Been Hangin With My Homies

So it's been an even longer break than my last big hiatus. To rectify this wrong, I will have to split this HUGE update among a few posts. And since I like to assume no one is wasting their time reading my blog, I don't care. It's a way for me to keep a journal and occupy my free time since right now, I have TONS of it!

Okay. Last post I was getting ready to fly back to Italy to see my family. My dad was stationed in Vicenza, an hour drive east of Venice, and we lived in a small farming village several miles away from the military post.  Well, I got back, and it was fantastic. I was so glad to be back with my family. Six and a half months was way too long, but sometimes things just are the way they are. Either way, I returned to an empty house. We just moved to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and it takes about three months for shipments to travel that far, so our stuff was packed and shipped back by mid-June. I was not the only one living out of a suitcase this summer. However, instead of lounging around our barren house, we spent hours at the pool and the beach. The pool was nothing new. The veteran lifeguards know us well from the last couple swim team seasons, but we give the new ones ulcers. Surprised our five year olds can swim? Get over it. We did go to Lake Garda a few times. The water is warm and clear, and the people watching is fascinating. (See the picture...) All things considered, Lake Garda is definitely one of my favorite spots in the entire world.

Photo credit: me.

We eventually packed up completely and moved into the post hotel where we drove the staff and other residents up the wall. Ten days later, we said our farewells and left the hotel at 4am the morning of 24 July. We flew to Amsterdam, Netherlands; then Mt. Kilomanjaro, Kenya; and finally to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. We got to our house around 11pm that night. And it is amazing. Our front room's walls are made of coral, we have three balconies, and there are seven bathrooms! Perfect for a family of 16. There's a 10ft spiked wall around our entire property which includes three mango trees, two coconut palms, and a banana tree. Home grown coconut is amazing. Can't wait for the mangoes to come in season. Hopefully the family can send me some. Now that would be the ultimate care package.

Also, I realized something random: Africa smells like spicy food and sweaty people. Africa has a really distinct smell, and I finally figured it out! Spicy food and sweaty people.

We hired a chef as soon as we could. Now, this makes us sound uppity, but it's kind of necessary. A high salary for them is $10 a day, and we would get ripped off at the market since we're big white people. Also, the food is so different. My kitchen skills are pretty decent, but I do NOT know how to prepare a whole chicken, as in just killed still sporting feathers. Also, we don't have a dishwasher. Hand washing dishes for 16 people three times a day is incredibly time consuming. And boring. I had to do it several times, so I speak from experience. Long story short, we hired a cook and our house is amazing. So is our cook's food. I think I miss him more than I should... We also hired a couple gardeners: one because he knows what he's doing and he cleans our house, and the other because he needs a job to feed his family and we can give him one.

NOTICE: I'm too lazy right now to post all the awesome pictures I got to take there right now. But you can check em on my facebook. Cause once upon a time, I was not too lazy to post pictures.

Anyway, Italy was way cool, but Tanzania is home now, and I love it. I'm back in Provo, but there's nothing quite like Africa and just being back in the States helps me to realize that a special place in my heart will always belong to Africa, the people, the landscape, the art, the culture, the food, and even the crazy languages. As ironic as it is for a rich mzungu (white person) to say, I will always feel like I belong there.