Not a lot of things have been going on lately here since School just started. My war with nature, however, continues. Last Saturday I woke up early in the morning to a big boom sound. As it turned out the termites had complete eaten away one of the boards that holds my ceiling up in my dining room and about a quarter of the ceiling fell down. My wonderful neighbor called the craftsmen and they fixed it that same day! I was very surprised since it seems like it takes so long for anything to get down around here. Since it hasn’t been raining the ants, for whatever reason, have decided to invade my house. I now have to wash my dishes immediately after I eat or hundreds of them will fester on them. They also like to get in my honey, sugar, butter and other foods! I know that they aren’t doing as much harm as the termites but they are still irritating.

Today, for the first time, I biked to the main town from my village. I am not for sure how many miles the total journey is but it took me nearly 2.5 hours. I have been hesitant to come to town by bike before since I know it was going to be quite a hassle climbing over all the of hills.

I have started teaching again and things are continuing to run smoothly. We were given 2 new teachers by the government (one English and one Kiswihili). So far they have both been teaching ALL of their required periods! Last semester, I was one of the few teachers that taught all my required periods. I talked to both teachers personally and told them that I hope they continue the good work and aren’t influenced by the other teachers that hardly ever enter the classroom.

This upcoming season I have decided to start a small garden. The soil around my house is very hard but all of my neighbors seem to have no problem growing anything. I plan on just planting simple things like tomates, a type of spinache called “Chinese spinach” (that grows really well here and I have come to really like), and cilantro. When I went to buy the Tanzanian hoe and a shovel the other day, a lot of people asked me if I was buying these tools for my workers or was I really going to farm too just like them. Everyone in my village was also surprised. Up to this point, my villagers have not allowed me to do much manual labor (they have been afraid that my hands will roughen up) so I am curious to see how far I will get with this garden.