We just got a few e-mails from Bill with old pictures. It seems so long ago that we were in the Arusha area, as my white skin, clean looking clothes, and fresh hair cut hair can attest to. Check out the pictures taken at the start of our journey almost 3 months ago! We're half way done now.A look back...

While many of you celebrated Native American Day this week, we also had a holiday here! Nyerere's Death Day. that sounds morbid, but it was a holiday yesterday on Tuesday to commenerate the day that Tanzania's first president Julius Nyerere died. We celebrated by going to our South African friends' house Monday night and cooking up a feast. It was a big deal because we haven't had access to a kitchen since we arrived! We all cooked something and I did milk shakes which were horrible b/c the milk in Tanzania so sour and lumpy. Not so good. But Anna made a great chicken cassarole and jello so I felt like I was at home at a church potluck. Gerard being

from right outside New York made a posh, fancy pasta called pasta a la vodka or something like that. It was penne pasta with

fresh tomato sauce cooked in vodka. It was very tasty! We also had a

huge salad and garlic bread. yum! Anna and I spent the night and we

watched three movies and played chess until 3:30am. Then we slept in and

spent the rest of tuesday at the beach catching up on sleep and sun.

Also, I cut my hair! It's so short. I think the shortest it's ever been.

I had to cut it real short because of all the wax in my hair from the

dreads. Anna affectionately called in the Holocaust survivor look. I

prefer the swimmer's look. Anyways, it is so blonde when I cut it short.

I hope it grows back! Today only two classes.



The big news in town is that a movie theatre is opening today! The first in Dar. Supposedly it

is going to get all the latest movies so we are hoping that we will be

able to see the long await Lord of the Rings and Matrix movies. The best

part is it is only a 15 minute dala ride away. I'm so excited, I've been missing movies so much here!



The other news is that the daladala bus service, (ie- cramming as many people as you can in a fast movie minibus that ignores traffic laws), is going to be replaced

starting in december with an actual city bus service. The minister of

transportation said they hope to only have daladalas on minor roads by

2005. Kind of sad, but probably good for the city considering the big

growth and crowdedness.



That's the latest from Dar. It's getting hotter as the days pass and I think I have a permanent farmer's tan...or should I say shamba tan. Now, I'm off to research on democracy in Zambia. Fun stuff!

Music in Tanzania is crazy. There are four types that are heard constantly. First and most popular is of course the rap/RB, mostly American, but a few Tanzanians trying to be American. This music blasts from the open air dorms from 6am until midnight and I think that I have "In Da Club" by 50 cent permanently engrained in my brain. The second type of music is celion dion. Seriously. Tanzanians have some obsession with love songs and I hear Celion Dion, Michael Bolton (a throw back to my Central days), Mariah Carrey, and people like Rod Stewart constantly. It is quite disturbing actually. It's light radio in Dar. The third type is my favorite: the church choir type music. There is one song we love called "Hakuna Munguu Bwana Wewe" meaning "there is no god like you." this music is what you would think of stereotypically of an African Choir...like the backround of Paul Simon's "Graceland" album. The last type is also very fun: Bongoflava. This is heavy drums and big rhythm and is very popular in clubs and late at night when rap is not playing. It is very Zanzibarian and East Coast tanzania and is great to dance to. So now, as I close, Michael is singing full blast in the computer lab and I just have to smile. That's what love is all about, when a man loves a woman, I said I loved you but I lied. Oh the memories...

I'm the class representative! Funny story. So I was in my Democracy and Elections class yesterday for the first real lecture and the teacher started the class by asking, "What is Democracy?" Of course no one answer and she asked the students if they had a class representative, which is the person in charge of answering when no one else does and the person in charge of talking to the teacher if the class has a problem. The class said, no we don't have one and some one in the back shouted in swahili, "Mzungo pamoja nywele!" Essentially, the white guy with the hair! Everyone yelled in agreement and so I was elected class representative and had to answer the question. Then today, my second day in office, the microphone wouldn't work...actually the teacher and the students didn't know how to use it, so once again I was called to action to fix the problem. It's rough with so much responsibility, but hey, there's only one white guy with the hair.

Leaves and boogers...my latest thoughts in Tanzania. Apparently, leaves also change colors here, although they don't necessarily have a fall. The leaves change during our winter because it gets so hot here! The Tanzanias that were looking at Anna's autumn pictures at Luther couldn't believe that leaves changed colors when it was cold. Very different. Also, another phenomena here that is quite extrodinary is nose picking. People do it, proudly, out in the open. It is not taboo at all and we've decided it's because of all the dust here. You just can't get by without picking your nose. I have noticed since arrival in Dar how my eyes, nose and throat all seem to collect this thin layer of dust and dirt. I not only have dirty nose boogers, but also eye boogers. It is refreshing though to know I can proudly clear myself of this dust at anytime, and anyplace. Now if only I could draw less attention to my hair and my skin color....

We went to the beach this weekend and were severely disappointed! We arrived and settled in to our bungalows only to find a rat! We moved bungalows in hopes of leaving the rat, but after a fun evening sitting out under the stars by a beach fire, the rat returned! No one slept well, but at least we were all up for the sunrise. We were also disappointed because we were supposed to get chipati for breakfast but they were out. Chipati is the Tanzania version of lefsa. It's a fried tortilla type bread that most tanzanians eat plain, but i like to add butter and sugar to make it a bit more norwegian!



We also had a smelly surprised when we returned to campus...no water or electricity! IT has been going on and off for the past week, but it's been off about 24 hours now. And to think of all the problems it caused in the US. It's typical here. Fortunately, I had a 5 gallon "back up jug" of water and I used that to take a much need shower, but I hope we get it back because now I'm out. I put up some pics so everyone can see the water situation. First we collect the water in our big 5 gallon jugs, then I boil with the water boiler, then I filter to get out the chunks, and then I put in my nalgene bladder for storage! The big black tanks are the "simtanks" that are all over Dar. They are supposed to be our back up sourse of water, but people from all over town come and steal our back up supply so there is none for us. electricity just got cut again, fortunately there's a stopper on the computers so they don't crash.... no connection though.



The other pics are of the fisherman out on lake Malawi...this fish with lanterns at night because it attracts the fish. And of course the picture with the computer is me trying to "watch" the twins game. The picture of the dala-dala minibus is at our "favorite" corner in dar where cars go every which way with no rhyme or reason...or light. Finally the pics of the girls are the South African friends we have and I at a jazz concert in Dar. Enjoy! .Where's the Water?



Tonight we're off to a drum/jazz concert at the French Embassy. Should be entertaining! That's all for now. Pray for water

School has begun... sort of. I went to class yesterday for the first time and had one lecture in my Development perspectives course. It was good and big! Probably 200 students. I'm not used to that at Luther. I also found out yesterday that I passed the Swahili test so I am able to take the intermediate class. Lindsey and Anna also passed it and so we'll all be trying to speak a bit more this semester. No roommate yet, but I did receive an early morning call from June Brown which was great to hear. She;s sharing her teaching expertise and giving me some supplies for Halloween so I can teach the kids here about halloween. I start teaching again next week but will be more supportative going once or twice a week instead of everyday. This weekend we're going to the beach to celebrate Meredith's b-day; she's another student from the US, so I'm sure we'll have fun. Today I MAY have my Political Perspective on Development and my population geography class, but no one knows for sure. I'm not sure what my classes actually are yet, but i'll put them up when i know. Pole sana twins, hopefully they'll come back in the dome. Getting one out of two in NY is pretty good. now, off to read and see if i have class!