Kipilefti

A standard day. I do my morning teaching, cutting the second period short because the power’s out so we can’t do the lab. Skip chai (how un-Tanzanian of me) in favor of heading down to the post office to see if there are any post-birthday packages, but I’m waylaid on the way by Mama Jully, who wants to go to the bank (right next to the post office). First we have to detour to her house; I say hi to her daughter and grandson, then we head up the mountain (she lives on the side of the ridge that the main road runs along). First stop is the post office: two birthday packages from my mother and music from Jan (weirdly, no letters). Then the bank; I sit at the sidelines and read Hemingway while Mama Jully transacts. We head back towards town. It’s market day, and she wants to get cooking bananas, so I accompany her. Somehow I end up buying some avocadoes (they’re good ones for a decent price, so I don’t mind). Jully heads back to her restaurant and I drop in on my friend who owns a shop in the market to pick up a few things, then head home to open packages. The daily rain starts when I get home around noon and stretches on into the evening.

Girl scout cookies! And silly detective novels! That settles it: the afternoon is spent in bed with a box of Samoas while I read an entire book in three hours, listening to the country music Jan sent. I also do some pre-packing and charge my iPod and iPod shuffle (side note to any soon-to-be PCVs who may be reading this: invest in an iPod shuffle. Small, cheap, big enough to hold a fair amount of music. Totally worth it). Around four I start feeling hungry and eat an avocado to stave off the hunger, wondering if having half a pineapple for lunch was the best idea. I decide to make spaghetti to use up the tomatoes and onions I have; the sauce is almost done when I start poking around my kitchen and realize I’m out of noodles. After briefly considering eating the sauce straight or with rice, I bite the bullet, put on my outside shoes, grab my umbrella, and head back to the market. Chat briefly with my friend at the shop, buy noodles, head home. I walk in the door, put the noodles on to boil, and change into pyjamas. The best part of any day.