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I have been without internet since sometime at the beginning of August. That is my excuse for not writing since then, and the reason that this is so much longer than normal.
The other day I tried monkey fruit for the first time. It was quite good. It looks really disgusting though.
When we went to the Institute for children’s class on Friday I could smell hotdogs. I wanted/still want a hotdog so bad. With onions. Or with hot peppers. Or a jalapeno cheese smokie. How about all three?
I would like to rescind my previous statement declaring that I hate Lusaka.
Mei, Oriana and I went on Tuesday. Houman picked us up and since there wasn’t enough room in the cab for the three of us, Oriana and I rode in the back. So fun.
Oriana and I had to pick up our visas. We had applied last week and it’s only supposed to take a couple of hours, but it figures that on the day we applied the consular was in Livingstone for the day; TIA. They spelled my name wrong; they forgot the o. I feel like that’s a very important letter in my name.
We went to a Thai restaurant for lunch. It was soooooooo good. We had red curry stirfry, green curry and some other kind of stirfry that I can’t remember.
When term ended, the excitement really began. First Musonda and David, two of the Baha’is got hitched. It was a very fun time. Although I was dressed up I still managed to chase small children around. It’s probably one of my favourite things to do. We got to eat good food and dance. Since Banani is in the middle of nowhere, the festivities ended early which was a disappointment, but it was still fun
Two days after that Oriana, Mei and I piled into a super sketchy bus and left for Tanzania.
Now, at the time we thought this bus was horrible, and I swore that I would never ride with Falcon Air again. We were sooooo wrong. There was an accident which caused our already delayed bus to be delayed even further
So we finally arrived in Dar es Salaam at approximately 0400. I was so tired and SO DIRTY. We got so filthy just sitting on the stupid bus, this made me even angrier.
The next day we took the ferry to Zanzibar, which was even more beautiful than I imagined. We got to eat so much good food. There were tables and tables of every seafood imaginable, potatoes, vegetables, fruit, bread. You could basically eat everything and for pretty cheap too.
There was one bad thing about Stonetown and his name was Victor. Now, Victor could have been a nice man, but he was deceptive. We had friend’s of Mei’s friend pick us up in Stonetown and then we met Victor at this man’s house. He told us that we would meet again the next day and he would take us around town, we though he was being a nice friend. This was definitely not the case. So we go around and then we go have lunch and we want to leave and go see things, but he won’t take us. So I ask if he can give us directions and he won’t. What the heck. We eventually leave, but we are no longer friends. Then at the end of the day when we are back at our hostel he says that since he spent the whole day with us it would be TSH25000 each (abou $20). We say oh no sir. We were very angry, and told him that he never told us this, we never asked him to come with us, and when we wanted him to leave he wouldn’t. Gosh, Victor was a pain. We ended up just giving him TSH10000 all together, but still.
We wandered around Stonetown for a couple of days and then Oriana and I went to the beach while Mei went to Uganda. The ocean was so blue, and the sand was so white. It was so nice, but it was really windy. We met a lot of very nice people, and Oriana fell in love more than once.
After spending a couple of days there we headed back to Dar es Salaam and then we went for a safari. Man, it was so fun. I saw so many animals. We saw zebras, giraffes, impalas, buffalo, elephants, hippos, hyenas, warthogs, vultures and a lot of other birds. No lions though.
So then we left. Remember when I said we thought the bus ride there was the worst one ever? So we get to the bus station a little bit late and our seats our gone. We are ushered onto another bus instead. We think this is fine, the three of us are able to sit together whatever. So, we arrive at the border 10 hours later and are told that we have to get off the bus. This is also fine. Then we are told that the borcder is closed. Not so fine. The border is closed and we aren’t allowed to sleep on the bus. What the heck, this is not what we paid for. We get the bus people to put us up in a guest house. This guest house made The Renoir look like a paradise.
So they come to get us at 0800 to take us across the border. We cross back into Zambia and are taken to our bus. Now we have been told that the bus will leave shortly. Obviously this is not the ccase. The bus leaves at 1530. You have got to be kidding. We arrive back at Banani at 0600 the next day. It took us a full two days to make this journey. Never again.
The very next day we get back on a bus. This was a short bus trip to Livingstone. Victoria Falls was very nice and I learned a lot. I learned that it is important to always listen to Mrs. Moore. Mrs. Moore is a very wise woman. She told me not to walk around with food in my hands. I ate a lunch bar and it was stolen from my purse by a baboon. I was scared.
I also decided that it would be a great idea to go bungee jumping. Now, this was actually a great idea and I had fun. I had to actually jump though and that was terrifying, but then it was soooooo fun. I would do it again any day. It was 111m high, the third highest in the world.
Because of my stellar organizing skills, I discovered that around the period of the full moon you can see a lunar rainbow at the falls. This was actually not as cool as it sounds. Ok, it was cool on film, but in person it was just a grey rainbow.
After Livingstone we just came back and bummed around Banani for the last few days of break. Two new girls arrived from the United States and we told them horror stories. Oriana left and it was sad.
My girls have come back, and I missed them more than I would have imagined. I have grown quite fond of them.
Ok, that’s all for now.
LYLT
