News/ Updates

- We now have a generator at out apartment complex which makes us part of the “privileged”. This means, in theory, that when the power goes out, the generator will kick in and we will still have lights. I think they are still working out some of the kinks b/c it doesn’t seem to be functioning completely but it is a step up.

- Our 4 other classmates will be arriving this week and next week so I am excited about that. We start classes on the 15^th of Sept. which I am both looking forward to and dreading at the same time. Looking forward to the actual classes but not the papers that come with them.

- We are traveling to Rwanda next week and I am trying to prepare myself for this life changing experience. We will be visiting the Genocide Memorial Museum and some genocide sites where massacres were actually carried out so it will be a pretty intense trip. Nevertheless, I am looking forward to it b/c it helps to put a face to all of the things we have been learning about conflict and reconciliation over the past year. I am interested to see what the sense of reconciliation is like and what it feels like to be in a country where almost everyone was affected by the genocide in one way or another. We have heard that there is still an eerie silence that is present in the country despite all of the progress it has made today, 15 years after the genocide.

- My roommates/ housemates and I have been getting together in the mornings before work to do devotions and start our day with prayer. We read a daily devotion from my Bible (thanks Poppy) and then pray for a productive day, for safety and that the Lord will continue to use us to be a blessing to each other and the people we meet. We have been struggling to find a church home here so this helps to keep me focused and grounded.

- We are continuing our morning runs and I think I am actually starting to like them which is something I never thought I would say.

- We should be starting our French classes at the UN soon and we are constantly improving our Kiswahili.

- I am getting better at washing my underwear by hand but I still use my “febreezing” method on my other clothes. I will have to come up with a plan B soon though b/c I am almost out of it.

- Most of my Tanzanian friends did not like when I got my hair done and it was straight. They said they said I should get my “halfcaste” hair back and that when my hair was straight, it was “muzungu” hair.

- I slept under a mosquito net for the first time since I have been here this week. Melissa and I had a pesky, little mosquito that kept buzzing in our ears so we decided to set up the contraption they call a mosquito net. It felt very confining b/c you are supposed to tuck it under you mattress so that they mosquitoes can’t get in. Luckily, it is still pretty cool here so we do not have a big mosquito problem but one is enough to mess up an otherwise good night’s sleep. I was hoping that I would not have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom but as fate would have it, I did. I managed to slide out with not too much trouble but getting back in and getting situated again was a bit more of a challenge.