Simba and the Dry Wipe.

The Tanzanian people always say Jambo when they see you, which means hello and you respond in kind. It is a pidgin word, mainly used for people that they suspect don't speak Swahili, if you answer Hujambo, then it means "I speak Swahili" or at least "I speak a little Swahili."

Anyhow, we were walking down the street in Dar and a somewhat scruffy Rastafarian type fellow came up to Nicole, grabbed her hand and said "Jambo, I am Simba" It is also very common here for people to greet each other and hold hands for quite a while during the conversation, so Simba had quite a grasp on Nicole, she said to him:" You have to let go of my hand now,!" and we scurried away. They do follow you for a few minutes, hoping for a sale, but we out- dashed him. Nicole felt like her hand was germ laden, and Simba was pretty sketchy looking, but I saved the day as I was the only one who had an antibacterial wipe with us, so I handed it over with a flourish...and it was a faulty one and dry as a bone. We went back to our "favorite" Steers restaurant where Nicole scrubbed and scrubbed, she could have done surgery afterwards.

Jan 13.

Both my legs are covered with bruises from whacking them on the armrests on the airpanes, they didn't lift up and to get in and out of the seat required contortions that my legs could not quite manage.

We see Muslims praying now and then, bowing towards Mecca, this isn't something I have seen before, so I found it interesting, esp when you see them on the beach amongst the sand and seaweed. I have also seen a few women wearing the complete burka, with only their eyes showing in a tiny little slit in the material.

A Very Good Day. Jan 13 con't

We wake up each day about 6:30 as Chad phones here, it is 7:30 PM the night before in Canada and this way Nicole can talk to Abby before she goes to bed, so she can know what mom is doing today and what wonderous adventures we have had. It's $4.10 U.S. a minute to phone from here to Canada, but 30 cents cdn a minute via a computer hook up from Canada to here.

"But, I digress." We looked for our taxi driver from yesterday, but he was home sick, so we got a new fellow, I never quite caught his name and he wasn't quite as personable as Steven and Jonathon, but he was a nice fellow nonetheless, he was from the Serengeti, and knows Haydom.

We told him we would like a tour of Oyster Bay, which is the very upscale area where the weathly businessmen and ex-pats live. There are supposed to be some nice shops, beaches and that sort of thing. We planned on having him drop us off, maybe near abeach, and we would wander and read, catch up on our journals, maybe sketch a little scenery, then go for lunch and take a new taxi back to the hotel. Of course, he didn't like that plan he wanted to drop us off on a beach, wait for us, then take us to the Msasani Slipway Market, wait for us there and THEN take us back to the hotel..

We have begun to realize that the taxi drivres are usually right, so we negotiated a price of 24,ooo shillings and that included the trip to Oyster Bay, his wait while we wandered and the trip to the market and any photo stops we wanted, plus back to the hotel. He agreed and off we went.

The drive is about 15, maybe 20 minutes from downtown Dar, but it may as well be a different country. You can see the change in the dwellings as you drive, from the very poverty stricken slum area to these incredibly opulant, wealthy gated and guarded communities. Sadly, we have seen how the "regular" people live in the city, but this clean, white, flowered and trimmed shrubbed area was how we had imagined it to look. This is the glossy tourist brochure area, and at least we felt better knowing that what we imagined was what we were led to imagine.

The Sea Cliff hotel was amazing, like a top end hotel in Hawaii. Elegant manicured lawns, lots of paths and walkways, like being in a village, but of course not a real village, but the tourist's romantisized version.

We asked a bellman (who was wearing traditional garb) if we could walk over to the edge of the cliff and take a picture (it isn't really a cliff, more of a seawall, but very beautiful, overlooking the Indian Ocean.) He pointed to the grass, we asked if we could walk on it and he said yes, and there were about 6 large flagstones starting the path. We meandered over, looked around and took a few snaps, you could see dhows, quite exotic.

As we walked back to the hotel, a security guard came over and told us we weren't to walk on the grass, he was very nice about it, saying "No problem, no problem", but we apologized profusely, saying 'pole', which means sorry and off we ran.

We met up with our driver, who now took us to the Slipway market, only a few minutes down the road, still in this area ,which is all on the Msasani Penninsula.

The Slipway was wonderful. It is right by the waterfront and there is a small market with stalls filled with crafts from local craftsmen, our driver pulled in, showed us where the shops were, pointed out the craft stall, supermarket etc, then proceeded to strip down to his undershirt and stretch out for a snooze as we ventured into the stalls.

It was set up under a straw roof and as you entered, there was a path that stretched to the other end, and the stalls were little booths to the left and right. You step up a stair to enter the stall and start your bargaining. Each shop is tiny, maybe 10 feet square and the shelves are crowded with every imaginable souviner, from tacky t-shirts to exquisitely carved statues.Everyone is very polite and there is no high pressure sales here, I think because of the area here, they vendors are told to not hassle to tourists and non-residents.

We each bought more souvineres, even though we had actually though we were finished buying. Who knew there were more items that were calling out to us....

Then we walked across to the shops, in the same lot. It is an open roofed area, in a square, 2 stories high, with chairs and a small fountin and some art work in the middle. There were the ususal gift shops, a Shoprite, jewellery stores and even a movie theatre, plus a doctor office, and quite a few art galleries and a book store. Again, it was what we had expected, it's the type of place you see in any tourist area. But it was beautiful, and we got some great picture of local fishremen and carved dugouts in the water.

The Shoprite was interesting, the produce section was very small, maybe 6 feet long and had onions, potatoes, lemons, limes a some plums and papayas, and the prices were the same as at home. I guess most people buy their fruit from the street vendors where the prices are so cheap.

The shelves are well stocked, a few familiar brands like Kelloggs, Cadbury and of course Pepsi and Coke, but the majority of labels seemed to be German, there is a strong German influence here, due the Colonial times and the German occupation.

Water in the Shoprite was only 250 shillings a bottle, 25 cents!

We went in to a small jewellery store to see if we could afford to buy some Tanzanite, which is a precious stone that is only found and mined in Tanzania (thus the name) It ranges in colour from lavender to deep purple and sometimes can be found in other colours as well, but purple is the most common.,

The store was small, with an elaborate iron gate, locked, with a guard outside. He unlocked and let us in, then locked it up behind us. It was a typical store, a few display cases in the middle and more on the walls. The jewellery that was mounted was very expensive, well ,for us it was, a tiny pendant was $150, and we just were not prepared to spend that, not on our budgets, but we did find some gorgeous loose stones ,they were 24,000 shilling (just less than $24 canadian) so we each bought one, and maybe someday will have them set into a ring or something.. The power actually went out for a few minutes while we were in the store, such a common occurance during this drought that the shop keeper didn't miss a beat or blink an eye.

We then went back to our driver who took us back to the hotel, stopping along the way to let us take pictures of anything that caught our eyes.

I think I am nearly out of time, and there was a power bump a minute ago, so I will close for now.