Habari Gani!

How is everyone?  I hope well and sleeping, since it is 3:30am at home right now!  So today is more of a planning day for Devon and I, while Jenn and Anthony are at the street side school (SSS) teaching Life Skills.  Dev and I will be there tomorrow doing a Health program.  It's all so exciting!  However, this class is bigger than the HBC class on Monday, with about 30 students... a little intimidating, especially when you don't speak much Swahili and are not 100% sure what they are saying all of the time - thank goodness for Frankie and Magunda, troopers and amazing local volunteers!

Last night Jenn and I just chilled in the backyard with Mama Fatima (homestay mom), Tabu (sister in law), Dada Zabi (dada means sister, but she is the live-in house keeper), and Prisca (a neighbour).  We were outside cooking with portable charcoal stoves that they either use inside or outside depending on the weather and the time of day.  We also had a power outage (our first since in Morogoro), but the power turned back on soon enough.  I have discovered the deliciousness of real coconut!  Coconut at home is gross, coconut here is YUMMY!  Almost everyday  they crack open a coconut and make coconut milk for broth, sauce, or mix-ins to whatever we are eating that day... and it is so simple!  You just keep mixing the shredded coconut with water and  strain it,  over and over again - mmmhmmm!

Although I had known that skirts are probably the best choice of clothing to wear, I had not brought any with me: mistake no.1.  Yesterday Jenn and I stopped at a couple of places along the way home to look for a konga or a skirt - something light and presentable to wear to work.  I found a skirt, and today it is a blessing!  It is gorgeous out, and from the moment we stepped out of the house it  was a hot one!

Morogoro is absolutely beautiful.  What I didn't realize before coming here was that we are staying in the city of Morogoro in the district of Morogoro (kind of like a province).  It is absolutely beautiful here!!  There are these huge mountains that surround the one side of the city, and every morning I wake up to see them.  I have taken a lot of pictures of them already but they do not do it justice - they look far away and smallish.  They are gorgeous and humongous and right in your face.  Everyday they get more and more beautiful - and we are planning on hiking them!  It takes about 6 hours to get to the top, and then you can camp or come back down.  I'm so excited! 

We have three free weekends, and with those weekends we plan to hike the Uluguru Mountains, visit Zanzibar, and go on a Safari in Mikumi National Park.  This weekend is our first weekend free and we hope to go on the Safari!! We can stay overnight or return the same day, but I believe if we stay overnight we sleep on top of the vehicles!  There are tents that they put up on the vehicles at night so that no creatures can come into your tent.. Exciting! Hahaha.

One thing that I am still getting used to is the noise and Mosque.  Now, what I mean by that is the mornings.  Prayer call rings out from the Mosque 5 times a day, starting at 5am... guess what is right across the street from our house?? That's right, the Mosque!!  So after that goes off most people are up - that is not saying that most people here are Muslim, because there is a variety of religions in Morogoro, but just that people get up really early.  After they are up the music comes on!  And I mean TURNS ON.  It is loud.  There are no windows in our rooms, just bars and screens and so the music sounds like it is right beside my bed because our windows lead onto the courtyard we share with our neighbours.  Yesterday we woke up to R.Kelly "I believe I can fly" - not such a bad song to wake up to... and they usually aren't bad songs, just LOUD and really early!!  Today it was full-tilt bongo flava music (which is really good music, but not at 5am).  What I also don't understand about this early rising practice is that the music is also on when we go to bed, and there are still people up most nights - and then getting up at 5am.  Crazy!

Mama Fatima and Baba Hamissi want Jenn and I to cook them Canadian food.  We explained that there really is not anything (minus poutine and beaver tails) that is truly Canadian we can make them, however we agreed to cook for them.  The only problem? Charcoal stoves.  That means no heat control, no oven, no barbecue, just the charcoal stoves.  We have been brainstorming but can't come up with anything solid.  We thought of making really sweet Jamie Oliver-esque/Food & Wine hamburgers but there is no such thing as ground beef here to make them.  We thought about chili, but we can't leave it cooking all day.  They eat spaghetti-esque stuff so we thought maybe a white pasta of sorts?

Anyone have any ideas for us?  Remember, no oven!

I heard it is quite rainy back home right now, and I hope it clears up for you!

Missing everyone,

lots and lots of LOVE,

J