Reading Dostoevsky in Omsk

Yes, man is a pliable animal- he must be so defined: a being who grows accustomed to everything!

Is it possible that men so differently situated can feel in an equal degree the punishment inflicted? But why think about questions that are insoluble? The drum beats, and we must return to barracks.

Is it not rather the feeling that overwhelms you directly you enter the prison that in spite of all efforts, all precautions, it is impossible to turn a living man into a corpse, to stifle his feelings, his thirst for vengeance and for life, his passions, and his imperious desire to satisfy them? (Why people working with convicts fear them)

Reading House of the Dead, and this incredible article I read in Petersburg

http://m.motherjones.com/politics/2016/06/cca-private-prisons-corrections-corporation-inmates-investigation-bauer

means I'm musing on crime and punishment lately. 

Ok and one more from the TV show Mr. Robot. 

We got back from the beach and I emptied my shoes out onto the floor.  My mom yelled at me, but my dad didn't get mad.  He told me about the millions of years it took for the sand to be made and put on the beach that then I brought home in my shoes.  Every day we change the world, and that made me feel good, until I considered how many days and years it would take me to move all the sand off the beach.  Every day we change the world, but to change it enough to matter takes more time than most of us have.

Road trippin across the universe

Apparently Jeremy is bad for blogging. Hearts of Iron 4 came out while we were in Vilnius so there's been a lot of that plus TV shows he brought me in our downtime instead of this. Also road trip means no long train and bus rides. But here's some things I remember. 

Me and J's schedule since I wrote last:

Prague 5 days

Krakow 1 week

Stopover in Warsaw 2 nights

"Flight" to Vilnius

Vilnius 1 week

Bus to Riga

Riga 3 days

Road trip begins

Ethnographic park

Small ruins up to Gaujas national park

We went along the river to a little ruin, but it was so little, the remains of a wall that J cancelled our plans to do the next, yet smaller one down the line and instead we torched straight up to Sigulda, in the Gaujas national park. We stayed at a roadside motel, which was tots on the highway but charmingly backed by the river, and had a dinner that was all grey peas and globs of mayonaisse. I liked the salad and it was so local, lunch this day was also a grey pea pile at another tots local place but it was cool all these places no one spoke a word of english and you had to get by, it was like getting off the tourist track for real and we were the literal only people at the ruins. 

Gaujas national park 3 nights

So first day when we arrived we went to the Sigulda castle ruins, there's a pretty manor house which is now gov offices and the ruins behind them, and they were pretty well developed, tower you could climb, half fallen castle walls, and fantastic views over the river valley to Turaida castle on the other side. 

Second day we woke up feeling really lazy and spent all morning playing computer games. We were between canoeing down the river or walking this loop J devised, and we picked the loop and then there was no start time so we totally played til we got hungry which was like 3 pm. But then there we were in town so we took the cable car up to the top of Krimulda manor, now a sanitorium and a place you can stay yay might do that next time. And we walked along the river down the ridge one way and then crossed it on this fantastic pedestrian bridge and then walked back along the river and just as we were rounding our third hour of pleasant walking and I was thinking I'd really rather not climb this hill again a ski lift appeared by magic and we rode up it for a euro basically back to our car. Thanks god!  This was also the day J's knee gave up, it's doing weird weakness and popping, so we limited our walking thereafter. 

Third day was stormrainy and we were supposed to do castles but again we played computer games literally all day til night while the rain blew outside. It was v fun and lazy. But I will leave gaujas with a list of things I would still do there. Just full of fun that place, not the most spectactular scenery or great sights but there's just so much to keep you happily busy and the river and pine forests are always there and they just have all you need. 

Fourth day we left and we started the day at the ski lift which had a slide you could take down in a little cart on a metal track like a gravity fed roller coaster. Then on to Gutmanis cave which was billed as the largest cave in the balkans which I should have looked at the proviso bc it was not even a cave just an indentation in the limestone cliff. But it was the location of the Rose of Turaida.

