A Beach Bum Easter..

So we all made it back from our wonderful Easter excursion. The beach house was so amazing that we decided to stay an extra day. Every day, we would swim around 10 until the tide went all the way out and we were sitting in just 5 inches of water. Then we would shower (IN A REAL SHOWER!!) and hang out. Then we would swim again around 5 when the tide came back in. Saturday morning, we discovered that Msemo, the nice resort a little way down the beach, had a bomb breakfast. It had cereal with milk, sausage, Spanish omelets, crepes, and juice. It was pretty gosh darn amazing so we ended up doing this breakfast both Saturday and Sunday morning. On Saturday, we went for lunch at Msemo, down the beach. There we were, having a good classy lunch and having a good classy discussion when one of our fellow volunteers rolls up looking like a crazy, hobo man. He had gone to the fish market for lunch and had found a great deal on crab. He was so excited, instead of taking the road home like any clear-thinking human being would, he took the most direct route and waded across the cove carrying a big bag of live crabs in a burlap sack and rolled up soaking wet. He looked psycho, but having gigantic fresh crab was pretty exciting. So we finished up lunch and headed back to our house. That night, we went for a swim and the beach was packed with Tanzanians. The water was swarming with boys, ages 8 through 15. A vast majority of these boys, we figured out, after they came way too close, were stark naked. Now that's quite alright for the young boys, but there is just something not right about a 15-year-old flaunting what the good Lord gave him at the beach. Some of the nudity even snuck up on you, incognito. One of these older boys went swimming by about 6 inches from us and at first looked fine. He was wearing a short sleeve, sweatshirt material top which was a little weird, but whatever. Then we realized that he was sportin nothing on the bottom half and that was not okay. Regardless of the nudity, we did have an awesome Justin Beiber sing-along with this group of boys. "Baby, baby, baby, OOHH!! Like baby, baby, baby, OOHH!!" That night, we cooked up a feast of crab, spaghetti, fish, pineapple, and garlic bread. It was pretty legit. The next morning, we got up for the Msemo breakfast feast again. Then, Claire and I went into town to hit up the bank and get food for that night's fixins. Also while in town, the most amazing thing happened. We were sitting talking to a sidewalk fundi (a.k.a. a clothes tailor). We were talking about religion and it came up that we were Christian and he was Muslim. He said that how he saw it, we all worshiped one God and were asking for the same things so it really didn't matter. I love this philosophy and if all people thought along those lines, this world would have a lot less problems. While we were chatting, we met some older Indian gentlemen. The conversation then came around to the fact that we were returning to Newala on Monday morning. It just so happened that they were going to Newala in a private car and offered us a lifti! Heck yes! Hmm...a 9 1/2 hour sweaty, crowded bus ride, or your own seat and at least half of the time. That's a really hard choice. So after this exciting development in the conversation, we exchanged numbers and it was decided when they would come pick us up to head back to Newala the next morning. My month had been made! A weekend of real showers, beach, fresh seafood, and a safi ride back home? There's nothin' better. After Claire and I returned back to the house, we all went swimming. Then after showers, most people decided to head to the fish market for lunch, but I decided a nap sounded better than lunch. When everyone returned, we started on that night's supper, boiled shrimp, tuna steaks, pilau (rice with spices), and a sauté of pineapple, green pepper, and onions. And then to top it all off, we had hotdogs. Nothing goes better with seafood than hotdogs. The original intention was to build a bonfire on the beach and make seafood kabobs over the fire. All of our dreams of an awesome beach bonfire were crushed though when some really not cool police came and told us this wasn't allowed. They also tried to tell us that fish wasn't meat, but that is besides the point. Eventually though, we got everything cooked and it turned out amazingly. Maybe the best tuna I've ever had, but that's just a result of picking it out and buying it super fresh at the fish market earlier that day. So this morning, Claire, Kathryn, and I hauled our bags down to Msemo to wait and hope that this ride actually came through, and HALLELUJAH it did! We were on the road about 7 a.m. and made it back to Newala in 4 1/2 hours! It was legit! There was only one little hiccup in the ride when we got stopped by the cops. They got a ticket for not having a fire extinguisher in the car. That is apparently some law and just goes to show the state of most of the vehicles. There are so many at the point of exploding into flame that this is a law. That is very comforting. After we got back, we went to visit Mr. Jaffer, a little, old, Indian man that runs a duka. I had bought another modem from a missionary couple that was moving back to the states and they had left it with him. Then Claire headed home and I took a nap while Kathryn watched a movie. After a superb nap, we went for dinner and actually got my modem working when we got back to my house! I now have internet again!! BEST. DAY. EVER. I hope everyone else's Easter Holiday was as wonderful as ours. Peace Out!

My Neck of the Woods...

