What, another post?! Already?

Spent the last 2 days in Dar after leaving Morogoro on Tuesday. I couldn't get a bus back home until Friday, which has turned out really nice because it is not often that I have a lot of down time here. And its been especially fun because the hotel I'm at has also been taken over by one of the health/environment classes that's here for their mid-service conference. Yesterday I took a quick ferry ride (literally 2 minutes) to a island/peninsula with a nice beach and bar/restaurant/hotel. It was a lovely place to spend the day swimming and laying in a hammock and enjoying few cold ones. Afterwards I went to see my first real Tanzanian soccer game! I must say I was quite impressed, mostly because I was expecting a high school like stadium but it is in fact fancy and new and holds 60,000 spectators. Soccer is huge here and it was an especially big game, between Simba and Young Africans (Yanga); both are Tanzanian teams that also happen to be the top teams in East Africa...fun stuff. Today I went to the really nice part of Dar where all the rich non-Tanzanians live and hang out to spend the day sitting on the water, using tons of wifi, drinking a cold frappucino, and eating a magnificent pizza topped with salami and brie cheese! I added a few more pictures of it all.

Welp, that's just about all the news. I've gotta wake up super early tomorrow for a 6 a.m. bus and will make it (hopefully) to Newala tomorrow evening and then back to my village on Saturday. September will fly by with all kinds of craziness - the newbies arriving, mock NECTA exams for Form II, a 3-day regional training in Mtwara, mid-term exams, and a week off for midterm break (planning to travel to Songea), and preparing for Form IV NECTA exams at the beginning of October. Yikesies!

Dust in the Wind

Hey hey, greetings from Tanzania! I'm currently in Morogoro, enjoying the speedy internet and variety of foods. This afternoon I'm doing a PSDN (Peer Support and Diversity Network) session about the first three months at site with the current education training class. They will be swearing-in in just a week or two and then heading off to their various sites around Tanzania which is quite an exciting time for us all. Last week was their site announcements and we learned that the deep south will be receiving 7 new volunteers - 4* to Mtwara and 3 to Lindi. It is bittersweet because we have just said farewell to three volunteers and will lose four more in October/November. But we're looking forward to welcoming the new volunteers to our wonderful region and I have the pleasure of spending a day or with them beforehand...I have been entrusted with the very important and creepy role of acquiring all the information (and pictures, if possible) I can about our newbies prior to their arrival down south :). Another plus of going to Morogoro is that I'll get to see my host family again. My host Mama and Baba are getting married in September, and since I won't be able to make it to their wedding, I'm happy to have the chance for a short visit. And of course I'll get to see my little kaka, Isaac, who recently turned 2 and is speaking many more words!

*I have long come to terms with the tendency of people of my parents' generation to name their daughters Kathryn, or some variation there of (traditionally reserved for the most favorite child, I believe). My training class alone included a Kathryn (me), Katherine (Kat), Catherine (Leslie), and Kathleen (Katie). Three of the four of us were sent down to Mtwara region, which naturally started the rumor that Peace Corps assigns sites based, at least partially, on first name. Of the 140 other PCVs in Tanzania, there is one other Katie (probably also a Kathryn). Interestingly enough, she was also placed down in Mtwara, although transferred to Iringa shortly thereafter due to a severe cashewnut allergy. This trend was further confirmed by the most recent site placements, as another Kathryn and Kathleen (Kathy) will be joining us. And because there surely aren't enough Kathryn/Katherine/Catherine/Kathleen/Katie/Kate/Kats to humor Peace Corps Tanzania, they've just sent us a second Tyler from Wisconsin. Ok Peace Corps, this is just getting weird now.

It seems like lots of exciting things have been going on lately in my neck of the woods:

