I went running this morning for the first time in quite a while (really only since Saturday but it felt much longer). I’m getting a bit bored to running over the same flat ground so I tried to run faster today. I ran 5 km in a minute less than normal, which was pretty good. But I’ll be glad to have some new places to run when I get home.
Speaking of home, I only have one week left in Zanzibar! I can’t believe how quickly the summer has gone. I’m looking forward to going home and seeing Jacob and all of my friends and catching up with everyone. I haven’t forgotten about you!
Today is Saba Saba (literally meaning seven seven, or July 7) and it’s a national holiday in Tanzania. Zanzibar has it good when it comes to the holidays because they celebrate all of Tanzania’s holidays plus they have their own! Saba saba is also called President’s day and it’s a celebration of the founding of the Tanganyika African National Union in 1954, the first African political party. This holiday is similar to labor day in the US, but more places are closed for the day to celebrate. There are some events going on in Dar es Salaam but nothing big here.
Because of the holiday, we could only get one car to go to the field today so Tanya went with Bryan to show him what we’ve been doing while here. I went to the office and brought home all of the data that needed to be entered so that we could divide and conquer. Jaclyn, Hai, and I spent the morning entering data and when Tanya and Bryan got back they helped as well.
I took a break around 11:30 to go buy energy credit and food for lunch. I made a vegetable coconut curry with yellow rice while everyone else entered data.
After lunch, Bryan went to the office for a meeting while we entered data. Are you seeing a trend? It took most of the afternoon, but we finally finished entering all of the data…in entry 1; there’s still entry 2 to do (two different people have to enter the data so we can compare the two entries for any dissimilarities), but someone else can do that. I have entered enough data.
There’s still a lot to do to prepare for next week, but we stopped around 5 and hung out until Bryan got back then discussed the plan for Friday. We went to Lazuli for dinner and I tried one of their yogurt smoothies instead of the plain juice. It was equally as good but creamier so I think I’ll stick to the juice from now on. We got two Zanzibari dessert pizzas (which are like crepes) with banana, mango, and nutella afterward. These were crispier than the ones Tanya and I had previously but the filling was not as good. The sweetness did hit the spot though.
By that time it was after 10 so we came home and got ready for bed.