August 27th, 2011

The past few days have been relatively similar. We’ve woken up in time to go and get breakfast form the cafeteria. Generally toast and a fruit like a banana, and then one morning we had a hard-boiled egg. I have no complaints. For lunch we ate out one day and in the cafeteria the next (rice and potatoes and gravy and watermelon). The cafeteria hasn’t been doing dinner because the boarders aren’t here yet and only a few staff are here, so we’ve eaten at Jose’s house or gone to the coffee lodge. (All the meals will be served starting next week)

During the day we generally explore Arusha. One day we (Me, Kelly, Nick and Maria) took a taxi to a little mall. It had a general store and a movie theater. (Bridesmaids is playing mid September and a group of us plan on going)

Yesterday Kelly and I walked to Shop-rite (we think a 2 mile walk one way) without male accompaniment. Turns out you get a lot more attention as two girls alone. IT was nothing dangerous, but guys would scream things at us and a few would try to stop us to talk. One even reached out his hand and like caressed my face as I walked by. We also got quite a few “muzungu” calls. It wasn’t bad and we would walk it again, no problem.

In a break from the general plan, yesterday morning I helped Monica, Doreen, and Sean (a lower primary teacher) assess the lower primary students. Their parents brought them in and we basically played with then to see how they could emotionally handle being at school, what they knew about colors and letters, and how they interacted with the teachers and other students. The kids were all really cute!

On a different day, in the afternoon, I took my kindle and my hammock and set it up between some trees near the athletic fields and read for a while. That was really relaxing and both (the hammock and the kindle) were good investments. The kindle has come in handy when the power is out because I have 3G so I can still check my email. While I was out there John, one of the guards (we call them askari’s) came to investigate. He wasn’t sure exactly what was hanging from the trees but he laughed when he saw it was me.

That same day I saw the troop of monkeys that live on campus. They are called Vervets or blue-balled monkeys which, if you saw them, you would understand. I saw a daddy monkey, possibly a momma monkey and two babies. The babies were the most adventurous and would get fairly close to me but the daddy monkey kept his distance and watched me suspiciously the whole time. They aren’t too big and therefore not too scary (but apparently they like to kill cats for fun). Kelly and I do not approve of that at all as we are trying to befriend/adopt a little calico kitten who lives near the office.

At night we just hang out sometimes on campus and sometimes at the coffee lodge. One night we headed to bed really early to get rid of the last bits of jet lag and last night we watched a movie with Maria and Nick. Heather went out with some people she knew in Arusha and had a really good time, so one of these nights (hopefully before school starts) we’re gonna head out on the town.

I certainly hope Virginia doesn’t fall apart while I’m gone! What with all the hurricanes and earthquakes….I actually think it’s safer in Africa… (oh, one of the office ladies told us yesterday that if you go walking into the coffee plantations across the street you have to be careful because there is a patch of wild forest area near here that has cheetahs!)

Here is the headmaster's porch where I've been doing most of my blog writing and posting.