If I may continue....

Sorry for the lack of organization. The first part of this entry is below this one, but I had to leave the internet cafe and continue it today. =)

I think in the last entry I got up to Friday evening. We returned from our historical tour around town to get dinner and just hang out at our hotel. Dinner also took over two hours and they continuously messed up our order. The food was also really over-priced at this hotel. I paid 10,000 Tanzanian shillings for my dinner (about $8.50) and in Tanzanian prices, that is a huge rip-off. I can get dinner around here for $2 generally, although I usually eat at home with my family. Friday night we just all sat around and talked - the day had made us quite exhausted as usual.

Saturday morning I got up early to go sit and read on the beach for a bit. I am reading a fabulous book right now entitled "Do They Hear You When You Cry?" It was written by an 18-year-old woman from Togo who fled her country to escape female genital mutilation and being forced to marry a 45-year-old man who already had three wives. She's an excellent writer and I think it has quickly become my favorite new book. She came to the US to get asylum, but ended up sitting in prison for three years until finally in the end her legal team was able to succeed. Nonetheless, it's really intense, but made for some good beach reading.

In the early afternoon we left to see two more historical sites. The first site, the Kaole Ruins, marks the very first place people developed around Bagamoyo. It started as a large Mosque put up by the Arabs who were coming here to trade from Zanzibar. It was built in the 13th century and the area developed more in the 15th century as trade took-off. It was so exciting to be around something so old and important - not quite like anything you can find in the US. We all had turns to make a wish at this one site that was supposedly built by someone related to Mohamed? I unfortunately missed that part of the story...

After the ruins we went over to the first Roman Catholic church ever built in East Africa. It was constructed in 1878 my some missionaries from France who obtained permission from the Zanzibarian Sultan to break ground. It was huge and really amazing - nothing around here quite compared to the architecture, which was uniquely Roman Catholic. This was also the site where the body of Livingstone (British African explorer/missionary) was kept for one evening before it went onto to Zanzibar and eventually to Westminster Abby in London in 1874.

We had some free time after this so we did what else, but a little shopping from the local sellers. I got some pretty earrings, but not much else this time. I realized I really became a bargainer when I turned down buying a skirt I really wanted because the woman would not lower the price another $0.85. It wasn't about the $0.85 - it was a matter of getting the price I wanted despite being a Mzungu. She wouldn't budge, so I left.

That night we had dinner at a different restaurant down the beach which was much much nicer and even a bit cheaper. More hanging out followed, but another early night on account of our exhaustion. We spent a bit more time on the beach on Sunday morning, but left in the afternoon to come back to Dar.

On Sunday I went to go see a movie. South Africa is developing all over Sub-Saharan Africa and they recently put up a mall and movie theater within walking distance from my neighborhood. It's rather unreal. You walk just 200 feat off of the dirt roads and homes without running water into this mall that could literally fit in perfectly in Kansas (maybe minus the few Africa-related stores.) We went to go see "Meet the Robbinsons" and most of the crowd was little Indian children. Indian people have a large population here and do a lot of the trading. Their children learn to speak English early, but most African children don't seem to speak any English other than "Hi. How are you?" as they like to ask us in their accents which I adore. It was hard to describe how I felt sitting there in a movie theater in the middle of Dar. It was just odd...

Monday I went back to class, but after that I went downtown and then shopping in the carvers market here. I got some great earrings and some really, really cool salad spoons. The work they do is amazing and would certainly cost much, much more in the US. I had a small shopping spree yesterday and also bought a t-shirt, a kanga, some wooden door signs for home and some bracelets. =) I want to get my souvenirs before I leave Dar this Saturday!

Today I am going back home in a few minutes. My host-sister is going to teach me how to cook "ugali." It's really hard to describe and tastes like nothing we have in the US, but it is a major Tanzanian staple. I'm hoping to be able to make it when I get home. Afterwards we're going shopping again because I would like to buy my two sisters presents for helping me out so much.

Time to go now. Hope everyone is still well! Miss you!