A night in Mwanza proper- The Stone Club.

This past evening we decided to head in to town with one of the local Bugando medical residents to see some of the local nightlife. Previously we had been to a few places up on Bugando Hill, and to several restaurants, but we had not yet been to any of the local bars or clubs. What a night it turned out to be!

We started at a local Mzungu hangout, the pizza restaurant in town. I had heard their pizza was fantastic, and I was certainly not disappointed! The 6 of us ate 3 12" pies, my personal favorite being the Banana pizza. There was also a very small pepper on one of the other pies I had not seen before, and it had a significant amount of kick to it!

We left there around 9:30pm, and walked across the street to a locals bar called "Rumours". We had been advised to be very careful there, that there were often fights. I guess 9:30 was a bit too early for any of this ruckus, as Rumours was empty. We all had another beer, and supplemented our previous pizza with some Chips (french fries) Masala (indian seasonings and sauces are ubiquitous here). Then we left for the main attraction of the night.

To say the Stone Club was a unique experience would be a significant understatement. We had asked several people in town over the previous two weeks where the best nightclub was in town before last night, and uniformly the answer was Stone Club. What a cultural mash-up. The spot was lit in blacklight throughout, with graffiti as decoration all over the walls. The dance floor was about 1000 sq ft, and empty when we got there around 10:30, but quickly filled. The music started as mostly african, and later transitioned into US R+B and hiphop, with the crowd going nuts and singing along with each song. People dressed in anything from more traditional party dresses to full-on hip-hop garb to the nines, from the flat-brimmed yankees hat to the long t-shirts. We planned to stay until about 12MN before it got too shady, but we decided to stay later because we were having such a blast dancing. we also met some people from the Netherlands and the UK there as well.

We ended up getting home around 3am. I don't think I'll be doing that again, but it was definitely worth it!