Thoughts in general

Some aspects of our trip in general: our primary contact here in Arusha has been with Sululu, co- founder of Terrawatu and a Maasai medicine healer. He's great. He organized our safari (it was just Mike and me, which was great) and is helping us with our plans for Gombe. We had beers with him and his daughter, Doris, a week or so ago and they invited us to lunch at their home in the foothills of Mt. Meru yesterday... it looked amazing (I have a bad cold and couldn't taste anything- bah- stupid recycled airplane air), but Mike confirmed it tasted fantastic- a wide array of colorful, vegan African dishes. It was so kind to have been invited into their home. We have been continually impressed by the warm, welcoming spirits of those we meet here. And then we watched "Harry Potter!" It was kind of a trip to be in Africa, in the midst of banana trees, coffee groves, potato fields, dirt roads, and mud huts, watching "Harry Potter." Doris's little sister and cousins were watching it and knew some lines by heart, saying them with the TV in British accents.
Earlier in the day, we hiked around the foothills of Mt. Meru. It has been very cloudy (winter here in TZ) and chilly, so we have not actually seen Mt. Meru much or Kilimanjaro at all. It was extremely steep and slippery- no switch backs- straight up through fields of potato and banana. Mike and I were quite the sight and attraction. As soon as we left Arusha, we were the subject of children staring, smiling, grabbing other children to come look at the mzungus (white people). And shreaking and jumping up and down with big smiles when we said, "Jambo!" and waved in return. At one point we had about 15 children, who had raced out of their huts, across a valley screaming. "Hallooo! Jambo mzungus!" and jumping up and down.
As a woman here, I am either treated with respect or am invisible, and I have never felt like a slab of meat, as in some other traveling. Women will often greet me, but not Mike and men will acknowledge Mike, but not me. When we had beer with Doris and Sululu, she was very quiet when they were around, but if they got up, she would be very talkative and ask questions of me. She would like to either be a lawyer or study international relations. She is really fun to talk with.
While visiting the Tatoga tribe, my hair length, color, and texture was a source of great curiosity and I found some women touching it and then asked (through a Tatoga man who spoke English) if I ever thought of shaving it (which in the bush would have been a great plan, as it was filled with dust) and also if I wanted facial scarring (some of the women cut round shapes around their eyes). When I asked if it hurt, they said that it did so much you could not move for two days. They also wanted to know why Mike only had one wife and if he was going to get more. They had trouble understanding that he only wanted one. And seemed sad for us that we do not have children. Apparently, I am worth 100 cattle b/c I am tall. I loved talking with them and enjoyed their questions.
Two things I am craving: one is a hot shower. 98% of our showers have been ice cold and a slow, small trickle of water, which is not worst case scenario, but a shocking way to wake up and then difficult to get soap out of long, thick hair. Another is a sit down toilet... fortunately, we have one in our room, but mostly they are holes in the ground and while the holes are efficient (and frankly much better than our Honey Buckets), sometimes I just want a toilet :)