Hello All! As usual, things are great on my side of the world. I honestly think I love my village a little more with every passing week.
This last week at school, I was Teacher On Duty. This is my least favorite job at school, but at least its on rotation. In this role, you have to make morning announcements, record all school attendance, and give sick students permission to leave. Its really not that bad, its just incredibly dull. Also, I don't know how its even possible, but I'm not very good at this duty. Let me begin by saying that Tanzanians are especially careful record takers. If there is a record to take, all lines are perfectly spaced and straight. Also, the DO NOT have mess-ups and if they do, will start over instead of crossing out these mistakes. I am just not up to their standards. Most of my lines are all over the place and you would be hard pressed to find a page that I did not have a mistake that I just scratched out. Whenever I hand over the book, I am waiting for someone to ask what 3-year-old I let record attendance. They have all been very gracious so far though.
This last weekend, a bunch of volunteers came to town to celebrate Toni's birthday. Friday, we hung out at the bar/restaurant for about 6 hours and just caught up on everyones' lives. Saturday morning, everyone converged on casa de Katie for pancakes. I also took one over to my neightbors for them to try. They liked it so much, I agreed to have a pancake making lesson on Sunday afternoon (P.S. I can not even tell you how tempted I was to teach them the word flapjack instead of pancake). After everyone had their fill, we went to tour the old German fort that police use for extra office space. They originally said no picture taking, but then the police man showing us around said we were able to take pictures if we could reach an "agreement" with money or phone voucher. No thank you, sir. We really don't want pictures that bad. After that, we went to the market for some shopping. Kristi, another volunteer, is about to go back to the states and wants a new Tanzalicious outfit to wear while giving talks in Elementary schools. So we were on a mission for some rockin' fabric. While shopping, we witnessed the epic "Battle of the Crazies 2011." So if you refer to my previous catalogue of colorful people in my ville, "Wewe," plays a key role in the tale. There is another man who walks around rather quickly, yelling at no one in particular, and occasionally making barking noises. Well, apparently he encroached on "Wewe's" turf. So, in response, "Wewe" chased "crazy, barking man" with a huge bucket of dirty water, finally catching him and soaking him. "Crazy, barking man" then picked up a brick and chases "Wewe" a short way with his weapon overhead, but was unable to catch him. Fortunately, no one was injured in this skuffle and everyone went their crazy, little ways. After the show, we went for a refreshing glass of juice at Juice'man's and then grabbed lunch. Then it was time for my all-time favorite activity, napping. After my nap, I cut Kathryn's hair and then we did dinner and beers with the group.
Sunday, we went for chai and then partook in our normal Sunday shopping. After everyone left, I took another nap, made a tuna sandwich, cleaned, and just piddled around, being very productive. I went into town to give some stuff to Claire as she passed through on the way to her ville. She had been in Mtwara picking up her visiting boyfriend. Let me tell you though, nothing puts a smile on my face like hearing "Madame Katie, What's up?" from a student on the way to town. It was one particular Form III girl who loves that term and uses it every chance she gets since I taught it to my class. When I got back to my house, I brought my neighbors over to my house to learn how to make pancakes. Joyce, my neighbor and pancaking pupil, wants to perfect this American dish so she can make it for her husband. So that's pretty much my updates in a nut shell. Until next time! Peace out!
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