Sand, Sun, and Dolphins!

After a challenging time making it from the border of Malawi into Tanzania, we were happy to be in the bustling city of Dar Es Salaam. Once again, I found myself in East Africa on the eve of presidential elections, so Makayne and I, after being in buses, vans, and taxis pushed to twice the capacity for the past 72hours were strategic in choosing a place to sleep with a hot shower and a TV to watch who would become our new president, a world away. We had tears running down our face the next morning as we watched Obama give his speech as we sat eating our breakfast, amongst a table of Africans equally excited as us, so much so that they insisted on pictures for us to remember the day.

I was proud of how far we had come in our travel confidence and myself in my Swahili when Makayne and I then figured out the bus system and found ourselves downtown, we then, of course made a friend named George, who is a local art student, running a non profit teaching street kids performance art. George took us on a grand tour with the finale being the fish market where my tastebuds rejoiced at the once familiar taste of fresh octopus. After stopping at a clothes market where we refreshed some of our wardrobe with a few new shirts and skirts for the equivalent of $3, we were back in our rooms, preparing for the Ferry ride to the island of Zanzibar the next morning.

Zanzibar is an ancient trading port, an island not far from the coast of Tanzania, in the Indian ocean, rich with history, culture, and food - ranging from every spice you can think of to every item of seafood. With the Indian influence, this makes for food heaven and was also yet another country where I would gain a pound or two! Our first night, as I am winding my way around ancient mazes of narrow passage ways made entirely of stone, so narrow, no cars can navigate the streets, my nose is busy smelling the fish and breads cooking inside the open doors of the houses we pass and my ears hear the call to prayer and Muslim school children reading the Quaran. I am excited to be on this island. When a young rasta guy asks if we need directions, he jokes with me when I tell him I think I remember where I am going and thus is the start of a weeklong friendship. Kiba is an artist around my age who came to the island from the mainland at a young age but his talent is so great he has been invited all over the world to teach his art and sells his work across the island. Kiba had just spent three months in Japan and his quick smile and contagious laugh led us to hanging out with him and his friends the whole night. When we told them of our plans to head to the east coast of the island and spend three days lounging on the white sand, he helped set us up with a ride, and the next day met us and took us out to a beach party, unfortunately, this was the time I started to get really sick, so I took it easy while he showed Makayne, along with two Swedish girls, around. For lunch each day, he would invite us into his friend's homes and cook, along with his other friend, Seif, us huge meals of rice, mango, tomatoes, and fish. After a few days on this tropical beach, we decided to try our luck further south where we heard we could swim with dolphins. Of course, as our luck would have it, Kiba and Seif had a friend with a beach house who also had a boat, who just happened to run a snorkeling and dolphin swimming company.

In meeting and hanging out with locals, we get a behind the scenes look at everything and when you are with locals, you also get to eat, travel, and stay where the locals do which means you spend a fraction of what you would as a typical tourist. So, we make it to the beach house where we are told we can pay whatever we would like, we are told to sit down for dinner, and Omar, the friend and owner of the house begins to cook us a meal, which would not be our first, for he would cook us every meal for the four days we would stay with him, while Seif and Kiba assisted with building the open fire our meals would be prepared over. Fresh fish everyday with spices and fruits - waking up beside the beach, we didn't think it would get any better until it came time to swim with the dolphins.

Seeing advertisements to swim with dolphins for around $45-50 each, Makayne and I had a whole day to ourselves with these creatures for half the price. Not knowing what to expect, I was completely overwhelmed by the amazingness of the experience. Within 15minutes from shore, our boat was surrounded by fins, and while I counted several, I had no idea that beneath the water, there were dozens more. So while the boat comes to a slowdown, we are sitting over the side with our snorkels and fins and we are told to "jump in now and swim, look down, now, jump in!" Beside me, below me, above me, every where I look, I see these huge magnificent and beautiful creatures, I am totally freaked out, kind of scared, but in awe, I swim with them, I reach out to them, I look down at them under water and lift my snorkel up to look at them above the water jumping and swimming. We do this for the next couple of hours and then again the next day because we are just laying around and Omar has free time.

We head back for Stone Town, away from the beaches but needing to be on our way to catch all of the school kids in Kisumu before they all leave for Christmas break. So, after one last night on the town with our friends, where unfortunately my wallet is stolen, I am forced to remind myself that I am fine, it was just a camera, and I am lucky to even be in a position to have owned it and to be traveling right now. When I watch the news here, I see people dying, people blowing each other up, people with no money and no hope, then I feel embarrassed for being so upset. I honestly hope whoever took it benefits somehow because I will always have those memories in my head, I already bought a new phone, and when I go home, I can afford a new camera. I stand by the fact that I have only met good people here and most people are good people.

With another once in a lifetime experience in my pocket and more reminders to be thankful, we are on our way to where this continent first grabbed my heart, and luckily, we are spoiling ourselves, because we are in a hurry, rather than a three day bus ride, we are flying into Kisumu. When we get to the airport, we can't remember our flight number, we had almost missed our ferry, we have two layovers and a delayed flight,but within less than a day, we are taking a taxi from the airport and I am talking to the driver in Luo and Swahili and he knows the school I worked at and we are in a hotel for the night in downtown Kisumu, less than an hour away from my former home, my old village, my Kenyan family that is anxiously awaiting my arrival, if I weren't so exhausted,I doubt I could have slept.