Although many of you will undoubtedly make sarcastic violin-playing motions when I say this, hanging out on the beach and relaxing has gotten somewhat tiresome. Let me elaborate:
It's all about expectations. Before getting on a plane to Africa, I envisioned going on long hikes through a wild and savagely beautiful countryside, gazing at wild animals, sitting down at local places to eat local food, etc etc. While these experiences may still occur, the clearest memories I have so far from Tanzania and Malawi - the "bad" ones as well as the good ones - are the following:
-Getting to know the other 12 people on our overland truck. The group includes Irish, English, Kiwis, and Australians. They're a great group of people, we hang out and talk and play cards and drink. Here's our truck. We spend a lot of time on it.
-Getting swindled by this guy in Zanzibar. I'm still mad about it b/c he, like, totally lied to me and then pretended he didn't. I was filled with righteous indignation, which was all out of proportion to the ~$1 that I lost.
-Getting eaten alive by mosquitos and hoping that I don't get malaria.
-Swimming in Lake Malawi and hoping I don't get bilharzia.
-Relaxing on the beach, which I wished we had done at the end of our trip rather than the beginning. (lthough we're camping, the places we're staying are hardly distinguishable from any resort-y place in any warm and sunny location.)
-Doing adventure-ish activities, such as:
- Abseiling (where you rappel down the side of a cliff and pretend you're a Special Forces guy infiltrating the hideout of a Columbian drug lord).
- Horseback riding (where you pretend you're a cowboy on the way to the OK Corral, Howdy-Ma'aming the ladies and being ready, at any moment, to yank your shotgun out of its leather holster and blast the living daylights out of a mustachioed villain).
Ok, that's it for now, hopefully my next post will contain some stories of animal-viewing and other assorted misadventures.
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