Halloween, Moshi-style!

As usual, much to catch up on!

Although I'm sure you can't wait to hear about my crazy Halloween, first, we begin with my dad's whirlwind less-than-24-hour visit of Moshi. It was so fast we didn't even have time for a picture to document the event!!! :(

A not-so-speedy late night dinner at Milan's, the Indian vegetarian restaurant in downtown Moshi that probably has the best Indian food here, followed by a nighttime tour of sleepy Moshi. We woke up early the next day and went into town, where it turns out the market looks like India in the 60s according to my dad. We attempted to visit KCMC, but just walking into the main hospital building was sufficient for my faint-of-heart father :) We did catch both my office as well as the head of the ob/gyn department here, who was super excited to meet my dad as he will be spending 3 months in Singapore this year.

Of course, no visit to Moshi is complete without visiting the stables at ISM, so we said hi to Mr. Bean and R&B, the two horses whom I ride, as well as met, either intentionally or by accident, mostly everyone with whom I work.

And just like that, the trip was done, and though I was really sad to say goodbye, at least I'm going home in less than a month now!!

But the mad dash that was Halloween weekend continued, as we had to prepare our costumes out of nothing! At the time I also had another housemate, Naz, an awesome urogyn fellow from Duke who was in Tanzania to spend a week with Jeff and others doing fistula surgeries all week in a tiny rural town/village in the middle of Tanzania (think: no power every day!). Luckily, she came back from Berega in time to have a Moshi Halloween.

None of us knew what to expect -- we just knew that the mzungu bar, the Watering Hole, was having a party and playing the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Though I've yet to see the movie, I still had no desire, so we planned a late arrival. Given that I was organizing the first ever blood drive in Moshi just a week after Halloween, I decided to dress up like a drop of blood and advertise my blood drive! Taking a red bedsheet and wrapping like a drop aka toga was no easy feat, especially as I nixed all possibility to go to the bathroom that night! Lucky for me, Holly (my permanent roommate) and Naz were super excited about my costume and helped me make the necessary accoutrements to the costume.

Shamelessly advertising:) You'll note that I also
pasted "O-neg" onto myself!

Naz decided to take like 10 mosquito nets and wrap them around herself like a mummy, and Holly was a pirate! Andy dressed up as mzungu sana -- ie, the ultimate tourist, with his safari shirt, water bottle, 10 million maps, and snapping pictures of everything. Pretty classic :)

The Watering Hole party was actually super fun!! I was amazed at the number of ex-pats, mostly European, who live in Moshi, and I met a ton of new people!

When everyone was ready to go home at 2am, I wasn't... so I stayed out with my friend Jan (ie Elvis, in the above pics) at the Watering Hole party, where we were the last to leave at 330am... and then went out to another bar -- the 'Kool Bar' -- to play pool and hang out until 5am, until REALLY everything closed. I guess I finally had to go home..

So I caught a short nap, as I had to wake up the next morning at 9am to go to the Anglican church to announce the blood drive and recruit donors. Painful!!!!!!! I couldn't decide what was worse -- standing up to sing when I was so tired, or sitting quietly and drifting as I listened to the sermon. But it totally was worth it in the end, as a number of people were excited about the blood drive (and came, but I'm jumping ahead!)

My mad dash continued, as I was setting that day's hash, the 173rd Kilimanjaro hash, with my neighbor Suzanne. With 4 hours to go, we had no drinks or food and hadn't even set the trail!! So we quickly pulled all the beer, soda, chips, nuts, cookies together, prayed that Greg (hasher extraordinaire who established the Moshi hash club) would meet us soooooon, as we were setting it at his farm on the outskirts of Moshi.

Our peacock friend

But, of course Greg came through, and we started setting the hash... except I forgot the extra bag of flour (see above: mad dash!!!!) and Greg's dogs decided to get into it with the bulls and cows that surrounded us and got angry! We escaped (although just barely for Noodle, the small dog), and started setting the hash through Greg's coffee farm, crossed the requisite hash stream, meandered through green bean and maize plots, and just barely finished setting the hash before the first hasher, a runner, finished the course! (although they cheated, they found a shortcut!)

So the mad dash continued as we set up all the food and drinks and greeted the returning hashers... everything went well in the end and everyone enjoyed the hash, even the walkers who got thoroughly lost!

The kids return early!

Fountains in the yard

Relaxation finally came as Greg, Suzanne, Jan, a few others, and I sat on the lawn of Greg's parent's house and unwound with a few beers and many good stories...