Dario at the doc, dinner in Moshi, Amani kids (5, 7, 8 Jan.)

Alas for poor Dario and his daring eating habits, he ended up with food poisoning. I got some, too, but he got it really badly. Like waking up at 3 am with fever and shakes badly. We were so freaked out, as he had all the same symptoms of malaria and we had been in Tanzania just long enough to have possibly contracted it. We went and got the Masaai guards at the hotel who, in turn, got the manager, who tried to contact someone at the clinic in town. We ended up going back to bed until 6 am-ish, with wet towels and much water to drink to keep Dario from boiling off into a little cloud of steam.

At that hour, we got up, met with Fabian, and went to the clinic. It was closed, but one of the night workers got in the car with us and showed us the way to the doctor's house.

Turns out "Dr. Frank" is an American who came to Tanzania 7 years ago and fell in love with the country. He came out of the house sipping coffee, spoke to me and Dario a bit, then reassured us that even if it *was* malaria -- which he doubted -- that waiting 2 more hours would be ok. He didn't want us to feel like he was blowing us off, but the lab techs would not be in until around 8 and they were necessary to properly complete the tests.

After "...[dropping] off this security Maasai," as Fabian called him, we went back to the hotel for a bit, then back to the clinic later. Then tests, some of which I'm sure were humiliating, a very short waiting period, and WHEW! Food poisoning, not malaria! So we got some drugs and headed back to the hotel. Again.

Dario looks pretty chipper for a guy who spent the night flailing and sweating, no? Well, it was the one time in the day where he did. On the way back to Moshi, he looked like pale, yellow death. I was quite worried about him. But we made it back to Moshi, and collapsed into the hotel room.

Sean continued on to Kilimanjaro the next day, we stayed in the room. (No pics from that day!) Dario started to come around the next day. We hung out in Moshi for a few days and managed to convince the tour company to transmute our payment into a flight to Unguja (Zanzibar), a few days in a hotel, and some local tours.

Later we heard tales of a few people dying on the mountain, including a porter or 2, and felt we'd gotten off easy with a small dose of food poisoning.
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On the 7th of January, we ventured out into town to try some non-hotel food. We found an Austrian(!) restaurant there, if you can believe it. (Thank you Bradt Safari Guide!) The food was vaguely Austrian with Tanzanian flavors. Still, a nice change from hotel and safari food.
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The next day we headed out into town twice -- once to go to DHL and see how much it would be to ship our bags of unused winter gear back to Italy (too much!) and once to have lunch. The restaurant was called -- get this -- Indo Italiano Restaurant. HAHAHAHA! I kept telling Dario he should get pizza, but for some reason he declined. I don't know why a Neapolitan wouldn't want to see how people around the globe have destroyed your native dish. Pfft! Guess Americans aren't the only snobbish travelers!

After lunch we found a taxi that helped us find the Amani Children's Home, a really nice place for homeless kids around Moshi. I'd first heard of them when I was searching on iTunes and CD Baby for some theme music for the trip. CD Baby had a CD called Amani - Songs of Peace for the Children of Kilimanjaro. I bought it and, a few weeks later, received a thank you note from the organization and a hand drawn picture from one of the kids. *tears in eyes* Awww... And I was just looking for music!

Anyway, we found the place with the taxi driver's help, met Joe, an American guy who does the marketing for the group, and met some of the kids. Wow, nice place!

Oh, and we gave them the pack of kazoos and some of the candy we'd bought for the climb. Remember the 'playing kazoos on Kilimanjaro' idea? Yeah, didn't work out the way we thought, but Joe assured us they'd be put to good use. ;)

We did a quick bit of shopping, then headed back to the hotel to spend time with our pet gecko.