That's all, folks

Well, the adventure is over. This will be the last entry except in the case of an unexpected really good grade. I think I spent more time observing life in Africa than being a good master's student. But at least nobody can say my priorities are screwed up...

I had a wonderful experience. I can't easily summarize it, so this last entry will be just a best/worst list. Zanx for reading the past three months.

Best accommodation: Blue Oyster in Jambiani/Sansibar.

Worst accommodation: Hotel Continental in Dar es Salaam. In the morning I saw a cockroach climbing up the stairs. Found out later it must have come straight from the Aussie couple. One of them was complaining about "something walking across my face in the middle of the night" and when they turned on the light, there was a cockroach, heading upstairs...

Best bed: Another vote for Blue Oyster. The bed was as long as wide and was the only one in three months where I could fit w/o touching the moskito net. Another highlight was that it had a light inside the bed, so it was also the only time where I didn't need to get up to turn off the light when I was done reading. Does it occur to anybody that getting in and out of bed increases the risks of moskitos coming in? And once you turn off the lights they are kinda hard to see...

Worst bed: The squeaky and soft bed at A&A. Fortunately they rented it as a single, but it had two beds and the other one was OK.

Best drink: Again, with part of the fun being the experience I vote for the sugar cane juice on Sansibar. The dudes were running the long sugar canes through their presses right in front of you for some fresh juice.

Worst drink: I wish I would have paid more attention to the name of the drink before I bought it: "Chemo Orange" or something like that. The worst drink I ever had since "Kotz" ("Barf", some awful tasting syrup that still made you throw up when diluted 1:9999999) when doing a bike tour with my cousin in England in 1987.

Best food: Puh, there was lots, but due to whole setting and my advanced ability of eating ugali with my hands at the time I vote for eating fresh Lake Victoria Samaki (fish) with the Komanyas in Bukumbi.

Worst food: Difficult. I think after three days in Meru I was a bit sick and tired of white bread with peanut butter...

Best habit: Taking time and not being hectic at all. There are more important things in life than hectically running from one appointment to another.

Worst habit: Taking time and not being hectic at all. Especially at the NBC bank in Moshi, where the person
dealing with my traveler's checks carefully made sure each of the four copies were not different from the original. Huh???

Best health moment: They say it ain't over till it's over and with an incubation time of malaria of about one to two weeks there is no reason to celebrate yet. My travel doc said anything within a month should be tested for malaria and somewhere I even read that one should consider getting a test within a year. Oh well, I am still grateful I didn't get sick down there.

Worst health moment: Didn't really have one other than a couple of slight, one-time diarrhoea. This seemed to be usually related to after eating food in facilities that weren't quite that clean.

Best moment: When the one kid said "We'll keep him here" on one of my first site visits.

Worst moment: In Mwanza. The one guy who wouldn't stop following me even after I told him to leave me alone several times; I even changed directions. He was drunk or stoned or both. Eventually a double U-turn left him a few feet behind and when I noticed he was going after me again I turned around, added a few inches to my 6feet, made three quick steps towards him and said "Hacha" (it kinda means leave me alone) for about the tenth time. This helped.

Best noise: An angry moskito buzzing *outside* the moskito net at night.

Worst noise: The vote is still out on that one. Is it the rooster screaming underneath my window at 2:00 in the morning or is the dozen or so dogs going at each other, also underneath my window at 2:30?

Best shower: I really enjoyed the bucket baths after the shower in Dora's place broke.

Worst shower: I didn't care for any of the trickle showers in the majority of hotels, but really the worst was two days w/o any shower during the train trip.

Best street: Well, that would be the one that we walked, from Momela Gate to Miriakamba Hut in Arusha National Park. We only saw three cars in like four hours. The nicest walk you can get.

Worst street: The stretch between Arusha and Siringa. Especially the last two hours were awful and I had to concentrate hard to not get bus sick.

Best transport: The train was awesome, the ride on the back of a pickup truck out of Meru was cool, but nothing beats the independence a bicycle offers.

Worst transport: I didn't care for the dala-dala's at all, but really what annoyed me the most were the myriad of taxi drivers that constantly yelled "Taxi, taxi." Like I am blind or something. I let you know when I need a taxi, dude. I really tried to minimize taxi usage and usually only dealt with them with other people. I can remember four times taking the taxi by myself: To and from the wedding in Arusha, as I wasn't convinced about the safety at night, to Momela Gate, as there was no public transit and to St. James seminar as I was running late.

Best swim: Snorkling in the Indian Ocean.

Worst swim: Trying to get my belly wet during low tide in the Indian Ocean...

Best trek: Mt. Meru!!!

Worst trek: The walk to KIDT. Not for lack of interest, but it got old after a while...

Best vendor: I really enjoyed the craziness in all the little villages when we stopped there by train. Everybody was trying to sell something through the very high windows. Priceless.

Worst vendor: The dudes who wouldn't let go even after I told them three times I wasn't gonna buy any of their art or Safari packages...

Best wildlife moment: Walking down Meru and seeing a Giraffe on our left, chewing away on a late breakfast.

Worst wildlife moment: Ok, that's a stupid category. How can there be such a thing? Even if you don't see all those big animals, there are still trees, insects, birds, lizzards and a ton of other things to observe. So just scratch this category

Would I do it again? In a heart beat!!!!

Kwa Heri Tanzania.