Another weekend in Bagamoyo

see all photos »

Despite the disappointment of Friday the evening turned out to be enjoyable (after a large dose of ibuprofen). There were 10 of us at dinner Friday night. The guys poked some fun at me for not speaking Swahili (I'm getting better at reading it but it's too much to process when someone is speaking quickly) and the girls sat mostly mute as is often the case. The food was quite good as usual and I've even discovered the trick to eating pasta with my fingers, actually I'm getting pretty good at this whole no utensils business. After that we chatted and watched some bad made-for-TV movies, thank you Hallmark, and ate some more food when we all got hungry again around 10 (so much for my African diet I had hoped for).

see all photos »

However, I vow never to spend an entire weekend in this town again. At least not without having sufficient activities planned. There are some people who thrive on solitude. They enjoy being around people but what really rejuvenates and energizes them is time when they can be alone with themselves to gather their thoughts, ponder whatever quandary is on their mind... I am NOT one of those people.  I am a social creature which is unfortunate for this specific trip. While I enjoy some alone time to relax I do not thrive on it as others do. In fact, I find too much of it draining and irritating. I am quite sick of being alone with my own thoughts. I think once I get home (in another 3 months...) I will see how long I can be surrounded by people. Saturday night, after watching some TV, finishing both my books and starting War and Peace (which I downloaded to my laptop on Friday) and studying Swahili for a few hours I decided to exercise my brain. I played some puzzle and card games on my computer and actually went so far as to practice writing the alphabet with my left hand. They say that writing with your opposite hand uses parts of your brain that usually remain inactive... so I gave it a shot... I think what I've learned is that I need to travel on weekends!

see all photos »

I try as hard as I can to sleep in but to no avail. The latest I've managed in Bagamoyo is 7:15... which makes the day that much longer. At 9am on Sunday I sent a desperate text message to Brandt saying I was already bored and wouldn't mind hanging out later... Thankfully he obliged and we took a nice 3 hour walk around the town. We wandered off the rode to climb a couple trees and meander through some fields. On the way back we were stopped by a police officer who asked us where we were coming from, what we were doing here, why hadn't he seen us before... the usual. But he was pretty amiable and thankfully we weren't asked for our passports (which were at home) or a bribe (neither of us had more than $5 on us) and we were sent on our way. We decided to meet up in an hour for dinner because eating out always takes longer. I was especially excited about the prospect of proper utensils! I think spoons must be cheaper than forks and knives because that's all we're ever given and you are expected to use them for everything including cutting the very tough meat.  There is a great market to introduce the Spork here and if I ever come back I will definitely bring some with me. We sat down at 6:10 and ordered our beers and meals within 10 minutes (very speedy service). Twenty minutes later she came back to tell me there were no eggs... did you just spend the last 20 minutes looking? or perhaps coaxing the hen to lay a few? I changed my order from chicken kiev with mush potatoes to vegetable curry served with chapatti and rice. A little while later we ordered more beers. We drank, we talked, 45 minutes later we ordered more beers... we drank we talked... 45 minutes later we ordered another round. OK, this is just getting ridiculous! 1hour and 50 minutes to make 2 meals! Not to mention the beers here are a bit bigger, we had been walking around for 3 hours getting dehydrated and at this point it had been nearly 8 hours since we had eaten (far longer than my preferred every-two-hour meal schedule) we were getting a bit drunk. Finally our meals came... vegetable curry and potato mush... sigh... not quite what I ordered but.... actually, both were quite tasty they just didn't go well together. I'll definitely go back to that place but I think I'll bring a snack with me next time!