It's been a month!

It’s hard to believe that I’ve been here for a whole month already! There have been many exciting things keeping us busy in addition to learning Kiswahili (which is coming along quite nicely, just not as quickly as we’d like!) Two weekends ago we had the pleasure of attending our first Tanzanian wedding…what an experience! I’ve posted the pictures and tried to give an explanation for each of them! There were a variety of bright colors, loud music and a lot of dancing! It was also our first time eating a traditional Tanzanian meal, Tanzanian style- with no utensils! Although I do have to admit that I cheated and accepted the fork that was later offered to me! Jen and Joe were troopers and enjoyed eating with their hands along with all the other guests! Last week we were fortunate enough to tag along with some fellow ex-pats and visited one of the orphanages just outside of Iringa. We had a quick tour of the grounds and got to meet and chat with the main caretaker and some of the children – a few of us got lucky and were able to join in on a short soccer match! Although these kids have come from very dire circumstances, you would never know it based on their huge smiles! It’s encouraging to see a well-run facility that is providing these kids with the opportunity for success!

I’m currently in the process of learning how to drive –Tanzanian style! (i.e. on the opposite side of the road and somewhat aggressively!) I’ve been out driving a few times now, and so far haven’t killed anyone! It’s not as bad as I first thought it would be, I guess one is able to slowly become accustomed to the craziness that is the driving here! Speaking of ‘craziness’, we’ve had a few ‘exciting’ encounters with Betty’s (our language teacher) next-door neighbor! We’ve been told that she is bi-polar and usually makes her rounds to every house on her street demanding them to pay rent –even though she doesn’t own any of houses! We’ve also been informed about a few other interesting things she likes to do, however we were not warned about her tendency to throw rocks at our little school hut! We have been a target a few times in the past few weeks! Luckily she’s only managed to hit the outside of the hut, so I don’t think we’re in any real danger –it just provides an interesting twist to language learning! We finish class Monday (October 22) and then Jen and I will be heading out to the village on Wednesday for a few days to get better acquainted with the dispensary and those we’ll be working with. After we’ve settled in and become more familiar with village life, we’ll gradually work our way up to staying a full two weeks in a row. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be going for a few days at a time only –we’ve been told that this gradual introduction to village life has proven to be the best way to adapt successfully! I’m sure I’ll have many stories in the near future about my integration into village life! I’ve been hearing about people’s experiences and I’m excited to see for myself!