Whew! Communication!!!

Hello dearest friends and family!
I am FINALLY in town and able to access the internet, albeit for a short time. So this will be quick. One of the nicest bits about my "job" is eating. One thing I neglected to mention to my Mom was the veritable feasts we eat at each meal. Yes, I do chop onions at about one tenth the speed of the kitchen guys, Boni (head chef and avid "Bombo flavah" listener), second in command Stanley--a skinny young looking fellow with a deeper than James Earl Jones voice, and above me in the pecking order Joshua, a soccer fanatic and former tractor driver. Sometimes I even get to smash garlic in the mortar and pestle (apparently I don't do that right either). Really, I think they think that I'm pretty pathetic in the kitchen, which sort of makes me feel indignant everytime I offer to cook my own breakfast and they sort of hover over me like "Poor thing, barely can crack an egg!" Ah well, give me a familiar kitchen and then I'll show them. ;)
The front of house staff are slowy, slowly teaching me Swahili and generally befriending me. Everyone is really wonderful in general. There are two dobermans on the island who are my constant companions, as long as no one better is around, ie a guest who will give them table scraps and let them sleep on the bed. As for accomodations I've been moving from empty banda to empty banda and for two notable nights took up residence in the laundry room under a mosquito net (malaria is ridiculously common here, almost everyone knows someone who's died from it--no worries I'm faithfully taking my anti-malarial meds!). The worst part about living in the laundry was it's lack of "facilities"--no shower, and worse no toilet. So I had two options, walking upstairs to the unenclosed one right off the managers bedroom or walking down the path to one in the main room of the lodge. So there I would lie at 2 am debating my course of action and inevitably to the gentle shrieks of the bushbabies I would venture outside, scurrying and deathly afraid of running into one of the Masaai night guards or worse some posionous night creature. But it was always uneventful. And really, the Masaai guys are really nice but they do look fierce or "kali" with their big knives and bludgeon like clubs. Actually I guess that most guards here in Tanzania are Masaai because they have the reputation of being the badass tribe of East Africa. I guess that comes from drinking cows blood ala milk... Well I must be off, the managers are done with their emailing so away I go to wherever they're going, a seriously lack of autonomy I must admit. But I will be staying at Lazy for a bit longer and then hopefully will have more email access. Everything in accordance with Swahili time as they say, meaning no schedule, no deadlines and no worries...sort of. ;) I hope all of you are well and I miss you all so keep in touch! Much love!

Sara

News from Lazy Lagoon

We were able to have a short conversation with Sara today on a borrowed cell phone. Lazy Lagoon is unlike anywhere she’s ever been. The island is only reachable by a two hour drive followed by a boat ride. Her job includes meeting the guests as they arrive by boat, offering a cold drink, then acquainting them with the rules of the island, such as “beware - a bush pig is on the loose and is vicious”, “don’t drink the water”, and “when you walk on the beach, look out for the poisonous cone shells”. The latter is a concern because each night the guests are served dinner on the beach. She has been working in the kitchen with two 25-year old Tanzanian guys who don’t speak English. The food and even the utensils are different and she’s learning slowly how to cook their way (mostly chopping onions at this point, she says), and working diligently on Swahili. Her favorite time – each noon a piercing whistle sounds signaling the arrival of the local fishermen in their hand carved boats. She and the manager, Lara, rush to the beach and watch as the catch is thrown on the sand – every type of fish imaginable. After Lara bargains and strikes a deal with the fishermen, the fish are carried to the kitchen for the night’s meal. The guests are very diverse – no Americans yet, but many Canadians, Brits, Belgians, ex pat South Africans who now live in Dar Es Salam, Finns, and even Russians. For entertainment, oyster-loving guests are given hammers and chisels to gather oysters from the oyster beds for a snack. For you snorkelers - she saw three lionfish at the bottom of a tidal pool. Sara will probably stay one more week at Lazy Lagoon and then will be sent to Mufindi Highland Lodge, a tea estate in the Great Rift Valley, or Vuma Hills in Mikumi National Park. She says that she misses you all and appreciates the comments posted on her blogs (old and new ones), which we read to her.

New Blog - Let's try it again...

The former blog imploded. So here's a new one. This is Sara's first message from Tanzania, where she's living near Zanzibar on an island in the Indian Ocean. At some point, she'll be heading back to the mainland where there will be email access. But, for now, she says...

I'm sending this email via Lara and Dave who are the managers at Lazy Lagoon Island Retreat. The owners of Fox Safaris thought that I was a chef and so when they found out I wasn’t they weren’t quite sure what to do with me. But it’s worked out well. I’ve been here on the island the whole time learning how to host and how things run as well as doing some work in the kitchen, chopping things etc, AND I made key lime pie for 18. Now I am working as a relief host at Lazy so that Lara and Dave can have three nights off in Dar Es Salam to get plans started for their wedding in February. I’ve snorkelled, cooked, read a lot, and worked on my Swahili, which is pretty minimal but getting better. The people here are really really nice and I’ve been staying in vacant bandas or, when full like last night, I stayed in the laundry room which was quite comfy as well. All is going well; it’s a wonderful experience and the island is beautiful. I’m not sure how long I’ll be here or where I’ll go afterwards but I’ll do my best to keep you up to date.