Sunday, July 20, 2008

Lazy day. A noisy party at the swimming club next door went late and necessitated ear plugs for rest when I turned in. I woke up and the party was quiet so I removed ear plugs and went back to sleep. I awoke later about 3:30 AM and read for a while. I’m reading a new translation of Don Quixote in English by Edith Grossman. Very good and amusing and I look forward to nursing it a while during this stay in Tanga. Awoke again at 7 AM and slowly rolled out to breakfast, being the first of our team there. Breakfast is included in the room it appears; the charge per night is $70 US or about 77,000 Tanzanian shillings. Other meals and drink are extra but should be covered in the per diem. Dropped off a post card to Mother at the front desk, which was viewed strangely by the clerk who obviously gets few request to mail anything: “I’ll have someone drop it off” he replied. The age of the internet and cell phone in East Africa also! Cell phones are common even at the cattle crush where we work and on the dirt road leading there as you see folks talking.