goins on

wow its been a while since ive seen internet--merry xmas and happy new year everybody!!! ive been at my site now for a lil less than a month and so far it is pretty safi... which means i like it. School "starts" in 2 weeks though ive been told itll probably be later on till all the girls actually arrive... so im not feeling too rushed to get movin on the lesson plans. So what the heck have i been up to for the past month??? Surprisingly, ive been keeping myself fairly busy. i had this little list, yeah i know im such a nerd, of things i was really exciyted to do when i first got here. i thought id get lonely, so i wanted to have a plan of things to do. not really so. i have lots of visitors all the time----oh but back to the list... so i wanted to make bread, make a garden and a compost pile, make wine ( im a science teacher right? this is a science experiment), and try to learn a bit of the local language. there are 3 besides kiswahili. so hows that list goin? Tried it all. i made some friends the first week- a group of 13-14 yr old boys got really excited when they saw me start digging a compost pile behind my house and started to help me... so got the compost going, layer of dirt, grass, leaves/sticks/ more dirt/old mango peals... that lasted about a week till i realized the chickens would come and eat the food and the ants too. There are thousands of antssssssssssssssss. all over. they bite. i have to do a little jig sometimes when im unlocking my front door so they dont crawl on me and bite me. im sure its pretty comical.

im apologizing now. this post is gonna be so disorganized and more scattered than usual.

made bread.

made mango wine. waiting on it to age it for the next 3 weeks.

trying to learn some of one of the other languages. the older people get a kick out of it and its fun to learn.

first day i was here a goat had fallen down into the choo. I was walking around with Steph, the girl who has been the volunteer here for the past two years before she left, and we heard some baaing coming from a choo (outhouse). Sure enough, we walk in and its coming from underground. not much we could do but feel bad for the goat. thats a smelly place to spend ur last few da ys.

Tried to get curtains made for my room. Ended up with a skirt adn shirt. ----that is nottttt due to fumbling w/ kiswahili. i didint know the material i wanted to turn into curtains was nice enough to wear---oops. actually its a cute outfit.

tons has been going on in the past few weeks...lots of hangig out w/ neighbors...lots of playing lasti cardi,, Tanzanian version of "uno"....ive learned like 10 different versions of the game mostly id learn new rules that would "prevent" me from winning when i thought i would. but most of you know how terrrible i am at playing card games...

lots of walking around in the village.. by the end of the da y im wiped out. in bed by 9. its glorious. i can sleep in this country... well happy new year everyoneeeeee next time ill try to prep something beforehand becasuse im having a hard time decidiong what to say here!!!
miss you alllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

bev