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.