Susan's

On Saturday, the friend with whom we had hoped to stay upon arriving initially in Dar had returned from Musoma, so we checked out of our hotel and stuffed our bags into a taxi (Toyota Carolla, as most cabs are. Very different looking than the US version even besides the fact that the steering wheel is on the wrong side – I’ve gotten used to the cars driving on the wrong side for the most part by now). The cab ride was short: down Samora, a street that I have come to know well having walked down it at least twice a day since arriving here, left on Ohio, another main street in Dar, and down an extremely bumpy driveway to an enclosed space, quiet due to the buildings between it and the street, which contained a number of four-story apartment buildings. We pay the cab driver and begin the fun part. Susan’s apartment is on the top floor of one of these buildings, so by the time we’ve finished lugging our bags up the stairs we’re sweaty and thoroughly uncomfortable.
Susan isn’t there but she’s left us a key so we let ourselves in and relax. Later, when she has returned, we go to dinner at the Badminton Institute, which also has a good Indian restaurant, in the Indian part of Dar. She is funny and interesting and I like her immediately. She’s German but has been working in Dar for the past three years as a lawyer. Earlier that day, we had hired a taxi driver, Rogers, to take us to buy bus tickets and tickets for the ferry to Zanzibar. He coincidentally knew Susan and he told us that she spoke but a little Swahili. Watching her interact with people, though, it seemed to me that she knew plenty to be able to communicate whatever she needed to say even if I could tell that her accent wasn’t perfect.
We have one day of rest before we go to Zanzibar on Monday. We spend part of the day Sunday trying to find a hotel but all the internet cafes are closed on Sunday and the power is out so it wouldn’t work very well at any rate. By the time the power comes back on we have reservations at the Malindi guest house in Stone Town, Zanzibar that we get with many phone calls – most of the hotels are full – and a German guide book that we can’t understand. Susan and her German friend Babette, who is living and working in Mwanza, return from their facial, we all hang out and then have dinner. Just a relaxing day on the bed-like couches before our traveling begins again.
I have not had internet for the past few days so I am catching up one event at a time.