Well, life’s been percolating along here in Tanzania.  In the village, we’ve spent the last month and a half visiting schools, holding community meetings, and conducting family interviews, trying to a better handle on what folks here want us to do.  After spending a lot of time explaining that no, in fact, we’re not here to build a hospital, or put in a new road, or give everyone money, I think we’ve extracted enough useful information about the needs and resources of the village to clear at least some of the fog in our minds about what we’re doing, and we have a few project ideas in the works.  But before we get ahead of ourselves in that regard, we’re headed to Morogoro for the first couple weeks of December with the other 38 or so volunteers in our cohort to discuss our findings and get some new information and training, if needed, so we can hit the ground running shortly after the new year.  A nice perk of the trip (besides having access to electricity and running water for two weeks) is that we’re each able to take someone from the village for part of the training: our neighbor, the head of the village coffee farmer’s association, is coming with me, and Michelle’s taking one of the nurses from the health clinic.  They’ll get some technical training as well as a fuller explanation of the nature of our work than what we have probably been able to communicate effectively with our basic Swahili in the village.

So we’re coming out of the dry season now here in the Southern Highlands:  it rained, really rained, for the first time this week.  We have had a few drippy sputters in the last couple of weeks, but this was a self-respecting rainstorm, complete with a few minutes of hail and enough rain make muddy lakes in the courtyard.  The temperature dropped quickly after it started raining, so to quell the goosebumps, we ran inside to throw on sweatshirts.  After we stood on the porch for awhile watching the rain shivering with semi-chattery teeth, I looked at the thermometer, which said 78°.  Kind of felt pathetic after that.

  

In other news, we recently got a few packages sent from home (thanks Mom H., Kara, Sam, and Beth), containing junk food and magazines, both scarce resources around here.  That’s a good thing because I was beginning to have food-related hallucinations on an increasingly frequent basis.   I’ve had a few dreams in the last couple weeks with pizza as a central theme; this popcorn we found here, I’m convinced, tastes like lobster; and once when I was eating a banana, I swear I tasted hash browns, one bite even with just the right amount of salt and ketchup.  Mercifully, our supply of reading material has also been replenished.  Prior to this week, I had been spending far too much time trolling the fine print of the RV and laundry detergent ads in the July/August issue of Midwest Living, hoping to discover some new tidbit of information about The Land Of Civilization that my brain could mull over during the slow, hot hours of midday.  I’m not kidding here.  So seriously, thank you.

Finally, below are a couple pictures of village life and of our recent trip to Lake Malawi.  Next week we’ll be in Mbeya to celebrate Thanksgiving with the other Peace Corps folk in the region, and a few from the Njombe and Iringa areas too.  Then after Morogoro, we’re headed to Mafia Island, which is south of Zanzibar, for a bit of R & R.  Word on the street (or, in the Lonely Planet guidebook) is that Mafia has some pretty good snorkeling (with whale sharks!), nice beaches, perhaps fishing opportunities, and it’s not as touristy as Zanzibar either.  We’ll return to the village sometime around Christmas. 

Happy Thanksgiving!  We’ll miss you all heading into the Holiday season.

A hike up to a waterfall near Lake Malawi

Sunrise over Lake Malawi at Matema Beach

Villagers drawing a map at a community meeting

Hiking in the mountains above the village

Michelle at the health clinic