My first weekend Outings

Beach time for sure! And did I say beers too not one but two or three. We took a taxi to a beach resort...I know I know Beach Resort... such Americans, but it is the nicest beach and we all were craving tiny bit of pampering and pool time. I know I was.

We decided to park it right at the pool, for 3ooo shillings a day, which is equivalent to 2.50 or around there. Ahhh it was nice to basque the HOT HOT sun and splash around. After a few hours of sunning my white arse a friend and I went to the beach where a few of my students and now friends were hanging out, some selling their creations while others were just hanging out. I asked them where the surf was...surfers and some laughed with no clue of what I said and one of my favorite students Wabi, understood and explained it to the rest. He then pointed to this little tiny wave and smiled. The tide was super low and waayyyy far out so we kicked off our flip flops and took off towards this interesting rock wall formation, not coral, but big boulder like rock walls. There were sand pols with interesting fish and some long, worm-like snake-like creatures that were bright orange. My friend wigged out but it really didn't phase me.

Once we got to the walls, we climbed around and took in the wondrous views of the Mangrove trees to the right and to the left, towards Dar Eslam the white, sandy beaches stretched for miles. I am stoked to be able to be in the heart of a true, down and dirty village with all its glory and then come to this gorgeous beach and resort to chill for the day.
Gotta LOVE this place.

The resort was quiet and not many people. After spending the day playing around and exploring we headed back down the beach towards home-base. It was awesome to see all of the men and women snaked along the beaches catching fish and scaling them at the same time...prepping for sale. Women in their full tonga attire as gorgeous as ever sitting down scaling fish and tending to their children. The men doing the same, yet NOT tending to their children. That is the women's job...hmmm sound a tad bit familiar.... kidding just kidding. It's the culture: women cok, clean, tend to the children at home and men tend the fields, hard labor and bring home the bacon...well chickens. It is like this in the villages yet in the city, it is more westernized nd women are a little more free to work and go to university.

I learned that you must ask a person to take their picture and most of the time this holds true. I need to ask again why, but I know it is out of respect yet also maybe they feel exploited in a way. Not sure. I learned this because as a few children were playing and not facing me I thought it would be ok to take a photo. Ohhh no, because I heard man yelling from the distance, mind you I'm talking from about 500 feet away, and as I looked up he was shouting 'no photo no photo'. I felt a little threatened and then I felt reprimanded. Lesson learned. I'll have to remember to tell you in a moment about how, in Africa you aren't aloud to take photos of government buildings, police offices either.

Although some people love their photo taken, the less shy, and will strike 'model-like' poses, no exaggeration, and then they get a kick out of seeing themselves on my digi camera. They ask me to email it to them or print it out and give it to them... I laugh.

Ohhh yes let me tell you about my almost getting taken in for questioning at eh new United States Embassy. Ohh yah it's true. We aere on our way back from the city with our driver Kennedy. This was such a Heidi moment. He pointed out the NEW embassy that was built after the Tanzanian-American Embassy bombing. I was psyched to get a photo of the cool sign and building with the guards, YES, guards that my spastic self didn't see standing with their guns fully loaded and on gaurd. I lean out the window and go to take a photo and just at that moment Kennedy quickly said out loud' NO NO you can't take a photo. 'I thought 'oh shit, shit' and immediately realized what I had just done. Such a blond Heidi moment :O No sooner than he said that did the two guards come rsuhing into the street motioning for us to pull over. Oh my gosh I about died. What rished through my mind, at that moment, was the news story hitting stands in the 'American volunteer detained for questioning in case of being a spy. NO joke.

I felt like such an ass and felt badly that I put Kennedy and another volunteer in this predicament. They immediatley asked me to show them my camera. I didn't want to hand it over in fear they would keep it, although I sure as heck did. I explained that I went to take a photo but didn't. I had to go through all of my photos. Mind you, I had some photos from back home of a party at my house and I thought to mysef...oh gawd how embarrasing because I coudn't remember what pictures were on there. Aftyer about 15 minutes of quick, loud and aggressive verbage one of the guards wrote down Kenedy's phone number and we drove off. I apologized up and down and Kennedy smiled and said 'no worries Miss Heidi, no worries.

I asked him what they said and he calmly explained to me that they wanted to bring me in for questioning and see every photo on my camera. Kennedy said NO because I was a volunteer and I didn't actually take the photo. They still insisted and instead of taking me in. THANK G!!! The younger, I thought nicer guard, asked Kennedy for a pay off of 20 dollars, and Kenedy said no because the camera's would see the money exchange and immediatley thnk him as guilty and he could get his business permit taken away. So instead Kennedy gave him his mobile number and said her could call him if he wanted to collect the money.
Holy shiat! Even though Kennedy didn't seem to think it was a big deal I felt horrible and told him that if he called him to 'collect' that I would give him the money. He didn't seem concerned. He explained to me that he had studied all the government rules and regulations and new them quite well. After that I was scared to take a picture of a goat on the side of the road for fear that a guard would come rushing out. Funny, yet not so funny. Another lesson learned...

I'm off for now - it's lunch time and I hear the bell ringing.
xo