Dar Es Salam!

Hi everyone! We haven't updated in a few days as we've been quite busy! We had our last day in Mombasa and headed on the MASH COOL bus to Tanga. It was supposed to be Air Conditioned and it was.. while the bus was at the bus station. Then as soon as we started driving, in came the hot air! Let's just say it was a bumpy ride, but it was quite the experience and i really enjoyed it. Seeing all the small villages along the way was really something, and the thing I most remember about the ride were the school children, All dressed in uniforms, that we found in each and every village in the middle of nowhere! There dedication to school is amazing, if you think about it, and we sometimes saw the same uniforms walking for miles to reach their homes.

Tanga was very cool to see for me. I really liked the town itself. Although it was small and had gotten MUCH smaller since Dad's whole family lived there, it was much more calm than Nairobi. Everyone knows everyone, and what you see is less segregation between the Asians and Africans, which I really liked. (It's really hard to get used to the the fact that everyone isn't equal in Kenya and Tanzania, as opposed to Canada.) The funniest thing happened: We were checking into our hotel in Tanga and we ran into another old friend of my dad's from Tanga, who was also passing through! He ended up giving us a ride to Dar Es Salam today, which was much better than the bus would've been. Dad had a great time in Tanga, much better than the last time he visited. A friend's son took us all over, showing us his old primary school where he was a prefect (can you imagine!) and all places he and the family lived and ate. We had dinner at the swimming club where all the guys used to cause trouble, and it ended up being a very fun reunion for him which was great to see.

Today we started our journey to Dar Es Salam, the roads were paved THANK GOD, although they had speed bumps every 2 mins the whole way, which was very frustrating. Along the way, the African police stop you randomly so you pay them off to keep going but you shouldn't be doing that. The guy we hitched a ride with is quite the comedian and he has a whole routine he plays around with the cops here. So, the cop stopped us and asked to check the trunk for a mandatory first aid kit, fire extinguisher, etc. So he took our friend to the back and said, well we have lots of bags but it's all there. The cop then said, well, you're supposed to give us something (aka money). To get around the hassle, he just told him, we're part of the World Health Organization, showing him his HEALTH CARD as proof of where he works and as his ID (HAHA) and that we were on our way to Dar to pick up blood samples to take back to London for the WHO. Anyway, at that point he just said OH GO GO AHEAD! So very funny. Apparently it's part of the whole African thing to get away with things when it comes to the law.

And now here we are in Dar and of course today we get here and the power was out all the way till 11 pm! Talk about a wake up call. Anch, Thash, and Daya Aunty, what we went through during the black out really is insane that they go through that more than once a week! I showered with a candle lighting up the bathroom! We're staying at Shaffin Uncle and Aunty Azmina's place where, the last time i came here with mum and Maa, was for their wedding 21 years ago! So tomorrow we'll get a proper tour of the city. Will let you know how that goes!

Miss you all! Ooh! I also fed bananas to monkeys in Tanga! Buggle!

Mum will be updating her part tomorrow...