champagne and granola, rice and beans

i haven't written for about two weeks, in no small part because 4 of those days i was stuck on a bus. i think the title of this post sums up rather nicely, in order, the 1st and 2nd of these weeks

rewind

I spent the first week in april traveling to and from Dar es Salaam to attend a meeting of volunteer representatives from all over the country, to voice volunteer concerns and address these issues to the peace corps staff. blah blah blah blah...... even though I only got to stay for 3 days in the big city, i had a blast spending time with my fellow volunteers whom I rarely get to see [or meet new ones i've never even met], and do all the things american volunteers love to do when they get the chance, including:

going to the American Club, which is like a country club that is free for all Americans, and you can rent DVDs, get great food like sandwiches and mexican and burgers, go for a swim in the pool, etc.

going BOWLING?!?! that was kind of a surreal experience. it was remarkably similar to a bowling alley at home, only a lot more Indian people, and the average weight of the bowlers had to be a good 20 pounds lower than in central wisconsin. I bowled like a 115 or something - not too bad since i haven't played in 2 years...

surfing the internet at the PC office volunteer lounge, without paying! and it's fast satellite internet!! this is my excuse why i haven't written a blog entry, i was too busy reading news, searching for good books in the lounge library, watching comedy central clips, and the like.

and finally, perhaps the highlight of the entire trip to dar, and the thing that made the 4 days of sitting on a busride through Kenya to get to and from Dar [yes, 4 days on a bus for a 3 day meeting, isn't that nice?!] ----- the Holiday Inn breakfast buffet.

The Holiday Inn is one of the top hotels in Dar in terms of luxury. They have a breakfast buffet every day of the week, which costs a whopping 12,000 shillings [about 10 dollars, expensive even in the states!!]. So what on earth would make a PCV shell out 2 days worth salary to eat at this breakfast buffet? In no particular order of preference, here are the answers to that question:

individual pots of coffee, hot chocolate, or tea
breads with assorted cheeses, cheese ball, and deli meats
assorted flavors of yogurt
croissants
granola oats with option to mix raisins, apricots, cashews, prunes, dates, etc....
a large variety of fresh fruits [mangoes, banana, apple, pineapple, etc]
sugary cereals available in those fun travel-sized boxes [i had cocoa krispies]
eggs made any way you like [fried, sunny side up, scrambled, omelet]
sausages
bacon
MORE BACON
fried tomatoes
waffles
pancakes
calimari
assorted syrups and sauces [including chocolate sauce]
assorted fresh fruit juices
champagne(!!!)

and the real kicker - this is a buffet. Which means once you start, you can keep going until they kick you out at noon. We got there around 9am, left around 11:30. I lost track of how many plates I managed, but i didn't eat much the rest of the day, that's for sure.

fast forward

i survived the bus ride back despite a breakdown near arusha [for those interested, trace the main road north from Dar, through Nairobi, and back to Mwanza - that was my route]. i was very warmly recieved by people back in Misungwi. In fact, i took it as a sign of my level of integration that some people didn't even notice I had been gone - apparently i manage to blend in as much as a white person can that I'm no longer the spectacle i once was.

i also brought back with me a bunch of 8 coconuts, which i got for about 80 cents on the road out of dar. As much as i hate bus rides, i REALLY enjoy purhcasing things out of bus windows, since at every potential stop or crossroads en route, there are MOBS of older women or younger men trying to sell coconuts, fruits, buckets of tomatoes, dried fish, souvenier crap, you name it.
so i bought coconuts, and this past wednesday my housegirl cooked rice and beans for me. rice and beans and COCONUT.

this is something that we had every day when I was staying in Morogoro, but Mwanza is by a lake, not the ocean, and there aren't too many coconut trees so they are expensive. Needless to say, suffering withdrawl after the holiday inn extravaganza, the ZING provided by the coconut [as well as the side of guacamole] really made coming back to rice and beans OK.

other news in brief:

the rains have improved, and while there is still talk of 'hunger' this year [and corn is continuing
to be distributed to those in most need], at least some crops should work out this year.

i will be using my long easter weekend, and the fact that the schools are closed next week, to finish up work on my Condom project with guesthouse workers. FUN! looking forward to it.

i knew i was settled back home when, after taking my larium on Wednesday, i actually had a dream in which i was speaking Kisukuma - kiswahili i've been dreaming for months now, but this was the first in the tribal language. Impressive? try confusing - i was, for some reason, speaking it with a bunch of other white people...