"he'll be coming around Mount Kilimanjaro when he comes..."

so i'm back on the mainland. at this moment, i'm in a town called Moshi, which is one of the two main jumping-off points for those wishing to scale the continent's largest mountain, and also a key coffee-producing region. i can't say how happy i am to be in a climate where the hours of being drenched with sweat are limited to the early afternoon - the mornings and nights here are quite cool, and our hotel's rooftop restaurant has a splendid view of the majestic Mt. Kilimanjaro, capped off with its famous (albeit receding) snows, which, according to recent evidence, is not due to global warming but local deforestation. but enough boring stuff, i haven't written in a while, so i'll go over some of the craziness of the last few weeks, starting back with the last days in Zanzibar (seems like lifetimes ago now):

the date: Friday, October 26th. crazy, crazy day. on Saturday we were scheduled to leave for the mainland, so all the fun had to be squeezed into that last 24 hours. i woke up early to go snorkeling with most of the class at a coral reef just off the coast. it was probably the best snorkeling experience i've ever had. granted, that's not saying much, but you'd probably be just as amazed by the rainbow of different colors on the fish and the intricate patterns of the massive coral structures. in the afternoon, 13 of us students plus Abui (host brother) took an open-top outboard-motor boat out to the "sandbar," which is exactly what it sounds like - an island of sand in the middle of the sea. we arrived at high tide, so the island was just a little hill no bigger than a basketball court. to the east we could see Zanzibar about 1 mile away, and to the west an awe-inspiring sunset over the distant African horizon. i walked way out into the water so the only thing i could see was sky and ocean, perfectly dissected along the middle of my field of vision. just after the sun set, the full moon rose in the East. talk about scenic perfection. we made a fire and goofed off for a while before jumping back on the rickety boat to return, or at least that was the plan. 300 meters from shore the up-to-then perfect day started to show signs of a turning. it all started with the boat running out of fuel, leaving us wet and cold and bouncing around tantalizingly close to home. it wasn't a huge dilemma, though, because our captain was able to swim to shore and bring back a refill. we stepped ashore at about quarter to 10 and headed home. this is when the real surprise came. Adam (homestay housemate) and i walked into the house, only to find our host brother Issa shouting at us: "where have you been? we've been waiting for 3 hours!!"

after the initial shock, we were able to figuer out that Issa had planned a surprise going-away dinner for the 3 of us (Nate stayed there too) and he had invited all kinds of extended relatives to join in. problem was, apparently Abui never knew, and Issa wasn't aware that we were not going to be back in time for dinner, so we came home to an i-don't-know-how-many-course dinner and a houseful of very, very irritated people. they had waited, the food getting colder and colder, for the last 3 hours. dinner was, needless to say, one of the most shamefully and painfully awkward situations of my life - so much so that i almost burst out laughing from the absurdity of it all. all of the men at the table wouldn't speak to me; they looked like they were about to start fuming from the ears. to top it all off, the food was incredible and after the dinner they served us not one, not two, but THREE different desserts, followed by gifts. i couldn't figure out how to thank them - i felt so guilty. it was all okay in the end, however. Issa calmed down and lightened up, and my sister Isde and Mama Hadija were chill and bouyant as always. lesson learned - Zanzibari hospitality knows no bounds.

[pictures: top - Stone Town streets; middle - Adam, host brother Abui, host Mama Hadija, Nate; bottom - some of the antiques in my host family's shop]