Mgeni Wangu!

My guest (mgeni wangu) is here! Dasha arrived two weeks ago and we've been having a great time! The weather was pretty bad for a while, unfortunately, but now it's cleared up and we're having beautiful skies and warm days. The rainy season lasted unseasonably long this year, so when she first got here we were still having cold, gray, drippy days. Anyways, we hung out at school for a while, then she helped me grade all my exams (!!!!) and after that we went to visit Brian for two days. We did some hiking and lots of eating (he shared mexican spice packets!!!), and saw the annual dam cleaning in his village -- there's a hydropower dam but lots of mud accumulates every year, so they let all the water out and then rake it into the water so it flows through, then they stop up the dam again. It was neat to see. Then we hiked over to my other friend's, Andy's, and hung out there for a day before heading back to my house. Andy's is probably my favorite site in terms of environment -- his village is perched on the edge of the rift valley and it's simply gorgeous. And he's got a hammock hanging in his "backyard" that overlooks the valley... quite awesome :) Now, Dasha and I are in Njombe and soon heading to Iringa, then Dar, and then Zanzibar! I'm really excited to see more of Zanzibar! She's got a blog, too, A Dash Around the World (http://adasharoundtheworld.blogspot.com) so feel free to check it out.

Hope everyone's enjoying the summer months in the northern hemisphere!