November 17th
Tomorrow morning I will be waking up at 3:15 in the morning to begin my long journey to Dar es Salaam! Tomorrow I will travel to Mbeya and then early Saturday morning I will take a 14 hour bus ride to Dar es Salaam. I am not looking forward to the long bus ride but am excited to see my mom and Jenn! They will visit for two weeks which should be a lot of fun.
Things have turned around in Kafule since I last wrote. The rain stopped and we’ve had gorgeous hot weather over this past week. On Saturday I decided to walk to Katengele. Katengele is a village at the top of a mountain that has a big market every Saturday. Before departing I called Enea (my new best friend who is a nurse at the hospital) and she wanted to join me on the walk. She has never walked to the market though and I knew it would be a very long, difficult journey. She called everyone that she knew with a car or motorcycle while we walked to Isoko. No one was traveling to the market. We decided start the climb. She was a little out of breath but I wouldn’t say she was struggling. She told me it was too much and she needed a pikipiki (motorcycle). As we continued going up the shortcut I heard a pikipiki on the road and ran up to stop them. It was my friend Kapesa from school and he told me he would go to the market and then return for Enea. We continued walking but stuck to the road. Enea was breathing much easier on the road (it is not a straight up the mountain climb like the shortcut). Many pikipiki passed and offered us rides but we declined as we waited for Kapesa. He returned with no gas and had to return to Isoko. Enea was pretty upset but was able to get a ride shortly after. She jumped on the pikipiki while I climbed the short cut. We met at the top and walked the flat part together. We didn’t stay long and caught a ride back to Isoko with the hospital car. Enea had me promise when I return to walk with her every Saturday to the market. She wants to wake up at an ungodly hour to do the walk though and I don’t think I can handle that!
On Sunday I went to church, did some house work, had many student visitors, and then went for my daily walk around town. I didn’t quite enjoy the walk as a drunken man decided to hold my hand and invite me to his home. We exchanged numbers and he has called me every day multiple times a day. I don’t pick up, but he keeps on calling! My daily walks have been more eventful and less enjoyable this week which makes me a little sad. Too many men walking the roads!
This week the students had their final exams. Mathematics was first on Monday morning which made me very happy. Unfortunately I also had to proctor all the exams because there weren’t enough teachers. I was very worried about finishing grading in time. I finished yesterday though and everything has been smooth sailing.
I’ve got my bags packed and am ready for the morning departure! My computer will stay in Kafule so you probably won’t be hearing from me for a while (I am sure you are used to that by now!)
Love,
Gretchen
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