Our first weekend in Moshi! So it has officially been 1 week since our arrival in this beautiful place. Still getting used to things, but all together it has been pretty good.
Friday was our first Swahili lesson, which was quite interesting. I can't say I learned too much... but it was only the first day and soon enough I will learn some phrases I can use in real life. We ended up walking back from the lessons, as it was only 45 minutes. Zacharia was the name of the man who gave us lessons, and his 12 and 3 year old boy walked us halfway home to show us the route, cute kids who knew how to speak English!
Friday night we decided to venture out to a bar in Shanty Town (which is the "ritzy" part of town I guess) called Glacier Bar. Basically it was a large grassy area with a couple bars and a "dance" floor with a DJ spinning some mad Tanzanian tunes in the background. We ate dinner here, which was very tasty and tried two new types of African beer, Safari and Serengeti. Apparently Glacier bar is the hotspot for Mzungu's, because we ended up meeting a group of people that were volunteering through some organization and had a nice little chat, got some phone numbers and hopefully will be spending some time with them in the future. I felt like a kindergartener trying to make new friends on the first day, which I thought was pretty funny after we left.
Saturday we met with Faustina, the person in charge of Motivation House. She was super sweet and kind, like all of the other people we have met in Moshi this far!! We then decided to hit the pool. First, before we get to the pool part.... let's share the one in a kind experience of riding a dala dala. Dala dala's are the public transportation in Tanzania, sort of like a bus. They stop at the side of the road and you hop on. These "buses" have like 10 seats, but they say a dala dala is never full. Literally people are crammed in this thing and sticking out of the sides! Someone even told us that if you happen to get a seat, people will hand you their babies to hold while they stand. Something that would NEVER happen in the US. When we got on, the first thing we heard was some lady say "Mzungu ___" and everyone laughed. I guess the joke was on us. Oh well!
Key's Hotel is a pretty high end hotel here in Moshi. They allowed us to use the pool for pretty cheap. The sun was super hot and so we spent half of the time in the shade and ordered a beer and some food. We decided to walk back, which was about 45 minutes. Not too bad, but my feet were pretty sore since I was wearing sandals (poor choice by me).
A few pics of the outdoor area at Key's Hotel.
A Key's burger with fried egg and a side of "chips." Pretty tasty!
Today we started our day off by attending St. Margaret's Anglican Church for their 10:30 English mass. There were a bunch of people from all over the world and it was fun to meet them and share our stories. It was family day today and they had a potluck for everyone in the pastor's house behind the church. Everyone was very friendly and we had some traditional Tanzanian lunch with some new friends.
Some views of the outside and the beautiful stained glass on the inside of the church.
After we came home we decided to study up on some of our Swahili for our next lesson. This is the first pic I think we are in together!
I saw on my computer that it was 3 degrees in Minneapolis today. I may miss some of my family and friends but I don't miss the cold!
- K
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