10 Feb: Rough Night

Still unable to sleep, I watched The Score on my iPod for the first time. So good! DeNiro, Norton, and Brando teaming up for a caper flick. Its a cant miss. I strolled over to Brayns room only to learn that he has been puking and pooping his guts out since 4am, immediately shutting me up concerning the bad night I had. Brayn continued his festivities in the bathroom, while I went to the market with Todi and Ayobu. We decided we should buy a cellular phone (they really are everywhere now) though I dont really understand yet how it works. We picked up a couple other necessities (TP and a razor) before I headed back to the hotel. Lacking much else to do, I went to the net cafe and figured out that I am nine hours ahead of home (IM IN THE FUTURE!!!). I made sure to warn people that Brayn gets sick at 4am, so bring a poncho.

Our plans were to leave for Magulilwa this afternoon, but the ride was apparently 2-3 hours on a very rough road. We ended up deciding to wait one more night so Brayn could do some more recovering. Feeling brave, I figured Id kill some time by going for a walk (see the picture* of the garden, which will give you an enormously false impression of Iringa), where I experience this exchange with people selling things upwards of 20 times:

"Hey you!"
"Hey."
"[something in speedy and aggressive Kiswahili]."

In one hour of walking, I saw zero white people. Ive never really been a minority like this. Its cool though, because I blend right in with this new haircut.

Back at the hotel I experienced my first Tanzanian beer, a Serengeti, from Dar. Excellent stuff, though nothing really distinguishing about it. I went back to the net cafe to kill some more time (500 shilling for 30 minutes) where I met two girls with some college program staying just outside of Iringa. One was from Chicago and the other from University of Washington where my girlfriend Liz happens to be. I felt an immediate connection with both of them, despite having said all of maybe a dozen words to either of them. Back in Brayns room, things are still going poorly. I make sure hes got plenty of soda popinski and bottled water (which I mistakenly call A. Frica). We watched Superbad which I had rented on the iPod and I went back to my room to read another sleepless night away.

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*You can enlarge pictures by clicking on them