Muzungos can't dance

see all photos »

Friday was pretty uneventful. I hung around Muhimbili all day, attempted to fix some Skype problems to no avail. Felix took me to lunch at the faculty cafeteria which was surprisingly good and then to Kariakoo to buy a cell phone! I feel so much more connected now that I have one. And it doesn't cost anything to receive calls, so call away!

In the evening I went to a Simba performance with Magnus and Lars just down the street from TYCS (the hostel I've been staying at). It was long but it was a pretty good performance. East Africa TV News was there filming and interviewing. Unfortunately for us near the end of the performance they pulled all the Muzungos (white people) up on stage presumably to laugh at how we can't dance. Even more unfortunately, Magnus somehow managed to capture part of it on video... as if I need proof of my inability to shake my booty. Afterwards we wandered around the city trying to find some food but everything was either closed or very sketchy. It seems Dar all but shuts down by 9pm. It's not uncommon for us all to be in bed by 10pm. But, I guess that understandable when we're woken up at 5 everymorning by the birds, people cleaning and the call to prayer over the loud speakers. We did finally find a Lebonese restaurant after 45 minutes of searching and were pleasantly surprised by the food. The beef was not only seasoned well but it didn't take 10 minutes to chew each bite! I feel much more comfortable walking around the city now, slowly but surely I'm getting used to my new surroundings.