With having Bryan around over the weekend we didn’t have time to plan ahead for the week so when I got up on Monday we didn’t have any cars organized to go to the field and only had a few things to do in the office to plan for Tuesday. Tanya and I discussed the possibility of going to the office early, organizing for Tuesday then taking off and going to a beach for the rest of the day. At breakfast we ran the idea by Jaclyn and Hai with very mixed results. Hai was all for it, but Jaclyn, who originally suggested taking Monday off since we worked on Saturday, no longer thought it was a good idea. She got super upset when we suggested going to the beach and stopped talking to anyone. Sometimes she can be very childish. Jaclyn ran off to her room and we didn’t see her again so the three of us agreed that Hai and I would go to the office while Tanya worked at home and if we could finish everything by 11 am we would go to the beach. If it took longer than that time, we would scrap the beach idea because high tide was near noon.
Hai and I biked to the office and spent the morning printing sheets that Tanya made and e-mailed to us, getting cash at the ATM, talking to Makame and Madja about the week, and trying to find the cashier to get a fuel voucher. 11 am, our point of no return, came and went and we were not done with the work so we gave up on going to Matemwe and just finished our work and went home. Just as we were approaching the house we saw Jaclyn riding her bike in the opposite direction, heading to the local beach.
When Hai and I got back and heard about Tanya’s morning with Jaclyn, I felt so sorry for her. Jaclyn was so awful: she didn’t talk to Tanya at all and started doing some of the work without cooperating and thus wasted a lot of time because Tanya had already done the work. Basically, Tanya did everything useful and Jaclyn sulked in her room. Plus, Jaclyn refused to go get drinking water, which we really needed and wouldn’t let Tanya use her bike to get water. I just don’t understand her.
To make up for the awful morning, I bought some chocolate bars when I got the drinking water and that seemed to cheer Tanya up a bit.
Since we didn’t have anything for lunch and we were done with work for the day, I suggested we go to Mbweni Ruins hotel, order lunch then swim while it was being prepared. That definitely put Tanya into a good mood and we set off shortly.
I used the last of my large bottle of sunscreen today. Eight ounces of sunscreen in eight weeks! I have never used that much sunscreen in my life. And I have still gotten fairly tanned.
Hai doesn’t swim so he hung out in the shallow water while Tanya and I went on an epic swim. We started from the pier and swam parallel to the coast for over 15 minutes. We took a two minute break then started heading back so our food didn’t get cold. Going back was much harder because the wind had picked up and there were many more waved crashing into our faces and we were swimming against the current as well. It took over 25 minutes to return and I swallowed a lot of seawater on the way. I felt sort of like a drowned rat by the time I made it back. That’s the longest I’ve ever swam without stopping and we were both proud of our accomplishment. After that swim, we really earned our lunch of grilled fish and mango salsa, which was delicious.
We saw Jaclyn at the beach but she ignored us so we didn’t try to approach her either. She was obviously still pissed about the morning for some reason. We spent the afternoon on the pier reading our books and working on our tans. It was very pleasant and relaxing.
We went home around 5:30 and showered then Tanya and I got ready to go out for dinner in town to celebrate Ranil’s final days in Zanzibar. Since it was a bit cool (only in the mid-70s) I broke down and wore my black pants and the one shirt I had not worn the whole trip. I felt very clean for a few minutes until we took the dalla dalla and I got sweaty in the enclosed space. It was totally worth it to wear different clothes for one evening.
We met everyone at La Taverna, which was one of the restaurants I wanted to eat at one more time, and we had a great evening eating and talking. There were nine of us total and I think having such a large group overwhelmed the staff because the service was very slow. Luckily they serve bread before the meal so we didn’t starve but we didn’t eat until after 9:30. I had a great seafood pasta dish and could feel the mercury level in my body rising with every bite. 😉