I wake up anxious. It is a day of change. Change from quiet rural settings to urban commotion. Change from traveling with L&R as a foursome to being Murray and Debbie again. Change from being coddled by a wonderful safari guide to fending for ourselves.
Debbie, Pascal, Murray, L, R
We say our goodbyes to L&R at the Arusha Airstrip before they fly off to Zanzibar. Pascal obliges us and stops in town so we may buy some material called a Kitenge. It is a 4 m long piece of colourful fabric that the ladies tie around themselves as a skirt or dress. It will be a tablecloth once it gets home. Murray does his best bargaining and we get the price dropped from 25,000 TSh (about $17) to 8,500 TSh (about $6).
We spend the afternoon in the garden of the Toumani Cottage checking flights, catching up on the blog and reading the cycling news.
As we sit we hear music. It sounds interesting. It continues. We finally get up and follow the sound. We walk down the lane that leads to our hotel and the singing gets louder. We round one more bend and on the other side of a courtyard is church and inside the church is a choir practicing. Not a choir like we might know but a full blown sing at the top of your lungs, dancing, electric band musical extravaganza. We peek our noses in the door and soon we are invited in. It is tremendous. We have not heard music in almost two weeks and listening helps to put the mind and body at ease.
On our way back to the hotel Murray stops to talk to a women that has a window to her sewing shop in the wall of a compound. She is very nice and invites us in to her home to sit and chat. She has no alternate motive other than to be nice. We enjoy each others company for 15 mins. or so. I was taken back by the ‘kindness’ shown by this woman. One for the good people.
Tomorrow is Dar es Salaam.
The anxiety abates as change occurs and we adjust to traveling on our own once again.