Lake Victoria

This Saturday we took a 2-hour road trip to Lake Victoria-it covers part of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, so it basically looked like the ocean! We went to the town of Musoma, which looked a lot Tarime. A big open market, people pointing and yelling “white girl!” (mzungu in Swahili), and a lot of different sights and sounds. Lake Victoria is one of 2 places in the world where tilapia live naturally, so we visited the fish market down by the water.  We thought there might be more tourists in Musoma, but we only saw one. So once again we stood out just a little bit! I got a few pictures without being yelled at by angry old women demanding money- wish I could’ve gotten more! 

After visiting the fish market, we drove over to Tempo Beach to eat lunch at a small hotel.  After a small flat tire incident, we made it to the beach and got to soak our feet in the water. It was absolutely beautiful- no crowds, no media or technology, no giant buildings clouding the skyline. Just the water and sand and trees. We had fresh tilapia for lunch and just enjoyed the quiet.

After lunch we visited the main market in Musoma. Like Tarime, this market doesn’t cater to the tourist crowd, but we found more beautiful fabrics and Mary and I picked up some handmade woven straw bowls for about a dollar. We are going to get creative in our down time next weekend and see if we can paint them! My favorite part of the market is the food- everything is so fresh and colorful. We stocked up on mangoes, avocados, and pineapples again this week- I think we are averaging about 5 mangoes a day over here. The U.S. diet is going to be quite a shock after a summer of rice, beans, fruits, and vegetables!