Highlights of today...

• Being invited to a 50th wedding anniversary party up in the foothills tomorrow.
• Going to a tailor to have a dress custom made for about 7 dollars
• Buying a beautiful African dress... I'll be sure to post pictures when I can. It is hot pink.
• Having two Jesuits try to convince me that I would be a very good priest and should consider that as an option if the Catholic Church ever gets its act together
• Watching music videos
• Seeing someone wearing a Steelers jersey in town
• Seeing a huge rat on the table in the kitchen and not even flinching... its normal... no big deal
• Going to the second-hand market. It was basically the biggest flea market I have ever seen and all of the clothes are donations that are made in America to places like Good Will and Salvation Army who, in turn, ship them to Africa. They tried to raise all the prices for us because we are white but luckily we had a friend with us.
• Spending the day with Catherine, our new Tanzanian friend. She took us around to shops and the tailor and the second-hand market to help us get used to shopping in Moshi. However, the best part of the day was when her and me and Mary Beth were sitting in the living room, drinking soda, watching music videos and giggling about boys. It was one of the first relaxing moments we have had and a nice break from being constantly overwhelmed by meeting new people and having new experiences.

Today was a very good day.

Mt. Kili behind a beautiful church up in the foothills!

Christmas in Moshi

Merry Christmas! I'm finally in the area that will be my home for the next two years! We arrived two days ago and have been going pretty non-stop since then. Father Balige is wonderful, very intuitive about our needs and very hilarious. We went and saw our house (affectionately nicknamed "The Estate") but we can't move in quite yet because they are still preparing a few things for us. Sister Njao, who is our boss and arranging housing, wants us to have a night guard before we move in, so she is looking into that. She is a strong, strong woman. She runs Mary Goretti Secondary School, where I will be teaching, and she has a powerful personality. She is definitely used to things being run her way down to the last detail, so it has been interesting striking a balance between letting her make all of the decisions and gently letting her know that we are capable of making some ourselves. I'm very excited about moving into the Estate though. It is an enclosed area with a gate and we have a nice little yard that I'm hoping to do some gardening in. Best of all... we have running water!! And a view of Kili from our front porch! Pretty big deal, and I'm very excited about it. The school is also beautiful, and we found out that it is actually co-ed....kind of. It is 95% females and 5% males. That should be an interesting dynamic. Mary Beth and I are not sure yet what we will be teaching, but we should find out at our staff meeting on January 5th.

Christmas in Moshi was an experience. On Christmas Eve we were taken up in the foothills by Father Leo so that he could show us where he grew up and went to school. It was beautiful, it gets so lush and green when you start heading up the mountain. We went to mass at a local parish and we really enjoyed the Christmas decorations. The Christmas tree is more of a couple of branches smothered in Mardi Gras colored streamers and flashing lights. The spirit of the room was beautiful though, the two and a half hours were well worth the sore knees from the wooden kneelers. After mass we came back to the Jesuit residence for a toast with church wine and christmas caroling. Sister Njao gave us all more drinks and we had a wonderful evening of chatting and laughter. We taught Father Balige how to play a game called Fish Bowl (charades/catch phrase/general craziness that is very fun) and stayed up pretty late celebrating.

For Christmas we went to Father Shirima's childhood home in the foothills on the other side of the mountain. Father Shirima is the provincial of the East African Province. Some of his nephews showed us around the town and we prayed at his mother and sister's graves, how had passed away last spring. His mother lived to be 108 years old. After exploring the area for quite some time, we went and had a big meal at his younger brother's home. After eating more than our fill we headed over to an older brother's home for a drink. Little did we know that we would be expected to eat again. I ate more food that I have eaten in the past three weeks combined. The Tanzaniana are so generous and welcoming that it is impossible to say no to whatever they offer you. After more food and drinks we finally waddled back to our cars and made the trip back to Moshi. It is about an two hour drive, with an hour and 45 minutes on back mountain, very dusty, very bumpy roads. It was a rough trip and we were grateful to get back to shower and rest before our mini JVI Christmas party. The six of us decided to exchange Christmas Haikus with one another in lieu of gifts and we had a great time doing so. Nicholas has been in bed all day with a fever so we had a small gathering in his room to exhange. It was a nice Christmas moment, very different than any other Christmas, but good all the same. We spent the rest of the night hanging out with the Jesuits and trying homemade banana brews that we had brought back from the villages. I was also thankful to be able to talk briefly with my family that night.

