Settling in

So my feet are always dirty, I have itchy spots all over which I'm not sure if it is from mosquitoes, the dryness, or maybe a heat rash, and and I've already had my fill of rice and beans - but things are wonderful in Dodoma.

My tutor, David, arrive two days ago.  He's originally from Uganda but he's been teaching in Dar for many years.  He's a really sweet man. He, Sean, and I went into town the other day and he is very helpful with teaching as we walk along.  I like him very much.  We had him over for dinner and he made a traditional Ugandan dish and it was so good.  Boiled green bananas with onion tomato sauce.  It was really easy - I may have to try to make it myself.

I've been drinking so much soda. It just tastes so much better here made from the real sugar cane. I'm starting to worry about my teeth though (and the calories).  I'm going to try to lay off.  Something I've noticed about weigh here - the more you weigh the better for Tanzanians because that means you are wealthy.  Which is totally the reverse in the States where typically being overweight means you have less money, because you cannot afford healthy foods and gym memberships...

This week has been busy with many dinner guests including Sophia from London who is a neighbor, David, and Juma our neighbor.  It was really fun.  Tonight Juma's mother is having us over for dinner and on Saturday we are hosting Nick and Wendy, an American couple.  Most of our friends are friends of Thomas and Jana, our German roommates.

Yesterday a few of us went to Cheshire Home which is a 2 year "school" for special needs children. What an experience.  The grounds of this place were beautiful but there were at least 10 special needs children to one teacher (which all my teacher friends know this is way too many), many of the kids did not wear shoes or had torn clothes and were very dirty,  there were hardly any toys (the toys they did have were mostly broken), the children roamed aimlessly around the campus because there wasn't enough supervision, and there was no productive organization (a daily event was movie or tv watching).  The children were just beautiful though - it was so hard.

I have been pretty healthy here - just today I woke up with a sore throat.  Not sure if that is from the dryness or from the kids' slobber from yesterday.