The Rose of Turaida was a maiden lived in Turaida castle, until everyone in the castle was killed when it was taken over by the Swedes except her. The king found her in the rubble, still alive, and raised her as his own. She grew very beautiful, and came to be known as the rose of turaida. She lived in turaida castle and had a lover, a humble gardener, who she would meet in Gutmanis cave. One day a jealous suiter forged a note from her lover and got her to the cave where he gave her the choice rape or death. I think actually he just gave her the choice rape, but she had a red silk scarf and told him it would protect her from a sword and he should try which he did so, she chose death, and he left her there slain. Her lover came later and found her, in his distress he got covered in her blood, so the kingdom tried him for her death. But the servant who had delivered the fake message came forward, and so he wound up spared, and planted a linden tree on her grave. 

We then went to Turaida castle, which was still in the process of restoration, there were actively people building there some of the towers. The outside of the castle was really awesome. There is a big garden populated by statues from folk songs, and the castle is red brick and shingles which looks really charming against the green forest and blue sky, The inside was less impressive, but J found some fun info about bishops concubines and the like. We then drove up to Cesis. 

Cesis up to outside Parnu:

 Cesis rules! This was the fourth castle we had seen in the national park: Sigulda castle, Krimulda manor countsish, Turaida castle home of the rose of Turaida, and now this one, plus ones in other towns, really we're up to in the range of 10 castles this trip. 

Cesis caslte is not the best restored, or the most sumptuously decorated, or the oldest, but it was my favourite. It just felt like you were in a castle the whole time, so castle esque.  First you went to the dungeons, which a lot of them have, but in this castle you descended down a treacherous iron ladder into a hole, then down a steep stair, then you were submerged in the dungeon itself. I have a fear of incarceration, and going into this dungeon made me a little scared, even though I could get back out again. There was a window, or long hole, through which a little daylight came and it chilled you physically because underground and psychologically. We got out of there and the castle has been fully restored on one side which we didn't get to see and left original aka ruins on the other side or partially restored, so we walked through the grounds where the convent used to be and saw the place where some people blew themselves up to prevent capture bc that was apparently worse in some war, the balkans had a lot of wars as the christians, then polish then russians, then swedes all took them over basically from the 15th century on. 

We mounted the stairs which you need a lantern to do because the stairs are dark and shadowy so you go up in candle light and the top floors and the actual chambers are well lit because of the windows, but the stairwell has no windows and so it's pretty dark, you can't see your feet and really have to use the lantern to make your way. It's candlelight, so added romanticism. 

We got up to the maesters chamber which has get this original 15th or 16th century gothic brick archways, OMG people. This is the most beautiful gothic archway I'd maybe ever seen it was like stars within stars and back when it was plastered they painted the night sky in the panels. And the whole chamber was airy and beautiful. 

And you could go up two more levels but not in per say because the first level you could see the ceiling wanted to crumble, more restoration needed, but you could see the domed archway, and the topmost one where you could walk around an arcade but they hadn't built a floor over the aforementioned dome roof presumably for the same reason. And the views were so great because you know it's the other towers of the castle or the Gauja river and pine forests, or the lovely medieval town of Cesis. 

Which outside the castle there's an incredibly sculptured park and a manor house hotel, and the whole town is just pretty with the stone buildings and the hey hey hey.

We drove on out then, J's knee had had enough and it was 6pm so we got to our hotel at like 8:30, which made the no dinner a little sad but we'd had a sumptuous lunch in Cesis, this woman put herb butter on my bread with a pastry nozzle in front of me, you could watch the chef make the food in the open kitchen and like three people plated it all bustled around, our hotel was intentionally really remote, but we turned out to not want it so the next morning we headed into Parnu proper which was better. 

