Officially in Africa

Thursday:

• My first hot shower of the trip!! So satisfying.
• We went to parliament today and their building is based on the English parliament and so the colors of the chairs (green and red for the lower and upper houses) are the same. We saw three different chambers. One of them stopped being used in the nineties just after apartheid and up until three years ago when they redid  the carpet, there was the blood of a prime minister who was assassinated in the sixties.

Our program organizer is named Melikaya, his daughter, Sambeso, who is nine has been hanging out with us all week. Today she wanted to give us piggy-back rides.

Melikaya and his wife took us out to an authentic African dinner. Entrees included tripe, kudu, ostrich, crocodile tail, and other unknown delicious things. At the beginning of the meal, they passed around this giant gourd type cup that had a 'beer' in it. It's made from corn and it is traditionally passed around to everyone and the last person finishes it all. We decided it tasted like Cesar salad dressing infused with smoke. Afterwards we all enjoyed a good round of dancing to the tribal band. It was quite happening in that house.