Monday: Shopping

Sunday night must have been pretty rough on Rose. She told Frank that she slept well, but she was being polite. I never have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, but this night I did. I had to wake Rose to find out where the toilet paper was kept, then she loaned me size 3 sandals in which to put my size 9.5 feet to go to the choo.

In addition to it being dark and unfamiliar I was stiff in muscles I didn’t even know I had. I finally made my way back to her apartment and tracked dirt from the door right into the bed.

Those are just the times that I knew that I disturbed her. I don’t know how she managed with my snoring.

There were so many unfamiliar sounds. The chickens and dogs in the neighborhood were singing long before dawn -- as were the minarets. They would sing and pause just long enough for me to start dozing off thinking they were done and then they start up again.

Soon it was morning and I started hearing the activity of Frank’s community. People were up and talking to one another, playing music, making cleaning sounds. Since Rose was sleeping I didn’t feel a need to disturb her so I luxuriated in dozing in and out of sleep.

By the time we did stir it was 9:30! I went to Frank’s where a production of French toast and avocados and bananas was already underway. A short time later Frank’s friend Emmanuel joined us for breakfast. He studied in the same university as Frank and was a History major. He also owned a car and was willing to drive us into town and then to the market to do some shopping.

Emanuel’s car is what we would call a hoopdie car. (I’m not sure I’m spelling that right.) Essentially what that means is that most of the things in the car are broken or in rough shape but the radio works very well. I enjoyed Emanuel’s company and appreciated the car very much.

Coming down the hill from Frank’s house was really tough now with stiff muscles. Frank offered to help me but now my pride was at stake. I had no pride the previous day. I did make it down myself. We went into town, paid for my safari and then headed to the Masai Market.

It was overwhelming, but once again the shop keepers were very polite and not too pushy. I didn’t buy too much because I didn’t want to run out of money nor room in my bags. I hope I don’t have regrets or I may have to come back. I think the prices were very reasonable and Frank’s presence helped.  He told me in a low voice that whatever price they quoted me, I should offer half to start from there. That was pretty effective. The only exception I made was a fellow who was offering some paintings that I couldn’t really conceive of going lower. It would have felt as though I was robbing him – so I bought them at his asking price and Frank agreed that was fair. The overwhelming part just came from the volume. So many stores -- so many wonderful things.

Eventually I had gotten everything that I would be able to get from there and we walked the short (level) walk back into town, bought a few more things, and stopped at a café for some water before Emmanuel picked us up.

At this point it was midafternoon, neither Frank nor I was hungry for lunch so I sat down to write my blog while Frank went out and ran some errands. As you already know if you read the previous blogs – I wrote and wrote and wrote for hours. It felt good to get that whole long day out of my system. While I was experiencing it, I found myself thinking how much better it will all feel when it is in the past and I am writing about it as something that happened rather than it happening right then.

I made the mistake of checking a few emails. I tried to be selective. I got two hilarious emails from Talia where she “oldified” pictures of herself making herself look as though she was in her 70s and 90s. I showed those to Rose and Frank and everyone got a kick out of them. The heading of the email was something like, “You had better get home soon, I’m getting older.”

I also got to chat with Benjamin really briefly in Google Chat. He’s going to be flying to Bar Harbor, Maine with a friend who is a pilot. They are going to be gone when I get home, but he promised to give me a big sloppy kiss even though I’ll be in bed.

Frank made us dinner of spaghetti with a homemade sauce of tomatoes, carrots, and liver. It was truly delicious. We sat and talked about the marketing of his business for a bit, looked at photos from other clients he has had. It was a lovely evening.

In spite of all of that I had very mixed emotions about the following day. I was very excited about beginning my safari, but also the homesickness has crept in and is interrupting my fun a bit. I’m going to focus on the fun.

Frank told me that there was a bit of bad news but it wouldn’t affect me. The German couple who were supposed to be my safari-mates still did not have their luggage. It had arrived in Arusha and then was mistakenly sent on to Dar Es Salaam! They would not be going on the safari with me after all. Frank quickly moved to plan B – Apparently it’s mostly the same safari in a different order. Tarangiri Park, followed by camping at Haven Nature near Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro, , back to the same camp and then Lake Manyara park before we come back to Arusha. I won’t get to go to Serengeti after all, but that’s really ok. I’m getting so much and I’m glad Frank was able to pull this off.

I went to bed pretty early again since I had to get out for the safari.