APRIL 3, 2008 (Arrived Alive in Tanzania)

Tanzania is a really interesting place. For me it is kind of a mixture between Niamey (Niger) and Cairo. If you saw where we are staying you would laugh. It is down an alleyway in what looks like the slums, but our room is clean and the staff is really nice and helpful. On our way from the airport yesterday, our taxi driver got a flat tire. I immediately jumped out of the car when he opened the trunk to get out the spare - I know that trick! Flat tire, trunk is open and passengers can't see out the back window and then someone steals all your luggage! At any rate, all was fine. At our hotel, we met a man named Felix who told us the good places to go and eat and offered to be our driver when we need him. Last night we went to a restaurant around the corner for some dinner and the waitress sat us with a German girl who is here doing research for her PhD, so we had some nice company. We hung up our insecticide treated bed nets and went to bed really early (mostly cuz I had to sleep off my drug-induced haze). We awoke this morning to people banging on our door. Maggie answered the door and came back in the room to tell me that we needed to find our passports because there were three immigration officers at our door checking passports and visas! A little bit of a scary scene to wake up to, but apparently they come around to hotels everyday checking to make sure that people are staying here legally. Today our driver Felix took us to the bus station to book our coach bus for tomorrow morning. We leave at 6:30am tomorrow (Friday) to Kampala, Uganda via Nairobi, Kenya. It will take us two days to get there. We have contact info for family members of our friend Anthony in Kampala, so we will call them when we get there. We also bought a cellphone today which should work in Tanzania and Uganda. Anyhow, we are doing well and Felix is taking us to go for beers at the waterfront tonight. Will be in touch probably when we arrive in Uganda. Still not sure about whether or not we are going on to Rwanda, but will let you know.