September 15, Re-Cap of Yesterday

Yesterday's entry wasn't a very good one because I wrote it on my Kindle in while sitting (mostly) in the dark, but it was a good day, so I'll re-cap briefly. I have decided to use bullet points because I'm tired and it's almost midnight. Plus I just LOVE lists.

• I woke up early, cleaned my house, and hung my mosquito net. Hammering into my ceiling is quite a chore, so I hope not to do it again!
• I went to the school, but was too early. I showed up at 8:00 like I was supposed to, but JB didn't come until about 8:45. They told me I was very "American" punctuality-wise.
• Mathias Chambitwe (I have been spelling/saying his name wrong. It's not Martius, but Mathias according to a paper hanging in the staff lounge. Oops. I don't feel too bad since he can't say my name, either.) and JB took me to each class so I could introduce myself. I wrote my name up on the board, and encouraged them to learn the "ade" sound since it's pretty common in English. Later on some students echoed my full name as I walked through town, which is neat. 
• I did laundry ALL ALONE (YES! NO ONE GAWKING!) and cooked myself popcorn for lunch. It was delicious, but I made way too much of it. 
• At about 1:00 Saumu came over and tried some popcorn. She ended up insisting I make beans to my dismay, but I do know how to make them TZ style now, I suppose. I enjoyed the freedom to decide what I was cooking for lunch, so the insistence I have beans for dinner was a bit off-putting. She's such a sweetheart, though. We have a lot of fun joking around together. I also taught her to use my camera, and we took silly pictures in my super-mzungu-looking hat I brought to keep from burning up in the sun. 
• I went to the market with Saumu and took pictures of a bunch of Primary School kids on my way there. They go NUTS to get their face in pictures/see the pictures on the digi-camera. They also are all learning to say my name and not "mzungu" or "Mchele", which makes me happy.
• I had an interesting photo-shoot with Anjelina once I asked to take her photo. Multiple outfit changes/matching outfit shots were taken of the pair of us. Matching khanga in different locations...it was pretty hilarious, really. 
• I ran into a bunch of my female students and got dragged across town/watched them play sports (every Friday they play netball or football I guess). Once it started getting late I went home to finish cooking the beans I didn't want to eat for dinner. I was feeling A LOT better physically, but still ended up getting sick once I did eat. I think I'm going to try changing my diet and insisting that I cook how and what I want for a couple weeks to see if that helps. I have had food issues in the past when I eat things that don't agree well with me. Everything is just so greasy and oily here, and my body never does well with such things. I think salads and lean protein meals are in order! 
• I burnt my trash. I'm glad I stuck around to watch it burn because it almost caught the grass next to the burn pit on fire. That'd be great, huh?: "Mzungu burns down school compound while burning trash." 
• I also packed and got ready for my 4:30 am departure for Tanga! AUTONOMY RULES. 
• I found out Chambitwe is engaged to a woman named Zawadi (literally: gift). I gave him a warm congrats. I'm very happy for myself as well, since I won't have to worry about any future proposals from him now! 
• I ALSO FOUND OUT MY VILLAGE IS GETTING ELECTRICITY. When they said they were "digging for electricity" I kind of laughed to myself. Then I found out they mean TO PUT IN POLES FOR ELECTRICITY. Soooooo exciting.