Mambo! Poa! How's things? I'm cool.
We went out on the town last night, starting with a Tanzanian restaurant (ugali, grilled beef, grilled chicken, beans, right handed) and then off to a club called Mango Garden for some live music. Our foursome included Sher-Ping, Gehres and I from UCSF and Maria, our friend from Denmark. Mango Garden is incredible! It is all outdoors, with a band on stage and chairs and tables set up, mostly under large canopies, with trees/palm trees shading the club. The music was HOT! Great rhythms, amazing drumming, electric guitar, singing and dancing. When we arrived the band was playing while six guys danced/gyrated/swiveled in in ways I'm not sure my body operates. There were at least a dozen guys on stage playing and dancing and singing. Phenomenal. Add a Serengeti beer and a bottle of water and you have one great evening!
After we sat down at a table, we realized that everyone who wasn't serving drinks was male, except for my companions... odd. But then after 23:00 women showed up and joined men at various tables. A phenomenon for which we have no explanation. At around 12:30 as we were dancing the male dancers onstage were replaced by women in ultra-short hotpants and spandex, and wild haircuts. Another interesting, unexplained phenomenon.
Gehres took a few videos of the band with her blackberry, and I edited one of them down to a 20-second clip to give a flavor of the music, and then uploaded it to YouTube (which took about 2.5 hours from here.. I can't actually watch a video online from here given internet connection capacity, so I hope it worked). It's also a 'cheap date' evening, with the entrance fee Tsh 5000, and drinks for four for the evening Tsh 5500. Total less than $20 for four people plus cab fares. That said, obviously this was not a place for your average Tanzanian. I suspect that the people there were generally considered pretty well off, as for so many the entrance fee itself would be a lot of money.
Wow. Did the place rock! We got to know a group of people sitting at an adjacent table and between their limited English and our limited Kiswahili managed to get to know each other. People are mostly really friendly, even if a little hesitant sometimes to try making contact with us, while others invite us in like they've known us for years.
The drumming made me long for my djembe, as I played rhythms on my legs to the music. There must be one around here somewhere....
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