Days of Craziness

To my faithful blog readers:

I apologize for my lack of contribution the last few days. As I believe I stated previously, I hope to be better once school starts and I am able to use the internet for a longer period everyday.

So, to catch you up on the last 5 days or so, I will begin with the issues of electricity and water. The electricity has gone out here a number of times; the most recent (and longest) lapse was Sunday where we had our AIM team meeting with a plethera of candles and torches (flashlights for all non-British speakers!) As far as the water goes, praise the Lord because our water problems were fixed by fundi #2 and our water pump and cistern both appear to be working! Additionally related to water, our compound received a bill for 225,000 Tsh (about 225 dollars) for one month of water. The funny thing about this is that there are no meters for anyone to read how much water we have used and that our water was actually out for a long period before we arrived. Let's just say water costs are a bit different here than in the states.

Over the course of the last few days, we have enjoyed great food ranging from dinner with a HOPAC collegue, Ursula, and her husband, not to mention their dogs Parachichi (avocado) and Pilipili Hoho (red pepper) and Barcelos' chicken schwarma and chips (pita bread with chicken, cucumbers, tomato, and onion all in a spicy sauce) to the spiciest of home-made chili courtesy of my roommate Emily and Cathleen's yummy tacos. We have also experienced some not so pleasant foods- most recently in my memory lies Chips Maiai. Chips Maiai is chips/french fries cooked in fried egg. It is VERY salty, VERY greasy, and very... well, unappealing.

Other milestones and points of excitement and interest include:
*Our first Swahili lesson with Loyce, one of the best Tanzanian swahili teachers in Dar I'm told
*Two visits to the dukas (small stores) across the street for clothes line rope and Batik paintings
*A trip to White Sands Hotel where we were able to swim in the pool and enjoy the beach
*Dog/House sitting for Elaine and trying to get inside the house without the ferocious Floppy eating us for dinner
*Our guard Papolai, the Massai guard, is coming to say good-bye tonight before he goes on a long safari (journey) to his home to become an elder.
*A Swahili church service: an educational endeavor as well as a chance to spend time with native Tanzanians
*My first sighting of the cities water system- all I have to say is SCARY! (see below)
*A funny sight- 2 people and 8 goats at a bus stop waiting for the daladala.
*Desk shopping with Jane and being surrounded by 5-6 Tanzanians trying to keep us covered under an umbrella to avoid the rain as they tried desperately to sell us a desk.

In related news, my teaching schedule has finally been finalized. It turns out that I will be working with special education students (as previously known) and working half days as a co-teacher in the reception (kindergarten) class! I'm very excited for all of these opportunities and look forward to updating you all as I get to know the kids and the school!