June 26th and 27th - Relaxing on our last weekend in Dar

Pictures
1, 2 - More pictures from the deck of our apartment in the early morning.
3 - A boy that I was writing messages back and forth to in the sand at
CoCo Beach

In this post: Bus station, wood carver's market and connections

This weekend was a nice chance to slow down the pace and relax a
little during our last weekend in Dar. First though, we had to make
our way out to Ubungu bus terminal to buy tickets on a bus to get us
to Ifakara next weekend. We were warned to ask the taxi driver to come
into the station with us and help us negotiate a price on the tickets,
which we did and were thankful for. Even before we pulled into the
gates of the station, we had guys coming up to our cab trying to find
out where we were going. There are many touts (guys working on
commission who try to bring you to their company) and when we pulled
in, it was quite a sight to see 7 or 8 guys run up to the cab all
asking us where we were going. Additionally, the terminal is so busy
that one has to worry about pick pockets and we were carrying a good
amount of cash, so it was an exciting outing. The rest of the day was
spent organizing future travel plans and cleaning clothing.

Today after breakfast we took a trip to the Mwenge Woodcarver's
market, a pretty amazing place about half hour away, with less of the
pressure and aggressiveness of the city and quality carvings. You can
even watch the artists as they carve their intricate sculptures, a
nice assurance that what you're buying is in fact original and not
imported from China. We then spent the afternoon at CoCo beach, a long
white beach with beautiful turquoise water where many local Dar-ians
spend their Sundays. We spent time swimming with some kids and playing
in the waves. It was nice to see many of the kids having fun, although
we certainly drew a lot of attention. It's an odd feeling and one
can't help but feel self-conscious standing out as much as we do.

One of the best moments was a simple exchange on the beach with a
teenage boy who was probably 16-18. He sat next for a few minutes and
then eventually wrote "how are you?" in the sand. I wrote "nzuri sana"
back and he smiled. He then wrote that he was deaf and we continued
writing back and forth for a few minutes. His english was very good
and we had a good time connecting. We then started playing
tic-tac-toe… we had to show him once so he got it, but then he beat me
three times in a row. It was a very personal and meaningful
connection, full of smiles and laughter. Another great day!