for once, i'm super p u m p e d about school. so p u m p e d, that I am registered for 18 credits and way in over my head. Maybe I should drop a class?

obviously there is a lot to be reflected on and said about the adventure I just had, but I've got more important lingering questions on my mind right now.

Last summer i was introduced to the world of fine cheeses and chocolates. thanks. that did me a whole lot of good as both are so incredibly healthy and nutritionally dense (sarcasm never ceases). though I did not dine on fine red meats this summer, i have found a new passion and craving for them. so what am I getting to exactly? well you see. I haven't adjusted completely to the time difference and I woke up at half three (damn brits and your way of speaking) totally starving. So I defrost some veggies and a beloved tofu corn dog. As i was eating the delicious fake meat invention I kept thinking, "why dont people make real sausage corn dogs?"

next dinner plan.

wait a second. I didn't get a chance to post about the "big event" aka i got run over by a pikipiki/motorcycle a few hours before I was supposed to leave Dar Es Salaam.

long story short: I was wandering about the city pretending not to be lost but actually totally and completely lost in a very busy market-y part of town. I was quite proud of myself for having wandering into the real Dar Es Salaam where there were no signs in English, no wazungu, no fancy restaurants... just plain ole Tanzanian culture. Lots of dukas, loads of fabric shops and electronic/houseware/misc stores. My goal of the afternoon was finding more birth control (it's just $.13 a pack), trying to fiddle my way into buying strong pain killers, finding herbal medicines for no specific ailment, purchasing a rather large and sharp knife for my father, possibly finding more fabric and of course, dried dates.

wait this was supposed to be the short version.

I see a pharmacy across the street, watch traffic, make my move. stop in the middle (where my side was stand still), checked the other side, made my next move (the near death one).
motorcycle/pikipiki comes up behind the car I am in front of with far too much acceleration, knocks me to the ground and runs me over.
being me, I get up in complete confusion and sit down on the curb with one three lettered thought, "WTF".
An extremely nice gentleman takes me into the pharmacy that I was planning on going to anyway (just not in the same fashion) and gets the clerks to clean me up and bandage me well enough to get on my way. that was quite the experience. not only was I stared at blantantly because I was the only white person in a considerably large mile radius, i was also stupid enough to get hit by a moving vehicle and have massive wounds all over my body.

short short.

Basically, I thought i had broken my jaw and thumb, but the only real damage was done to my knees, calf, left foot (I thought the gash was deep enough to see my bone... im still not entirely sure), left hip, chin, cheek and palm. Here is a photo about 36-48 after it happened:



(i'm not sure of the time because I was in flight for 32 hours yet I arrived at my destination 10 hours after I left the departure point).

I'm afraid to touch the wounds because the bruises are massive. So massive my knee cap is actually numb in a few places.


so much for looking nice on the first day of class. Also, i was half hoping to be covering from malaria on the first day of class since I have two courses concerning "emerging diseases" and "microbiological transmission of infectious diseases". instead I just get run over.

An update before I physically leave the continent is definitely necessary.

location: Dar Es Salaam. on my own.

discoveries of the last 24 hours:
Dar Express bus station is super far from the city centre and taxis are expensive
make reservations at hostels a week in advance or else you're stuck with a pricey room
I dont like traveling on my own

The only time I ever get stressed is when money is involved, but Im not allowing that to happen on my last day here. My room is a double; one bed to sleep in and one bed to keep all of my stuff on. I've got a nice fan and my own bathroom. YES my own bathroom with HOT water. I didnt feel bad at all taking a 15 minute shower and using up alot of soap (that I have to toss today anyway). Also, I have digital cable! So I watched Smash Lab (new favorite) followed by Mythbusters (old favorite).
And for dinner I treated myself to some delish octopus.

It was a good day.



and now I will attempt to find a market, buy some fabric and atleast a kilo of dried dates. my favorite.


seattle, i am ready. I think.

not sure quite what to say yet.


back from zanzibar. the plane broke and we were delayed 12 hours. that's 12 hours i could have spent buying cute things, eating food... OR EXPLORING THE STREETS. just beautiful.


i go home soon. 2 weeks. is that enough? was that enough time? too much time?

Sawa

favorite word of the week.

When I have more than 20 minutes, I will copy ans paste parts of my emails here as I feel those are a better representation of what's going on in my life. That and it's got all the juicy details.

I can't believe I've been here for 5 weeks already. Where did the time go? I came here unsure of what I was doing exactly, then got super stoked on being active and now I'm somewhere in between. I met a really neat and smart person who proposed a lot of questions that got me thinking, what the hell am i doing here? what am I planning to do after this? what are my plans in terms of school? am i really just trying to move to NYC to be with all the hipsters (hah NO.)?


be assured, i'm doing a lot of thinking here. once it gets dark at 7, there's not much to do but speed sudoku, logic puzzles and think. so much thinking.


in 4 or 5 days i fly to zanzibar. there goes more money. but hey! it's MY holiday. i want some sun. yes holiday. damn brits. i'm moving to your damn country and picking up your accents because it sounds fancier than my rough americanese.

I am well. After 2 weeks at Mt Meru University, I finally moved in with my host family. They are adorable. We live in a place called Manyire village, like 60 min from Arusha. I'm trying to find a google photos to show you where... Apparently there are 5000 people here but it's SO rural. I could get lost for days walking the mountains and fields.
we live on a farm with goats, cattle, cows and hella chickens. and one annoying kitten. YES THERE ARE LIKE 20 ANIMALS. I wake up with goats talking to each other and a rooster yelling. One of the mama cows gave birth last night. Mama is going to teach me to milk a cow soon. And she is teaching me to make Tanzanian food... more on that later. the house is super simple with 3 rooms, one of which I share with an English girl named Kate. She is super nice and funny and keeps me sane. we have three kids, 9, 7 and 5. they are so cute! there are a bunch of kids that live close (all family) so there are times there will be 10 kids in a 10 by 10 "living room". totally nuts. The first night one of the boys dreaded my hair and kept saying "rasta rasta". My mama is super nice and cooks pretty good food. The standard Tanzanian food is rice, ugali (corn flour and water... kind of like cream of wheat except you roll it into a ball and scoop up beans with it), beans, beans, mchicha (shredded spinach that is heated) and chapati (like naan bread or tortillas). My roommate and I requested no meat as we cannot eat cow instestines :( gross. so we asked for chicken and got all the parts of teh chicken BUT the breast. seriously. like chicken feet and neck and everything else. apparently the head is edible? Anyway, we are getting sick of the high carb diet so we are trying to get some more eggs and peanut butter into our diet. Standard breakfast is white bread with butter and instant coffee. OH AND our kitchen is separate from our house... a little hut with these stone boxes that make a fire place. Totally weird, I know. I'll take a picture if I can. So mama taught me to make chapati and roasted bananas so far. Next up is ugali and some other stuff.

So what have I been doing? Teaching! we started teaching last Wednesday. We're teaching at a primary school where each class is OVER 60 students. We teach standards 4, 5, 6 and 7 (about 10-16 yr olds). The standard 7 class is 60 students and apparently the standard 4 is 94. OH MY GOODNESS. Teaching is a lot of fun though. We teach in English and then our Tanzanian teaching partners translate to English. It's really rewarding work. all the kids have a lot of energy and we do a lot of shouting games and clapping and such.