Time is winding down...

May 4th Lindsay and I never went to Daraja ya Mungu. The head doctor, Doctor Shibanda, was trying to charge us Tsh 200,000 or about $150 for the trip. That doesn’t seem like a lot, but for the cost of things on this side of the world that is quite significant. We turned the offer down and were glad we did—it poured all morning. Once the rain cleared up in the afternoon Lindsay and I headed to Isoko. Lindsay went earlier than me and when I arrived at Enea’s house she informed me that I missed the killing and plucking of the chicken…Enea wanted to show Lindsay how to prepare a local chicken. After about an hour Enea finished cooking and we ate chicken and potatoes (fried chicken with no sauce makes the driest meal you can imagine) while watching Harry Potter on her television. Enea just bought a TV in Mbeya so we are helping her use it with movies that Lindsay bought. After the movie, we headed home to prepare for the last day of school for the week. Lindsay went away this past weekend so I celebrated an empty house with a lot of cooking and MUCH NEEDED cleaning. I prepared beans with potatoes and leafy greens (kind of like spinach) with eggplant. I know this doesn’t sound like much but it took me five hours to prepare this food! On Sunday I continued eating all my leftovers. On Tuesday we celebrated May Day or Worker’s Day at school. The school put on a big party to celebrate. Since the party is so close to our departure it was a joint goodbye party. At 8 AM on Tuesday Lindsay received a phone call that we were needed to help with decorations. So much for sleeping in! For some reason I woke completely exhausted and was not thrilled to be going to school. We went to find four students sitting around and a box of random decorations. At 2 o’clock we were told to report for the party and at 1 o’clock we were still decorating…Lindsay and I took an early exit. We went home and took power naps. A little after 2 o’clock we arrived at school. The only people we found were the headmaster and the DJ. The DJ was warming up the generator and for an hour we sat waiting for the other teachers and faculty members to arrive. The first order of business was eating. We ate lots and lots of rice. You had the choice of white rice or spiced rice, a piece of fried chicken, and a fried banana. Again, a very dry meal. Luckily, the rice was cooked in so much oil that everything went down easily. With three sodas added on top of it I didn’t have too much trouble. After eating, the guest of honor (or honours as the time table said) spoke, the headmaster presented gifts, and Lindsay and I gave thank you speeches. And then the dancing started. We danced well into the night and then the DJ switched to a Tanzanian movie and Lindsay and I left. We had to go home to open our presents! Besides a general gift from the school, the second headmaster (Makala), and a new teacher (Grace) gave us each gifts. From the school we received a kanga (fabric you can wrap around like a sarong) and a woven sign with our names on it. Makala gave us each a kanga and Grace gave us each a pair of underwear. We still don’t understand her gift. Lindsay thinks it was a joke but we don’t have any jokes with her concerning underwear. And I’m pretty sure the note she wrote us was on a pad wrapper. The gift is still sitting on the table in the living room. After the big party we had a three day week of teaching to look forward to. On Wednesday night I left a tin can outside to measure the rain fall. I left the tin there until this afternoon. In 36 hours we received 3 inches of rainfall. The air is so dense that the chalk breaks as soon as we touch it! Don’t worry, the rain continues as I write this so I will give you an update the next time I write. This weekend Lindsay is preparing to pack while I teach form 4 students. She will be leaving next weekend and then I have the place to myself before I leave. Still don’t know when that will be yet… Love, Gretchen