Belated Christmas details

So, I’m finally getting around to sharing some details of my Christmas adventures. We (Mike and I) got up early Thursday, December 23rd, to head up to Lilongwe, the capital city of Malawi, where our bus would be leaving Friday evening. After a couple of days of lounging, playing some pool and mini golf, and watching one of the worst movies I’ve ever sat through (In and Out – a dreadful Kevin Kline film about a teacher who gets “outed” by a former classmate, but isn’t actually gay, or is he? Horrible, horrible film, bad acting, bad writing, bad use of my time) Anyhow, we met up with our traveling companions Ann and Ellen on Friday afternoon and got on the bus, which only left about a bit over an hour past the scheduled time, so I thought we were going to be close to the 27 hours advertised. Well, 37 hours, a few breakdowns, and an unexpected night in a stopped bus while we waited to get through a police check later (somehow, they wouldn’t let us continue to Dar because of the late hour – I still don’t understand), and we reached Dar Es Salaam, the capital city of Tanzania on Christmas morning. From there, it was a 2 hour ferry ride (which we were only slightly overcharged for) to Zanzibar, the island off the coast of Tanzania where we planned to spend a couple of days and celebrate Christmas. Well, as my picture showed, we had the Santa hats and a Christmas tree, but that was about as close to normal as Christmas got for me. When we got to Zanzibar, we met up with Jeff, Claire, and Leah, three fellow Canadians and fellow EI workers that we met during training school back in the summer. Leah and Claire work in villages in Tanzania, and Jeff was able to make the trip down from Sudan. It was great seeing them again, and while you can never make up for missing family at the holidays, it was good to have some friends around. So we explored a bit of Stonetown for a couple of days. Highlights included snorkeling in the Indian Ocean (though one mouthful of saltwater and one faulty mask was enough for me to make this a short snorkeling expedition), hanging out on the beach and checking out some large tortoises (I got Leah in trouble by having her pose for a picture by sitting on one of them). The restaurants were great, and I had some fantastic prawns and some amazing Italian Ice Cream. And I got some pretty cool souvenirs as well. So, after a quick but productive couple of days, Mike, Leah and I said goodbye to the rest of the group, and hopped on a 6 seater plane for a 20 minute flight back to Dar (the plane was a bit more expensive, but saved the seasickness from the bumpy boat ride back) In Dar Es Salaam, we were greeted by a couple of welcome tastes of home. For dinner, we had Subway sandwiches (the Subway menu was just the same as in Canada), and we went out to a nice, large, air conditioned theatre to watch the Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe film. I’ve never in my life enjoyed a sub as much as I enjoyed that one, and it made me reflect a lot about how overindulgence in so many things dulls our senses and makes us appreciate them less. I may write more about that another time. Anyhow, after the movie, we had a short sleep at a lodge in Dar, and got up early to prepare for our journey to Zambia to see Victoria Falls. I will write about that half of the trip and post details sometime soon.