Saadani National Park - what a crazy experience. we attempted our first national park visit here and it did not turn out the way we'd hoped. Our driver and 'guide' were basically two kids - 16 and 21 years old - and they had each only been to the park once before. Because of all the rain, the roads were terrible and we couldnt make it through the park - not for lack of trying though and Michael was really a great driver. Anyway, we slept in Saadani village (a very small village inside the boundary of the national park) on a plot of grass at the edge, actually next to some ruins (the ruins of a German missionary house, we were told). We expected a nice quiet night of sleep since we in such an isolated location, far from any cities or cars; for some reason though, this was the loudest night yet. There was no electricity in the village but they had set up some kind of generator so they could watch TV and they blasted the volume until late into the night. As soon as this stopped, the woman who was living in a part of the ruins next to our campsite (a witch? an outcast? or just pissed off because we set up our tent too close to her house?) turned up her radio as loud as possible and left it on all night long. That, on top of the fact that I had no sleeping bag and was sleeping on the ground with nothing but my stolen airport blanket to cover me, made it the worst night yet. We did have a nice campfire before going to bed though, and interesting conversations with Samwe and Micheal about the Tanzanian educational system and other things. Samwe also entertained us with his obsession over Mr. Bean. At any rate, the sunrise the next morning was beautiful. We left very early but again because of the poor road conditions couldnt make it very far. We saw some giraffes in the distance but couldnt get close enough. So overall it was rather disappointing but, still, an adventure.
So now we are back in our Dar home - the YWCA - making our daily trips to the supermarket and internet cafe, and hanging out a bit. We went out to a bar last night with an American guy from the youth hostel. Played pool which was really hilarious because none of us could hit any balls. didnt help that the balls are also much smaller here. Plus the fact that our taxi driver who was on my team kept aiming for any ball whether it was stripes or solid didnt really help. In the end, we miraculously managed to win though.
Mwanga - things are going great. the workcamp went by so quickly though and today is our last day already. we've been working on the hospital/health center every morning this week. basically we help carry the bricks from a big pile to the building. so as you can imagine i've been sore all week and my muscles are HUGE ;) but really it's a lot of fun. the mornings were usually cloudy which was really nice. actually the weather is beautiful here - not at all humid like it was in dar es salaam. the air is pretty dry, it hasnt rained at all, and there is usually a nice breeze during the day. mwanga is really beautiful because its situated at the base of the pare mountains. yesterday we drove up to a really small village up in the mountains - it was so beautiful! really great views and tons of different trees - eucalyptus lined the road for much of the way up and in the village i saw a jackfruit tree! in the afternoon we went to visit this HIV/AIDS awareness youth group in mwanga - they travel around the region promoting awareness by singing and dancing. so we got to talk to them and then they performed for us and we all ended up dancing with them.
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