

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Comments

[Jeff]

What? Were they allot of Little Mermaid Pillows?

[Amit]

Didn't you have the same Disney Princess pillows at your condominium in Toronto?