Day 12

Hongera (congratulations) Dr. Ben! My brother-in-law successfully completed his PhD defense today which officially makes him a cool kid. Way to own that math!

In less stellar news, my roommate and I have fallen victim to some lonely African microbes. This came as quite the surprise since I’ve really been enjoying the food in Tanzania. Most of it is very simple and healthy, like something you could make yourself if you were appropriately talented. Food preservatives, chemicals, and packaging aren’t really an issue here. We eat a lot of curries and stews, along with eggs, rice, chipatis, naan, and various potato dishes. For meat we eat beef, chicken, or fish. We don’t really get any raw fruits and vegetables or dairy, but otherwise have all the food groups covered. Also, the portion sizes are very reasonable. My only major complaint is that coffee is incredibly hard to come by, particularly good old filter coffee. Although Tanzania is one of the world’s coffee producing countries, the only thing available to buy is horrible instant coffee. Africa-cafe is the most common and probably the most disgusting. I’ve taken to drinking tea in the mornings which, for those of you who know me, is a pretty radical step. The instant coffee is that bad.

Anyway, somewhere in the midst of all of this new and excellent food, Jenn and I became ill. We could have also picked up some kind of flu, we’re not really sure. We got progressively sicker for about 48 hours until Jenn finally gave in and took antibiotics last night (brought from home for just such an occasion). This morning, she made me take some too. I guess she got tired of me getting up several times a night to turn the air conditioner on and off depending on my fever. Anyway, as an act of kindness, the team abandoned me to sleep at the hotel this morning while they went to the immigration office to check on our residence permits. It was either get better now or feel miserable on the 8 hour drive to Iringa. I’m feeling much better already, although I’ll have to take the antibiotics for a few days. Also, it was unnerving to spend the entire morning alone in our hotel room. I don’t think I’ve been alone for more than 5 minutes at any point during the last 12 days.

Around 2:00pm, the hotel staff came in to clean the room and I went downstairs to sit on the outdoor patio and have a cold pop. Pam and the others noticed me when they arrived back at the hotel, possibly because I was dressed in a fluorescent pink skirt and matching pink khanga (crazy mzungu). According to our receipt from immigration, we are officially working under a professor Wilmpilby. The question is, should we get her a monocle to suit her new epic name?