Yesterday was really crazy. We had placement in the morning and left early to fly to Zanzibar. We went with Ferral, Nikki and Nie to Pasua to give money to some small business owners so they can expand their businesses. Nie and Jonas had spent the entire day before going over the money and how they should manage it responsibly. Ferral raised the money at home during the past year. It was incredible how much excitement there was over this money, and how helpful it would be to each family when it only amounted to about $40 American each.
John picked us up early from TAFCOM but then started picking up everyone else. We were freaked about missing the flight so we made him pull over and we took a cab back to home base. At home base I realized we scheduled our TAFCOM kids day for Tuesday next week, which is the day we’re supposed to go to Arusha. I asked Mama Fatuma to try to reschedule with TAFCOM for us while we are away.
We took a shuttle from Eco-Tours to the Arusha airport. The driving here is really scary and I had to keep covering my eyes. On the way there we saw a motorcycle accident. It was really scary but the motorcyclist stumbled away. The driver told us that he probably didn’t wait for help because he wasn’t licensed to drive a motorcycle or because he was drunk.
The airport was a huge kluge (one room, tons of tourists, no luggage belt), and from there we took a shuttle to the hotel. To get there we had to drive through some of the worst poverty I have ever seen. The poverty extended right up to the beautiful gates of our hotel, where we were swept inside and served fresh juice, warm cookies and a cool towel as we waited to check in. From this impression we thought the place would be great, but we were so wrong. They were out of the kinds of rooms we wanted, so we were given two king sized rooms next to each other. We soon discovered that our shower didn’t work, and when we complained the manager said he knew about it, oops sorry. We had no garbage cans or phones, and the hair dryers didn’t work. Yes, I know how ridiculous this sounds, especially since the hotel is next to such awful living conditions, but I paid a TON of money I shouldn’t really have spent to stay in a Hilton, and I wanted everything to work.
We figured we’d deal with the problems later and got ready and went down to the New Years Eve party on the beach. We were told at check in that the party cost $50 a person for a buffet, open bar, and entertainment. We were first taken to a balcony and offered juice and a drink, and then we went down to the beach to eat. We were the only people there under maybe 50. We sat at our table and the waitress came to take our drink orders, and informed us that dinner was 35,000 with no drinks included. This started a night-long fight with management, which we eventually resolved by paying the original price in cash. Mike, thank God, was smart enough to get a receipt. More on that later. Because of this dispute over the price and the African pace of the service, we only had a few drinks each and were afraid we wouldn’t even be able to stay awake until midnight. We stuck around, and in the middle of nothing, all of the staff rushed onto the dance area and started dancing and singing and going crazy! We figured it was midnight, and I got up and danced too. It ended up being a lot of fun.. definitely worth staying up for!
After everyone went to bed Courtney and I hung around the front desk trying to call our men-folk back home. We had to use an employees cell phone because no one could figure it out on a hotel phone. Around 2 am I finally got through to Dave’s house and he wasn’t home.
I went to my room around 3 am and soon realized there was no mattress for me to sleep on. To compensate the hotel gave me a free room for the night. I was very happy about this, only to get to the room to find that it hadn’t really been cleaned from the guests who stayed the night before. I slept there anyway (albeit pretty aggravated) because the bed was clean and it was too late for anyone to come clean the room. The next morning I woke up to a lovely call from the front desk at 7:38 am telling me that a new guest was coming and I had to be out of the room by 8am. I was too tired to fight with anyone so I spent the rest of the morning on the floor of Courtney and Carissa’s room.
John picked us up early from TAFCOM but then started picking up everyone else. We were freaked about missing the flight so we made him pull over and we took a cab back to home base. At home base I realized we scheduled our TAFCOM kids day for Tuesday next week, which is the day we’re supposed to go to Arusha. I asked Mama Fatuma to try to reschedule with TAFCOM for us while we are away.
We took a shuttle from Eco-Tours to the Arusha airport. The driving here is really scary and I had to keep covering my eyes. On the way there we saw a motorcycle accident. It was really scary but the motorcyclist stumbled away. The driver told us that he probably didn’t wait for help because he wasn’t licensed to drive a motorcycle or because he was drunk.
The airport was a huge kluge (one room, tons of tourists, no luggage belt), and from there we took a shuttle to the hotel. To get there we had to drive through some of the worst poverty I have ever seen. The poverty extended right up to the beautiful gates of our hotel, where we were swept inside and served fresh juice, warm cookies and a cool towel as we waited to check in. From this impression we thought the place would be great, but we were so wrong. They were out of the kinds of rooms we wanted, so we were given two king sized rooms next to each other. We soon discovered that our shower didn’t work, and when we complained the manager said he knew about it, oops sorry. We had no garbage cans or phones, and the hair dryers didn’t work. Yes, I know how ridiculous this sounds, especially since the hotel is next to such awful living conditions, but I paid a TON of money I shouldn’t really have spent to stay in a Hilton, and I wanted everything to work.
I went to my room around 3 am and soon realized there was no mattress for me to sleep on. To compensate the hotel gave me a free room for the night. I was very happy about this, only to get to the room to find that it hadn’t really been cleaned from the guests who stayed the night before. I slept there anyway (albeit pretty aggravated) because the bed was clean and it was too late for anyone to come clean the room. The next morning I woke up to a lovely call from the front desk at 7:38 am telling me that a new guest was coming and I had to be out of the room by 8am. I was too tired to fight with anyone so I spent the rest of the morning on the floor of Courtney and Carissa’s room.
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