Habari Gani? (What's the news?)

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am still alive, albeit barely, since I could have died a thousand times on the way to Pangani and back. It was quite an experience. And Pangani is probably the most incredible, beautiful place I've ever been. It was overwhelming, and otherwordly. It took me two days to realize it was real and then we were gone. There was no internet there (thankfully), so I had no access then. We returned Monday and in a rush I got a taxi to the airport shuttle, made it to the airport, and waited for Sam. I almost had a heart attack waiting for him because he was one of the last people through. I figured he had died in Amsterdam or gotten hurt and had no way of telling me, or they were going to come through calling my name, saying he was in a hospital somewhere, or they were going to bring him out on a stretcher, or he didn't make the plane...then I saw him walk through, in one piece, here, in Africa. Awesome. I was very excited. We've spent the last few days running around Arusha trying to take care of business before we leave here. Despite being completely wide-eyed and overwhelmed the first day, he's gotten used to it already. I know this because yesterday he brought up moving here for a while. My plan worked....

Oh yeah, 4th of July party last night was pretty lame. Some of the new crop of volunteers got drunk and started singing America the Beautiful, to which us old volunteers rolled our eyes and muttered, "amateurs." Our friend Gerald (Tanzanian) asked what our motto was for the 4th of July and someone told him "America, f**k yeah," so the poor guy was walking around saying that to everyone until he was told that he may not want to say it to the Brits, at least, or any random wazungu on the street. I proposed that we just burn trash int he gutter, because that's what they do here anyway, so no one would think anything of it, however strange it may be to have a bunch of white folks standing around a burning trash pile celebrating. Sam did at least light a napkin on fire and I threw it on the ground and we watched it burn while mimicking the sounds of fireworks. Exciting.

Today I have to do my exit interview for GSC, go to the craft market to pick up some gifts, make sure Sam has an Afrikan lunch and not a mzungu lunch, and that he gets noma choma (more on this later). We're also going to the Rwanda criminal tribunal today, which I'm very excited about. We stay at my mama's tonight, and she's making us ndizi stew. Tomorrow morning we leave on safari to Ngorogoro Crater and Serengeti until Monday. Tuesday morning we leave for Zanzibar. So, I'm not sure when I'll be able to write again. I'm thinking they don't have the internet in paradise, once again.

I made it to the internet yesterday, but spent 45 minutes trying to log onto the blog, and managed only to send one email to my mom letting her know Sam was here and we were alive. Plus, Sam's not so interested in sitting around while I write home. So I'm in the internet cafe in our swanky (for Africa) hotel, while he's still asleep. I'll do what I can. I need to fill out an online form for GSC (no, I have no idea why they would give us an online form when we have sporadic and unreliable internet access. Complaint number 865.) and then I hope to return and write more about bus rides, paradise under a full moon, snorkeling, jellyfish stings, card games, kitcha Africans, watching a goat get slaughtered, and much much more. I am REALLY not ready to leave...