Halfway Update - Updated

Holy Crow!
It is absolutely crazy to think that I have already spent 3 weeks living here in Tanzania! 

Its funny because time has both managed to creep AND fly by at the same time!  Every day requires a considerable amount of effort to be productive.  Here is a brief outline of a day in my life:

4:30am - Wake up from roosters crowing or music playing or a mosque blaring its prayers
4:35am - Try to go back to sleep.  Lay in bed and snooze.
7:30am - Quit fighting it and get out of bed.
7:30am-8:30am - Grab some breakfast (usually bread and jam and/or peanut butter with some delicious chai), play Frisbee with a little friend of mine, brush my teeth, pack water and head out the door to go to work.
8:30am-9:00am - Walk to work.  The walk is simple enough, just down on main road, but dodging animals, cars and people make it tricky! 
9:00am-11:15am - Work in the office, normally without power and normally sharing the Internet modem with three other volunteers.  You've really got to use your time wisely!
11:15am-12:00pm - Travel to the Umoja Centre, first a 15 minute walk through the busy downtown of Arusha, and then a 30-40 minute daladala ride to the Centre. ( I'm planning on doing an ENTIRE post about daladalas soon , they're fantastic and hilariously decorated!)
12:00pm-12:30pm - Eat lunch!  I always look forward to this part! Beans and Rice and Ugali! Yum!
12:30pm-2:30pm - Planning time.  Getting ready for class and briefing the other volunteers on what your lessons entail, so they can help you out during your lesson.
2:30pm-4:00pm - Teach a lesson in English, which is your first language but is everyone elses second language.  Its really difficult to find the right balance of using the appropriate terminology and simplifying the material, and ensuring that your audience is still paying attention!
4:00pm-5:30pm - Travel home!  Daladala ride and a 40 minute walk, this walk home is ALWAYS more busy than the walk in the morning.
5:30pm-9:00pm - Hang around home, chat with the family and eat dinner.  I usually 'shower' during this time too (shower meaning that I bathe out of a bucket..its tricky, but I've mastered it).
9:00pm-10:00pm - Get ready for bed, making sure my mosquito net is correctly hung so that I don't get any bites during the night. 

And there you have it, a very simple blow by blow of my day.  Every day seems like it takes forever to get anything done, and then suddenly its August!!

So far, I'd say that my experience here has been extremely positive and I've learned SO much.  Living with a host family is very nice.  I've been getting so much more of a cultural experience, than I would have if I had stayed in a hostel.  I also get spoiled every night with avocado custard (those of you who thought I'd lose weight while here were VERY wrong). 

Last weekend was my favourite weekend yet.  On Friday night the other volunteers and myself visited the Njiro Mall, which has a movie theatre.  We enjoyed their delicious food court (which is just a shared eating space and 5 different restaurants bombard you with 5 different menus). Then we watched the Adjustment Bureau.  The experience reminded us all of being back in the Western world, and it was very nice.

On Saturday, we did some community visits with some of the students from the Umoja Centre.  We met with the students to see where they were going to do their 'community development projects'.  What we thought was going to be a normal day, turned out to be my favourite experience yet.  Sureet and I met up with 6 of the Umoja students, who toured us around Arusha and brought us to their homes.  We saw where they lived and met their families and walked around their neighbourhoods.  The whole time we were able to really connect with the students, who were so proud to bring us around.  One thing that is extremely normal here is same-sex hand holding, so for about 4 hours on Saturday I was holding hands with one of three 20 something year old students.  At first I was slightly uncomfortable, but I got used to it quickly enough! 

On Sunday, the other volunteers and I organized another safari adventure.  This time we visited the Ngorongoro Crater park.  The Crater is about 600 meters deep and 20 km in diameter.  Inside this crater live pretty much EVERY animal you can imagine (except for giraffes unfortunately).  We saw elephants, zebra, gazelle, wildebeest, monkeys, lions, cheetahs, hyenas, rhinos and hippos and many more that I can't remember!  I took dozens and dozens of photos, however they all failed to capture the awesomeness of this place.

Marilyn and I dressed in some traditional clothing to go to a faimly party.  I could probably always dress like this right?

Me in Ngorongoro Crater.  Pretty excited!

This monkey was one of the closest animals that we came across on our safari.  It wouldn't be a blog post without pointing out his blue testicles.  Poor guy.

A herd of wildebeest and zebra in the Ngorongoro Crater.

This elephant we came across before we even got to the crater.  SO awesome!  This was a great TIA moment.

With three weeks left, we still have a lot of work to do! This weekend our students are going into their communities to do their 'Community Development Projects'.  We still have 3 weeks of teaching at the Umoja Centre.  Youth day is still coming up on August 12, and we have some great events planned for that.  And we're continuing to work on some Small Business Development plans with some Umoja graduates.  Woah, that seems daunting when its listed out like that!!

Alright off to do some homework before bed!!

Kwaheri!
-Matt