Testing the Malaria Drugs
I had on shorts and last night provided the local insect population with quite a feast. I guess I would be testing the Malaria drugs sooner then I planned.
The morning light gave us a chance to see where we were, had the skies been clear we could have seen Mount Kilimanjaro, however that sighting would have to wait to later.
After breakfast we would be transferring to Aishi Hotel. Along the way we passed many small towns and they all seemed to have a lot of people out and about, and a lot of people just standing around with nothing to do. We also passed a number of kids who when they saw a car pass would hold out their right hand palm up. I thought this might be some crazy form of hitchhiking and asked our driver, he told me that they wanted food or water, they were asking for a hand out. It was strange that I never considered that as a possibility even through the towns, at least from my perspective, seemed very poor. I guess it was just childhood conditioning that I was still trying to shed. Our travels would prove to be slow going at first, then followed by periods of terrifyingly fast. 
Years ago friends of my parents were traveling in Africa and unfortunately one of them was killed in a car accident, I now know exactly how it happened as it could have easily been one of us. The roads in Africa are a bit untamed and they drive these old Toyota minivans 80-90 mph, they often attempt to pass even when you can clearly see a oncoming truck, plus they are driving on the wrong side of the road with the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car. But I was caught up in the moment and loving it, it was these kind of experiences that I had come for. We got to our hotel and checked in. We then met Honest, who briefed us on our climb set for tomorrow, giving us an overview of what to expect and what we should bring. We were both pretty set except for hiking poles which Honest recommended. We both thought they sounded like a good idea and Honest hooked us up for $6 each, a good investment. After the briefing we went back to our room to find the power had gone out. Nature was calling and our bathroom was pitch black. There was an article that I wanted to finish from the plane so I figured it was a good time to test the headlamp I had packed for our hike. I found the bright LED strong enough to illuminate the bathroom but not overpowering that it hurt my eyes to read. As it turns out this would not be the only wash closet which would require my headlamp. We headed down to dinner in another cool open air restaurant and bar. We meet some Canadians who just finished a 9 day route up and down Kilimanjaro. They were a great source of information and provided me with a well used, duct-tape repaired poncho, and said I might need this. I packed it away and thanked them for all their advice.
On the way back to our room we heard the loudest frog ever. Back home I have a pond out front and during the summer the frogs go all night, but this African one was shaking the ground all by himself. The power came back on that night and we flipped on the TV, they only got one channel and it appeared to be a live 24-hour feed from the African version of Big Brother as it was just showing people sleeping. At least I think it was Big Brother.