I love moving around and getting to know new places and people, I really do. But, having a friend here who has known me for years, and especially a friend from Tanzania, is like coming in from the cold and being wrapped in a warm blanket. I love all of my warm blanket friendships.
One highlight, so far, of Dorien's visit has been touring the Rish Lakish olive oil press and tasting different olive oils! The family who produces the olive oil harvests the olives from their farm and do all of the processing themselves.
They have also toured quite a bit around Tanzania since their daughter (a professional olive oil taster) lived and worked in Bagamoyo (near Dar es Salaam) for years! They even decorate part of their reception with a kanga!
Another highlight has been food! Arabic restaurants serve the most incredible plethora of salads! I don't know if you can see them all, but there are 15 salads on that table. There was a cauliflower salad that was my favorite and we both found the hummus particularly good with a slight eggy taste that I think comes from the chickpeas.
Yesterday we had a Dead Sea day which included a visit to Massada, Ein Gedi, and the Dead Sea!
For the last couple of years Dorien has been learning Hebrew and I have been learning Dutch as a sort of language exchange. Last year I got to visit her in the Netherlands and this year she has visited me here. As part of our ongoing exchange we are reading through the first chapter of Prince Caspian in Hebrew. Dorien then translates it into Dutch and I see if I can tell whether the Dutch translation is basically accurate or not. It's such fun! איזה כיך! Welk plezier!
I only have few more days before Dorien heads back to Tanzania and I head back to finishing my final paper. This has been such a wonderful and needed distraction from the grind of school!
