Alright, back in the lab with a little time. If you haven't read the blog from Mon sept 8th read that first b/c i'm going to try to finish the story now....



so we were walking down the beach looking for another trail and we finally found what we thought was one, but it just took us across the island to another secluded beach. We then were very intelligent and though for sure the main beach was just around the corner, so we thought we'd just follow the beach back. Soon however, the sand again turned to coral and so we walked through the shallow water, but the water got deeper and deeper. Soon we were wading with water up to my shoulders with hard, sharp coral on our right and the ocean surf hitting us from the left. we were walking on seaweed coated coral and were trying to balance our bags on our heads while maintain our balance. it was a difficult task. The wade was a long one...maybe a mile or two, but it was great b/c we saw all these awesome caves everywhere with crabs lining the walls. I felt like a pirate or a kid from the Lord of the Flies. We continued going on, always hopeful that our destination was just around the corner. Finally, after 45 min it was around the corner and we made it back with only a few cuts and bruises (and very wet shoes!) It was fun adventure around Bongoyo Island, but one that as Mike described, was a case of the dumb things smart people do.



Well, today I found a cheap restaurant in town and had fun visiting the immigration office in Dar to get my passport stamped for residency. It was crazy, packed full of people with passports just in piles behind the desks. I thought for sure I would lose my passport and be in Tanzanian indefinitely, but they did manage to stamp it and I escaped with passport in hand. Tomorrow we have a meal at our Swahili professor's house and on Friday we head out to Zambia to see Victoria Falls. We'll board the train Friday afternoon at 3:50pm and arrive in Zambia early morning Sunday. After a few bus rides we'll end up at the Falls and probably stay there a week or so before slowly heading back via bus through Malawi. It should be another adventure. then classes start and I guess I'll have to go back to the reality of being a student, but until then I'll just be working on my swahili and enjoying the laid back, fun Tanzanian culture. That's all for now folks. I hope everyone is doing well starting school and activities. Thank you for your e-mails and letters! I will try to respond to them as soon as I can. Tutoanana.