MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE HOT LAND OF AFRICA!!!
Real blog later. But know this, everyone:
I AM COMING HOME IN MARCH FOR JUSTINE'S WEDDING!!! March 2-16, Cbus.
Get excited. Get ready for Graeter's trips.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Shagalabagala Kabisa
So! It has been awhile! Sorry I tend to be ADHD when I get to Internet and spend all my time putzing around on facebook instead of gathering my thoughts to write blogs. And now I only have 15 minutes left so this will have to be short. I'll try to highlight the craziness of the last month with a few main points:
Thanksgiving-- we celebrated early and did it up as best we could for being in TZ. It was a great time full of laughter. Although it does NOT feel at all like the holiday season and it's starting to sink in that I probably just won't really have Christmas spirit for the next 2 years. It's too opposite from how Christmas-time is supposed to feel here!
"Murder! In the Village"-- (like "Panic! at the Disco" Erica haha) So I had a crazy experience in my village recently. The Tuesday before Thanksgiving I had just gotten home and around 8:45 pm I heard a loud bang outside my house. I thought "Wow, that sounded like a gunshot." then immediately thought "No....this is Dosidosi, it couldn't have been, it was a car or something." Then went to bed. The next morning I was casually working in my garden when my neighbor came over and I asked him why there was no school on a school day. He proceeded to be the 1st to inform me that one of the teachers from my school had been SHOT AND KILLED right between my school and the row of teachers houses where I live the night before. So I was FREAKED OUT. It was so upsetting and more so by the fact that he was a friend of mine, I had had dinner at his house and everything. And it just came out of nowhere to me. So of course I left the village for a couple days and hung out at Keith's and talked to Peace Corps about the situation. It basically came down to whether I felt safe in the village or not. Obviously I don't feel as safe as I used to but changing sites would be horrible. As much as I might have wanted to had this been week 2 or something, a site change after how far I've come would just suck. And as far as the alleged reason for the crime, it has nothing to do w/ me so I'm not fearing for my life or anything. But it was a terrible couple of days, and to top it all off when Keith and I returned to my house on Thanksgiving Day to cook and hide out from gunmen we found that sadly Sloopy had passed away. So Buttercup is now the lone ranger. I was really sad. Sorry this is terribly written but I'm running out of time.
IST--So NOW life is great again because I am in Morogoro for In-Service-Training with my whole group! It has been awesome to see everyone again, celebrate a bunch of people's birthdays, hang out at a pool, eat pizza, and stay up til 3 am just laughing like crazy. I missed certain people from other regions SO much and it is so great to hear their stories and experiences and just catch up. Also we are learning some awesome stuff about grant-writing, project implementation, and cool things like how to make batiks and plant trees. After a session today I am totally pumped to go back home and teach people how to make solar cookers! They're gonna think I'm crazy bu it is gonna be AWESOME! So looking forward to more useful info, more fun times, and our counterparts arriving on Sunday.
So just in time I think I'm done with this completely scatterbrained update. So lots of ups and downs but things are now on the upswing! Peace out!
Thanksgiving-- we celebrated early and did it up as best we could for being in TZ. It was a great time full of laughter. Although it does NOT feel at all like the holiday season and it's starting to sink in that I probably just won't really have Christmas spirit for the next 2 years. It's too opposite from how Christmas-time is supposed to feel here!
"Murder! In the Village"-- (like "Panic! at the Disco" Erica haha) So I had a crazy experience in my village recently. The Tuesday before Thanksgiving I had just gotten home and around 8:45 pm I heard a loud bang outside my house. I thought "Wow, that sounded like a gunshot." then immediately thought "No....this is Dosidosi, it couldn't have been, it was a car or something." Then went to bed. The next morning I was casually working in my garden when my neighbor came over and I asked him why there was no school on a school day. He proceeded to be the 1st to inform me that one of the teachers from my school had been SHOT AND KILLED right between my school and the row of teachers houses where I live the night before. So I was FREAKED OUT. It was so upsetting and more so by the fact that he was a friend of mine, I had had dinner at his house and everything. And it just came out of nowhere to me. So of course I left the village for a couple days and hung out at Keith's and talked to Peace Corps about the situation. It basically came down to whether I felt safe in the village or not. Obviously I don't feel as safe as I used to but changing sites would be horrible. As much as I might have wanted to had this been week 2 or something, a site change after how far I've come would just suck. And as far as the alleged reason for the crime, it has nothing to do w/ me so I'm not fearing for my life or anything. But it was a terrible couple of days, and to top it all off when Keith and I returned to my house on Thanksgiving Day to cook and hide out from gunmen we found that sadly Sloopy had passed away. So Buttercup is now the lone ranger. I was really sad. Sorry this is terribly written but I'm running out of time.
IST--So NOW life is great again because I am in Morogoro for In-Service-Training with my whole group! It has been awesome to see everyone again, celebrate a bunch of people's birthdays, hang out at a pool, eat pizza, and stay up til 3 am just laughing like crazy. I missed certain people from other regions SO much and it is so great to hear their stories and experiences and just catch up. Also we are learning some awesome stuff about grant-writing, project implementation, and cool things like how to make batiks and plant trees. After a session today I am totally pumped to go back home and teach people how to make solar cookers! They're gonna think I'm crazy bu it is gonna be AWESOME! So looking forward to more useful info, more fun times, and our counterparts arriving on Sunday.
So just in time I think I'm done with this completely scatterbrained update. So lots of ups and downs but things are now on the upswing! Peace out!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