"What's up butt-heads!!" No offense and all, but this is literally how one of the volunteers around me has greeted his class. Taking full advantage of the fact that none of our students down South speak English, I guess. Anyway, I made it back from training. The roads were pretty bad, but we made it to Newala unscathed. We made it back and I went back to school on Wednesday. Not a whole lot going on because they were about to start testing. Friday, I proctored, or as they say here "invigilated," a test on Friday. Let me tell you, trying to keep students from cheating for 3 hours is not a good time.
That weekend, a PCV was traveling through Mtwara and passed Newala, so I gave him the "grand tour." That weekend, I woke up not feeling great. Then Monday, half-way through the day, it really hit me. I went home and here is a list of the symptoms: puss on my tonsils, swollen lymph nodes (one so big you could see the lump and it hurt to turn my head), nauseous, and light headed/head pounding. I called the PC Medical Officer and eventually got my meds. They made be feel considerably better. Friday though, I woke up to a scary shock. Duck seemed to have lost motor control in her back legs and really couldn't walk. It was not a fun thing to watch and as a result, I think I cried about 6 times that day. I talked to a vet, and he said that it looked like she had some sort of brain virus. Awesome. So I was pretty much expecting to wake up the next day and her be dead. Weirdly enough, the next morning she was perfectly fine. It was like nothing was ever wrong with her and she has shown no sign of any brain virus since that Friday.
This last week, we plunged full force back in to lessons. We really only have like 4 weeks of class left so I starting to worry about getting through the syllabus. I also handed back all of my tests, about 300, which were pretty much just as dreadful as I was expecting. Yeah for language barriers! I really do believe that language is 70% of the problem. My busy week was interrupted though as I witnessed my first demonic possession. After assembly, a girl collapsed and started flailing around screaming bloody murder. About 10 girls jumped on her and held her down and a bajaj was called to take her to the hospital. It was extremely weird to say the least.
On Friday morning, we didn't have school so I hopped the bus to Mtwara town to meet up with some other volunteers. I got on the bus as 6:30 a.m. and 80 miles and 91/2 hours later I reached my destination. Most of that time was actually spent moving even. Because the roads were so bad, I think we maybe averaged 10 miles an hour, max. When I got to our beach house though, it was worth it. We are staying at a beach house run my Catholic priests and our front door is literally 40 yards from the Indian Ocean. So after I got here, we swam a bit, and then walked down the beach and ate at a really nice resort. Another really exciting thing about our house is, it has HOT SHOWERS!! It hasn't worked thus far, but I can still hope that before we leave, I'll get my first hot shower in 7 months!
That's really all that has happened that I can think of. Peace out peeps!!

Food Baby

So these past couple of weeks have been great! It all started a couple of Thursdays ago. We had to be in Morogoro for IST (in-service training), but we decided to take it slow and easy. So Thursday, I took a 3 hour bus ride to Kathryn's site. That's when we kicked off our food-fest. My lovely Grandma sent me a package containing Velveeta and Rotel. So logically, we decided to make ourselves a mexican feast. We made queso, tortillas, beans, and kachumbari (mixture of tomatoes and onions). Overall, we ate 1/2 a pound of cheese. By the end, we felt incredibly disgusting, yet satisfied. Friday, we caught an early bus to Lindi. We only had to get out and walk twice when the bus got stuck so overall, a pretty great bus ride. In Lindi, we met up with Ghee and Will. We just hung out all day. For dinner, we all had a real hankering for fish. We went to about 4 different places and no one had fish. One of the last ones, or didn't even have fish on the menu, told us we could go buy a fish, bring it back, and they'd cook it up for us. DEAL! So we went to the fish market, bought one that looked good, and took it back to the restaurant. There, the dude whipped up a crazy good fish masala sort of dish. The next day, we bused up to Dar. We got lost trying to find out hotel, but eventually made it. After that little adventure, we went on the quest for the fabled delicious Indian food. We found it! Its called the Patel Brothers. Its basically a huge compound with a bouncy house, play set, and probably 100 tables set outside. It said "Members Only," but you can apparently pay 1,500 shilingi to get in. BEST INDIAN FOOD EVER! We got so full I thought I was going to explode. On Sunday morning, we walked around and did some shopping. All of our dreams were crushed though when we found out that Subway was closed on Sundays. YES, there is a Subway in Africa and I will be gettin' me a big ol' sub! We got into Morogoro around 2 and could not have been there sooner. By the time we arrived, Kathryn, Ghee, and I were all yelling at each other and every Tanzanian was staring at us. All's well now though. Basically the past 2 weeks have been training from 8 to 5:30. Really boring, but its like we have been in mini-America with all the crazy delicious food! So really its been 2 weeks straight of having a food baby, but who cares? I also got to see my host family. I went to visit my Mama in her duka, or shop, a few times and even ventured up to Kihonda to eat supper with them. When Glory answered the door, she started jumping up and down screaming. Sara, the house girl, had the same reception. It always feels good to be loved.