Habari yenu,

Again I have lots to say. I hope you all enjoyed the email about our hike in the Uluguru mountains. This month has gone by so quickly and yet we have done so much. I will write real quick about the group dynamics now. We have broken up into small groups, called Community-Based Training (CBT) groups, of 4 or 5. In my group is Becky from New Jersey, Clayton from Indiana, Patrick from California, and Steph from Colorado. They are an energetic group; all just out of college. Twice a week we meet with two other small groups for POD sessions, which just means we go over Peace Corps Training information in a larger group. Then once or twice a week, on the weekends, we go to a conference center, called WAMO, to meet with all the PCTs and go over more Peace Corps training material. So they keep us pretty busy.

I guess I'll start with the first day of the month, a Saturday, a WAMO day. When our sessions were done we all went to town to take advantage of the night because the next day was our first day off since we arrived in DC. A lot of Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) were going to a local bar where a rally race time trial event was being held. There were some pretty nice cars there (and one piece of junk '86 dodge) that entertained the crowd by peeling out of the dirt parking lot. When I got home my Baba and Mama (father and mother) asked me if I wanted to go get a soda after dinner (around 8:30PM). I thought it would be fun so we went to a place called the Nane Nane (88) Bar which has local music. There I danced with Baba and Mama until 2:30AM.

The next day I went into town and got a hair cut...and I shaved off the beard. It was just too hot. On Tuesday, October 4, we got to sit with the faculty for graduation. There were about 6 or 7 songs (some with dance) and only 2 speeches. Pretty different than the US. We also began our internship teaching this month. I am teaching 4 different class in Forms I and II. We are now in our second week of teaching and will teach only one more week. Classes go by real fast and I don't get to cover much material. We teach in English and with the earlier Forms, such as I and II who are just learning English, it is sometimes hard to get the students involved even if they know the material because they are not confident speaking in English. I find being real animated and enthusiastic helps a lot. Also, I speak some Kiswahili to them which they find funny because I'm sure I am pronouncing words incorrectly and even saying the wrong words at times. When the students laugh and you can make a fool of yourself they tend to be more willing to answer questions.

Our language instructor is named Jumapili, which means Sunday. He is named this because he was born on February 2nd that happened to be a sunday which is considered the second day of the week here because Tanzania uses an Arabic calendar. In fact, Jumapili literally means 'the second day.' The language is coming along well but I feel I still know so little. I can buy things at the market, at local stores, at restaurants, I can get a hotel room and buy a bus ticket but I can't hold a good conversation because there is so much vocabulary I don't know. It's frustrating at times but I know I just have to have patience and practice, practice, practice.

My mom's birthday was on Wednesday, October 12, and I was able to talk to her. They are doing well heading down the coast for Florida. You can find out more at their website Travels with Wildcat. On the weekend I got the last of my shots until April 6th, so no more sore shoulders.

I went to two birthday parties this month. There were actually three but my friend Patrick's birthday was during the week so we just went out to a bar to hang out. Then my friend Becky's birthday was on a Sunday so she had a party at her homestay and the previous PCT who lived there, Lindsay, came and made a delicious carrot cake. She taught us how to make an oven with the pots we have so we can bake. The day after we hiked up the Uluguru mountains, a couple of us went to Anna's (she is in my POD group) birthday party. Her homestay family baked her a cake and the tradition here is the birthday person feeds everyone a small piece of cake before the whole cake is served out. Both parties were a lot of fun and a good cross cultural experience.

We are now nearing the end of October and the beginning of the rainy season. This past Wednesday we had some 'light rains' as my Baba put it; but it was more like a torrential down pore for an hour or so. I hope you all enjoy the new pictures put up on the site. Baadaye,

Justin