Mzima,

Wow, lots to tell you again so I hope you have some time. The month started with our last week of internship teaching. My From II class is just about to take the national exam so they have many questions. I learned a few things about teaching here and am sure to learn many more in the coming months.

We got our second free weekend and played a fun game of Ultimate frisbee. I also got to meet the PCV who stayed with my family last year. His name is Ryan and his brother, Mike, just got here for a vacation so they stopped by to introduce our host family to his brother. Unfortunately, he could only stay a day but I learned at little bit more about what to expect in the coming year and got to practice Kiswahili.

Okay, now for the fun stuff. We went to visit Dar es Salaam at the beginning of our 8th week of training. We were supposed to get the bus tickets all by ourselves, but when my CBT arrived we were bombarded by bus company representatives and a crowd was cheering us on as we were ushered to a bus with 8 other volunteers already on it. When we got to Dar, we went to an excellent Indian Restaurant nearby for dinner. The next day we went to the US Embassy and met the second in charge who talked to us about possibilities for working for foreign services when we leave the Peace Corps. The next day we went to Peace Corps headquarters and got to see how things run there. Afterward a big group went out to buy cell phones and then I went looking for a bass guitar but with no luck. Some of us also visited the American Club which has a small swimming pool. It was nice to get back into the water for a bit.

On Wednesday we split up into groups of 2 or 3 and went to visit current PCVs at their sites. I went with Nathan, who used to be a weather observer for the Navy, to visit Gene, who used to be a pilot for the Marines, and lives only 40 km from Morogoro in a village called Mgeta. But his site is up in the Uluguru Mountains so it takes anywhere from 2 to 4 hours to get there. No bus, just a daladala.

I don't think I've described the daladala yet so let me start with the definition straight from our Swahili-to-English dictionary: small private bus, overcrowded and dangerous. This is a pretty accurate description, however it is the main method of transportation. Picture a small, fifteen passenger van with very little head or leg room. The record number of people who have accompanied me on a daladala are 33. Pretty much people are hanging out the windows. But the daladala up to Gene's site was even worse. There were only 27 people inside but stuffed right under our feet were two huge bags of rice and thrown on the top was at least 500 kg of food. Also, there were 3 people riding on top of the luggage on the roof and one person hanging off the back. About a half an hour into our trip we started driving up mountain roads, sometimes with at least a 15 percent grade, that were just wide enough for the daladala. Luckily, there were no guardrails protecting us from rolling off the cliff so the daladala could make sharp turns at 30 plus km/h. To make things better, about half way up the mountain a small stream crossed the road and we stopped to fill up 10 liters to pour on the engine to keep it from overheating. Two hours later we arrived at Gene's site which is actually real nice. His house is right on the main road to the school and just beyond that is a stream. His school is completely surrounded by mountains. He only gets power for 3 hours each night, between 7 and 10pm, and has no running water or cell phone service (it's about a 30 minute hike to get service). We relaxed a lot while we were there just sharing stories and playing chess.

On the second day, we witnessed a truck carrying about 5 tons of produce and only powered by a dinky engine try to conquer a 15 percent grade hill. We were walking back from checking messages when we ran into about 20 people carrying heavy bags of ndizi (bananas) up the hill. They each got about 3 bags up, a small dent in the overall weight. Also, the hill has two speed bumps on it so a truck can't gun the engine at the bottom to get up the hill. The truck revved up and took off near the bottom trying to hit the speed bump at optimum speed to conquer the hill. It got about a quarter of the way up before stalling out. Two guys were prepared with a wooden block with handle and a heavy rock to stick under the trucks back wheels. The driver started the engine again and revved up for another attempt. This time he got about 6 inches further and the guys had to rush to get the wheel stops in place or else thee truck would roll back down the hill into a ditch. After about 20 minutes and 10 feet further up the road they decided to unload some more produce. At this time we walked back to Gene's about 15 minutes away, but only right across the stream. When we got to his house we saw the truck finally make it past the half way point. So as you may now know the culture is very different here and their methods are a little strange to us. But there is rarely a dull moment so far.

The next day we found a huge grasshopper-like insect in Gene's kitchen and you can see a picture of it on the website. After shadow we returned to our homestay families and got ready for site announcements the next day. For those of you who don't know your site is the school at which you'll be working for the next two years. You also find out who your closest PCV neighbors are and how far you are from major cities; it could be a few hours, a day trip, or a multiple day trip. I was very excited, nervous, anxious, and a variety of other emotions, the day of site announcements. And my new residence for the next 2 years, is...

Chidya Secondary School in the deep south near the town Masasi. I will be close to Steph, in my CBT, Mike, and Tenney from my training group and have met a few other people down there, Tony, Marissa, and Michelle, who seem really nice. For Thanksgiving the U.S. Ambassador invited all Peace Corps Volunteers and Trainees to his residence. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, and more. It was a good change from rice and beans. This past weekend we went to Mikumi National Park. We got to see some Lions after they had killed an African Buffalo which is real rare. We also saw Giraffe, Zebra, Hippo, Gazelle, live African Buffalo, a Baboon, Warthogs, and a very unusual looking bird. We head off for our sites on Wednesday; it's gonna be hard to say goodbye to a lot of the people I've met here but I'm excited to meet more in the Deep South.

Justin