weekend update

The day I posted my malaria rant, I came down with a cold. I felt a wee bit paranoid after posting something on malaria, so I went to the IST clinic and got a lab test done. It was a very simple process since they probably get many requests for it. It was negative. I took Thursday off from work and mostly slept and watched episodes of BBC's Planet Earth, which the barkers have on DVD.

I was feeling much better on Friday. I got to work and Edson and I immediately started mapping out our plans for the training manual. I hope I have time to finish this project before I leave. It's starting to look like it's going to take a lot more work than we anticipated. A couple of new Danish interns came by Edson's office on their round of introductions. I gave them my cell number and told them to call if they wanted to hang out this weekend before they get shipped off to a small village north of Morogoro for 5 months. They called as soon as their cell service was activated.

I mentioned that I wanted to check out the Mwenge carver's market on Saturday. They had plans for the morning but were free in the afternoon. In the morning, I took a bike ride with Sally. I'm so slow on a bike, it's kind of hilarious. Also, even the slightest hill makes me go even slower. I'm so out of shape! Sally would stop every once in a while for me to catch up. I felt bad for holding her up. We biked around the Masani peninsula and ended up on Haile Selassie blvd. to check out the Tingatinga center. I suspect that many of you will now be receiving Tingatinga artwork for souvenirs. Ahem.

I called up Lise and Line and they said they were getting coffee at the Shoppers Plaza, which is very near the Barker's house. I walked over and we chatted for a bit over coffee before heading out to the bus stand. We had a cramped ride up to Mwenge, which is at the end of the bus route. The market is not what I was expecting. I had pictured a bunch of artisans sitting around carving big hunks of wood. Instead, it was filled mostly with the same wooden souvenirs one can find at any tourist destination on the continent.

On Sunday the three of us decided to visit Bongoyo, an island about 6 km off the coast of Dar. We caught the ferry from Slipway. It goes at a very slow pace for some reason. It took us almost an hour to cover the distance. We got some of the few seats on the top deck, so it was pretty pleasant. The island is a nature conservatory, and its very wild looking. We spent most of the day on the beach, sitting in the sun. I walked around for a bit and found a small tide pool with gigantic sea eels in it. Some of them were over three feet long and 5-6 inches wide! In the afternoon we took one of the many hiking trails to a place called Shark Lagoon. The tide had come in, so we didn't get to walk around the lagoon much, but sitting on the beach taking in the beautiful view was still very nice. My camera died in the morning, so I didn't get any pictures. Line and Lise have promised to friend me on Facebook (you can't get away from it...) and I'll link you to the pictures they took.

Alright, this post is now way too long! That's it for now.