Thanksgiving, man. Not a good day to be my pants. - Kevin James

Not too much to report since my last blog. School is officially closing on Friday, but our exams ended today. After grading 288 exams and proctoring three exams for a total of 10 hours I am done with schoolwork and ready for Thanksgiving!!! Thanksgiving will, of course, be spent this year in country again. However, not to worry the volunteers in my region have collaborated and put together a stellar menu for Saturday (we are delaying because tomorrow is not a holiday here!). I am on pumpkin pie duty, Kat is making mac and cheese, Rebecca is on mashed potatoes, I think someone is getting chicken or turkey? (currently going the veggie route due to the last bout of salmonella), Jess is on cake for TJ’s and Anna’s birthdays. I think I will probably chip in with a veggie dish and possibly another dessert. Going to make the pie from scratch, even the filling. I will let you all know how it turns out.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving I wanted to give my top 10 list of things I am thankful for, in no particular order (save #1),

1. a. Life!

     b. My family and friends!!!  (Miss you all sooo much, it is not even funny)

2. Being a PCV.  I know I complain about the bad times, but really I am thankful for every experience – bad or good.

3. Care packages… seriously anyone who has sent me a package in the last year; you have no idea how much they mean to me. I am not quite sure where I would be without Velveeta, candy and magazines.

4. Electricity—enough said.

5. Apples and Diet Coke (luxuries here)

6. The waterspout outside my house

7. The fact that I have (knock on wood) not contracted malaria—yet.

8. My students, even if some are as sharp as marbles.

9. Support from everyone at home! I do not think you all know how much I value your well wishes and encouragement. It has not been an easy road, but knowing people are keeping tabs on me back at home is comforting.

10. The fact that I am doing what I love to do and that I feel like I am making a difference, even if it is small.

Everything else is going well. Next Wednesday I will be heading to Dar to take the LSAT, then I am headed to Pemba to visit a fellow PCV for some sun and some R and R. After that I am probably going to be returning home to decorate for Christmas and to start prepping applications for law school. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. Eat lots of food, watch lots of football and take a long nap on the couch. Like last year, if you plan on going to Walmart on Black Friday, my advice to you is to wear a suit made of chain metal and a helmet, so you are not trampled to death!

Here are some T-giving quotes to leave you with…

“The thing I'm most thankful for right now is elastic waistbands.”- unknown, but brilliant

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. “ -John Fitzgerald Kennedy

“Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare.  They are consumed in twelve minutes.  Half-times take twelve minutes.  This is not coincidence.”

  ~Erma Bombeck

“A lot of Thanksgiving days have been ruined by not carving the turkey in the kitchen.” - Kin Hubbard 

All my love from TZ

Wedding Crasher

This weekend I finally put the lumber in my backyard to good use and completed about 2/3 of a fence before I ran out of nails. Once I have it finished I will no longer have to worry about people watching me while I wash my laundry or dishes. I may also have a place where I can sit outside and enjoy the sun—in shorts!

2/3 of my fence...

Saturday afternoon I decided to get my butt off of my couch while taking a study break and walk into the village to get a soda and attempt to be social. Along the way I ran into a fellow teacher who had a soda with me and then suggested we “crash” the wedding celebration that was happening near by. I should note that in Tanzania you are usually given an invitation to an event and you RSVP by sending in a small donation and bringing the invitation to the event. However, because of the culture randos usually show up and you have to accommodate them as well, so as not to offend anyone. I figured this could be a unique experience, so we set off. Along the way we made a pit stop at the local pastor’s house for another soda and some conversation about the potato harvest—stimulating. Eventually we made it to the celebration, which was taking place outdoors. About 200 people from my village were gathered around the bride, groom, maid of honor and best man, who were standing in front of a home made stage decorated with brightly, albeit not matching, fabric and balloons. When we arrived people were presenting their gifts to the new couple and the emcee was blaring really loud Tanzo music.

I should explain that the presentation of the gifts is probably as far as you can get from the way it is done in the States. At home a couple (the bride) signs up a William Sonoma or Crate and Barrel for the place settings, silverware and expensive cheese board. The gifts are then selected by wedding guests online, or in the store and conveniently wrapped and sent to the couple’s residence or brought to the reception and left on a table. The whole process is decidedly very discrete. In Tanzania, the people presenting the gift or gifts buy what they think a new couple would want and gather in a group to pitch in money for said gift. At the reception the gifting group dances holding up their unwrapped gift to the bride and groom. While hollering, blowing whistles and bouncing up and down.

During the twenty minutes I spent at the reception the bride and groom received, plastic plates, glasses, bed sheets, a mattress, a suitcase, buckets, basins, rice, potatoes, blankets and my personal favorite—firewood. Not quite the Margaretville blender or the KitchenAid mixer, but necessities nonetheless. Also during the brief time I was there I noticed that the bride looked absolutely miserable, almost on the verge of tears and I honestly have no idea why. I mean I could probably guess and say that she was shy and did not like people, the marriage was arranged or she registered for the Fiestaware and the plastic plates were just not cutting it. All I know was that she did not look like she was thrilled to be married or even at the reception. After about 20 minutes, the emcee finally spotted me amongst the guests (not too hard) and announced, in Swahili, that a white person was present. At this I looked around for the white person when I quickly realized he was talking about me, I blushed and two minutes later made a timely exit. Actually being singled out was uncomfortable because I consider myself a part of the community, but also interesting for the same reason; most of the people present knew I was there long before he said anything, but did not make a big deal about it because they see me everyday. I either teach them or their kids or buy things from their store or produce stand. It was really only a big deal to the emcee, who probably came from Mbeya. I guess in the end I was comforted by the fact that no one was really surprised.

Saturday night, while I was washing dishes on my back porch, a baby kitten made her way on to my back porch. After looking around for her mom or owner I took her inside and gave her some milk, made her a bed and a litter box. The next day I asked my mkuu if he knew of anyone missing a cat, to which he said, “If you found a cat, you should keep it”. So, long story short I now own a cat, her name is Patagonia and she is the 4^th animal to live in my house here. Hopefully I will not have to put her down, bury her or give her away – like her predecessors.

Neighborhood Girls

Everything else has been going well here. I am still in the middle of studying for the LSAT, as well as writing a grant for a school library! I am actually really excited about this secondary project because our school is in desperate need of a library and one thing I really miss about home strangely enough is a quite environment to sit and read that is not my house. The mkuu and I went over a list of things we would like to see in the library to which I added couches and chairs. At first he thought this was absurd, but after I explained that a welcoming atmosphere would make the students want to sit, stay and read. He seemed to understand where I was coming from and so when our library is finished it will have a reading corner! It will also, hopefully, have a mural drawn by a student. The other teachers and I decided that we should have a mural contest and the student with the best idea/ skills will have the privilege of decorating one of the walls of the library. As an aside, it is amazing to me that some of these students are wonderful artists, but the teachers or the school system here do not foster any creativity in them. Maybe by initiating a mural contest at school some of the students will realize that they do posses a valuable skill besides memorization of random facts.

Also while I am on the topic of secondary projects, I am still looking for a group to adopt my basketball court project. The group would raise money and then come to Tanzania to help build the court at my school for a week. If you are reading this and know of any groups who may be interested please tell them to contact me for more details!!!!!

Well I have to finish up writing this grant so I can send it to PC for revision, we will see how many times this takes… I have heard horror stories. Hope all is well at home and that everyone has his or her power back! Miss you all!

All my love from TZ