So its 6:30 in the morning on Friday and I am sitting in the Kilimanjaro Airport, in 1 hour I’ll be on my plane and leaving Tanzania, I never thought it would have gone by this fast. So a few funny things have happened since Hoss left, so I thought I might fill you in a bit. On Wednesday night, Hoss flew out of Kilimanjaro, so Wednesday afternoon the three of us all left the orphanage and went into Arusha. We got on a hotel shuttle that took us to the airport to drop off Hoss, because Grim and I had nothing better to do, we went with him. However, because we had just left the orphanage we had to bring all of our bags with us. So Grim and I each carried 50 lbs worth of stuff all the way to Kilimanjaro and then waited at the airport for a few hours and then got back on the same shuttle that had taken us there with all our stuff again. I think the driver thought we were nuts, but we had a good time. We were planning on eating dinner with Hoss at the airport, but we found out that if you don’t have a boarding pass, you can’t even enter the airport, so that didn’t exactly work out as plan. This left Grim and I wondering where we were going to eat, so we walked away from the airport and came across a local place just for the locals. So we strolled in with all our stuff and sat down. We read the menu and got really excited because they had all kinds of food, it was all Tanzanian, but there were lots to choose from. So we tell the waitress what we want, she looks at us kind of confused and then explained to us that they only had one thing to choose from, fish and rice. Although we weren’t thrilled, at least we would both eat it. A few minutes later and they brought our food out, turns out when they said fish they weren’t joking around, sitting in front of us was an entire fish. I have eaten an entire fish on this trip but it was usually cut up. This was looked like they just pulled it out of the stream, it was a shame you weren’t there Hoss (he can’t stand fish for those of you who don’t know). So since we already stood out a lot being the only white men and carrying tons of luggages, we figured we might as well take a picture of it, so Grim took out his camera and took a few pictures. The locals must have got a kick out of us. After dinner we went back to the airport and came across a restaurant hidden on the other side of the building, but we weren’t too upset because we got a good story out of it.

So with one day left, I wasn’t sure what to expect, I was sure that Paradise would help us out and arrange something. The next morning we got up and had breakfast at our hotel. After breakfast, we spent the rest of the day walking around Arusha by ourselves. It’s amazing how well I know this city already. So that took a good part of the day, but it wasn’t over yet. That night, Paradise came and picked us up. We got in our land cruiser for one last night and hit the roads. We drove for quite some time on very poor back roads. Paradise explained to us that the section we were in was one of the worst in Arusha, and that people were always fighting with the police on the streets. We finally arrived at an orphanage called Good Hope. Simply by the looks of the orphanage, you could tell we were in a bad section of town. A large cement wall surrounded the entire compound and the doors to get in were all fastened with large locks. The orphanage housed about 10 kids and the facilities were no where near what we had at Samaritan. We were at the orphanage to pick up one of the volunteers, a girl about our age. After talking with her, we realized that we were living in luxury at our orphanage. Good Hope had no supplies and all the kids attended a 2 room school house run by a volunteer teacher. Our kids all were sponsored from over seas and attended private schools. After hearing her tell about the condition of this orphanage, it gave me a little different perspective. As we talked we drove back into town and stopped at a local bar/pub. We met another volunteer there who was celebrating her birthday. The other two volunteers went off and talked and Grim and I went over to the pool table and watched the locals play. At this point, things then got interesting.

One thing that you should all know about Paradise is that he loves wine, and we quickly found out that one glass off wine gets him very loose. He soon began explaining to us how to be a fisherman, which basically means how to hook up with girls in the area. The more he talked the more it got interesting and we knew he was up to something. He then explained to us that the road we were on was very well known for having many hookers on it. Paradise then went to the bar to get another glass of wine and when he came back, he brought back a local girl with him. Grim and I immediately knew what he was up to. So we talked for a bit and then Paradise left us alone and gave me a wink, so Grim and I naturally had fun with this one. So in case you zoned out, here’s the situation. Grim and I are standing in the middle of a local bar by ourselves hanging out with a very drunk hooker. So we continued to talk with her and every time she answered our questions we were amused by her responses. My favorite was when we asked her where she worked and she just smiled at us and told us the street. The more and more we talked, the more and more we realized she was a hooker and that she was trying to get business from us. I’m not sure how long this went on, but eventually we got out of it somehow. After the bar, we then went to a local barbeque place which is kind of like a combination of Indian food and Texas barbeque, it is amazing! After there we went to a local club. Grim and I aren’t exactly the two people that I would imagine spending time at a club, but sure enough we found ourselves standing in the middle of one in Tanzania. The band was really good but very loud, so we decided to go outside and walk around. There were people sitting all over the hillside so we wandered around. It was pitch black and we really had no idea where we were going. We found a nice spot by a tree and stopped there. After a few minutes, the smell of marijuana found its way to us and we soon realized that we were standing right beside a weed dealer. We were wondering why people kept walking up to him, staying a few minutes, and then heading back inside. Well I guess the way we were acting made us look like potential buyers so he soon started walking at us. We decided that it would be better to just turn away and head back to the club (we had also found out earlier that day that if you get caught with weed the jail sentence is 7 years, yeah we didn’t want to risk that). By this point it was getting quite late so we found Paradise and head back to our hotel. The next morning I was planning on meeting Paradise at 6:10 to have him take me to the airport. Although I would have preferred more time to sleep, it was worth it for the previous night. However, I soon found that the stories weren’t over. This morning at 4:45, we were awoken by a man pounding on our door, sure enough, there is Paradise smiling in the doorway. He told me that he didn’t realize I had an international flight so we actually needed to leave early, so I quickly got out of bed and got my stuff together. I was a little bummed out at first but one moment that morning made everything better, my shower. I got in expecting to freeze my butt off like normal, especially since it was not even 5 yet. However, to my surprise when I stepped under the faucet, hot water rained all over me, it was one of the best moments of the entire trip. What a great way to end my trip! Well my flight is going to board soon so I should pack stuff up. I’m on my way to Australia!