Indian Ocean

En route to the Indian Ocean, we camped a night in Pangani, which offered nothing but a small pool. With the rising humidity, the pool was refreshing, until we got overtaken by 40 local children. They spent all day building their desks and chairs to start school tomorrow. Most of them had never swum before, no less in a pool. It was mayhem, but a joyful sight!

In Dar Es Salaam, everything was closed on Easter Friday, except for the supermarket and a heavenly air-conditioned internet cafe.

Beechee Faya

Our camp in Dar was RIGHT on the beach. After a swim, a shower, a gorgeous pink sunset, and dinner, I took a stroll on the beach, where hundreds of little crabs came out to play. As Katie and I chatted, a local artist approached us to sell his paintings and invited us to a bond-fire party. We declined.

But not long after, curiosity got the better of us. We really did like his paintings and we saw a bond-fire not too far away. It turned out to be the most unusually fun night I’ve had. A bunch of Rasta guys, singing and dancing. ‘Umshati’ was my favorite song – it means ‘big shirt’. There was such joie de vivre and expression! They sang a lot about ‘Beechee Faya’ which I only recognized at the end of the night as ‘beach fire’, lol.

The next morning, Kaite and I were heroes. The ‘quiet girls,’ as we were known, actually stayed up passed 9 and went to the beach fire no less! Wow!

Now on to Zanzibar!