It’s Friday, it's Friday, it’s the end of the week and the last day!

Selina its on you, so what you gonna do! I’m gonna get my skype on, I’m gonna get my eat on, I’m gonna get my hair done, all weekend long!

Skype on- I’m lovin skype! Being able to talk to people half way around the world for little to nothing, is a great invention! I hung around work a little longer on Friday so that I could skype home and not have to call people at the crack of dawn. It was great being able to talk to my boo and see him on the video and just catch up with him. I also got to talk to my girl on the eve of her 30^th birthday as she wondered about what the weekend had in store for her. I will have to catch up with her this week, hope it is good news :).

Eat on- Friday evening we decided to invite friends over for dinner and cook to redeem ourselves for the first meal we cooked that was edible but not really good (I actually wasn’t a part of that meal b/c I was already sick- I think it was a blessing in disguise). We cooked for about 10 people and it was actually good. Our new recipe that we have cooked variations of (paste and tomatoes with olive oil, wine, onions, garlic, basil and cheese) was a success. It took about 4 hours from us to make it, given the tedious process of cutting and peeling everything (this is why I don’t cook) and the fact that our stove is very slow. It takes about an hour to boil a pot of water for pasta. In addition to the pasta we had fresh, cooked vegetables, oregano sliced potatoes, and cucumber and tomato salad. I don’t like to brag but it was a pretty good meal. I asked everyone to give a video testimony so those of you that know that I don’t/ can’t cook can hear it straight from the horse’s mouth that the food was great! I will post it soon :)

Saturday, we continued getting our eat on thanks to Melissa’s friend Ulvine. Ulvine’s family lives on the outskirts of Arusha and you have to take a daladala to get there. Daladalas are the local, economical, somewhat shady vans that you can use to get from one place to another. This was our first time taking the daladalas since we have been here. Picture a 13 passenger van packed with about 20 or more people plus baggage or other random things. We have been amazed and how many people fit into a daladala and how the people maneuver in and out of it –usually backing out and ducking down. Ulvine’s house was about a 15 minute ride and it only costs us 250 schilling, which is less than $.25. We were greeted at Ulvine’s house by her parents, her little nephew and a feast of food (rice, fish, potatoes, green beans and peas, a traditional Tanzanian dish of maize and beans, all with a ground nut and egg sauce). It was delicious! We were also served fruit and a homemade lemongrass tea that we all loved. Ulvine’s father works at the medical clinic where Melissa is doing her internship at the University of Arusha and her mother is an entrepreneur. She raises chickens for eggs and to be sold as food to the local hotels and restaurants. She is also a seamstress.

I found that many people here are pretty creative in their forms of income and many have an entrepreneurial spirit. There are many local stands/ side of the road shops where people sell anything from clothes to vegetables, watch batteries to vocha for your cell phone, and mosquito zappers to white baby dolls. We have also been approached by people selling newspapers from all over the world and their own paintings and handmade crafts. I guess there must be a market for these things but it can get pretty overwhelming at times, especially when you just want to get to where you are going.

On our way to work every morning, we pass a sweet older lady that would be considered a panhandler/ beggar. She sits by the side of the road and collects money to get food for her family. We greet her with “Shikamo” and she melodically responds “Marhaba”. We sometimes bring her fruit in the mornings, but wanted to see if we could invite her to lunch one day. With the help of a friend from the ICTR to translate, we invited her to lunch but were told that she really appreciated the offer but she could not leave her “office” because she would miss out on collecting some money during that time. She also did not want to eat in town b/c the money or food she collects is for her family so she would prefer to take food home to them. That said, we decided to bring her groceries from time to time that she could take home to the family.

Getting my hair done- On Sunday we went to a local Catholic church that we were invited to by a friend of a friend who came to dinner on Friday. On the walk to church, we passed by the church we used to go to (the one where we sang in the choir) and had an interesting/ uncomfortable conversation with one of the guys in the choir. He was wondering what happened to us and why we did not come back to choir practice. We tried to explain to him that we would not be able to come because of work and school (as we have done several times before) but he wasn’t feeling it. He wanted to know if it was something they had done and we tried to explain that it was just that we were busy and could not commit to coming every week. Not sure if he ever really got what we were saying b/c he really wasn’t listening but we eventually broke off the conversation and continued our walk.

After church, we took another daladala to Njiro, which is the more well to do area of town. This is where the cinema is along with a “mall” with a couple of shops, a new grocery store, some restaurants and coffee shops. There is also a beauty salon called "Glorious" there where you can get your hair and nails done. To get a break from this pony tail that seems to have a life of its own on my head I decided to get my hair done. A wash and set at this salon costs 3,500 shilling (less that $3.00!!!!). That is even a better deal than the Dominican salons back home. A pedicure costs about $7.00. The cinema complex is one of the areas in town that has a generator so I figured we would not have to worry about the power going out but what we didn’t bank on was the water being turned off. Not sure why it was off, but the ladies had to constantly bring in buckets of water to wash our hair. Not really sure where they were getting the water from but they managed to keep it rollin like it was nothing out of the ordinary and never missed a beat.