almost ants in your pants.

Confession: I kind of assumed that once we got here to Rivervalley, I wouldn’t have much to blog about. Yeah right! God wanted to take me on an adventure, and He’s definitely doing a great job of it.

Let’s start with Monday. I got a tiny dose of independence (can you hear me saying whoo hoo right about now?) when I snagged a ride from Mark and Laura and went to Neema Crafts for something to drink and to do online stuff like blogging and email. I was honestly a bit scared, but once I started the short jaunt to Neema, I was just fine. Upon arrival, they told me downstairs – least I think I heard right – that the internet in the upstairs café was working. Once upstairs, I ordered Earl Grey tea and asked about the internet. I was eventually told that the internet wasn’t working. I turned on my computer anyways and found that I could get a signal, but needed a password. In the midst of this, I found out, slightly to my disappointment, that they didn’t have Earl Grey, so I went for a latte instead. When I asked about the internet again, they told me to go down the hall to the internet café to get a password.

The awesome thing about Neema Crafts is that they employ only the disabled. One of the downsides however, is that you can’t always communicate with them very well. Some of them are def J So, when I got to the internet café, I tried to communicate with the def guy about the password, and he told me to go back to the other café. When I got there, I once again was told to go to the internet café. This time when I returned, the kind def guy directed me to (I think) his boss and he told me to hook up to a cable. It worked, and I got internet with decently good high speed! I read an email from my mama that made me start to cry, right there in the internet café, not once, but twice! Once while reading, and then again a bit later.

Amidst all of this, there sat in Neema’s café my latte, mostly undrank and unpaid for. But I did get my internet taken care of for only Tsh 500. Yahoo! Oh, just for clarification, the exchange rate here is about 1600 Tanzanian shillings to one US dollar. I felt a bit sad about not getting to finish my latte, but after almost thinking I wouldn’t get to do internet stuff, it was a fair trade. Before I left, I paid for the undrank latte, and then was on my way.

Avery was sick at the beginning of the week, so our school schedule fell out of whack. Garrett and I were going a bit crazy too. Leap Day found us with no Swahili teacher due to her being sick. I reviewed and such with Avy, we had chai break, and then, in honor of Leap Day, we skipped school and watched a movie. Leap Day, after all, only comes once every four years. In the other three years, you wouldn’t do school on that day, so why do it this year? ;)

Thursday I had to remind myself that I am not defined by my circumstances. The day started off with ants invading the choo and a cold faucet shower. That was my second faucet shower of the week… I’d turned in my laundry on Saturday, and still hadn’t gotten it back, which meant Wednesday I’d had to hand wash my undies since I’d ran out. We had to walk up ‘Kilimanjaro’, a hill with a teaching banda on top of it, for our Swahili class. I must note that this is not my favorite thing to do. it’s much too far from the choo, and on one particular hike back down Kili earlier in the week after class, I maddened what Garrett thinks was a fire ant and he bit my toe. Phewf, pain! That’s one African experience I do not need to repeat! On top of all this Thursday madness, we also had to make up Wednesday’s class that we missed, and I found it to be a bit overwhelming and had to remind myself that it was only one day.

The good news about Thursday? Well, there turned out to be lots. One was that, like I said, it was only one day. Another was that the kiddos and I got to skip homeschooling for the day since Swahili took up most of our morning/before lunch time. Since it was market day for most of the other Swahili students, they left after chai break and we got to snag one of their teaching bandas and not hike up Kili again. And… Praise Jesus, my laundry came!

All the market shopping on Thursday had multiple purposes for those who did it. 1. Practice market Swahili words 2. Shop for cooking Friday! The kiddos and I got to observe and dabble a bit in cooking the Tanzanian way and got another break from regular Swahili class. I tried my hand at coconut shaving, cinnamon pounding, and, with each sickening moment that passed, watched a bunch of chickens being slaughtered. I regained my appetite in time for some yummy pastries that the students had made and some homemade chai tea. Oh my goodness, I think I died and went to heaven within the first few sips of that deliciously spicy cup of wonderful. I thudded back to earth once I finished it and found myself later that day hesitant to drink tea because I knew that whatever tea I drank after that just wouldn’t measure up.

All the students cooking paid off, and we feasted for lunch. Feasted with our hands in fact. Let’s just say that I’m no pro at eating things like rice and beans, with my fingers. I much prefer the knife/fork method J

Walking was a bit difficult this last weekend after our Saturday walk. I enjoyed it immensely before my outdoorsy sandals started to rub the bottoms of my feet in a not so nice way. But before that, I experienced my first Grand Canyon. It was literally a baby version of the Arizona one, in Africa! We had the most amazing view since we’d hiked a bit of a hill to get to it. Green African tree draped hills stretched beyond fields of corn and maze. We stopped along the highway for refreshing sodas and kitten time before we walked on to the village for a fishing hooks, fishing wire, and candles.

Once back from our ‘5k’, I took my first hot shower in a week. It becomes a bit more special when you haven’t gotten one in a while. After lunch, we had a ladies’ tea turned mostly into a ladies’ coffee planned by Tricia and Avery. I drank Starbucks after much too long a time of not, and relished it more because of it. The day was most beautifully sunny, a huge treat after days of gray and wet. Thank you Jesus!

After Each Sunday when we do church, I find myself refreshed and renewed. This Sunday was no exception, especially since it’s some of our new friends last week of Swahili school. God has provided us with some new friends this past week, Andrew and Amethyst, and Amethyst lead us in worship with her guitar, and for our sermon, we listened to (Aunt Tina, if you’re reading, you’ll appreciate this J) a session of my Christian Life class from my year at Ecola. Afterwards we had a special time of prayer for Kirstein and Mark and Laura, the ones leaving next weekend. How amazing a time to talk with our Heavenly Baba (dad) and pray over them. I am so thankful that God determines our steps, and knew just who should be here when. Happy week my favorite blog-reading friends! J