Mambo!

Poa!

That's just one of the many "street" greetings that Ru and I have learned since arriving in Tanzania last Sunday afternoon. The trip is going very well so far. Dubai (DXB) was totally surreal--we had a female cab driver who had painted the roof of her minivan pink, wore a pink hat over her headscarf and spent the entire ride extolling the virtues of being divorced, and then we went to a mall with an indoor ski slope and saw women with full burkas shopping at dolce gabbana, if that give you an idea of the bizarre juxtapositions.

We only saw the airport in Nairobi (NBO), and it did not make us want to go back. Our flight was over an hour late arriving, meaning we missed our connection to Dar es Salaam (DAR), as well as the ferry to Zanzibar (ZNZ). After much walking back and forth to different desks, waiting in line and talking to different Kenya Airways agents who contradicted whatever the previous staff person had just told us, our persistence paid off, though, and we were able to transfer our ticket to fly directly into Zanzibar (ZNZ). That shaved a good 8 hours off the trip, which was awesome, considering how long it had been since we had slept horizontally at that point!

The only downside to flying straight to ZNZ was that Lina was already in DAR waiting for us. Thus came the first of many experiences in which one of Lina's many family members saved our butts. :) She arranged for her brother Omi to pick us up. Lina's mom's home is ~15 minutes from the airport, and after saying a quick hello to her mom, Mariam, and meeting their housekeeper, Cecilia (Cici), we settled in for a six-or-so-hour nap. I vaguely remember Lina coming in to set up the mosquito net for us when she got back to ZNZ, but otherwise we were dead to the world. We got up around 10:30 to have some of Cici's amazingly good food and Mariam's yummy banana bread, before heading back to bed for another 10 or so hours.

It took a good two days to feel semi-normal again, but ZNZ is a great place to chill and relax. It's the island way. Pole pole, slowly. Omi and Lina did a great job showing us around Stone Town, which is the historic section of Zanzibar, full of gorgeous old, Arabic-influenced buildings. Yesterday, we took the ferry to DAR, where we were met by her cousin, Tito, and later joined by her cousin Moses. They helped us find a hotel and took us out for dinner. Dar is a big, dirty, noisy city, and I hope to spend as little time there as possible.

Then today, we hopped a bus to Moshi. On our own for the first time since we arrived, Ru and I have spent a good deal of time today reflecting on how kind and generous and helpful everyone has been. We miss Lina and Omi!

Anyhow, the cafe is closing now, so I have to sign off. We leave for our hike up the Machame route of Kilimanjaro tomorrow morning!!!! Then Lina will meet us for a safari, then back to ZNZ.

Love to all. Happy birthday to Jalen, Bon, Susan, Graham and Susan, and happy wedding to Melissa and Kate!