Jan 10. Day 1.

It's a hazy day, looks overcast and maybe cool? Looking out the window you can see the hotel employees sweeping the lot, I can hear the "scritch, scritch" of the broom and I can also hear a loud call of an African bird, it sounds almost like a cat. I catch a glimpse of it flying in the trees, black like a crow but with a large bright orange beak. My first African "creature."

We went downstairs for our free continental breakfast. OJ, a croissant and coffee? Hardly! There were 2 buffets, a hot and a cold. The hot had bacon, sausage, eggs, fried potatoes, a hot, bubbly simmering meat dish with veggies in it, vaugely Morrocan looking.

The cold section had cereal, granola, and bowls of assorted nuts to mix in, cold meats, cheeses and a variety of buns and breads, fresh fruit (I had a real, "fresh" african banana...which, disappointingly enough, didn't taste any different than the ones I buy at Safeway.), yogurts and fruit juice. We took our first Malarone (malaria) tablets and hoped for no ill effects and headed outside.

The weather was HOT and it felt like someone was holding a hot, wet facecloth 2 inches in front of your face. We moaned a little at the humidity (it's not the heat, it's the humidity...how true!) and we decided to explore the downtown area.

The streets are paved, in a manner of speaking. The pavement is broken, missing and heaved up in places like mini-bombs have exploded in spots. The sidewalks, if you can find them, are similar. You really have to watch your step. The cars drive on the other side of the road, but the drivers actually drive wherever there is space, speeding and being very erratic, but giving polite little "beeps" just before they clip you. There are no stop signs or stop lights, you just make a dash for it whenever you can...hold your breath and run!

The streets a dirty and filled with trash, there are no garbage cans, maybe one every block or 2, usually overflowing with all sorts of dreadful looking things. The stores themselves are small, and sort of hovel like. A lot of dirty and missing stucco and a lot of rusted, corregated iron. Even the government buildings and banks look old and run-down. The area simply looks depressed. It's like a bad Mexican border town. And it's also loud, the touts are hollering at you as you walk by: "Hey, Canada...come and buy, I give you a good price. Hey, Canada, you from Toronto or Vancouver?", these seem to be the only 2 places that they know. We didn't want to be mistaken for any other nationality, so yes, we proudly sported a Canadian flag.

The poverty is very visible, yet I noticed very few bums or beggars. Everyone seems to work, even if it's selling their wares on the street to washing taxis and selling flowers, coconuts and bananas. We saw vendors who would crack open a coconut and put a straw in it; the customer would drink it down and be on their way. Bottles of water are very cheap. about 500 Tanzanian shillings, which is a few pennies less than 50 cents, but when your average wage is $1.00 a day....a bottle of water is a luxury. We are drinking 3 or 4 a day, it makes me feel guilty in a way, to spend that sort of money on water. The average monthy wage is bewteen $30 and $50, but an apartment can be as much as $40. It is very hard to survive here.

We didn't really know where to go, the downtown core isn't like any downtown I have ever been to and it seems a little rough. At one point we were walking side-by-side, and Nicole said she thought she felt a tug, and asked me if her backpack was open. Sure enough, it was wide open, but thank goodness she had nothing in it. I cannot believe that we didn't see a thing, but it taught us to be extra vigilant..

Well, I have no more time on here so will close for now. Tomorrow we go to Zanzibar for 3 days and we aren't sure of Internet there, so I may not post for a few days.