Life in the desert

Training is finally over!! Thank God! Not that I disliked training but I am glad to get away from being treated like a child and like I am incompetent! So I moved to my site I think three days ago and I am beginning to like it. It took 14 hours on a crammed bus to get here, but I was really grateful because it wasn't hot that day. We arrived in the evening and my headmaster suggested that it would be better that I stay in a hotel that night. So that was my last night of a nice warm shower... I moved into my house that next morning and what a pig sty it was. I was glad that I was replacing another volunteer and didnt have to start from scratch, but this place had so much crap in it and looked like it hadn't been cleaned for months.... So I started sweeping the layers of dust from the house and I came across the biggest lizard I ever seen! I started freaking out, I know lizards dont bite but I dont want them(yes i said them because I have found atleast 10 so far taking up residence) living in the house. A student comes over to see what the fuss was about and I tried to tell him to take it outside, so he beats it with a broom and it's all over. Not what I had in mind but Tanzanians don't let stuff go... it's either dead or alive...only one way out!



So the town I live in is quite nice! I can walk from my house to town in about 20mins. I have everything I need here: internet, post office, western item selling shop, and major sokoni (market for produce and other items). I live at the school and compared to other volunteers the mass quantity of lizards and the largest cockroaches that I ever saw in my life who randomly appear are mere child's play to other volunteers that battle scorpions and other scary creatures at their homes. I dont have any direct neigbors but if I walk to the other side of the school there are some wives of a few of the teachers that live near by. I went to visit them yesterday to get out and about and it was very akward because I dont know swahili and they dont know english... we could have a basic conversation and after that it would be over and we would just look at each other. I have met a few cool people here thus far, like the teacher that shows me around and the owner of the internet cafe that I usually go to. People for the most part are nice and decent except for the people in the sokoni that try to charge you 5 times the normal price since you arent Tanzanian.... freaking BS!!! I dont understand...it irritates me so much! Anyways, I met some of the students and they are suprised that I am American and that I am my age. Everyone thinks I am about 15 or 16 and that I am from a different part of Africa...haha

Things are good. I have gotten my PO Box number let me know if you want it! I hope everyone had a good thanksgiving and will be enjoying the christmas season! Love you all!