africa week 5

this week was a slightly uneventful. not that it was boring. just not a lot to write home about. we spent a lot of time planning for our final 2 weeks here. we’re going to do a lot of travelling.

4 July

to celebrate US independence day, we went to chrisburger for cheeseburgers and freedom chips. and we watched Zelig, a woody Allen movie.

8 July

I’ve been working on a video of Amani footage since I came back from my trip last year. I have a layout, but the final, key piece is about to be added. I needed a good voice-over. I knew exactly who I wanted to get: japhary, one of the social workers at Amani. before i decided to come back to tanzania several months ago, I asked Matthew to record him for me since I couldn’t do it from home. but now i’m here, and today I finally got what I needed. I ran into a snag in casting him, but it ended up working out. getting him to do it felt like getting a major actor for a movie. I’m really excited about finally putting together my video. now it has a voice.

10 July

today is our last full day in moshi.

I finally made it back to hostel hoff where I stayed last year. there were 2 staff there, and they both recognized me. it was interesting to see the small differences from a year ago.

I also got to see Senedi again. and this time I showed him video of the time he took me to his village. we talked and laughed about about old times.

earlier, I bought a dr pepper as a surprise for Stephanie. dr peppers are imported and very expensive: almost $2 per can. I hid it in a bag of snacks I bought along with the dr pepper. while we were at hostel hoff talking with Senedi, the dr pepper fell on the ground on something sharp enough to pierce the can. it started spewing like it had been shaken up just before opening. with cat-like reflexes, Stephanie leapt to it like she was in he trenches of war and a grenade had just been tossed nearby. she started slurping what she could from the fountain of sweetness. I have video proof.

we spent the rest of the day playing catan with Matthew. he taught me how to play last year, and I haven’t stopped playing it ever since. after a total of 9 games over the span of this trip, the score is stephanie 1, Matthew 4, and Jared 4. I finally got to say, “Matthew, when we last met I was but the learner, but now I am the master.” we have yet to determine a tiebreaker.

we also had the pleasure of dining with him and eating his world-famous, from scratch pizza. last year I brought him pepperoni and he made one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had. this time was just as good.