MAJI NA HALI YA HEWA (WATER & WEATHER)
We are about 2 months into dry season, and by dry season, I mean it is dry! When combined with lots of wind, this translates into dust, dust, and more dust. Everything is covered in a thick layer of red-brown dust, which you yourself have the pleasure of being covered by with every stroll around town, bus trip, etc. Blowing my nose after a bus ride is always really interesting...its amazing how red dirt translates into red/brown snot! But more importantly, with another 3 or 4 months to go until the rainy season, there is already very serious water shortage in my area. Because we live on top of the plateau, there is no groundwater to speak of. Many areas, including my school, collect rain water, which doesn't last very long after the rains have gone. My school's water tank has been empty for about a month now, so students are now hauling water for the school and teachers as needed. There is a small river that supplies water to the villages in this area, although it is a bit unreliable and often no water comes out of the village taps. When there is water, it is a crazy site to see - beginning at about 5 in the morning, when it is still pitch dark, Mamas start lining up their buckets from the tap...there will literally be a line of hundreds and hundreds of brightly colored, plastic buckets. To make matters worse, my village's tap just broke, so in the meantime people are walking to a nearby village to collect water. But one seasonal plus - it is winter! Although the sun is still quite strong, it cools off signicantly in the evenings and I have the pleasure of sleeping under a blanket!

On a related note, mine and my neighbor's house were recently invaded with ants...yikesies! I woke up one night at about 2am with ants crawling all over me and my bed. After freaking out and hopping out of bed, I stepped out of my room and found my house literally covered by long armies ofants...every surface, wall, floor...I've never seen anything like it. Luckily I had some bug killer spray that I emptied over everything. After a restless and paranoid night's sleep, I awoke and swept out all my dead little friends. The Tanzanian solution is to surround your house with brush and set fire, which I rather enjoyed watching my students do. My counterpart said that the ants usually mean it might rain, as they come from underground in search of water. Sure enough, two days later it sprinkled for a bit and the ants have not returned. I must say I prefer the rats!

HABARI ZA KIJIJINI (VILLAGE NEWS)
Kitangali, the nearest town to me received a very important visitor a couple of weeks ago! The President of Tanzania, Kikwete, came to tour the area and speak. It was quite a big deal, and was to my knowledge the first time a president has visited the town. Mtwara has been a hot topic in current parliamentary talk - namely because we have the lowest national exam grades and the only road down to here is unpaved so we're a bit disconnected from the rest of the country/economy. There is now a big push to finish the road, which they are saying will be done this December. We all know that's not going to happen, but to the credit of the Tanzanian government, there have been lots of progress lately and workers about. Travel up to Dar es Salaam would be significantly more comfortable with a paved road, so I hope its completed while I'm still living down here! But back to Kikwete. I went to join the festivities in Kitangali with my neighbor/counterpart, Mr. Likulu, and met up with my sitemate, Tyler. Because Tyler and I are white and therefore automatically overally respected guests, we were ushered to the important villager seating to watch the proceedings. There was lots of tribal dancing and singing while awaiting Kikwete's arrival, who in classic Tanzanian style arrived 4 hours late, just about a half hour before sunset. He only talked for 20 minutes or so, mostly just stating the very obvious issues - our shitty roads (he called them frightening), our poor-performing schools (he asked our District Education Officer for our pass-rates mid speech and literally didn't believe him...it made for an awkward pause), our water problem, and the price of cashews. Afterwards he offered no space for questions from the people. For these reasons I was a bit dissapointed (and tired and hot and hungry), although it was still very exciting to be apart of and get to share in the excitment with my students and villagers and the other thousands of people there.

What else? Ramadhan began August 1st and will last until the 30th. As about 95% of my students and village are Muslim, so just about everybody is fasting. From sun-up to sun-down you are not allowed to eat or drink anything, including water. I have been asked a lot if I am fasting too ("Umefunga?", which literally means "You have been closed?"). The answer is no, I'm still very much open. I have said that this year I will simply observe everyone else fast and next year I will consider participating (but probably not because I like to eat). Then I happily make my way home and spend 2 hours (or 5, if beans or chickpeas are involved) preparing my lunch, followed by the 10 minutes or so it takes to eat said lunch. Along with fasting, many Muslims shut down their businesses for the month, so most little shops and places that serve food are closed around here. I am therefore very much looking forward to breaking up the month with a trip to Dar es Salaam and Morogoro, which have much larger Christian populations and therefore more food!

HABARI ZA SHULENI (SCHOOL NEWS)
My school and headmaster are currently in a bit of hot water with the Ministry of Education after a couple of less than exemplary school inspections. Much of it centered around last year's terrible Form IV results, as well as things outside of his control like a shortage of classrooms, labs, and teachers (thanks for the input, how 'bout some money to build said buildings and maybe you could send some teachers this way, too?). They're making my headmaster attend a special training on effective management, so he is expectedly pretty embarassed, but hopefully some school improvements will come out of it all.

