Our First trip out of Morogoro

       We only have about 2 more weeks left of training and on Thanksgiving day we will actually be shipped off to our site. For all who is anxious to know, Mike and I just found out that will be living in Kibaya, Tanzania for the next two years! This is a beautiful area with traditional African or "Lion King" landscapes, which includes sporadic trees, red sand, and big boulders. It is in the middle of the Masai steppe where most of the Masai tribe live.. so we definitely look forward to a tribal cultural exchange. We haven't actually seen it yet (or our house) but we are definitely looking forward to it. Since we are moving on Thanksgiving day that does mean that we will not be able to celebrate it but we will have a feast the day before at the US Ambassador's house. We are all looking forward to that although it will most likely be a mix of emotion with excitement for finally move to our sites and loneliness because we all have become very close and will be soon scattered across this huge country.
        We did just return from our shadow assignment in Njombe. This is when they ship a group of us out to live with a volunteer that is already out doing their work. We actually had our first interesting Tanzanian bus experience to get down there. The distance from Morogoro to Njombe is slightly more than the distance from State College, Pa to Washington D.C. (I might be wrong). However, the bus ride going there took over 13 hours! When I was driving to CA two years ago this amount of time got us from Philadelphia to Arkansas. It took this long because our bus broke down about 6 times and had a hit and run with a parked truck. To make up time, our driver also went at warp speeds around cliffs (no guard rails) and cut of other trucks and buses on blind turns. After hours of patience, a full barf bag, and a soiled shirt later (with Michael laughing at me the whole time) we finally made it to Njombe. . in one piece. Seeing everything in writing makes it sound horrible, and it was, but the whole time we maintained a positive attitude and made jokes about the situation. We try to take everything as an experience, and this is certainly one to remember. We were told that this is not usual for bus rides in Tanzania, so we will just have to see what the future brings ;). Also the tons of monkeys along the road and beautiful mountains were definitely worth it. We (there was 5 of us) had a lot of fun the rest of the week and cooked awesome food from scratch. Michael and Ezra also roasted some termite queens for dessert (their choice). Njombe is actually an area full of pine trees and forests and the variety of trees here amazes me. The return trip was safe (except around the cliffs) and uneventful.
            We are completely done teaching for now until we are at our own sites and in our new schools. Even though we arrive to our new home after Thanksgiving, we do not start teaching until January. That gives us plenty of time to make lesson plans, to make our first new house together our 'home', and to get to know our villagers. Pictures will be coming shortly : )