Africa!

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Originally uploaded by An Smith.

The flight into Kilimanjaro airport may be a highlight of my life. I know that sounds super dramatic and over the top.. but it was stunning. This giant mountain poking through the clouds and lush green landscape with red soil and dirt roads winding around farms and those trees that look like Africa (come on, you know what I mean right. I dunno what they are called). I could pretend there were Giraffe's but in truth I didnt' see one. *Yet*. Denise and I sat there dumbfounded with mouths wide open and couldn't even reach for our cameras. It was such an amazing flight in, they take you right beside the mountain as you descend...beautiful! {I guess we will feel differently in a few months when we go back to tackle the sucker. Gulp}.

Anyway, Tanzania is proving to be a refreshing change from India. It doesn't smell, it's significantly cleaner, the driving is normal and they don't constantly honk the horn. I didn't see a cow either (in fact, I enjoyed one for dinner. Yum). After an hour stop in Kili airport we finally arrived in Dar Es Saleem. Big city, not meant to be anything special, so we booked our flight to Mwanza (to get to the orpanage) for tonight. We absolutely splurged (why the hell not) and rented a hotel with a pool close to the airport. The manager upgraded us to a 2 bedroom suite with a kitchen and living room once he realized 'we are in the industry'. It's hard not to get lost. Seriously. We have two washrooms!

Last night we decided to lay in bed and watch movies (really, nothing else TO DO). Going out at night isn't safe. In fact, we wanted to go to the gas station across the street from the hotel (to load up on chocolate and cookies of course) and the concierge escorted us. Just an eye opener that we don't have the same freedoms we enjoyed in Asia..

On that note, the concierge is possibly my new boyfriend (in his mind) and maybe that is why he is escourting us everywhere. He doesn't realize I already *have* a boyfriend from Zambia that I met on the plane yesterday. Eek. Too many boyfriends ;)