Photographs and Ticket Stubs

Well it turns out Mwanza is not my favorite place in Tanzania.  The city is big and dirty and not used to Wazungu, so just chilling for a week is not as easy as it is in Arusha.  Zoe and I walked around for two days, each thinking the other was doing what she wanted to do and so not voicing the fact that we hated what we were doing.  Ha.  We’re still such Americans.  Anyway, over a delicious lunch of sweet and sour chicken at a distant, deserted, touristy Chinese restaurant that offered a great view of the lake and some much-needed silence after crazy downtown, we called the number of a hostel on Ukerewe Island so see if we could spend a night.  We ended up spending two.  Pretty much, we got there and it was so much more chill than Mwanza and so so beautiful that we simultaneously decided we didn’t want to go back to Mwanza until we had to (I’m back here now because we have tickets to fly out in about six hours).

The hostel we called ended up being the cell phone number of a darling woman named Mama Ferista, who does technically run a hostel called Gallu Beach Hotel, but which is “closed for renovations” right now so we stayed in Ujamii Hostel, aka her house.  It was absolutely wonderful.  There was no running water or electricity, of course, and the mosquitoes were something to be reckoned with, but she has a whole slew of grandchildren around the house and she gave us cooking lessons (she is quite possibly the best cook I’ve met in Tanzania).  Once the kids figured out we knew Swahili and wanted to play with them, they were all over us.  They begged to take pictures and play with our headlamps, they fought over who got to sit in our laps.  They took us by the hand and dragged us to where music was playing so we could all dance together, and they fell asleep in our arms after dinner.  It was so nice to play with kids again!

We also went on a bike tour of the eastern side of the island with a less-than-enjoyable tour guide, Mr. Tumaini.  Not to be negative, but when I say less-than-enjoyable, I really mean I couldn’t stand him and he was openly deceitful and is the epitome of what I hate in Tanzanian men.  The bikes, too, left something to be desired.  Mine was too small, had no brakes, and the seat fell off every other time I tried to get on it.  Zoe’s got a flat tire in the first half hour and had no breaks either.  Oh well.  ha ha ha  The bike RIDE was beautiful, and I enjoyed myself despite the difficulties.  If someone were to come to Mwanza, I’d tell them in a heartbeat to go straight to Ukerewe – just bypass Tumaini Tours.

Time’s up again.  Sorry.  This may be my last entry from Tanzania, as I leave the day after tomorrow and plan to spend all day tomorrow on the beach of Mbudya Island.  Can’t wait!

peace