Day 50

This morning on the way to breakfast, I dropped one of the earrings Ben bought me as a going away present. Although I spent 10 minutes crawling on the cement looking for it along with a very kind hotel employee, it was nowhere to be found. I thought it was gone forever when all of a sudden, Jennifer found it by the stairwell just before we loaded the car to go to the site. I think she must have interfered with some cosmic sacrifice because the day went downhill from there. On the way to the rock shelter, the brakes failed on one of the cars and we had to make an emergency stop at an Orthodox church to fix it. Although it seemed to be repaired with some tinkering, the next hill proved otherwise and we inevitably had to turn back to town for safety reasons. We still had 2 final boxes of artifacts to wash, so we set about doing that even though we had a late start. Washing artifacts after anticipating going to the field is like waking up expecting Christmas and getting a shot instead. By the time we were finished the first box, it was well after noon and we were starving. Unfortunately, the new restaurant we tried out lost my order and didn’t bring me any food. Finally, in the midst of another long stint of laying out artifacts, I noticed that the hotel laundry put a hole in my favourite shirt. All because of an earring. It is possible we are also being punished because Frank arrived last night, which means that at our most critical hour, IRAP is 10 members strong.

After 3 straight days of mundane artifact washing, our new favourite topics of conversation are the foods back home that we miss and what we plan to eat first upon our return. The consensus between Jennifer, Katie, and I is that sushi is the frontrunner. However, we’re also missing: real coffee, macaroni and cheese, Chinese food (specifically Ho Ho’s in Hub Mall), Boston Pizza, Wendy’s, cheese, pizza, cheese pizza, bacon, edamame, spaghetti with parmesan, garlic bread, turkey, stuffing, and cereal. Although the trip isn’t over yet, we have a solemn pact to eat McDonald’s at 3:30 am in the Dubai Airport. We also talk a lot about the Starbucks in Terminal 5 at Heathrow. Don’t get me wrong, the food in Tanzania is amazing. However, it’s unlike anything we typically eat at home. The very fact that we eat almost every meal with our hands makes it a different kind of experience. We freak out pretty much any time we find a food item that we can get in Canada. The connection between home and food is so strong that it seems to supersede all the other reasons we’re eager to get back. Or maybe food represents why we want to come home. I miss coffee because I’m in withdrawal, but I also miss all of you who drink coffee with me. All I know right now is that I would do almost anything for a chicken mcnugget.