it's raining mangoes

Right this second, I am looking at the biggest mango tree I have ever seen. There are hundreds of mangoes hanging from the branches; it's hard to walk in certain areas without stepping on the little underripe babies that fall too early. Kids throw rocks to get them to fall when they want a little snack.

We had Thanksgiving/Tony's birthday dinner last night at the Acropol Hotel here in Morogoro. It's owned by a Canadian woman who is really kind to the Peace Corps Volunteers here in Moro, and she cooked sweet potatoes, three bean salad and pumpkin cake for us, among other goodies. She also has a bunch of dogs, so we got a little dog-love, too.

Back to reality tomorrow, when we head home to Kibakwe. It's hard not to feel a little bummed out--Morogoro has tons of water and endless fruit & veggies, not to mention yogurt and other delicacies that we cannot get in Mpwapwa. I'm trying not to feel jealous of people who live here--I really like it here. The grass is always greener, isn't it?

greetings from morogoro

We arrived in Morogoro early this afternoon, to celebrate Tony's 37th birthday and Thanksgiving, which both happen to be tomorrow! It's about a 4 hour bus ride from Mpwapwa, but today it took us 5 1/2--as usual, bus broke down. No problem--we're here now. We visited Morogoro one other time and really loved it, so we decided to take a few days off from our lives in Kibakwe and come to the big city. One of our Peace Corps trainers describes Morogoro as the bread basket of Tanzania: green, lush, water year-round, with the potential to grow enough food to feed everyone in Tanzania. As we traveled here today, the landscape slowly became greener and greener; when we got off the bus, one of the first things I spotted for sale (EVERYTHING is for sale in the chaotic bus stands of Tanzania!) were big, fat bunches of carrots. Nope, not in Kibakwe any more. We immediately took a daladala (minibus-like public transport) to the center of town and started eating, because Morogoro is an awesome place to eat; within half an hour, I ate 2 kinds of bagia (deep-fried, savory little puffs--like hush puppies), caramel ice cream, vanilla yogurt and fresh passionfruit juice. Good start. Next stop: public market. Giant piles of pineapple, bananas, mangoes, avocados, passion fruit, fresh peas, papaya, coconuts, oranges, limes and carrots--and all the other usual goodies that we can get in Mpwapwa, like cabbages, tomatoes, onions, greens, and potatoes. DEFINITELY not in Kibakwe any more. We're here with our friend, James, a Peace Corps Volunteer who lives in a village near Mpwapwa (he's one of our Mpwapwa peeps), and are staying with our friend, Albert, another Peace Corps Volunteer who is a teacher right in Morogoro. After internet: Indian food. Then maybe brownies. Mmmmm. Plan for tomorrow is nothing more than to eat all day long. I love vacation. But strangely enough, I find myself thinking about our little house, wondering what our houseboys, who have become our trusted friends, are doing without us. This year in particular, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I feel especially thankful for so many, many things.

maybe this will entice you

It's official: we are living in the middle of a National Geographic photo spread. Last week we had four consecutive days of rain, and it's amazing how the landscape is changing in front of our very eyes. We took a short walk to visit the sweet old carpenter who built our water tank for us (it's finished! It holds water!), and we stopped dead in our tracks: all around us, in every single direction, are mountains, their trees coming to life with the first drinks of water of the season. The giant, lonely baobab trees have buds on their tips. At night in our town, because only a few of us have electricity and it's very dark, the sky becomes a blanket of stars. We were awake today at 4:30am (not fun, but necessary to catch our bus) and watched the sun come up as we traveled to Mpwapwa: pink and orange sky, sun emerging from behind mountains. Lovely. Right now, at the Mpwapwa market, are huge piles of mangoes, bananas, coconuts and oranges: summer is coming. Rain is life.

rather boring, sorry

We've gathered in Mpwapwa for a good-bye party for our friends, Lisa and Russ, who are finishing their two years of Peace Corps service. We making pizza tonight, and we even have cheese--a cheese run to Dodoma was made last week. It's hard to say goodbye--seems like that's all we've been doing. Other friends, Becky and Jason, left our Mpwapwa family after an unfortunate incident of violence in their village--a crazy guy attacked Becky, and luckily she's fine, but they moved to a different village far, far away. So tonight we say goodbye again.

Our water catchment tank is almost finished at our house, and we're really happy. The heavy rains haven't started yet, so we're on time. Next week: work continues on our fence, and we might start digging our garden. Tiny, sour mangoes appeared in our market!

Some info I learned yesterday from the big post office in Mpwapwa, where we had to go to collect some care packages from home: best to send things to us as a "packet," not a "parcel," in a padded envelope weighing under four pounds. If not, we pay big-time customs fees on our end. After a lengthy conversation, both in Kiswahili and English, it was concluded that you do not get that option when sending things from the US. Our postal woman didn't seem to want to understand. Bottom line: "packets" arrive with a small, green customs card from the US on the outside, and "parcels" arrive with a large, white piece of paper from US customs on the outside. Parcels are inspected and we pay to receive them; packets are not inspected and we get them for free. This is the best way I can explain it.

Our moods are pretty good and our health is fine. Nothing out of the ordinary--just the usual problems with our bowels. We're cooking and baking, working on ideas for projects. Best idea for our first project: writing a grant to try to get out town's huge, water catchment tank fixed. It's made of cement and has been cracked for over 15 years. If the tank could hold water, many, many people could use the water for growing vegetables, thus improving health through nutrition. We think it would only cost about $1000 US, which is a fortune here. We'll see what we can do.

Favorite recent conversation exchanges, in Kiswahili:
"Nyemo, you're riding a bicycle." "Yes, I am."
"Nyemo, you bought spinach." "Yes, I did."
Upon getting off the bus, carrying two eggs: "How were your travels? How much did you pay for those eggs?"
Upon giving our houseboys a jar of peanut butter: "Thank you very much! How much did you pay?"

Food items most fantasized about currently: spicey pad thai with tofu, with green papaya salad and a thai iced tea.