Other than that, school is moving along, kama kawaida (as usual). We've got four temporary teachers from a teacher's training college here for the month; of course all are teaching arts subjects, but its nice that the students are getting taught for most of every day. Our other female teacher, Madam Shakira, had a baby in May and is back. His name is Hudhwaifa and he cries a lot and he is cute.  Speaking of babies, all the female students were just sent to Kitangali last week to get suprise pregnancy tests - hopefully their results all come back negative or they'll be kicked out of school. Still lots of chickens and goats running around everywhere. I've also been helping my counterpart mix chemicals and set up some chemistry practicals for the students, although we're still waiting on wood to construct lab furniture...

Check out the new pictures!

PC Tanzania 50th anniversary - PCV speech

Peace Corps has been celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and as one of the first PC countries, Tanzania had its own big in-country celebration a couple of weeks ago. PCVs were able to apply to attend, which I didn't do and now regret. But anyways, here is a speech written by a first year environment volunteer, Dan, who lives near Iringa. I thought it was very well written and powerful (it gave me chills). Thought y'all might enjoy reading it, too.

A couple of helpful Kiswahili references/translations:
ndugu wenzangu = my relatives (relatives is a broadly used term here)
jembe = hoe
mungu akipenda = "if God wishes" (very commonly used phrase...ex: Mungu akipenda tutaonana tena...If God wishes we will see each other again)
nakupenda na moyo yote = "I love you with all my heart" (line from a popular Tanzanian song)

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By popular demand, here is the text of PCV Dan Waldron’s speech at the 50th anniversary celebration on 22 June. Hope you enjoy it as much as those in attendance did:

“Dr. Florens Turuku, Ambassador Lenhardt, Director Williams, Country Director Wojnar-Diagne. Distinguished guests, fellow volunteers, ndugu wenzangu. Take a moment to look around. We are not natural neighbors. We come from different generations, from different states and different countries, from different religions and backgrounds. But tonight we are united in a community of hope, brought together by an unshaken devotion to our common humanity. So it is tonight, and so it was at the beginning of our journey.

50 years ago a group of driven individuals arrived in what was then Tanganyika. It wasn’t a country yet, it wouldn’t be for four more months, and when they arrived, they were greeted by a sign which read “Beware the lions” And there we started. But who were these people, these reckless ambassadors? Reading the first curious accounts, the first letters home from a new frontier, one gets a sense of their characters. Who were they? They were George Schreiber, who talked about embodying “ a pioneer type of spirit”. They were George Johnson, who said “Peace Corps exists as an embodiment of a conviction that the best way to achieve global understanding is to put Americans in contact with other nations.” There were 35 of them, engineers, surveyors, and geologists, from Princeton, Harvard, Michigan. And they were drawn together by a man who stood on the steps of Ann Arbor and told the assembled students that based on “your willingness to not merely serve one year or two years in the service, but on your willingness to contribute part of your life to this country, I think will depend the answer whether a free society can compete.” 5 months later, the Peace Corps was signed into law, with Kennedy again telling us that “We will send those abroad who are committed to the concept which motivates the Peace Corps. It will not be easy:”

Across the nation, people were moved. They volunteered, they went to boot camp (Drill sergeant and all), and they became the first soldiers in an army of peace. 50 years later, that army has fought poverty, hunger, disease, and subjugation in 139 countries, side by side with peoples of every language, tribe, and religion. Kennedy’s words have outlived him. The army fights on. And though it sometimes feels as though our struggle is never-ending, battles have been won, progress has been made.

Yet for all the measurable progress, so much of what Peace Corps does is unquantifiable. There is no box that shows how amazed the children were when the seedlings began to grow, no graph to measure the change that occurred when a woman living with HIV when she realized she had become a leader. And more: how many Tanzanians knew, until the moment they were proven wrong, that Americans could never swing a jembe? How many Tanzanians did not believe that we could dance? And how many of us volunteers never guessed at the number of different ways life could be lived, and lived beautifully, until we came here? We knew about the poverty, but how little did we know about the generosity? These things may be unquantifiable, but they are no less real. Mwalimu Nyerere said "To measure a country's wealth by its gross national product is to measure things, not satisfactions." Many other organizations build more things. Yet I doubt there is another that builds more satisfactions.

