Into Tanzania

Countryside through which we hiked, somehow about 90% of the village populations were under the age of 15.

At any given point there seemed to be an army of Jambo kids tagging along for the hike.

Ah the convent, even looking at this picture brings me closer to some kind of inner peace.

Step 1 to curing what ails ya, lie in bed all day and play video games.

The ferry ride from Zanzibar wasn't nearly as horrid as we had hoped for. Unfortunately as soon as we boarded the dilapidated vessel they managed to get a look at our skin colour and immediately moved us to 1st class for our own good (either that or we actually bought 1st class tickets without knowing it...). Arrived in beautiful Dar Es Salaam 8 hours later, surrounded by loving gangs of touts. Quickly hoped on a bus to Lushoto, a small town north of Dar Es Salaam. Being my first African bus ride, it really reminded me of Central America, where space is a premium, shocks are non-existent and each stop brings an army of peddlers aside the bus to attempt to sell you watches, glasses, dolls, radios and anything else. We stayed in Lushoto for one night (at a bank breaking cost of $1.25 per bed) then headed out the next morning with a guide for a 4 day hike through the countryside.

Felt good to get off our asses and actually do something. Wandered a bit through the jungle before appearing out into one rolling village after another. They don't get a lot of foreigners here, so each village is home to seemingly thousands of little kids staring at you. Some become so terrified that they take one look at us and run away screaming, but the majority will jump up excitedly and wave, then follow us for a few hundred metres. As we got further into the countryside each step seemed to be accompanied by a chorus of 'Jambos' (hello in Swahili). Kids from hundreds of metres away would be screaming jambos at us and we soon discovered that word of our arrival was traveling faster than us, meaning that we often walked, unexpedantly, into ambushes by mobs of screaming jambo kids. After seeing the sheer excitement that most of the little gaffers got, it was virtually impossible to become tired of the tirade, but I did get a glimpse into the awful life that celebrities must lead. At one point I figured it would be a good opportunity to hand out the remainder of the pens, pencils and whistles that Mom had left me (she had brought them down to hand out to kids, but hadn't managed to give them all away). I had no idea what I was about to unleash. It seemed like kids appeared out of nowhere once word got out, climbing out from under rocks and logs to surround me. I didn't have nearly enough to give to them all, but I did what I could. As we left the town and climbed into the hills beyond, we could hear the one who had secured the whistle, endlessly blowing the cursed thing to the cheers of his peers. Our first night was spent in a town that seemed to stop when we walked down the main strip. For the second we hiked about 5 hours to a convent of nuns where they put us up on the premises. It was here that ole healthy Jord came to a violent and quick end.

I awoke just after midnight with an unsettled stomach and decided to take a trip down the hall to the washroom. About 5 steps in, I was hit by a wave of nausea completely unparalleled in my life. The next 3 minutes saw me crawling along the cement floor leaving a trail of sweat, in an effort to get to the toilet, which I finally reached and managed to have a second look at what I ate for dinner. The rest of the night followed in suite, with me continuing this act every 30-45 minutes until 6am. There was a point at about 1:30 where I actually saw the grim reaper standing over me and for the most part was quite relieved.

The following morning, the nuns bundled up my corpse and had me transported to the convent dispensary, where I was put through a series of tests, which declared me the proud owner of two malaria parasites. Given that most of the locals grow up with malaria, it's not uncommon to find them each with 2-3 parasites in them at all times, their symptoms will typically begin to appear when they reach 4-5 parasites. Unfortunately us westerners just don't have the same immunity and she said that 2 parasites were more than enough to knock me on my ass, which was proven the night before.

I decided to stay at the convent while the rest of the guys continued on with the hike. I really can't think of a better place to have to stay while sick. Every hour or so one of the little nuns would come waddling into my room, "Jambo John! You want tea? Biscuits?" (I gave up trying to tell them my name wasn't John). Probably the most peaceful place on earth and I've already decided that if I'm ever on my deathbed, I want to be flown here.

I caught a bus back to Lushoto the next morning (the guys were already on the bus, having come from a town farther in), where we laid around for a day before heading to Arusha. Kris and Ry left for a 4 day safari today, leaving Jason and I to bum around this town. Not much to do here, but that seems to suite us fine as we both need some rest and can foresee many a rough travel day in the near future as we head north toward Egypt.