So that was Christmas! I'm quickly falling in love with Moshi and Mt. Kili, but I know I have a lot of hard work ahead of me. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you again for the e-mails and letters, I get so excited every time I hear from one of you! Mary Beth and I will be getting a phone number in the next few days so I will keep you updated. I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday, miss and love!

Last Day in Dar

So we finally move up north tomorrow! Kate finished up her two years of service and left last night, it was a hard goodbye. It was hard for her to say goodbye to people that she had been forming very close relationships with over the past two years, and it was hard for us not to feel a little bit of jealousy that she was on her way home to spend Christmas with her family. Tomorrow morning we leave to go to Lushoto for a four day retreat that I think it much needed by everyone. We need a little processing time to soak in everything that has happened in the past two weeks and spend some time preparing for the next two years. After the retreat we finally will head up to Moshi, my new home! I am so anxious to see where I will be living and to meet Fr. Ballige, our in country support person. Not only is he a clinical psychologist, but his first name is Bonaventure! Meant to be! He is also very excited to meet us and has even asked how often would be too often to invite us over for dinner, so it will be great having someone in Moshi to help us out with things.

Our days here in Dar have been filled with meeting new people, making new friends, learning to cook Tanzania style, adjusting to the heat and trying desperately to learn Swahili. We have also made it to the beach three times, which has been amazing. The Indian ocean is absolutely beautiful. Its a killer commute, it takes us about two hours each way in the crazy crowded dalla dalla, but it was so worth it. My favorite beach was called Kipepeo Beach, which means butterfly beach. It was a little tropical paradise, the warmest water that I've ever swam in. For Kate's last night in Tanzania we went to the beach with a group of about twenty people. We spent all morning preparing for it, we peeled a 50 pound bag of potatoes and made a charcoal pit in our yard so we could fry a bucketful of chips and bananas. We spent the evening swimming and then sat around to eat all of our treats and drink sodas (they drink a lot of soda here, its a social thing that I'm still trying to get used to) and all stand up one by one to say our goodbyes to Kate. It was very touching and so much fun. It was a great group of people and I'm a little sad to be leaving them to go to Moshi, but hopeful that we will be able to make good friends up there as well.

Most exciting part of today thus far... the purchase of an Obama khanga! A khanga is a piece of cloth similar to a sari that all of the women here wear, some of you saw the one that I had at home. They have really beautiful patterns and sayings on them. This particular one has Obama's beautiful face in the middle of it and two pictures of Africa on either side of it. It is pretty fabulous. I'm hoping to be able to post a picture sometime soon.

Rumor has it that there is a convent in Lushoto that sells cheese and honey and berry jam, all rarities here in Tanzania that I am pretty excited about purchasing.

The other day there was a fire in the house next door to us. Nicholas walked into our living room and told us about it, and we all went outside to carry buckets of water over to help put it out. There were crowds of people watching all over the place, it was a big event but everyone was calm about it. When we handed the buckets to the men fighting the fire, they were more concerned about letting us know that they would return them to us then they were about taking them into the house. We watched as they carried a woman out who had passed out from the smoke. There had been a big party going on in the house and a few hours after the fire, the music was back on and they were back to celebrating. We spent a lot of time afterwards talking about how differently the sitation may have been handled in the States. Everyone acted so quickly and efficiently, and even though they experienced a considerable loss they continued on with the celebration of the day anyway. I would imagine that in the states it would have been a more chaotic event that absolutely would have ended the festivities of the day. People here are much more laid back about things. I've learned to appreciate "Tanzanian time," which means that everything occurs at least 20-30 minutes later than its actually scheduled to. It works out pretty well for me.

I miss you all and I hope you're enjoying the holiday season! We sat around singing Christmas carols last night and drinking peppermint hot cocoa, but its difficult to get in the Christmas spirit when its 90 degrees and there are palm trees everywhere. Next time I write I'll be able to tell you about my new home!

