Debrief in Dar

Phase 14 has come to an end. Time to go. At least for most of us.

We spent our debrief in Dar Es Salaam to discuss successes, failures and future goals. Jessica and Lindsey ended our two month phase with great activities. Not to mention we spent those hours debriefing in a real Subway restaurant.

We stayed at the local Y.W.C.A. arriving on Sunday afternoon. After arriving we strolled the streets, sipped coffee and browsed a local bookstore. That evening we went out to the Slipway where you can eat almost any type of food. Everything from pizza to sushi to curry. It felt like a lively city with people, restaurants, bars, a mall and entertainment.

The next morning we saw off Julia who was taking a bus to Moshi. She is planning to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and will, no doubt, have great stories to tell. It was sad to see her go not knowing when I'll see her again.

So the entire day was spent with the foursome left and we wandered around Dar, checked out a local art museum, the National Museum and played checkers with local fisherman. The National Museum displayed the history of the now Republic of Tanzania. It contained local artifacts, natural sciences and the history of rulers and slavery through the times.

After the museum we walked down to the Ocean in search of food. We were looking for rice and beans, but instead found a small stand selling mishkaki, basically grilled skewered meat. Its delicious. We only had a few skewered, but the "chef" was a wonderfully intelligent man. He spoke fluent English and French. We've never met a local like this before. He sat with us and his conversations were entertaining.

After mishkaki, we followed the beach down to where fisherman were cleaning their boats and enjoying each others company. We were still looking for rice and beans and this is where we found it. A group of women were selling the dish to the local fisherman. We couldn't resist. We asked, we were served, we eat on the floor, we swallowed whole mouthfuls and we paid 800TSH for a bowl of the gold. We definitely got a few laughs, but damn worth it. Having been in Morogoro and speaking Swahili was a plus. Afterwards Lonny and I played checkers with the local fisherman who used water bottle caps as checker pieces. I played first. Dark blue versus light blue. I lost. Lonny played. He lost. We left.That evening, back at the YWCA we had to take the rest of the Zanzibar team and our Katie to the airport. We all piled into a rented daladala and headed out. We saw Katie off, smiling and waving, laughing when she walked through the metal detector and it went off and feeling a little sad. Another one gone. Now, only the three amigos are left standing together heading back to Morogoro, Lonny, Carla and me.