Now where do we go from here? The goal of our work is to make the continuation of our work unnecessary. We are not there yet, in fact we are nowhere near the limits of our potential. Success is based on expectations, but it is also limited by them, and we are limiting ourselves, and our communities as long as remain prisoners to what Michael Gerson called “the soft bigotry of low expectations”. Let us never tire of pushing ever upwards. We have come so very far, Tanzanian and American alike, still we have so very far yet to go. This is a party to celebrate 50 years of friendship and accomplishment, but it can be more. Let us stand together tonight and take this anniversary as an opportunity to recommit to the spirit of the Peace Corps, to remember the sense of duty that brought us all here, to do better, to go farther, to try harder. We can expect far more from one another, but we can also offer far more of ourselves. American poet Robert Browning wrote, “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?” Tonight we have a golden opportunity on this golden anniversary to not set limits on our potential, but rather expand our expectations.

I don’t know much. I left America a year and a week ago, and I’m just beginning to realize what I don’t understand. But I love this job. There is nothing like it. I said goodbye to everything and everyone I held dear, climbed onto a plane with a large group of strangers, got pushed out at 30,000 feet, landed, and began to plant trees, dig wells, and teach beekeeping. One day, mungu akipenda, I will get good at my job, at which point it will be time to leave. And after all of that, after the level of insanity I’ve put myself and my loved ones through, the thought that will keep me up at night: is how do I get back to Tanzania?

Because somewhere along the way, something changed. We came here as ambassadors from America, to show Tanzanians what America really is. But now…now we have become ambassadors to America, from Tanzania. For the rest of our days we will do all in our power to represent Tanzania: its beauty and its need, its poverty and its riches, its depth of generosity and humanity. The Kiswahili word for together is “pamoja”. It literally means “in one place”. And if that’s the case, none of us will ever be together again. A part of us never left America, the land of the free, the home of the brave. But a part of us will never leave Tanzania, “nakupenda na moyo yote”. That part of us will always be Tanzanian, rising with the sun, gripping the hands of strangers-turned-family, forever exchanging with unguarded smiles the news of the morning.

Because Peace Corps is not for everybody. As Kennedy said, “it will not be easy.” It isn’t easy. It is painful, and it is lonely. But none of us here today have to be here. We could be living closer to our loved ones. We could be making more money. We could be cooler, or more comfortable, and God knows we could be cleaner. But each of us decided that there were more important things to us than comfort, that while a ship in the harbor may be safe, that is not what ships are built for. Everyone here tonight, Tanzanian and American, has dedicated a portion of their lives to the belief that with devotion, and kindness, and insistence on a brighter future, change is possible. Everyone here tonight is part of something greater than themselves. We are all soldiers in an army of peace. An army that marches on, as our President Barack Obama said, “with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us.”

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I'm in Mtwara town for the weekend, staying at our lovely beach house for a goodbye celebration for a few PCVs that are COSing ("close of service" i.e. finished 2 years) in a couple of weeks.  Spent last week at home, cleaning up and grading terminal exams. School starts on Monday, so it's back to work for me. Hope all is well at home!

PS - the video that was supposed to be uploaded in the last post actually did not...my bad. Maybe another time.

Happy 4th of July from Tanzania!

Added lots more pics of my vacation and the high(er) speed internet in Dar even allowed me to upload another video for your viewing pleasure. Check out a bunch of Peace Corps Volunteers honoring the lovely U S of A with quite possibly the worst rendition of our national anthem ever sang. But we were out in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Tanga town, so that's gotta count for something.

Anywho, I left last post off eating good foods in Moshi. We also made it to Arusha and spent a bit of time wondering around the city, which is much bigger and dirtier than nearby Moshi. We did find a legitimate supermarket and walked down every aisle at least once, in awe of the variety of products offered...things I've never seen sold in Tanzania before like rasberries and walnuts and bacon and blue cheese and donuts! A few of our friends had spent the two days prior climbing nearby Mt. Meru and we met them for dinner. There is a restaurant owned by a Japanese man that has a legitimate sushi chef. The sushi rolls were amazing, and complete with a bowl of Udon noodles, was probably the best meal I've had in Tanzania thus far. It was awesome, so we also had to go back the next day for lunch.

