1/11/14

I feel like I am starting over for the real day 1. It was the first morning waking up in my new home for 5 1/2 months and getting the day going. Let’s just say it was a very peaceful (salama sana) day. I woke up and read my book for while in bed. Then, I moved to the kitchen/living room to read some more. Nick had the leftovers from dinner and I fixed myself an open face pb&j. We just read through our books and Sports Illustrated magazine and had a relaxing morning. I typed up some blog posts before we took our first venture into town. 

So let’s back up a little and have a quick little geography lesson. I live in the Somanda village in the Bariadi town in the Simiyu region in Tanzania. So, we walked into Bariadi today... maybe around 45 minutes to get a few groceries for dinner tonight. There is a market in Somanda, 5 minutes outside out door, that we can get food at as well. Nick said it is a little pricier so he normally just stops and gets groceries for the house in Bariadi since he has to ride his bike right by there to get to school. Conveniently, the bus stand is located right there by the Somanda markets as well. 

Anyways, back to walking into town. I really enjoyed the walk, the ‘exercise’, and the views. The area is very pretty and the people are friendly. Of course, Amber and I are fresh meat in the town so we definitely got many looks but it didnt bother me at all. The experience did give me even more motivation to put some swahili together though. We ate at a restaurant in town where we were seated on the sidewalk. Perfect people watching spot. We made it back to relax the rest of the day and do whatever we wanted. That meant reading a book, doing dishes, cooking dinner, and just talking. We also had two visitor stop in to welcome us. One was a male teacher from Nick’s school. Im pretty sure you can guess why he wanted to come see us. The second was the second headmaster at my school. He was nice and welcoming but no new information about my role at the school. Rice and beans for dinner. I got the honor of sorting through the rice... its a stressful job, i tell you. It means i have the dental health of all three of us in my hands! Also, lesson learned. Put the beans on earlier. They take forever to cook. We finally settled on al dente beans. .