A 25th Birthday in Tanzania

So I'm safely here in Africa. The flights were long and mostly uneventful, perks included being able to watch Dark Knight, getting Baileys after meals and having an entire row to myself from Amsterdam to Tanzania, making sleeping like a baby very very easy. A slight snafu at customs when they refused to take one of our hundred dollar bills for our visas because it was dated before the year 2000 so we all had to dig in our wallets to come up with 100 dollars dated after 2000. Mary Beth Neckles, Christen, Emily and I were picked up by Kate, Nicholas and Caroline. Kate is just finishing up her two years and will be leaving in about a week. Nicholas and Caroline will be doing their second year of service in Dar with Christen and Emily. Mary Beth and I are hanging out here in Dar with this community until after Kate leaves and everyone will come up to Moshi with us o help us move in and get settled. We will also spend Christmas together up there. Kate and Mary Beth and I are all sleeping in a tent together in the living room of the Dar house. I'm anxious to get up to Moshi to see where I will be living for the next two years and get settled, but this time with people that can actually speak Kiswahili and know whats going on is needed and appreciated. Its amazing listening to the other volunteers speak so easily with the Tanzanians. I have so so much to learn and its scary to think that Mary Beth and I will be on our own shortly. We have started Kiswahili lessons though and I'm looking forward to learning more.

I would love to write about every detail of everything I've done but I don't have that much time and you probably don't want to hear quite that much. Let me just share what my birthday was like yesterday. It was a good day. I'm having a lot of trouble sleeping so I was up at about 5:30. I wake up to both roosters crowing and children laughing and playing in the streets, a very pleasant wake-up call. Since its my birthday I eat cookies and cheddar pretzels for brekfast out of my treat bag I took on the plane. Then Kate walked Christen, Mary Beth, Emily and I to an orphanage run by the Sisters of Charity. The elderly and mentally challenged also live there. I spent my morning playing with about 20 children that were between one and three years old. They were smelly and really liked putting things down my shirt but they were precious and I loved it. At one point they started cleaning up and would take my hand and show me where to take the toys. It was lunchtime. I helped feed two of the children and I was a little thrown off with some of the women that worked there force feeding some of the other children. They were being forced to eat so quickly that two of then vomited it right back up. After lunch all of their pants and diapers were taken off and a row of little training toilets were lined up against the wall and they all lined up and sat on there little pots. They were mostly well behaved, but I definitely did my part in instigating them by returning their raspberries and hand slaps on the floor. While They sat on their mini toilets and we sat on a bench across the hall from them, the older children came in and lined up between us for a little song and dance routine. It was so entertaining and the children were adorable. This lasted for probably an hour, with the little ones sitting on their toilets all the while. Some of then fell asleep. Finallythe older children went back outside and the little ones were allowed to get up and get washed off. After their diapers were put back on (from the same stack of diapers that had been taken off of them earlier) we had a quick dance party before they started grabbing ourhands and leading us into a room filled with cribs where they crawled in themselves (those that could) and promptly fell asleep. It was a good morning and I hope to be able to spend more time there.

The walk back home was brutally hot, we walked back around noon. We were happy to have a refreshing lunch of cold rice and vegetables and lots and lots of water. After lunch we went and had our first Kiswahili lesson with our tutor Emmanuel at Gonzaga Primary School, where two of the volunteers here in Dar work.

After our lesson we went to Mama Davey's house for dinner. Mama Davey has been a friend of the volunteers for years and she invited us over to meet all of us new volunteers. The food was delicious and her eleven year old son was adorable. After dinner we went on a long walk with her to her sisters house to see her sisters new baby. Once we got there they took us to a bar where we all sat around outside and had a beer with Mama Davey. It was so nice to sit around and relax and tell stories.

Once we got home we had a birthday celebration that I was very touched by. Caroline had made me a carrot cake and she even put egg in it, an extra special treat because they are expensive here. It was so delicious. They even got me a gift of some beautiful cloth that I can have a dress made out of. I was very appreciative of all they had done, I was worried that I would be sad about being so far from home on my birthday and they made it a special day for me.

That was my African birthday! Pretty fabulous, although I would be lying if I didn't say that I didn't have a moment right before bed where I was really missing being at home with you all for it. Hope all is well! Miss and love you all! I hope to write again soon, but no promises.