We did arrive safely in Dar on Wednesday evening! It was a bus ride that we thought would never end. I struggled with feeling sick quite a bit because no front seats were available. Finally, I had felt bad long enought and got someone to trade me up closer to the front. It was dark when we arrived and had to get a taxi to the YMCA. When we arrived we found out that there was actually no reservation according to the grumpy lady at the desk but she said she might be able to find us room. It took forever to get checked in it seemed like but finally we had our 2 rooms with 4 single beds between them. Dar is very hot and muggy and if it wasn't for the ceiling fans in the rooms I might have had to stand in the cool shower all night. When it is that hot you are up at the crack of dawn and ready to get out into some fresh air. The very grumpy desk lady said there would probably be no room for us Thursday night so we began to look for a hotel and found one. We spent the rest of the morning visiting the pharmacy to get malaria meds and cough medicine for Bella. Then we went to the medical suppy store and picked up the malaria test kits to take home. After that I went to the Ethiopian airlines office to check on flight times and we do leave here 30 minutes earlier but I don't think it affects the DC to Seattle flight. I had to request vegetarian meals for my family and I tried to do it for the group but they would not let me without proof of their tickets. We accomplished everything by walking around downtown and managed not to get lost and found everything easily. 

We were able to move to our new accomodations by noon and then we were off to the local wood craft market to see them work and to pick up a few keepsakes. The day flew by and before we knew it we were at the bus terminal waiting for the Tall family to arrive and the bus was over an hour late. We had tried to call the YWCA to leave a message for them but they would not let me so we had to go to the bus to make sure they arrived and to let them know where we were. They looked like what we felt like when we finally got off the bus! So happy to get off that rotten bus! My family found a Thai restaurant last night and we ate some of the best authentic thai food ever.

This morning we ate breakfast and then headed out to slip way to boat out to Bongoyo Island, which is a marine park just off the mainland. We met up with the Tall's at slipway (about a 15 minute taxi ride) and all boarded the boat. That boat was so slow and it took us 45 minutes to get to the island that looked 10 minutes away. The channel we crossed had many swells and I was wanting off that boat. The beach was very nice with white sand and the snorkeling was pretty decent. I saw some puffer type fish, several trumpet fish, a couple fish that I don't know what they were, many small fish in large schools, and some angel type fish. The kids all had a blast and many seashells were found. mat spotted a whole bunch of eels in one lagoon area and that was very neat to see. The water felt like a hot tub in spots and then would get cooler in some other places. We stayed out there 2 hours and I am baked like a fresh boiled lobster. As we were leaving the Island I mentioned that we all were going to be burned again and the men said we all looked okay. About and hour back at slipway and I could see and feel it on myself and could see it on the kids. We all had used sunscreen but we still burned. We had a good day and made more preparations for getting home. The kids are chomping at the bit to get home, especially since the hotel we are at has christmas decor everywhere. Well this will pretty much sum up our Africa mission trip and adventure. I will not be blogging on this page again until after I get home. Thank you to all who commented back to us and to all the others that just read and kept up I hope you enjoyed hearing about our trip. There are so many details and many things that I never even mentioned so after I get home I may try to update things.