After that we headed back to Moshi and spent another day or so before boarding a bus to Tanga town (southeast, on the coast). There were 20 of us PCVs meeting up there for a 4th of July bash. We spent the first day just hanging out and swimming, celebrating a couple of birthdays, and eating a tasty Indian dinner. On Saturday we had arranged for a boat to take us out in the ocean. I must say I'm a bit spoiled now because the beaches in Mtwara and of course Zanzibar are much nicer, but we went out a ways to this huge sand bar that we had to ourselves and had fun swimming and drinking and hanging out. Our guides even cooked us a wonderful meal of grilled tuna, cooked bananas, and lots of fresh fruits (Tanga is the famous fruit producing region). We also went to a nearby island, Toten Island, and did a bit more swimming while some others walked around and looked at some old German ruins and graves. We ended the evening at a bar, drinking beers and watching the Tanzanian wedding that was taking place below (Tanzanian weddings are interesting). The next morning we moved on out, so it was a short but great time in Tanga!

And now my summer vacation has finally come to an end! I got to see a lot of Tanzania and it was especially wonderful to get to spend time with so many other volunteers along the way. We counted that we saw 22 of the 34 other volunteers from our training class, while also getting to meet lots of other volunteers from the different classes/sectors which is always fun. Yesterday we left Tanga for Dar and spent today, the actual 4th of July, just hanging out and interneting. We had ourselves a traditional American lunch - a Subway sandwich, bag of Doritos, cold Pepsi, and Twix bar for dessert - followed by a tasty Lebonese dinner. Tomorrow morning we're headed back down south so I should make it back to my village on Wednesday. I've been gone a whole month now so I'm pretty ready to get back home. I've spent too much money and consumed too many tasty calories so it's about time for me to get get back to my village life of cheap living and lack lusture cuisine. Unfortunately, I've got all my terminal exams to grade, term grades to calculate, and what is sure to be a rat trashed house to clean. Fortunately, the next school term doesn't start until July 18 so I've got several days to do it all and relax in my village before getting back into the teaching grind. Also my school was finally able to procure the wood needed to build furniture for our science laboratory, so when I get back we'll be able to get started on that with some local carpenters and hopefully have a functioning lab for next term!

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend - eat some potato salad and deviled eggs for me! Love and miss you all!

Moshiiiii

Hallo, hope all is well. Short update as I'm hanging out in a lovely cafe in lovely Moshi enjoying some wifi and real coffee, so life is good. Moshi is by far the most developed city I've been to in Tanzania, more so than even Dar es Salaam. There are American and European tourists and ex-pats galore, and I'm still getting used to seeing so many foreigners. The variety of food here is pretty amazing, and best of all is its plethora of cute little cafes that serve lattes and cappucinos and sandwiches and salads - you can easily forget you are in Tanzania! (Just ordered a lunch of pasta salad with feta cheese!). Today's our fourth day here and other than a nice little hike out to a nearby waterfall, we've been filling our days eating yummy foods (can you binge eat for a whole month?). We've also done a bit of shopping at expensive boutique stores, which we also balanced by heading to the used clothing market to pick up a couple of Goodwill rejects. It's been especially fun to see so many friends, as Moshi is a favorite vacation/gathering spot for volunteers. Last night we went to a cool little bar that has an outdoor movie theater set up; The Shining was playing, complete with bats flying across the projector screen for added atmosphere! On Monday we'll head up to Arusha to meet some friends for sushi (seriously) and spend a day or two exploring the city.

My apologies for everyone that was grossed out by my last few poop updates, so this will be the last and least graphic one - I'm happy to report that my bowel movements are back to normal! As I'm sure you've noticed, the two most talked about topics among PCVs are food and poop, and it's suprisingly difficult to get out of that mindset as I'm writing blogposts for non-PCV readers.

Time for lunch, so more later with pictures.

