Monday, April 5, 2010






Change in plans… we never made it to Mt Kilimanjaro although we have vowed to each other that we will make it there before we die. Friday night was the last for several of the volunteers here. We went to a beach bonfire with three of the girls and some locals. We met numerous artists from Bagamoyo. Many of them asked if we would come to their shops to look at their work… promising to lower our prior “mzungu prices” to “rafiki prices” now that we have met (Overcharging because we’re white to decent prices because we are now friends). We have some funny stories from that night which we will share in person when we arrive home…

Saturday morning we took a cab to a fisherman port known as Mbegani (I loved this because it is similar to Megani… which I am referred to quite often here.. they like to throw I and A at the end of many names/words). A boat came and took us to the Lazy Lagoon Peninsula. Ahhhhh…. The Lazy Lagoon J We loved it there! Some things about Lazy Lagoon: The only people occupying the island are those who work and/or are staying at the hotel. There are only 12 Bandas so this place is very low key and quiet. To conserve energy the hotel has power from 6pm-10pm (We were unaware of this prior to booking, thank God we brought a flashlight!) The only security stopping anyone from boating up to the island unwelcome are 2 Doberman Pinschers (one only about 4 months old that was missing an eye) who do more licking than barking. Now on with the story.. As we have previously mentioned we had two goals in AFRICA… 1. To dance with the Maasai which we completed as you know, and 2. Finding a bush baby. Bush babies are tough because they are nocturnal and it is not recommended for us to go traveling through the “bush” in the dark to track down wild species even though we have contemplated this many times…The manager of the hotel informed us that there were bush babies on the island but rare to ever see them. We expressed our need to find a bush baby to the man who escorted us down our 5 minute walk through the “bush” to our banda. After about two minutes into the walk, TWO BUSH BABIES!!!! We have them on tape! Goal 2 completed!!! This guy must have thought we were crazy as we video taped these bush babies for about 5 minutes. Our banda/hut was right on the beach. We were the last hut, hut number 12 which was furthest from civilization and closest to the bush pigs… our new fear. We were informed to not walk at night… bush pigs are not to be taken lightly, they will attack. After a day of sun and fun we headed to the main lodge for dinner. After some drinks and more delicious food we decided it was time to get back to our banda. With bottle of wine and two glasses in hand we set our on our hike back to our hut… As were about to walk outside on the path we stopped as a man with a spear stood in the doorway… hmm.. He said nothing and turned around… We followed as he walked quickly down the dark path to our hut, not speaking and smacking his spear on the ground. He was our protection against the wild bush pigs. We spent Easter Sunday relaxing, eating more delicious food, and spotting monkeys! Usually by the end of our weekend trips we have been ready to go back to our home in Bagamoyo but not after this weekend! Today is Easter Monday here so all the schools and shops are closed. We only have 4 more days of placement and tons of souvenir shopping left to do… hopefully we can fit everything in before it is time to head back to AMERICA!