This Saturday we were invited to go to a local wedding reception, by a local friend who knew the groom. The wedding itself started around 9am, but the reception dinner around food wasn’t served until 10pm, and dancing continued far past when we left. Aside from a few gift giving ceremonies it was very close to a US wedding, and apparently very small at only around 100 people at the reception (more may have been at the service). It was of course all in swahili, but still very interesting to watch.

After that we met up with a friend who works for a safari company (he’s originally from the US) and went to La Liga, which is the local night club (but looks exactly, if not nicer, than US night clubs), when we got there a huge bus pulls up and about 35 girls poured out, apparently from Miss. Tanzania. Not sure if that’s equivalent to Miss. America, but still… It was strange to see local women dressed in typical western club wear, sort of forgot we were in Africa. Because it was past cerfew we stayed in town at a climber’s hotel, which costs $20/night for a double, and thats fairly standard!
The weather is getting hot, which means the mosquitos are out, forgot bug spray yesterday and now have about 7 bites on each leg, which look like welts. no fun.
Today we went to Bedeni (a medical clinic) to help since they’re under staffed at the moment and Monday’s are really busy. We spent the day doing pre-natal exams and a few HIV tests (all negative thank goodness), since all new mothers are checked. It was a nice break from Mawenzi, which is still often overwhelming.
Booked my climb for Mt. Kilimanjaro, starting out on October 5th! Should be back around the 13th. Very excited, though a bit nervous!