Iringaaaaa

Hey hey short update from the beautiful southern highlands. On Friday Katie and I headed from Zanzibar to Dar. That evening we "unofficially" visited the new education class trainees that arrived in Tanzania on the 15th. Getting new volunteers is quite exciting for all of us PCVs in-country, and I can't wait to see who ends up near us in Mtwara. Then we took a pleasant 8 hour bus ride to Iringa, arriving Saturday evening. We met our friend and fellow PCV, Glenn, and went out from some Chinese food and a couple of beers before heading to bed early. Glenn left early the next morning on a bus and Katie and I slept in and explored the city a bit. We went and had a wonderful brunch of vegetable and cheese omelettes, french toast, and homeade yogurt at a local restaurat here that is an absolute favorite among volunteers. Then we walked a bit out of town and climbed a big rock to get a nice view of the city. After a long afternoon nap at the hostel, we ordered delivery pizza (say what?!) for dinner. On Monday two other PCV friends, TJ and Carly, came into town and we all went for a wonderful lunch of avocado bacon paninis! We spent the afternoon shopping, had some Tanzanian food for dinner, then headed back to our hostel to watch a movie. This morning we had another tasty breakfast and then went in search of the used clothing market (where all the clothes that don't sell at Goodwill end up). Now we're hanging out at a lovely cafe...it's run by a local mission that hires only Tanzanians with disibilities - all the wait staff are deaf and others are employed in making clothes and crafts for sale. What else...Iringa is cold! I do not have appropriate clothes so I'm freezing my but off once the sun goes down, but the hostel provides warm blankets so I'm sleeping well. I suppose it's a nice change from the hot south, but I'm still a Texan and I'll always prefer sweatin' to shiverin'.

Poop update: Thanks for the concern for my health, but I'm doing fine! My fever and headache lasted for just 2 days or so and I've been getting plenty of sleep since. The diarrhea lasted for 5 days; it seemed to be clearing up yesterday but I've had to run to the bathroom twice while trying to type this post so I guess its back. Of all places to get diarrhea I suppose its not so bad because I've had access to western toilets the whole time which is a nice treat and would not be the case at home down south. But we haven't been letting my pooping damper our vacation too much and we've still been eating well..lots of dairy which is probably stupid but when's the next time I'll get ice cream and yogurt? Tomorrow I'll take some immodium to clog up my intestinal track before embarking on a long bus ride, and hopefully I'll be back to pooping solidly in no time.

Added some more pictures of food and such. Tomorrow Katie and I will hop on a bus from Iringa to Moshi, which should take about 12 hours. Can't wait to spend a week in the wonderful north, with views of Mt. Kilimanjaro!

As always, much love from Tanzania!

Dar and Zanzibar

Been away from site for about a week and a half now. PSDN training in Dar was good - lots of practice with active listening, common issues faced by volunteers, etc. Add in good food and good friends and you've got a good time. Then Katie came up (had quite the scare hearing about her bus accident...you can read about it in her blog) and we headed to Zanzibar on Sunday. We spent the first two days with a couple of other PCVs from our training class, Doug and Eric as well as Eric's friend Chris who is visiting from America. The first day we spent just wondering around the streets of Stonetown, which is so old and beautiful and quaint feeling. The island is something like 99 percent Muslim and has a strong mix of Arab culture, so that it doesn't feel like it is the same country as mainland Tanzania. Then we headed to the beach and watched the sunset, grabbed a beer, and found some street food for dinner. Monday we took a spice tour, which was really great. We went out with a guide to a spice plantation a bit out of Stonetown and just walked around and looked at all kinds of different fruits and spices and herbs, got to taste a bunch, hear about their medicinal uses, etc. The tour was complete with a tasty lunch and a trip to a nearby beach that was isolated and beautiful. After a delicious dinner, the boys left on an overnight ferry back to Dar that night, so the next day Katie and I were able to get in our shopping fix and also got some henna done. We also had an amazing Indian lunch with Claire, a PCV that lives near us down south, and her boyfriend Rob who is visiting from America. Yesterday Katie and I took a daladala to a village called Nungwi, about an hour and a half north of Stonetown. We spent a relaxing day at the beach, and even enjoyed a pitcher of Sangria! Unfortunately I got sick (of course the first time is when I'm vacationing in Zanzibar) - that morning I had diarrhea, had a headache all day, and by afternoon started coming down with a fever. Last night my fever was really bad and I still have diarrhea if I try and eat anything, so I've literally spent all day today lying in bed and sleeping. Not really the plan for our last day in Stonetown, but at least I got to enjoy the first few days. We had planned to meet up with a PCV that lives here and another PCV that is in town for dinner tonight, so I'm hoping I'll feel up for that in a few hours.

Well that's about it for Zanzibar. It is truly beautiful, and if you ever make it to Tanzania you must take the short ferry over and check out its beautiful beaches! I added lots of pictures, so have a look. Tomorrow we'll head back to Dar and then take a bus to Iringa on Saturday morning.