Parnu 2 nights: 

So we saw the ocean. Which was actually great I mean for Europe I mean. Travel books describe it as "ice blue" and that's ok, though also kind of flat mud brown, and there's sand, and the day we were there was the warmest of the whole trip so while you didn't feel like swimming you weren't wearing a coat. (Why don't more people live in the habitable areas of the world?)  And you could imagine, on this flat sea, kayaking, stand up paddling, sailing, rowing, all amazing through the thousand islands of Estonia. So not a crap sea, but you know. 

But Parnu itself was a lovely jazzy city with the coolest selection of cafes and jammin street culture since at least Riga, maybe Vilnius. J's knee is busted, and the brace we got him is not working, so he voted for a rest day. We found a small room in this really fancy old hotel that we laughed at the chance of staying at in the cafe ped mall district within our budget and have been there ever since, winning as the US in our game (mmm taking over the entire world) and splitting a bottle of wine at the fancy restaurant. We checked in just as the rain and bluster started but it was beautiful sun at the beach. So winning!  Today it's this and I made my last big purchase, flights home via the US. There are some more wrinkles to be worked out in travel plans today. And more war winning on the computer. Right now we're in the sumptuous lounge of our hotel, and it's still raining. 

Then the future

Parnu a third night or one more nat park?

Talinn 5 nights 

Helsinki 7 nights with mom and Harmony coming!

Say goodbye to Jeremy.

Aus Berlin

Ok travel from Africa to Europe.  I visited the Zimbabwe side of the falls the morning of my departure.  It was an incredible time.  I wanted to get a few souvenirs and presents as well so was on the lookout for my street seller friends.  The guys we had talked to before weren't there, in fact there was only one guy on the hustle at 7:30 in the morning. 

You see I was up quite early to maximize my falls time before 10:30 when I had to go to the airport.  I had it all worked out great, the taxi who was picking me up was getting me again and keeping my stuff in the interim.  It was bison again. 

Ok so I haggled across the bridge, got some stuff I was happy with, and then crossed the border.  Smooth, though I found some locals that crossed into Zimbabwe just to do their grocery shopping.  Cheaper prices see. 

I cut into the falls and saw the whole side, Jes and I had cut the ends a bit, so from the first vista where you watch the water tumble over from behind to the last view of the bridge with double rainbow. 

I broke my previous rainbow record of 15 with 19 total rainbows sighted.  As before it was so full there were some vistas you couldn't actually see for the mist.  But the turbo insanity of the Zimbabwe side where you see the whole fall and the horseshoe bit and you have to get at an angle to see the whole thing. 

And I was soaked from the spray in my bathing suit.  All in the plans but then I arrive at the airport some adventures later soaked to the skin.  I checked in and changed and caught my flight no problem.

I was feeling weak after the first 2 hour flight chilling in my 4 hour layover.  I was really tired, feeling over it, whatever but aware there was a 9 hour flight, another 4 hour layover and then a 6 hour flight.  I did not feel ready.  But God did me a big solid and the next flight was half empty, and my seat mate had taken my seat, so I kindly went and took over a row of three for me.  It took me three tries and some embarrassment, but plane takes off I lie down and determinedly sleep til plane lands.  Srsly.  So then it felt like nothing after that and I got to Berlin feeling positively human. 

Checked in with the nicest German I've ever met.  I was here for 6 nights so everything came out of the bag and I spent a couple of hours on it.  Went down to a local spot for veggie burger and double cocktails, showered, slept.  Not even a thang.

Next day was my solo day in Berlin, so I walked to the Kathe Kollwitz museum.  I am a genius of serendipity, so the museum was walking distance from my hotel and saw the cool Wilhelm gedenkenskirche which was the bombed church restored with beauty with the new awesome twilight themed chapel I wrote my last blog post at.  Kathe Kollwitz rules.  They had like all her work, lots of engravings and woodcuts and they had gotten permission to recast small her entire sculpture ouvre.  I savored it seeing everything twice. 

Beer pub and long wander back via some other spots. 

