Pictures from Christmas, finally

Raindrops keep fallin on my head...

Hello again. Just over here in Africa freezing my arse off. Not exactly what you might expect, but true nonetheless. I was hanging out with some friends outside last night literally shivering. I’m a little worried about how cold it’s going to get here in July (the coldest month here South of the equator). They told me there is even going to be ice in my village. That should be interesting.
I must admit, I don’t have much productiveness to report on. We had a great meeting in the village and planned out several different committees and meeting dates and times, then school let out, and the holidays came, and I had to go to Iringa for two weeks for IST and it all kind of fell by the wayside. But I’ve determined that this week things are going to start happening. If I can only gather three people together to come to my English class, then I will just have to teach those three people. I can’t sit around doing nothing anymore. I want to start a health club at the primary school tomorrow. Then Tuesday I’m going to visit the secondary school when there is supposedly an NGO that comes to conduct a peer education group with the Form 3 students focusing on HIV/AIDS prevention and life skills. In the evening on Tuesday I’m going to see if I can revive my adult English class that has been forgotten amongst all the craziness of my recent travels. Friday I will hopefully have the health club again at the primary school, this time with the older students. Then in a couple of weeks we’re going to have our first nutrition/cooking class on the 28th, which I’m really excited about.
In not the not so good news category, my kitten died while I was at IST in Iringa. Apparently she ate something poisonous while she was playing outside the day before I left. :( Hopefully I can find a new one soon. RIP Penny Lane.
Other than that, just been busy battling the rain. I’ve just gotten used to taking off my glasses and pulling on my hood and just riding my bike through the rain. There’s no use is waiting for it to stop. It’s not going to. It rains all day everyday pretty much. The other day I went to visit my friend Teri in her village and we had quite an adventure getting up to her house from the main road where the daladala drops us off. It was raining and we didn’t feel like doing the 30 minute walk to her house in the rain, especially since I had just received 4 packages from the post office and was going to have to try to carry all of the soggy, falling apart boxes. So we noticed a tarp-covered truck loading up crates of soda bottles nearby and decided to ask for a ride up to Iyawaya, her village. They agreed so when all their cargo was loaded up, we tossed in all of our bags and boxes and hopped in. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Then we started moving. Not the smoothest ride in the world. There are loads of bumps and rocks and potholes in the road and I’m pretty sure we hit every one of them. I was jostled around a lot, but fortunate enough to be sitting on a relatively soft sisal bag. Teri on the other hand was sitting on a crate of glass bottles, which ended up being not so comfortable. There are two bridges that must be crossed to reach Iyawaya, both of which are immediately followed by a steep hill. We made it across the first hill, no problem, but the second one is steeper than the first and the driver was afraid that he wouldn’t make it up with all the cargo and extra passengers in the back. So we all climbed out and walked up the hill, waiting for the truck to meet us at the top. It made it about halfway before rolling all the way back to the bridge. It tried again, but it just wasn’t happening. So the driver decided he would just have the take the long way around and would meet us at the primary school with all of our stuff we had left on board.
So we walked in the rain the remaining distance up to Teri’s house and waited. And waited. And waited. At some point we start to get a little worried. We had all left some relatively important things on this truck, like my laptop for instance, so it was going to be a big problem if this truck just decided to pass on through without dropping off our things. So we started asking the other villagers if they had noticed a truck passing by the primary school. Eventually we discerned that the truck had gotten stuck in the mud a ways down the alternate safer road it decided to take. So off we went on a search party and eventually came across it, indeed rather stuck in the mud. We stood in the rain and waited for it to get unstuck but that just wasn’t happening. So I decided to wade across the river that was flowing on top of the bridge to get to the other side where the truck was in the process of being dug out. I had to search a bit through all of the cargo to find all of our stuff, but eventually we had passed it all out of the truck to various villagers on hand to help carry it all back to Teri’s and hopped out. Throughout this whole ordeal, I had managed to stay relatively clean, if not dry. No easy task as anyone who knows me can tell you that if there is anything to trip over, or any whole to step in, or any slick surface to slip on, its going to be me that does it. This being said, the soil in Iyawaya does not drain very well and creates a very thick and slippery layer of mud when it rains. I was about 15 feet from Teri’s house when I had to go down a very small hill, but I knew what was coming. I looked at it, and even said out loud to myself, “I’m about to bust my butt.” And immediately after muttering these words, down I slide through the mud. Nice. Fitting end to the adventure I think. But nevertheless, we made it, and cracked open those soggy boxes and enjoyed some lovely instant mashed potatoes and Chex mix.

Wow, its been a while

So much has been going on lately I don't even know where to start. I have had a fabulous last couple of months here in Tanzania. The holiday season went much better than expected. Not that I didn't still think of you all back home, but I had a good time with all of my new friends here too. Tanzania is beginning to feel more and more like home. I hate feeling rushed writing blogs at the internet cafe. I can't ever think of anything to say. Hard to believe seeing how I haven't updated this thing in about a month and a half, but I really don't feel like I have anything of interest to write right now. I just wanted to let you all know that I'm still alive and doing well. Thanks for checking up on me, and I promise I'll have some type of an update soon.