Today marks the first full week that I have lived in Tanzania, Africa. And what a week it has been! But no update would be complete without first telling of the journey. Our four day layover in London was a wonderful, interesting, and learning experience, to say the least. The day that we touched down in London-town, we hit the ground running by checking in to our hostel in the Piccadilly Circus area of London, and then going to get some breakfast at the local Tesco, a chain grocery store. After breakfast, we decided to wander around a bit, just happening upon the changing of the hourse guard on their way to Buckingham Palace. From there, we got some maps and guides of the city before being true tourists and siteseeing via the ‘hop on – hop off’ double-decker buses. The buses offered us a great view of the city, including the notorious Fleet Street of Sweeney Todd fame, many famous pubs that served as the haunts for some of the great writers of old, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, Millenium Bridge, famous gentlemen’s clubs with 20+ year waiting lists, Cleopatra’s Needle (a huge obelisk imported from Egypt), London Bridge, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and the London Eye, to name but a few. Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong’s “A Foggy Day in London Town” is particularly descriptive of the weather that London was experiencing during our trip. At the end of the day, we went to a quaint pub for a dinner of meat pie and fish and chips with pear cider. Our second day was no less busy than the first, as we started out early at the Tower of London. Our first stop was, of course, the tower where the crown jewels are kept. After getting our fill of gems, we wandered around a bit before catching a tour by one of the authentic beefeaters that live within the Tower. The beefeater leading our group was a fiesty lady from Scotland who loved to interject gory details and odd jokes into her version of the tour. Needless to say, she was a hoot and we enjoyed ourselves fully. From there, we wandered inside the Tower, seeing the Chapel where several former queens are buried (namely the wives of Henry VIII), the staircase where two of England’s princes were killed and buried, and a fabulous exhibit on torture, armor, and war throughout England’s history. After walking around the walls of the Tower, we went for Japanese food at Wagamama. After the delicious noodle bowls, we walked to a discounted ticket place to get tickets for a show. We ended getting cheap ones for the matinee showing of “Avenue Q”. We had a bit of time to kill before the matinee, so we walked through London’s ‘Little Italy’ and Chinatown, before heading to the theatre. Avenue Q was amazing and well-played by the singing actors! After the show, we grabbed a bit to eat in the crypt of St. Martin of the Fields Church. The crypt was converted to a restaurant some time ago, but it was still morbidly cool to be eating with gravesites a few feet away. After our dinner, we went to the National Gallery for a dose of art, and boy what a dose we got! The National Gallery is huge and slightly imposing. My favorite piece was one of Van Gogh’s sunflower paintings and another was one of Da Vinci’s sketches. The next day, we woke up early to go to one of London’s famous markets – the Portobello Street Market. We wandered from side to side on the street, looking at tons of vintage clothing, antiques, and food stalls. Although our only purchases were an antique Burberry silk scarf and bread pudding, we still had a blast. We left before the market started in full swing and headed to the Churchill War Rooms and Museums via the red double-decker buses. Along the way, we stopped to see Parliament and Big Ben. The Churchill War Rooms are the rooms where Churchill and his heads of state, etc. lead Britain’s war efforts during WWII. They had been abandoned and sealed after the war, and the rooms were restored to look exactly as they did. The museum was incredible, to say the least. It served as a testament not only to Britain’s war efforts, but to Churchill, WWII in general, and international relations and politics at that time. It was by far the best museum that I have been to. From the War Rooms, we went again to the discount ticket place and got tickets to see the play entitled “The Secret of Sherlock Holmes”. Before the matinee, we grabbed some lunch and went to the British Museum. The British Museum is indeed both awe-inspiring and terrifying as there are hordes of people and so many exhibits to visit. We went immediately to the Egyptian exhibit to see statues, artifacts, and of course, mummies! There were at least ten mummies at the museum and all were accompanied by beautiful artifacts and other bits of history. Another highlight at the museum was seeing a scraping and chopping tool that came from Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania! After the museum, we headed to the performance. The play was exellent and included two very fine actors playing the parts of Watson and Holmes. After the play, we wandered around a bit around Trafalgar Square before grabbing something to eat at Belgo, a Belgium restaurant with a specialty of mussels and imported beer. The food was delicious but what good is a meal without dessert? We then went to a cafe to get some tarts and cake. The next morning was one of the worst and most disheartening of my life. I awoke to find out that my laptop computer was stolen during the night. The situation is long and complicated, and I won’t bore you with the details. But suffice it to say, the whole situation was a learning experience in the school of hard knocks. We departed that day for Doha, Qatar and arrived without incident. Although we would have liked to explore the city a bit, we arrived at 8 in the evening and didn’t want to deal with the hassle of getting into the city from the airport. As we had a 12 hour layover, we met with some of the other ACM group members that were on the same flight and chilled as we waited for our flight. The next morning, we met the rest of the other group members and departed for Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. We got in ahead of time and breezed through customs without any incidents. We met our program director and his assistant, Paulina, and headed towards the UDSM campus. The ones that have arrived so far are: Dana and Matt from St. Olaf, Ian from Colorado College, Karma from Lake Forest, Linnea from Grinnell, Allison from Lake Forest, Katie from Lawrence, and obviously Caleb and I. The others arrived later that night. We then put our bags up in the room and went out to dinner at Hill Top. Our first meal consisted of rice and chicken, or goat and plantains with Stoney’s (a ginger soda), water, or Serenghetti or Kilimanjaro beer.
Will blog more later as time and internet/power is available! But for now, badi (goodbye in Swahili, more like ‘see you soon’).
