We made it safely to our hotel in Arusha, after our hour ride from the airport! It was 2:30pm and we were all ready for bed! We were so tired, none of us slept all that well on any of the plane rides. Our stomachs were achy, are heads hurt, and our eyes felt heavy! We got checked in, dropped of luggage, and decided not to lie down in case we couldn't wake back up! The hotel "bar" proved to be a nice relaxed atmosphere to enjoy our Tanzanian favorite, Fanta, along with some coffee and chi.
With a few hours until dinner, we set off to walk the streets of Arusha for some good ole' people watching. We forgot how much the locals enjoyed seeing "white people" (wazungus). We found a beautiful garden and couldn't stop taking pictures of the exotic flowers and plants that were for sale along the street side. This walking only made us more tired and more hungry, so we headed back to the hotel restaurant in search of some good comfort food.
Thank goodness for the menu selections! Marilyn, Valeria and I ordered the best Mac & Cheese I have ever had, and Amber order some vegetable stir fry that was also enjoyed. We now had full tummies and were in need of sleep (we didn't care that it was only 6 o'clock!!!) Some showered and some hit the sack right away. It is no shock that both rooms woke up in the early part of the night thinking that it was time to get up! Amber and I were wide awake at 6am so we decided to get up and get ready for the days adventures!
Efraem, our tour guide from JM tours, picked us up at 9am. We loaded our luggage and were off to the town center for the bureau de exchange to change dollars into shillings for our shopping that was foreseen in our future. Next on the days agenda was one of our favorite shops from last years trip, the Shanga Shangaa Workshop! Here, blind and deaf individuals create all kinds of neat jewelry, glass and metal objects, along with different stone and wooden sculptures. Little did we know there was a tour guide available to show us around and take us to a wonderful lunch! It is hard to put into words about how beautiful our lunch was. We began with champagne on the cushioned couches in the middle of the garden, and then moved to our table equipped with a bowl of fresh roses and unique place mats. We also had no idea that this would be a 6 course meal with soups, Samasos, salads, meats, dessert trolleys, and coffee/tea. We were STUFFED but still had room to shop!!! Gifts were bought for all and poor Efraem patiently waited. It was time to make our way to Moshi where we plan to spend the night at a Lutheran Hostel before heading to Lushoto tomorrow. The hostel has proven to be quite nice. We even got to see a wedding procession and by the looks of all the decorations, they will be dancing into the evening at the reception.
Stay tuned for our adventures in Lushoto, where we plan to being training teachers on Monday!
Kwaheri!
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