J arrived at 8:30 am the next day, I met him at the airport and we caught up some and then kept him up by a walk to the story of Berlin museum which was a little cheesy but fun and involved a tour of a nuclear bunker. 

Between the walking and museum and finding more German food, we kept him up til like 6pm.  Good work.  The next day we wanted to be big so we did checkpoint Charlie and walked all the way there, via the gedenkenskirche and the tiergarten (like central park v pretty and tons of songbirds)  and some bits of the wall and memorial stuff.  And we did the museum, which I remembered as better than I found it this time.  And then we went to the topography of terror museum which I found full of good info but very reliant on historical photos and text.  The best bit for me was listening in on the tours.  My memory of Berlin was very don't talk about the war but listening to these kids talking was very much like taking responsibility and respecting history.  I wonder if I'm seeing different things or if there has been a generational culture shift. 

Next day we struck out to monuments Brandenburg gate Reichstag Holocaust memorial all in a row on the other side of the tiergarten so another long walk. Then we continued to the afternoon Brecht walking tour, his grave, house, library (in house), theater and square with memorial.  The theater apparently still performs him often and keeps to his principals, even has some old timers who date from his time.  Oh for knowing German.  I had done the house and grave before but enjoyed them just as much this time.  The guide did many cute anecdotes. And it's a beautiful house and a beautiful graveyard.  Made me think how much our mothers would respectively love it.  And the theater filled me with feels. 

We trained home footbroken and spent our last day planning and scheming through Krakow.  Plus watching Netflix and chilling.

And today we enacted one of our schemes to great delight.   We are training to Prague and took a 6 hour stopover in Dresden, to which I have never been.  I did not think it would be so beautiful because you know the bombing.  But it's apparently a miracle of restoration, so we spent about 2 hours walking around seeing awesome buildings.  We spent another 2 having a lingering Italian lunch overlooking the Elbe.  And the last 2?  Well it turns out that the annual Dixieland blues and jazz festival of Dresden was on today, so pretzels and beer on tap big crowds of enthusiastic listeners and about 7 jazz bands proliferated helpfully starting right at the train station and continuing to old town.  Thanks God!  Way to do your job of making the world awesome!

So we meandered through that on the way out and back.  And there was much rejoicing.  And I found out Prague is playing Madame butterfly and don Giovanni while I'm there.  But tonight napful.  I'm so sleepy for having lazed all day yesterday.  This train is actually fun.  And going through the Elbe valley so pretty. 

As I looked at the beautiful world

So John Green was saying this thing about how he was arguing with someone about religion and  they were saying how there's all these contradictions in the Bible and therefore you can't believe in God and he was like um well I still do.

And then I was thinking about covering my hair in Zanzibar and how jes said it was like cultural appropriation and for me it's like the respect of tourism, like being extra polite in Asia, and how I try to cross myself in front of the alters in Catholic places.

And then I was thinking about why I feel respect for religion when I pretty actively antibelieve in it. 

So there's this part in mister Pip, I went back to try to find the passage but it doesn't exist in the book as much as in my head.  Spoiler alert.

The jaundiced and jaded corporal sends her mother off behind her, and then he turns her around.  And she describes how beautiful the world is, she lives on a tropical island.  And she talks about every sunbeam glittering off the waves, and the verdant jungle glimmering before her. 

And she hears him suck on his cigarette, and other noises behind her and later she finds out that her mother is being macheted to death.  And this is what happened as I looked at the beautiful world. 

And I think why that scene affected me so much is that it seems like a metaphor for what life is like.  I can't shake the belief that the world is a good and beautiful place.  But everything I know seems to argue against this, what with the wars rapes genocides etc.  But no amount of knowledge of how terrible the world is seems to be able to shake from me the truth that is evidently screaming at all my senses from every blade of grass and every rock.  And maybe that's what it's like for people who believe in God too, the same way, that you can't know enough to countermand what you see and more than see, what suffuses your being everywhere.  The world is good.  It just is.  And terrible things happen here but...

