The "Net"...

For some reason I am still on the Mosquito net topic. This is truly an essential part of the sleep routine while staying in Tanzania however it is important to note how critical it is to master the "entrance" and "exit" techniques of the "net". Believe it or not, this takes some foresight and planning. Of course, my novice flight into the "net" was a complete bungle....nearly hanging myself. The trick I found was to figure out the technique early in the game (this is a nightly routine). So, I was an early adopter of the "swim in" entrance technique (translation: I wave my arms about in a breast stroke fashion to lift and separate (think wonderbra)) and this will get me secured safely inside the mini cocoon. The next stage is the "tuck in"....sheaths and sheaths of material must subsequently be tucked into the perimeter of the bed. This can be done fairly quickly however it is severely annoying to have to untuck forgetting that you need to turn out the light... but again, this is just part of the drill. The real trick is to bring everything inside the net....flashlight, water bottle, alarm clock, book, cell phone, tv remote...or any other sundry items you can think of ) and this should have you settled in for the long haul. Now watching tv from inside the net is interesting....everything is white and fuzzy....cheering for your favourite soccer team can be somewhat limiting when they score a goal. Another drawback of course is the accidental skype call....where someone from home forgets about the 8 hour time change. Trying to escape from the net at 3am can be a very disorienting experience when half asleep. Naturally, as you migh expect, escaping the net in the morning after a full nights sleep is a whole other routine in and of itself. For this part I have adopted the "feet first" exit. Don't ask me how I decided this, it is what it is. I guess after a few "entanglements" one tends to learn quickly from experience what works and what doesnt work and what it's like to feel sheer claustrophobic desperation leading to a keen desire to escape.

Another trick to watch for is the "reverse net setup". This occurs out of the blue one day when you dont expect it. Just as you get used to the opening being of the left side of the bed...you can get thrown for a loop with a right side set up (ie just getting ready to get tucked in only to discover the your hotel buddy prepped the net from the opposite side of the bed!)...Great, so panic sets in as I contemplate how I will now be able to read and subsequently shut the light off without the entire untuck procedure? I wonder if I should just leave the light on all night..but then what about the mosquitos??? Yes, of course, that is why I have the "net" in the first place. I am thankful for the net.

ok enough about my inadequacies managing the net. Here is the daily low down.... we don't have a tonne of spare time here...we get up, we eat, we go to work, we come back from work, we prepare to eat dinner, we eat dinner ( and it takes a minimum of 2 hours to do this) we finish dinner and it is usually 9:30 pm or later....which means little time to connect with family or blog or what have you....

Typically most of us stay up late to get all the blogging or ensuring we have our other social networking obligations completed.

Thankfully I was able to connect with family today which was very satisfying...the last few days of poor internet connection or one sided skype conversations was getting extremely frustrating.

Still trying to make plans for this weekend...sounds like we'll have to make the most out of it and spend it in Dodoma area (would have been great to get up north to Arusha and Kilimanjaro area but just isn't going to happen due to difficult flight arrangements.) The funny thing is that I was just getting used to the idea of a very low key (boring) weekend when suddenly a few ideas presented themselves independantly. In Dodoma we are finding that if you wait long enough, things will simply happen. Within a couple of hours we went from not having any plans and no transportation to having multiple villages to visit, with 2 modes of transportation......patience is still a virtue.