June 2, 2009

After our talk with the carvers we got into the jeep and headed back over the bad road to Mtwara, the guest house and the Indian Ocean. Ray had all these plans to go to "the most beautiful beach in the world" - at least that s what the guide book said. We would pay the driver and go straight there from Ndanda - but he could not account for the pace of traffic in Africa. No one rushes anywhere, and everything takes much more time than you could actually imagine! We did not get back to Mtwara until 3:15, and everyone in the car but Ray was happy. Again we went to the fish market and got fish (conch), and some rice and some tomato and onions. That was pretty much home cooking in Tanzania and also some coke and beer from the local German lady's little hut of a store. That night we went to bed early because we thought we were leaving for Dar the next day to start our safari.

The next morning Ray, Joe and I got up early to go walk on the beach. Joe tried to buy some bread for breakfast at the German store, but the shopkeeper reprimanded him for not returning the bottles from our last visit, and insisted that he come and get me before she would sell us anything else. When I got to the store, she reprimanded me for not returning the coke bottles, and said that I should be embarrassed that we had left it for the household help to return the bottles - hmm, things are much different in Africa. Than she let us buy her goods, but only with the promise that we would return the bottles before we left. It was such a great day, the boys went for a long swim and we hung out in the hut and read and read, and laughed. I can't even remember what we did for dinner, it was so relaxing. Even Ray got into the doing nothing mode. Than we went to The Southern Cross for dinner, horrible food, but what a view. We walked back in the winter dark and Ray and Joe went to bed. Kyle, Daniel and I walked around in the Indian Ocean under the full moon at low tide looking into pools and examining the local fish. Altogether an A+ day.