Maybe feeling this way is a luxury of privilege,  but I don't think so.  They know it in Malawi too I think. Anyway, that's what I'm thinking on a chilly Monday. 

I had a lovely rush of loving feelings for the northern hemisphere when I rode into Berlin.  Cornicing! Wisteria vines! Clouds! I can't even imagine anyone putting the first piece of litter on these pristine tree lined work of art streets.  Today I'm more remembering why the south Pacific is just better.  I'm wearing everything I own and shivering with a dripping nose.  It's May, people.  Adorable African guys on the plane had a similar reaction when we landed in Jo'burg in the fall rain.  "Is this Africa?" They said rubbing their shoulders vigorously.  Preach on brothers. 

Malawi

So we stayed at lake Malawi, a huge freshwater lake which consumes a third of the country.  We were near a village.  The most profound thing about Malawi was the people.  When you left the resort compound the kids would flock to you, and try to hold your hand.  They wanted to be picked up, and they had little songs they would all sing.  You could hold hands and sing with them and even when you weren't doing anything with them they would show up just to watch you.

We did a tourist sell thing where we did a painting with a local craftsman, who was like a lot better than his life.  He was a quiet thoughtful man with a delicate brush stroke.  But his only decent brush he had made by cannibalizing other brushes, and his paints were shitty primary school acrylics you had to take a 4 hour trip to get at the big market in Lusaka.  And he functionally only did one painting BC it was for tourists.  We asked him how many he could do in a day, and he said 15 but he couldn't sell that many, so he just did them as they sold.  He took a lot of patience with us. 

His nephew was one of the beach sellers, seen as a nuisance and kind of one, but very friendly and the only viable job in town and what all the young men were doing.  Independent but not cutthroat there were some accepted cultures about talking to one tourist at a time so they didn't get too inundated.  They held a bonfire party on the beach, I guess to lure tourists off the compound because they were still a bit on the clock but they also had the fire and the kids came out and danced and they taught us local games and invited us to the local bar. 

I later met a guy in Johannesburg who told us that when he was a kid in apartheid he used to think white people were like gods and he wanted to touch them to see if they were real, but your parents would beat you if you tried it.  This reminded us uncomfortably of the kids in Malawi. 

It would be strange and wonderful to be somewhere like that long enough that you became unexceptional, that you could interact with these amazing people a bit more like a person yourself. 

I went snorkeling with the super cool snorkeling guy who was living this dream along with the cool girl who was doing biodiversity research.  We motored out to the island and floated around seeing awesome fish. 

The fish color and diversity was great, the most diversity of species of a certain kind of fish  in the world.   There were these rocks from which the island was built and in the cracks in between those you could see the fish more readily, who his in their sheltered harbors. 

The downside of this is you have the waves from the wind crashing against the rocks.  And where I come from you don't hang out face first against crashing waverocks.  Jes gave up pretty quickly in the face of this and a dodgy fin, I continued around the island but as I came around to the windward side it got more and more intense and then I lost my mask and in the process of retrieving it lost a fin and in the process of dealing with all that washed up on shore.  I took this opportunity and the shakiness accompanying it to explore the island with Jes and hang out on warm rocks and then I went to complete my circuit around the island.  I did make it, and got some more awesome fish views, and then we motored back, a pretty great day all around. 

The night before we partied hard and late, at the bar then the bonfire, then when we got back there was dancing on the bar.  And the afternoon was the painter and then this local meal with dancing and singing with the kids. 

Serengeti, Ngorongoro,South Luagwe, Safari Part 3: The Family

Elephants

I expected to see elephants. What I did not expect was again the proximity and variety. In Serengeti, we saw the newborns. We peeled off to this road all alone and there was a huge family group of them grazing in the acacia trees. The small babies seem like their skin is not fully formed, deflated trunks and bony heads. They can fit under their mothers entirely. There were also the one and two year olds, who seem more like smaller versions of the adults.  They were fully tranquil here, grazing and moving slowly in large matriarchal groups. 

