Arusha

October 10, 2006

Emma and I went to Arusha today. What a hell hole. Probably decent for East Africans to visit, but standing out as two "wazungu" (plural for white person) females really sucks. We try to orient ourselves by walking down main roads, but in doing so, we are CONSTANTLY distracted by pesky salesmen, trying to get us to buy stale biscuits, sodas, tapestries, electronics; trying to get us to come to their tourism ofices and make appointments for safari trips.

Always, always these men approaching us in packs - "Hello, baby/ Welcome, Karibu!/ Let me show you the way/ Where are you going? Let me guide you..." We thus decided that men are not to be trusted, and we ask only women for directions or information. Women here are lovely, across the board.

Emma and I went for lunch today and a man there brushed his hand across my butt while I was standing at the water spigot, washing my hands; then he told me that I am beautiful - "Ina pendeza." Earlier, on the daladala, the man squeezed onto the seat next to me persistently brushed his leg against mine, and I kept pushing him away. I wanted to castrate him, and the butt brusher from lunch.

Our tactic for dealing with these sorts now is to act mentally insane; to make jerky movements and strange, throaty noises at high volumes. This has so far worked to ward off annoying street vendors and strange men at the main bus terminal.

By the way, we bought our bus tickets for Dar es Salaam today! I'm excited! Dar and Zanzibar!

In other news, Emma and I climbed to the peak of one of these mountains surrounding Monduli yesterday. It was fantastic! Totally draining and treacherously steep toward the top, but the view was paramount. Impeccable! And we felt well exercised afterward.

I feel this intense kinship with Emma and Jake lately. Like they are siblings my own age. We fight over silly things, or I should say we nit pick at one another from time to time; and we can't always communicate everything we're thinking to one another (in the way of emotions and such, as mentioned in a previous entry) - but oftentimes, we are good at discussing these issues which impact us most; and we are like a strange little family. Family is an element that was missing from my experience in Belgium. No - I shouldn't say it was missing, because I had Nicole and Jules. Family was just something very different than this Tanzanian experience has been. Interacting with these two has really made me appreciate my siblinghood with Jonathan in a whole new light. It's good. I like it.

Well, what else? I booked my flight to visit Uncle Don, Aunt Michele and Kelly today. I fly to Boston viz Amsterdam from Kilimamjaro on the 14th of December. I'll stay with Ethan for the evening of the fourteenth, and then leave at 6am on the 15th to catch my 8:30 am flight to Las Vegas! Furthermore, right now, I am trying to decide whether I want to leave Tanzania early and visit Belgium before traveling back to Amsterdam on the 14th to catch that leg of our originally scheduled flight, and the layover in Amsterdam at 7:30 am. Depends on money, really. And whether I really want to leave Africa early.