Leaving Africa Behind....

It is said that one can leave Africa but Africa never leaves you. I can attest to that and I imagine Amber will soon agree. It has been a wonderful time, seeing old friends, showing Amber around, making new friends, bartering, visiting and yes, going on safari. I will be sad tomorrow as we depart. I always am. But this is not the place for me to be at this time.

We enjoyed our last day here. We slept in, spent some time around the pool, sorted out what to pack for Amsterdam and what to just pack. Amber downloaded her students' work and graded papers for a few hours. We walked across the street for pizza at about 8 pm. Amber was asleep by 9:15 and I'm doing the electronic stuff....clearing the memory card on the camera, charging the iPod and now a bit on the blog.

Before we stepped out of the hotel, I asked the concierge if it was safe to go across the street for pizza. He said it was not safe for us to go out. Amber asked if they would deliver pizza. He replied, "oh, you want pizza? I can show you where to get pizza" and took us out of the hotel, and pointed to the Pizza Inn...across the street, the place I asked about at first. So, it is not safe to go out for pizza but if you want pizza, you can go out to this place. That is typical of many of our experiences with this English language. Apparently our sentence structure, body language and gestures make it difficult for Kenyans to know what we mean. The Pizza Inn is directly across the street. We had to cross three lanes of one way bumper to bumper traffic. There were dozens of people on the sidewalks, in the street. You cannot imagine the vehicle and foot traffic. And we were the only msungu (white) people on the street. I took a short video of the street earlier in the day. Maybe I can post things when I get back to Greentown.

The last leg of our trip should be fun! Neither of us have ever been to Amsterdam (I've been through the airport 19 times so on #20, I will get out and "do" the city!!!) Our hotel is in the theater district. We've found that we can buy an iAmsterdam pass for public transportation that includes admission to several museums and a canal boat ride. It's 59 Euros (about $100) but it should be a bargain for Tues pm, all day Wed and Thurs. Amber, the planner, has a guidebook and has looked over where we might want to go. One place is a handbag museum....I'll like that! I have entirely too  many totes and handbags--I think I'm looking for the perfect bag. It will be fun to see the bags over the centuries. Of course, we will go to Anne Frank House and the Van Gogh and maybe the Rembrandt museums. And the street market. And buy tulips. And....And...And..

It is after 10 pm here. We must be up at 4:15 to take the "courtesy" ($20) shuttle to the airport.

Lala salama.....which in Kiswahili means "sleep well". I said that to Amber the other night and she answered with "Haile Selassi"....funny girl! She doesn't have much Kiswahili!!