Egads!

It's cold in Casablanca...

But I suppose it's colder in Michigan, so okay... I'm alright with 50s F here.

:-)

I can hardly believe I've left Tanzania. That hot country wanted to hold on to me. I'm glad not to be melting away in my sleep anymore, but sad to be away from those kind people. 

In 1 day, I went from ocean to ocean, seeing Zanzibar to seeing the Atlantic! Whew. What a ride. And  my goodness. THE FOOD on Qatar Airways...it was amazing. Not to mention the juice. Apple and Orange...oh how I love thee. 

The juice was cold, almost better than the sugar cane juice and pineapple-mango-tamarind in Zanzibar. Would you believe it, be found a hole-in-the-wall place in Stonetown selling this juice for 200 shillings? That's about 20 cents USD a glass, my friends. And so fresh...Ahhh.

Goodbye, land of eternal summer...Hello to the north!

Almost Turkey-Time!

This will be my second Thanksgiving spent out of the United States...

I'm not sad about it, but this does have me thinking about what next year(s) may look like. Time for family, right? Right. And I just keep getting a older each year. Funny thing, that.

I do love all this traveling, and sharing the experience with new and old friends. Particularly camp friends. But I wonder. Will this be the trend as those years continue? Will there be a person who's going to join with me in these adventures, maybe a home for children?

And when I return, it's not looking like it will be to the same community, but to a new one. Starting all over, building a home and family with the people nearby...

Whew. Talk about personal. It's getting sticky in here. But that just might be this Dar Es Salaam heat.

Comments, questions, concerns? Send me an email, friends!

Until next time.

for mom

Before Election Results...

(I wrote this blog entry....)

Whew. What an awesome ride. It’s amazing to be here in this beautiful mountain region of Tanzania. The days often get warmer than I would prefer, since I was spoilt by a couple summers on the northern tip of Lake Huron, but that’s the price you pay for mango/pineapple season, I suppose. And it’s well worth it when there is water to spare for a little bucket shower in the heat of the day or before climbing into a warm bed at night.

I’m still in the honeymoon phase of unemployment here, although it does nag at me a bit that I have zero income while traipsing about Africa and Europe. It’s been almost 3 weeks now that I’ve been here, and I have a bit of a routine. If Amber doesn’t wake me up at 6 to go see the sunrise or meet the bus driver’s cow, I sleep in until about 9 and putter around until it’s time for chai with the teachers. Maybe I’ll have some coffee and read, or write. Or perhaps tackle Swahili.

Oh Kiswahili. It’s a fairly straightforward language, often combining tense and subject (and probably anything else you need in the sentence, it seems) to the verb, but it’s slow going for me to memorize the different parts. I did manage to greet an entire wedding audience in Swahili, English, and the local language, but that’s about as far as my competency goes J I just hope people don’t answer me and ask a question with words I don’t know!

Got off track from the routine there – you’re just going to have to stay in suspense, because I’m not going back to it! Instead, we’re going to the weekend…

I climbed a couple hours to a mountain’s crater lake the other day with Amber, and we unsuccessfully tried to capture an image of the monkeys who eluded us in the trees while not falling down the trail. If I can get the camera to work, the picture with this post will be of that hike. How are things in the rest of the world? I hear there’s some sort of presidential election going on soon in America. 95% of Tanzanians are hoping you vote for Obama. Just sayin’.

;-)