Elephants live to about 70 and what kills them, if nothing else does, is that they run out of teeth. An elephant has 7 sets of teeth and when they run out, they can't chew their food and then they die of starvation. When they get this old they go to Ngorongoro, because the grass is softer in the protected crater than on the open savannas so they can eat longer. Elephants discovered Ngorongoro, the first people followed the elephant trails, and it is known as the elephant graveyard, because they go there to die.

Because Luangwe is wetter, the river and all, we got to see more drinking, and generally messing around with the trunk. And an elephant got startled by some of his fellows running behind us and half charged with an almost trumpet. He just whipped his ears and took two steps, but our driver revved the car and prepared to take off. 

Hyenas

In Ngorongoro two hyenas were fighting over something. Kisamo said it was the placenta of a newborn calf. He said if you looked over there you could see the mother. And a wildebeast was turning circles confused, as though looking for something. 

The hyenas in Serengeti weren't afraid, and were happy to hang out in the ditches near the cars, like stray dogs. They were always in small groups and I'm pretty sure I saw a pregnant one. 

Hippos

Luangwe was the most hippo infested stretch of river in Africa. You could hear the hippos say and night, grunting like hogs. See their little ears submerge and surface from our front deck. One ate weeds like hungry hungry hippos, mouth full open. And at night, they come out of the water and we saw them, pink and startled on their improbably stubby legs. 

Giraffes

Giraffes never stop being interesting looking somehow, you can become inured to the zebras maybe, but the giraffes you keep wanting to figure them out. 

Beyond that. they love the acacia, which have inch long spines but they have the world's toughest and very long tongue, so they can basically graze on these thorn bushes. They vary a lot in color, much lighter or darker. 

We got to see one acacia grove where they were so close by the verge of the road, 2 metres maybe for the close ones, every part of their mouths, eyes, legs was visible. 

We saw one run, crossing the road startled by the car in front of us. A giraffe running is strangely magestic. Their stride length is so long and they are so ungainly that it appears to be happening in slow motion. 

And unbelievably, we saw them fight. It was far away. I would never have known but our guide spotted it. An activity I did not know existed until Norah and I watched that documentary, which I thought was stupendous on TV, I got to watch in life. 

Birds

Some of my favourites were some of the most common. 

The spectacular starlings who had plumage like a blend of a peacock and the sky. 

The weaver birds who made intricate nests, like christmas balls hung from the trees, who you could watch coming in and out. 

Small kingfishers, one of whom I spotted killing a frog in Luangwe. We stopped to watch it dash out its brains, just like a kookaburra killing a snake. 

We also saw ostriches, male and female, walking, and the bastard bird and secretary bird and the crested one who is the national bird of somewhere, much more giant and distinctly African. 

Ok I'm closing there. To talk about up to now, I have to talk about Lake Malawi some, and Victoria Falls and Afrikaburn. 

By way of catching up a bit, I can quickly say I've been in near hibernation in Cape Town, sleeping 12 hours a night, taking long baths, cooking my own food. It's pretty great, though sadly means I've seen little of an amazing city. My mom says I'm just saving it to do with Melinda when we come back ;). I did go up to Table mountain yesterday on the cable car, which had suitably awesome views and I could walk all around and you can see the city and Blaubergstrand where I'm staying and Robben island and both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and the cape. 

From my hotel, where I have almost exclusively been, you can see the sea at all times, and the sunset, and table mountain and the city lights and robben island. So it has been a very good place to hibernate.  

Serengeti, Ngorongoro,South Luagwe, Safari Part 2: The Pride

1) Lions: probably the coolest thing we saw on safari was a bunch of out of control lion sightings and up close encounters.

