Hi!

Walking to the internet in Uwemba, I saw our school carpenter and I have to share: he was wearing a short-sleeved suit jacket (common here) made out of MTA fabric. Yes, those ads on the NYC subway for MTA shirts and pajamas that you thought nobody ever bought, ever? Well, it seems they are bought, although then apparently given to Goodwill and shipped to Africa. And it's even more odd because either MTA sells plain old fabric or someone here took apart the clothes to get the fabric and make a jacket out of it. Welcome to Tanzania!

I biked into Njombe on Saturday! I planned to do it on Friday, but it rained for 10 hours during the night and was still drizzly and overcast in the morning so I decided to wait until I was less likely to slip in the mud and more likely to enjoy the weather. I woke up on Saturday to a beautiful day, so I decided to go! I took the shortcut, so I think it was about 12-13 miles, with the overall elevation going down. It was beautiful and enjoyable because it was mostly a gentle downhill slope -- 2 big hills and valleys, with a few smaller ups and downs. I was considering biking back after eating and running errands in town, but then when I got to the last hill I realized that while I could continue on a gentle downhill slope with a few short uphills, there was no way I could bike a gentle uphill for two hours straight. So, I ate lunch with a friend who was also in town, bought myself some passionfruit, a pineapple and a bottle of red wine, and took a car home :)

Other exciting news is that I have worms! Yes, intestinal worms. Or, rather, I had a worm before I passed it. I haven't gotten a specimen to send to the lab, so I don't really know what it is. I'm told that there could have been just the one I know about, or there could be more. I took the medicine (a 400mg dose, one time) and I haven't felt any symptoms, so now it's mostly food for jokes at my expense. Karibu! (Welcome to make fun...)

When I was little, I loved the white mac 'n cheese from a box. I'm not sure it was kraft -- more likely it was shoprite or food fare brand, but you get the point. I grew out of that, and senior year of college I'd periodically try the easy mac one of my friends would make because it smelled good and because it was such a bright orange -- who wouldn't want to try that? And every time I tried it, I immediately regreted it. I thought it was gross and I never ate it, made it or bought it. But PC/TZ has changed many things. Kraft is one of them. I now love kraft. It's processed, orange, salty taste as well as it's ease of preparation. (I can boil water in my electric water heater, pour said water over the pasta in a pot and put on a lid, wait 5-10 minutes, pour out the water and stire in the orange powder. Yum!) Sorry to my food-snob family, but it's true. Although I'm not saying I'd take kraft over an herb-crusted soft goat cheese or even a plain brie (let alone a full milk camenbert that's not legal in the U.S.), but it IS yummy.

One of the more obvious things that has changed is my idea and understanding of Tanzania. A fellow teacher recently asked if he could ask me a "touch question." He meant to say "touching question." And by that he meant a sensitive question. Anyways, he wanted to know what my impression was of Tanzania before I came, and when I first came, and how that's changed into what I see now. Tough one! I told him that I didn't know much about Tanzania before coming here ("not even about Nyerere?!?" "You didn't even know one person?!"), but that what struck me the most when I first got here was the extreme poverty next to the modern urban life. Dar es Salaam offers a lot of services and a fairly modern atmosphere; on the bus ride to Morogoro, you pass mud houses with thatch roof and little kids who are only wearing dirty, torn tshirts. My village is pretty well off, as villages go. Almost all of the houses are brick (yes, mud brick but still brick) and most of them have tin roofs. A fair number have electricity and there are a bunch of water spickets. Yes, I could use clothes to recognize people becuase they only have a few items, but kids don't have distended bellies and there are fresh fruit and vegetables multiple times a week at the market. Nimeshazoa -- I've gotten used to village. I was really surprised when, in Isaiah's story about visiting Tanzania, he said that most of our school buildings would be condemned in the states. And I was likewise surprised when Brian's parents pointed out that one of the ceiling supports in one of my classrooms seemed to have fallen and was being propped up. Most of our students have their own desks and chairs, there's always chalk for the teachers to use, and we have electricity (most of the time) ! To me, it's a nice place.

When I found out my PC placement was in TZ, one of the first things I said I wanted to do was climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. It sounded like it'd be such an accomplishment and so much fun and a once in a lifetime experience! I've heard from a number of PCVs who climbed it, mostly on trips with students, and everyone's said it is a great experience. But when I think about doing it now, it's just not important to me. I thought I really wanted to, but now I'd much rather spend my time here at school with students, in village with the people here, or visiting other volunteers at their sites. It kind of seems that when I was looking in from the outside, I wanted to climb it, but now it's just so far away from my Tanzanian experience that I don't care.

What frustrates me, makes me think longingly of home, are the ideological barriers I run into, the administrative road blocks and wastes of time, the lack of motivation and work ethic and getting things done and people just plain doing the job they're paid to do! I don't think much about yoga classes or veggie burgers or microwaves -- the conveniences, the lifestyle are just so far away that I don't think about them much, let along long for them. Sure, I have days/times when I miss grocery stores and fridges and washing machines (actually, I recently dreamed about shopping in a big, beauitful Trader Joe's/Whole Foods type store with Mom and Lys), but that's never what makes me think about how nice it'd be to spend a day at home. Instead, it's the family and friends, the cultural understanding, the knowledge that if I stand up to someone being sexist other people around will back me up, the lack of acceptability and proliferation of corporal punishment i homes and schools, how people show up to work and do their jobs, how schedules are followed (stores open and close when the sign says they will) and how people plan ahead -- for example, if breakfast is included at a hotel then the staff has made sure the food is there (or if there's a problem, you get a refund).

But I'll miss how excited people are to say hello and ask "what's the news of your home?;" the bright, colorful, frequently clashing and crazy clothes; the unique mixture of tribal, Tanzanian, African and Western culture (shown through clothes, speech, TV, etc.); the cultural exchange and surprising Tanzanians that I speak Kiswahili and know about the culture; the happiness I see in people's faces as I greet them in Kiswahili or the tribal language, or when they see me in traditional clothes and adopting their culture; the not taking things for granted (except that all white people have money); the way my students' faces light up when I say hello or talk with them outside of class; the way little kids in my village wont stop screaming my name until I wave at them (I get called mzungu, Julie, Juliana, mzungu Julie, dada mzungu and even amanda a few times -- not sure where that comes from. Mzungu literally means foreigner, usually white European foreigner, which is why it gets so annoying, but really people use it as an adjective, so instead of that redhead, I'm that mzungu. Most people are called sister-dada, mom, dad, brother, etc when their name isn't known, but since my lack of pigment is more exciting to these kids, they shout mzungu.). There's an easy happiness and excitement from simple things, which admittedly can also be frustrating on a bad day when the cause doesn't seem to justify those feelings.

Well, I gotta go prepare my peer educators for their work this weekend before I run away to Brian's! Thanks for reading!