homeward bound

Author's note: I wrote this a few days before leaving Africa. Keith and I have now been back for one week and we are happy to be back in the US of A.

Goodbye, Tanzania! You have been good to us but tomorrow we depart. We are currently on our 5th day of traveling in order to get home. Day 1 involved taking a taxi to Stonetown where we arrived by ferry more than 3 weeks ago. Day 2 will took a ferry back to the mainland and spent a day in Dar es Salaam (which was be Day 3). Day 4 was the little bitty 10 hour bus ride back to Moshi (where we began our trip and where we fly out of...and where our extra backpacks and clothes are being stored at the time being). Today we spent in Moshi repacking, buiying souveniers, and showering before flying out on the 12th. I will be more than happy to return to Coeur d'Alene after 6 days of being in transit. I'm getting quite excited to come home, mostly to eat the food I have been dreaming about at night. I equate my anxiousness to how I felt before I left for Africa. I was still having a great time in Coeur d'Alene but I was getting quite excited for my journey. I'm still excited and having a great time in Tanzania but I am looking forward to the comforts of home. In no specific order I'm excited for: french toast, tap water, consistent hot showers, my bed, milk, clean clothes that haven't been shoved in a backpack for 7 weeks, apricot beer, red beer, cold beer (this sounds much more alcoholic-ish than I intend), using a toilet that flushes (or a toilet at all in some cases), and seeing my dog. Things I will not miss about Africa when I get home: using bug spray 24/7, brushing my teeth with bottled water, and eating the same breakfast for the 42nd day in a row. Hotels fees include breakfast here so being the cheap couple that we are, we eat the free breakfast every morning. Even if we weren't cheap though, we wouldn't have an option most of the time, as nowhere serves breakfast different than what every hotel offers. So, every morning we wake up and solemnly walk to the hotel restaurant to eat a plain scrambled egg (sometimes you get more than one and then it becomes 'eggs'), plain bread (sometimes they spice it up for us and toast it), tea, and fruit. We get really excited when our fruit is something different than bananas or oranges. And there's a double bonus when the hotel has salt and pepper for our eggs. But it's free so I will enjoy my last one tomorrow.

**So after 40 hours of flying we arrived in Spokane safe and sound. I have thoroughly been enjoying all of the things I listed above. The next morning after arriving, we enjoyed an amazing cafe breakfast at The Blue Plate of biscuits and gravy, french toast, and OVER MEDIUM EGGS. I may not ever eat a scrambled egg again. And now we are back to normal life. Keith has already started work and I will soon. Our pup, Cliff, is very excited to have us back and we are busy making up for our lost days of summer in Coeur d'Alene. We are off to raft in Riggins this weekend with a group of firefighters and their significant others and I have been enjoying getting back into the groove of showering daily, going on runs with Cliff in the trees, and eating out of the fridge whenever I'm hungry. Life is good.