all kinds of new stuff

New House! We moved into our new house last week. At last! Very very excited about it, lots of work to make it feel like home. We live with a bunch of little (and big) cockroach friends that we capture and DOOM! on a nightly basis. We also pretty much live with the girls that live in the servant quarters type thing that is also in our gated compound, which will be fine once we can communicate with them and become friends, but right now its a bit difficult to feel like we have any sense of privacy since they peek in our windows at the crazy wazungo all the time. It doesn't help that we scream when startled by our cockroach friends every single day. I'm looking forward to picking out fabric to make curtains for my bedroom and I love my giant king-sized bed. I'll be sure to post pictures of our house sometime soon. We still don't eat very many meals in our house because we don't have all of the supplies we need to cook. We also can't really afford to go buy them. Sister Njau dropped off a few boxes that had some plates and silverware and two pots in them for us to use, which was so so nice. She also included a little tea and sugar, so sweet. We did try to go shopping for a bunch of food and cleaning supplies and we were very successful at the market, however we were not so successful with getting it all home. We were robbed. Two of the Jesuit scholastics drove us and when we stopped at another market for bananas someone opened a window that wasn't completely latched, opened the door and stole most of the things we had juts purchased. Luckily they left us a loaf of bread and some peanut butter, but we lost a lot of stuff we had spent quite a bit of money on. We were grateful to be safe and that nothing of great importance was lost, but not very happy. I still love my kingsize bed though.
New Job! We started staff meetings last week and orientation for the form one students started yesterday. The staff meetings were generally pretty boring, (although anything pales in comparison to Noha home staff meetings) but I think they were a little taken aback by my participation in the meeting. Mary Beth and I are on the schedule to teach 45-50 periods a week. There are only 50 periods total in a week. That is actually pretty impossible. We are signed up with other teachers for all fo them so we're hopeful that those number will be cut in half but it has also been impossible to track down the teachers and coordinate meetings. Class starts Thursday and we really have no idea exactly which classes we are responsible for or what the syllabi will look like. This should be interesting! Also going to be interesting...me teaching Divinity and Computer classes along with my English classes. Orientation has been really fun, thank you to all of you that sent me group dynamic activity suggestions! Its taken me a little bit to adjust to working with 160 little girls that are very well behaved and think that I'm a nut job because I teach them weird songs and games to play, but I'm having a lot of fun with it. Some still struggle with English a bit and call me Mister Tal-ee-a and some are really good with English and say things like "I think our group motto should be unity is success!" They're cute.
New Language! Swahili lessons are going slowly but surely. I'm really excited about learning the language and relatively motivated about studying it, but I'm not sure when I'll have time to practice! There are signs all over the school saying "Speak English Always" and its strictly enforced. The Jesuits and our friend Catherine have been good about quizzing us and teaching us new words though.

New Look! I had a dress made here with fabric I received on my birthday and I love it! Those are ducks and reeds on it! I also have worn more make-up and jewelry and high heeled shoes here than I ever have in my life. I'm trying so hard to feel pretty but its SO DIRTY.

New Life? We have been told repeatedly that if we spend two years here we will become Tanzanian. The other day at lunch bets were being placed on my future. One Jesuit says I will move to either Pennsylvania or Denver in two years. One Jesuit says I will go back to the States for schooling but then come back and work in his clinic here. One Jesuit says I will never leave. We shall see.

ps I ate cheese today. and bacon. What a good day. AND IM STAYING UP LATE AT THE JESUITS TO WATCH THE STEELERS GAME!! GO STEELERS!!!