Sally and Manka

I must say I am rather impressed with myself. An anthropology professor from Luther college had invited B to come talk to a group of study abroad students during the overlap in Arusha. B talked about her career path...how she got from Luther to where she is now, where she sees herself going, and her experiences in Tanzania and the workshop. I was also invited to speak a little about my time here so far (almost TWO months...) and my internship. We ended up getting into a pretty interesting discussion about malaria and I surprised myself with how confidently I could speak about it and what I've learned since I've been here. Apparently though I repeated the phrase, "Well, malaria is complicated" which B and I had a good laugh over afterward. Why can't we just eradicate malaria? A seemingly simple question with, at least from my perspective, an amazingly complex answer. The "don't-forget-to-take-your-prophylaxis" message rang out pretty clearly.

After an amazing dinner at the "Danish" with the students and comforting talk of CMC and the crazed track coach with one of the program facilitators, B and I made our way back to L'Oasis. I didn't want to leave. They have a gym (with an elliptical machine...oh, what I would do for a trip to Philadelphia Sports Club right now), key card access to their rooms, and most importantly Hot Chocolate. The return dalla dalla ride was well worth the lack of the aforementioned. The young riders were pleasantly surprised to have us join them on the ride back to Arusha. They gave B and I nicknames: Sally and Manka (how B got stuck with Manka is beyond me). B traded phone numbers (changing one digit just in case) and received multiple invitations to join our new friends for a night out on the town. Exhausted from our long day and a little weary of public displays of our "wazungu"ness we opted for a quite night back at L'Oasis instead.