"Everything is clean/cool." It has been almost one month since my arrival in Tanzania, yet I have experienced only Morogoro and a smidge of Dar es Salaam. It will be three weeks until I find out where in Tanzania Peace Corps Tanzania will send me for the following two years. It may be the mountains inland from Tanga where the weather is cool and you can get "mzungu" vegetables like broccoli and zucchini. Or I might be sent to the coast near Lindi or Mtwara where it is constantly hot and humid, but you can swim in the ocean. Or there's the central regions like Dodoma, where water is scarce and gales frequently blow up desert dust storms that send people in doors and sometimes shut businesses down. I can make certain requests about where I'd like to be posted, but it is clear that the PCTs are not to expect to arrive at a region of their choosing.
In other news, My family celebrated the end of Ramadon with the day of Idd this Saturday. A nephew and a sister in law as well as some friends of Salumu, the oldest son of my family all came by to eat chakula cha mchana (lunch). My kiswahili teacher, Chacha stopped by also and I struggled to keep up with his conversation with my host father about the practicality of faith and various religions, and whether or not a person must suffer for another to gain. I tried to explain my essentially buddhist philosphy of understanding that my being isn't at all seperate from the universe around me. Therefore, it is in my interst to see others around me succeed in life and be happy.
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