Kipilefti

A more cheerful post about food. How I cook, and what I cook. I have two cooking options available to me here in Makete. The one I use most is the charcoal stove (or jiko in Swahili). It’s sort of hourglass-shaped and squat. I fill it with charcoal, dump some kerosene over the charcoal, light […]

So the problem I’ve been encountering is that my default behavior is to curl up in bed with a book and maybe a cup of tea. If there’s something else that has to be done, be it something no fun like washing handkerchiefs (it’s gross, trust me) or something I want to do like going […]

One big difference between Morogoro and Makete: in Moro, bathing was much easier! It’s “summer” here and still cold enough in my house that I’m leery of taking off warm clothes and even leerier of dumping soon-to-be-cold water on myself! But I smelled pretty funny this morning, so I took a shower, and now I’m […]

Being in Njombe with other PCVs is so relaxing and fun. I really don’t want to go back to my empty site! At least I have a ton of stuff I’ve bought to fill the house up a little bit (although, stupidly, I left most of my money at home. What was I thinking?!). It’s […]

Very quickly: house is huge and empty and was devoid of anything except furniture when I arrived. It’s a replacement site so I’d been expecting at least some kitchen stuff and sheets and a blanket but I guess it walked off with Tanzanians, which really sucks. The back doorhandle is broken and doesn’t lock so I […]

So an awful lot has happened since I last wrote: I swore to protect the Constitution of the United States from all enemies foreign and domestic, so I am now a Peace Corps Volunteer instead of a Peace Corps Trainee. I said goodbye to my homestay family. After swearing-in in Morogoro we were bused to […]

Briefly, there’s now a link on the left about how and why you should send me mail. I’m really looking forward to the cold climate and mosquito-less-ness (and maybe, I hear, CHEESE) of Makete. More later.

I’ll be where I expected (and hoped) to be placed, in Makete, halfway between Njombe and Mbeya on an apparently AWFUL road, in the mountains! Really high in the mountains! It will be cold! Once I have an address, send me blankets and sweaters! I’m super excited. Eleven of our thirty-one person class got placed […]

Shadow was good; relaxing. We woke up at 5 to catch the 6 A.M. bus out of Mpwapwa. On the way out, I watched the sun rising over the mountains and desert. Baobab trees gave way to acacia, and then I blinked and we were back in the lush greenery of Morogoro, only briefly before […]

Woke up early so I could wait at our pick-up point and then at the bus stand (the bus was an hour late) for the bus out to our shadow site. Bill and I were squished into the back seat with four other people. When the bus went over bumps I left the seat, and […]