Shortly after the music festival ended I headed back to Dar to get ready to go to Itete. Dar is not a particularly interesting place, however there are a few things worth noting that happened while I was there.

A couple of days ago Corry and I went shopping at the health food store. The store is in an area of Dar called Msasani which is where most of the diplomats, expats, and rich Tanzanians live. It is like a little slice of the west, except that I don't think either of the coffee shops in the (small) mall were Starbucks. But there are fences around all of the homes and there is in fact a mall, complete with a playground for the kids to play on. It was all quite comforting in its own strange way. Although I came out here to see Africa, it is still nice to be reminded of home.

One of the women I met on Zanzibar, Marisa, volunteers at an orphanage in Dar and on Saturday I went to visit and juggle for the kids. I was actually quite surprised at how nice the orphanage is. It is in a good-sized house with a big yard in a middle-class neighborhood. There is a house mother and the kids pretty much seem (from my limited observances) like a big family. It definitely did not feel institutional at all. The kids were very well cared for and getting a good education. They all speak English quite well (although one girl pretends she doesn't unless she really wants something...).