1. Hello family and friends! I just thought I would give a quick update even though I feel like I do not have too much to say. Last week was a relatively low key week in my village. I have started my VSA report which is an assessment of my village that I will need to do a presentation on during IST (In-Service Training) in December, we believe this is going to be in Morogoro. Basically I have started the house to house interviews which are just a series of questions that I ask a mama or a baba (dad) about their family. This way I can get my face out there to the village a little more and learn about some of the basic issues of the families here. So far people have been pretty friendly with me. Most of the families I have talked to are really curious and I do not think they quite understand why I am there, or why I have not started to do work yet. So I do the best I can in my swahili to explain to them that I cannot technically start to do any work yet for the first three months at site because right now I am just trying to learn more swahili and learn about Ilembo. Most people get this.
2. I also get a lot of "hodi-ers." When you knock on someone's door in Tanzania you say the word "hodi" really fast and again and again until the person comes to the door. The typical "hodi-er" is pretty unrelentless and if you do not come to the door as quickly as possible they will start to knock loudly. If you do not respond to this many feel free to look through all of your windows or your courtyard wall to see if they can spot you. So if your inside and you don't want to answer the door your options are limited. I have to admit a few times people have "hodi-ed" and I just really have not been in the mood to answer--I get a lot of kids who just come and sit in my living room and say they come to talk but really just sit there and stare and it is hard to get them to leave--so I have just sat very still on my bed with a book. One person did not stop trying to hodi for over 30 minutes! I could not believe it! And then I'm pretty sure they sat outside of my house for even longer than that. Don't get me wrong I really love my villagers, but sometimes it is just too much. And to interact with people here takes a lot of effort because you are crossing cultural and language barriers, both of which are not second nature to me yet. So just your casual conversation tires me out!
3. In other news I bought a bike so I am really looking forward to using it and not sitting on the back of Nasibu's to go everywhere. I am however concerned about the condition of the roads on the actual bike so I do expect to break down, which means I want to make sure I am always close to home before dark.
4. I also put up pictures in my house, which makes it much more homey!
5. Last week I started a garden as well in my courtyard. I planted carrots, green peppers, spinach, some herbs, onions, and beans. Nothing has sprouted yet so we'll see how it goes! I think some of the seeds were a little old, but apparently the soil in Ilembo is quite good so I think I have that going for me! It will be my first garden that I have ever done on my own so I hope to learn a lot from it and then maybe teach about gardening in the schools--Peace Corps really pushes us to teach how to garden and tie it in to a good nutrition lesson.
6. Food here is okay. I really like some things and I really do not like others--like dried fish. And cooking for yourself here just takes forever! Sometimes it is just not even worth it--you have to set up the charcoal, and then get it to light, and then actually start cooking, make sure the coals stay hot, add more charcoal, etc. etc. It is a long process! Sometimes I enjoy it, and sometimes it is just too much work. The pressure cooker helps though!
7. Sadly, my wine did not turn out well. I think I did not add enough sugar. But I certainly learned how not to make wine! So I'm going to try again! I think I will stick with the pinneapple as the flavoring!
8. Okay I just want to say I miss everyone and I hope everyone is doing well. Thank you again for all of the letters and packages I have received. I feel so lucky to have such a great support system at home! I will talk to you all soon!