In Serengeti: we peeled out at dawn and followed the spoor of the lions from our campsite (we camped in tents in the national park so you weren't allowed to leave your tent after bedtime or the lions might get you. This was extra scary to pee-ers like me and I dealt with it through combination dehydration and sleep deprivation.) to where they were all hanging out. Oh hello lions. and there was a male who was sitting around eating a carcass and this female kept coming up to try to get some and he chased her off and then dragged it away. And another couple was mating when we came up and then the female pranced out on the road and was like rolling over and flirting all cute like. And a couple more groups too, alertly looking at like the herds of elephants to think about their lives.

Finally, the post lion scene, which was hyenas knawing on the ribs of the wildebeasts, while vultures dove at another spot where they had dragged some bits off, and the content female who had brought the beast down sat on what is called like lionrocks and look like the thing on the Lion king, yeah so she's just surveying her domain from the top of this rock as the scavengers gnaw on the bones of her kill.

In Ngorongoro: It was so small so you could kind of see the whole prode behaviour one at a time. We came across a male chuffing in the dawn, Apparently they send out a scout for where the herds have moved and then communicate about where to go by this chuffing. Then we saw a female stalking along, probably the selfsame scout, just walking along the ridge scenting the air, she went by us for a long time.

And then we found a male who had gorged himself sleeping, breathing heavy with a distended belly, while the kill lay beside him.

But most of all, there were two females taking a NAP ON THE ROAD. I'm talking literally maybe a metre away, and we just pulled up next to them and sat there and there they were, like full technicolor. And they weren't doing anything, because they were kittens sleeping in the sun, but they would like turn their heads, or flex a paw, and we would be transfixed for the next indefinite time, they made us move on eventually, but to be petting distance from a lion is a bit crazy.

In Luagwe: This was the night drive, so we found three females stalking, looking for something to hunt, so they just walked along, and the driver pulled up so we were perpendicular to them, and they walked right to us in the night while the spotter tracked them with the lights, they had to turn a little to get around us, like full face.


2) Us: So the cars developed special bonds bc we stayed together for the awesoemest bits. And ours was the awesomest car, dubbed team Jambo for the song we sang in greeting and goodbye to each new place.

Jambo
Jambo bwana
Habarigani
Mzurisana
Wageni
Mwakaribishwa
Tanzania yetu
Hakuna Matata

Literally translated to
Hello
Hello mister
How are you?
I am really good.
Guest
A very warm welcome
Welcome to Tanzania
No worries, mate.

Note that the obsessive learning of this song also leads the yodelling yokel ot now have like 3 Swahili conversations with locals.
In addition our car contained-the baby germans, masters of the booty shake (Alina and Vanessa, there was also a team Germany with all the other Germans plus Sally)(and Vanessa also had the best zoom on my camera so when I post my photos someday they will really mostly be hers.), Elaura and Jaspar (the group children, who took all the best selfies and started all the best coordinated dance parties along with Corinne, from team 726 with Terra the numerology master)(Jaspar had also been in Tanzania for like another 3 months teaching schoolchildren, and therefore knew other rad swahili and was btw the only boy on the 20 person tour, and could do a mean accapella of the circle of life) and me and Jes. And Kisamo, our guide, who sent me rad swahili music vids afterwards and told us many cool stories and had no fear of speed limits off road and let us hang out of the roof nonstop cheering, singing and generally making nuisances of ourselves and not believing wild animals can be startled. Which really they weren't.

Much much more could be written about this tour group, which was btw the coolest ever and full of awesome friend groups and dancing and getting off the hook in every bar every night. These kids may have forced me to like a Beiber song.  We danced more than once on a bar. There was various leaping and throwing in pools. Everyone was too drunk a lot. Serenading occured. Our work crew (me Jes Sally and Jaspar) had a playlist carefully constructed by Jaspar himself. Cutthroat games of scattergories were played. Tarot angels were read. It was really really cool.