Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to look at this thing and to write me a comment or an email, I wish I could respond back individually but know that I am thinking about you and your questions every time you write, so keep up the comments!

Tanzania is amazing. Since the last time I wrote, I have learned a lot more kiswahili and have been able to interact with so many more people. We are heading out on safari this week to Terengerie National Park, to begin working on the ecology aspect of this program. So far I've been studying politics and globalization, which is a very interesting and hotly debated topic so look into the literature if you get a chance, especially into literature originating in the "3rd world" or in the "social majority". The pictures above are mostly of Mt Meru, the most amazing mountain that we are a bit of the way up in our homestay. The house is my homestay house.

There is so much to say and so little time... ok so every weekday I have 4 hours of kiswahili and tea in the morning, followed by lunch at the center that we take classes at and then I'm free to head home to my homestay family. I wash my laundry by hand, and get chased around by my little brothers and sisters. I bathe out of a bucket, and the bathroom in a hole. However, these things are all very normal by now, and thinking about just those small adjustments and how easy they were makes me think about what bigger adjustments I will make, or have made and haven't noticed yet. My family owns more than just the farms around my house, we own one out in another town where Baba lives, about 100 acres, and mama tells me that if I ever want to build anything and don't know where to do it, that I am welcome to her land here in Tanzania. I have a "brother" that has traveled to America, Europe, and Japan, and loves the simplicity of life back here, where he has a wife and 2 babies yet doesn't consider this a committed relationship. My mama will retire in 6 years, but will work every day and do more than most of us do in a week of work for a job. I cooked spaghetti over a fire and grilled cheese on a kerosene burner, and the family loved it and exclaimed that I must be so tired after all that cooking... I feel as though I am providing only a snapshot of this experience, and I know that I ramble... but hell, how do you talk about everything that is becoming so normal to me here and yet still every day instills in me a sense of awe and wonder...

Thats it for now... I love this place!!