A few pictures against all odds

I repel electronic devices. During this trip my phone has died, my camera backlight stopped working, my memoristick drowned (ok, that was Nick, not me) and my computer has refused to start. In other words, only my mp3 player has survived...so far.
Anyhow my computer did decide to play Jesus and come alive again. But a few days after I came home (oh right, I'm HOME for those who didn't know that yet) it said "disc crash". Turned out, it was no disc crash, but a virus. So I drove it off to get fixed, and will know if I have anything left in a few weeks time. Good thing I got dvd backups of all of my pictures and most of other peoples pictures. Of course, my dvd-burner didn't get through the trip unharmed either, so not ALL the pictures were burned to the dvd successfully. Well, at least I have most of it, and who knows, I might get it all back. Time and computer geeks (thank god for computer geeks) will show.
I'm off to Italy tomorrow (yay!), and will be back next monday to write some final blogentries about my trip.
In the meantime, enjoy some of the pictures from my last few weeks at Zanzibar:

Nick + cocktail at Africa House

me + cocktail at Africa House



Forodhani foodmarket. "This octopus, this shrimp, lobster, kingfish, snapper..." I've been there so much I could start my own company as a guide there

Nick: "if we have the fan on the mosquitoes will stay away" Yeah right, 300 bites, none of them on Nick.

Feeding giant tortoises!

Public transport rules. Not so fun waiting 2 hours, but still. Cheap!

Me + colobus monkey

More public transport. This was before they dropped lots of wood on my neck.

Jealous?

Party at the beach!

danes

Mistah lovah lovah, I went to a SHAGGY concert inside the Old Fort.

The day I was supposed to tan..................

The shortshort story of amazing times, shitty things and endings

This post is without pictures because
1) A few days ago Nick went swimming for half an hour with my memorystick in his pocket.
2) My computer most likely died a few minutes ago (still have the pictures though, but can't look at them) 

I feel like I'm repeating myself, but: I'm at Zanzibar! Again. Again again.
Left Arusha Thursday two weeks ago to maybe possibly meet up with Nick Without A Phone (also known as Nick The Giraffe Kisser) somewhere someplace at some day in Dar. And I found him!
Have been at Zanzibar since that Friday, and have spent lots and lots of time in Stone Town ("jambojambomusic? jambo, jambo bwana, habari gani, nzuri sana", "4scarf10dollaryes,goodpricegoodpricemyfriend", "yestaxi?"), we went to Prison Island (which has never been a prison) and fed giant tortoises, spent a few days at Jambiani at the east coast, went on a spice tour, and Kendwa. And then Nick left....SO I'm back at Kendwa to spend my last days in Africa on getting tanned (so I don't have to when I go to Italy in a week and a half). A bit bored from being here, as I've been here a million times before, but it's still quite nice, and I'm very torn between wanting to go home and not wanting my trip to end. Flying home Sunday night, so will stay here until then. I think.

Will add pictures either when I get home, or if my computer decides to play Jesus, and come alive again after some days.

Sushinight in Arusha

No further explanation necessary.

Same same but different

I just got back from a week at Haydom (a village in the middle of nowhere with a norwegian hospital  that i worked at two years ago). Very strange. Nothing had changed, and everything was different. The Tanzanian nurse students have taken over our student house, all the medstudents now live in houses, so things are MUCH less social. Babies at CCU (orphanage) were new, of course, and a new medical director. New person (and completely different) in charge of the guesthouse, but the food is still the same: spaghetti Mondays, pancakes for lunch Tuesdays, meatballs Wednesdays, strange Norwegian spaghetti/fish thing (an attempt at “fiskegrateng”) on Thursdays , chapattis and tomatosoup for lunch Fridays, pizza Saturdays, and chipsimayai for lunch Sundays. All the same as last time. Other than that there is only minor changes in the interior of the dining hall (new tablecloths, new black covers for the sofas ), and bedlamps in all the guesthouses.  Very interesting? Yeah, I know. But it’s Haydom, I have to report. Oh, and they’ve got a MASAIDISCO in Haydom at Saturdays now. With a discoball, lights and all.

Got to CCU a few hours after arrival and Anne goes “JULIE!!!! So, are you coming to work at 8 tomorrow?” Hence, quite a few hours were spent at CCU. They’ve only got seven kids at the moment: Sulle (7 months), Rehema, Clalence (yes, with an l), Abdallah, Zaina (all 6 months), Udamgambo (4 months) and Juma (3 months). 

Other than that we went back to Pete’s (where I had one of my best days last time). He’s got a new and beautiful house now. And a brand new supercute german shepperd puppy. And I got a skirt made in the village. That’s about it I think. Anyhow, here are the pictures:

Haydom

Petes new house

Petes new dog

Petes new snakes

Love it

Sulle

Uda and me

Zaina

Uda. 4 months, 3 kgs, and superhappy

Contact info

Just got back to Haydom (yay! even though there's nobody here), which basically means no facebook and no hotmail. So if you miss me really bad (as I know you do) or just have something you need to inform me about:
+255686267965
julierosmal@gmail.com

I kissed a giraffe and I liked it

Wednesday afternoon. After about three hours of walking. Why? Because I knew where it was. What I didn't know was how FAR. So Nick and I got the workout of the week. If anyone who's in Nairobi wants to go to the Giraffe Centre, take bus number 24, not 15. And don't ask to be dropped at Nairobi National Park. It's nowhere near.
Anyhow, it was all worth it when we met the giraffewoman of our dreams, Kelly, and her friends. Mwah mwah!

The happy family! Until Nick ran out of food, and Kelly headbutted us both.

A weekend in Naivasha

Last weekend I went up to Lake Naivasha, a couple of hours outside of Nairobi, with two Norwegian peace corps volunteers: Marte and Torhild. We ended up doing a whole lot of stuff, and I don't think I've been this active at any point in 2011. Saturday we went to Mt Longonot, a volcano crater. The guide claimed it was a 2000 meter climb (from 500 m to 2500 m), but there's no way. More like 500. But it WAS very steep, and took us about two hours to get to the rim. Beautiful though. On our way down we figured we still had lots of time, so we went straight to do a boat ride to see flamingos and hippos (far too close according to my self, scary creatures), and then on to a game walk, and then to a viewpoint of a crater lake. Phew. Sunday we slept for a while, and then spent the whole day in Hells Gate National Park. Amazing! Rented bikes for about $7, biked about 10km, went for a couple of hours hike in this really cool gorge, where parts of Tomb Raider II was shot (just to mention that), and then biked back. Our bums, and pretty much our entire bodies were sore, but lord was it worth it.

Marte, me, Torhild in front of Mt. Longonot NP

Me at Mt. Longonot

Mt. Longonot crater

Marte, me, Torhild at Mt. Longonot

"Beware of buffalo" ...Game walk

Giraffes at game walk

Me, Torhild, Marte in front of Hells Gate NP



Torhild and Marte with their fancy cameras



The gorge. Seriously cool place!