Day 15

Hakuna mifupa ya wato (there are no human bones). The museum staff cleaned out an entire storage building looking for the artifacts but they are still missing. They'll begin dismantling another storage facility soon. This is all part of the trials and tribulations of museum renovation. Unfortunately this means we won't be able to look at the material before we leave for Iringa on Sunday. We will be back in Dar es Salaam in mid-July and at the end of August, at which time we will hopefully have more success. I've read the report from the division of antiquities and if the original excavator was correct, we could be looking at some very significant cranial elements. I will find you, bones! If it's the last thing I do!

In better news, we finally scored some resident's permits from immigration which we need to begin our research. Although we still have to formally introduce ourselves in our study area, this is the last piece of official paperwork we needed before going into the field! Eight days to procure permits in the capital is considered to be very fast, so perhaps luck is finally on our side. Now we can start that whole archaeology business. As a wise woman once exclaimed, let's put this pony in the air! But first, one more weekend of the good life in Dar es Salaam.