War Tribunal Trip #2, Wednesday, February 10th

Jambo!
It's been a busy week! On Wednesday, Josh, Katelyn and I went with Ibra back to Arusha to the War Tribunal. It was fun to go just the four of us. We jammed out to Nelly's old album "Nellyville" on the way there-brought back quite a few highschool memories! The day was sunny and beautiful-you get such a great view of Mt. Meru (a mountain right outside of Arusha) it is so beautiful! There were a lot of dust tornadoes along the way. So crazy to see so many of them at once! We tried our best to get pictures but they come and go so quickly! Once we got to Arusha we sat in on a case that was currently in session. It was hard to follow because we hadn't gotten a background on the case or what the charges were prior to listening in. We listened to one witness, a formal General in the Rwandan Army at the time of the genocide. He was being questioned about weapons availability and if youth soldiers were being supplied with the weapons and trained how to use them. The General was an extremely frustrating witness. He was really cocky and gave really long winded answers to every question the Prosecution asked. The prosecutor and judges had to remind him several times to keep his answers short. The General was speaking French which I understood some of but it was translated to English for us. During the recess we decided to leave and bum around Arusha since we didn't really know what was going on with the case and they were not going to put a new witness on the stand until the next day. Ibra took us back to the Maasai market, which was so much better this time around! I didn't feel overwhelmed at all. Going during our 3rd week was so overwhelming, but after being here for over 6 weeks I feel like I finally know how to bargain and how to handle so many people trying to sell you their products and yelling at you from all directions. I got a present for my dad, a present for my mom and for Lori (Kevin's momma), and a necklace and pretty wooden hand-carved giraffe statue for myself. There are still a few things I want to get and I'll be lucky enough to go back with the new group. Since I'm the only one left from a previous group, Moses is letting me go on all the day trips with them, which will be lots of fun, even though I've done them already. After the market Ibra took us to get some ice cream. I didn't get anything as I'm trying to work off the weight I've gained from the food here (they cook EVERYTHING in LOTS of oil!). After, he took us to a t-shirt store and I picked out a t-shirt for myself and one for my best friend's 2 year old son. After that we had just enough time to head home for dinner. It was nice having a small group and being able to do whatever we wanted in Arusha, and Ibra is such a blast to hang out with!