My first weekend

The weekend Sunday Oct 24^th

The weekend is when we have time to ourselves but our project manager also has activities set up. Saturday we had culture day, which I participated in. It started with a scavenger hunt through the market for certain items that we would use to make an authentic meal called mutapa at a friendly local's hut, who we work with at the preschool. We shaved coconut by hand and ground little beans on a bowl-shaped rock with a baseball bat shaped tool. The family we were with spoke very little English but enjoyed many good laughs at our expense. The food wasn’t something that I’m going to come home and make for you all, but the experience was invaluable.

The afternoon was spent playing at the beach and lying by the pool. The evening was even more spectacular. We were invited to a new hotel’s opening party. This place was the most beautiful piece of paradise I have ever seen. The food was an elegant three course meal, along with a picturesque view of an infinity pool overlooking the huge teal blue ocean. What did I wear, you might ask, as I only brought enough clothes for 5 days that consist of outdoorsy shorts, Old Navy tanks and Carter's promo tee shirts. I borrowed a dress from my British camp leader that she had worn in a wedding here. Who would ever have thought you could feel like Cinderella going to the ball in the middle of Africa.

On Sunday I took a dhow trip to one of the islands. There was a camp set up on the island for our lunch and also a very little bit of shade. The sun felt very intense and even though I applied sunscreen SPF 50 multiple times, it felt like my skin was constantly burning. So I only had one choice and that was to stay in the water. I loved every minute of if. When I was tired of swimming and playing in the water, I would sit or lie in the sand just where the tide would come up… until I was sitting on a jellyfish. My booty stung for a bit, but I survived. After lunch a few of my girlfriends from camp and I went for a ride on a speedboat around the island. We went tubing in the ocean and enjoyed an outstanding tour of the island and the mainland.

A simply spectacular week-end!