Dreamy & Friendly....

Local Women Mostly Sea Weed Farmers on the Beach

My first impressions of Jambiani……..dreamy and definitely friendly.  When I got to the Institute last Saturday, Sine gave me a tour of the school and the other facilities – the Wellness Centre (where I can get free chiropractic care from Alastair who runs the school with his wife Pat), the house that I will be living in, the makeshift fitness centre, the kitchen and store rooms and the grounds (laden with coconut trees which I have a plan for already).  All the buildings have Makuti (thatched) roofs –although the thatch rests on top of a hard roof in some cases.  Famished and jet lagged we decided to go out for an early dinner  at the Blue Oyster Hotel which is a stone throw away down the beach.  I had a great anchovies and sun dried tomatoes pizza and Sine dined on the curried Octopus which was really good, and we washed it all down with bottles of Serengeti beer (better than Kilimanjaro) .  From there we took a brisk 40 minute walk down the beach to a Beach Festival that was taking place – which had included a dhow boat race earlier in the afternoon and football matches.   There were lots of visitors and locals there enjoying music that ranged from East African to Reggae to Hip Hop and lots of  Rihanna (she seems to be a big favourite around here – I plan to acquaint them with some Sparrow soon).  I got introduced to quite a few people and everyone was incredibly friendly ….something which I have noticed wherever I have been over the past week.    One of our security guards was also at the Festival when he should have been watching the school.  He is a Masai and but with that kind of behavior I swear he could pass for a West Indian.  Just after midnight we walked back to school all along the beach and the skies were so clear that you saw tons of stars and even the Milky Way star constellation was clearly visible.  Very dreamy I thought.  Maybe that inspired me to sleep until 1230 pm the next day.  I got up in a haste and met up Sine for brunch at Kiddos Restaurant run by Lisa and Kiddo (German/local couple) located about 15 minutes down the beach.  It is a great place with good food and three cute rooms for rental.  Lisa was gracious enough to lend me an plug converter (as mine had gotten fried in the July 4th fireworks display at Econo “Hotel” in Dar).  So finally I could charge my Blackberry, IPAD, ITouch, Skype Phone, English Phone, Electric Toothbrush, Camera and my Laptop. Did I walk with too much stuff for this dreamy friendly place?