Beautiful Tanzania!!!

Here are more pictures of where I am in the world. All of these are of Dar es Salaam and an Island right offshore from Dar that we went to this past weekend.














Things are still going really well here in Tanzania! I've been really surprised about a lot of things here. The people are very nice and I never feel afraid to walk around during the day. However, at night we don't venture more than a few blocks from the hotel just to be safe.
We've pretty much gotten our bearings down, so we've got the rental car now. That being said, I'm still gonna observe for a couple of weeks before I start trying to drive on the 'wrong' side.

My first week of work was great and I'm really learning a lot about my job and a ton about the country; the place really has a 100 times more to offer than I thought. From the Serengeti, to Mt. Kilimanjaro, to Zanzibar island resorts, there's so much to see and experience; I'd recommend to anyone to take trip here for a safari, some of the best snorkling and diving in the world, to relaxing in a private hut on a secluded beach just outside the city. Needless to say then, I love this place and will definitely be back!

After the week's work, we went to a cool restaurant in town where I tried Ethiopian food, which was really good (pretty close to Indian food) then we headed out to a pub that's popular in town. We had a good time and got to sleep late the next day for the first time since I'd been in Dar.

On Saturday, we decided to take the remainder of our per diem and go to an island about 5 minutes from the city center. We took a ferry over (the one you see in the pictures above) for about 10 cents. It was interesting, but not as bad as you may think. We actually had a good conversation with some of the locals (one of them is pictured above reading a paper) on board. Most of the people here speak at least a little English, so you can pretty much talk anyone.

From the drop off point, we took a cab for 2 bucks to a secluded beach on the other side of the island, so we were only about 15 minutes outside of the city of Dar es Salaam, but you would never know. It was incredibly quiet and we were in a protected beach with no worries at all: just hang out, have a couple of drinks and unwind by the beach. The hut in the pictures is the one that we rented for $10 a night. It was a private hut with a fan and electricity; It was awesome!!! We felt a world away from our job, so it's good to know that we can go 15 mins away and spend roughly 40 bucks for 2 days on secluded beach to get away from it all! :)

Now, here's my story of the week, or month, or maybe even the year!!!
Well, we got back into Dar on Sunday and later went to dinner at an outside restaurant that we'd eaten at the week before. I was eating and my collegue had on flip flops and was moving them around under the table.

I thought his flip flop fell off and landed on my foot. Now, I was wearing loose Khaki pants and when I went to pick up the 'flip flop'. I SAW IT. A tail hanging out of my pant leg!!!!!!!!!

I jumped up screaming like a 5 year old girl. This caused the thing in my pants to run up the inside of pants all the way to my thigh. I was flailing like Lord of the Dance and had my pants unbuttoned and if it had gone on for 2 seconds longer those puppies were going to be off. It was only about 15 seconds, but seemed like a lifetime! Finally, the thing flew out and we saw that it was a freakin' rat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and I don't mean Hampster-sized. Just writing about it freaks me out and I swear I'll have nightmares. yegghghhg.

Anyway, to make it more interesting, everyone of course looked at me, then the workers started trying to chase it out of the patio. Everyone laughed (even the workers) and we went back to waiting on our dinner. It pretty much ruined it for us though even though we were outside and the kitchen was inside. I won't be going back there that is for sure.

Oh, and of course no one got up and left and I wasn't given the dinner or even a drink for free. Anyway, nothing like that has ever happened. I was preparing for malaria and yellow fever coming over here; no one told me about the fearless rats that run up pant legs!!!! It made for a good laugh at the end of the day, though :)

Well, that's it for now! Hope to hear from many of you reading this soon!

~Daniel

P.S. I still have a Texas-based cell phone number with voicemail. It's 8 hours ahead of central time, so keep that in mind