July 24th

Roasting the coffee... and the little girl who didn't know what to make of all these white people.

Ok, so to elaborate a little more on what my experience has been so far... We're staying at a training center where a lot of European and Americans come to learn Kiswahili. We have little cabin type things, and I'm staying with the other girl from St. Olaf. We have our own bathroom with a shower, so that's really nice. It's sort of like we're at Tanzania camp because we're still isolated from the locals. Obviously all ten of us go on the excursions together, chaperoned by our two professors, our Tanzanian teacher, and a driver. It's really good to sort of gradually get acclimated to life here, but I know I'm going to be so ready to move on.

Today we had a culture lesson, and then we went to a coffee farm. We picked the coffee, separated the seeds from the shell, watched them roast, grind and boil it, and then we drank it! It was really fun and really cool. And the coffee was way less bitter than any coffee I've had in the States. We then went to a traditional Tanzanian restaurant and ate a ton of food. I know some people were saying that I should eat fried food before I left, but believe me, there is PLENTY of fried food here. So then we just came back for a lesson on Tanzanian politics, and had a little Kiswahili quiz. The sun came out for a couple of hours around lunch, which was really nice, but it soon got cold again. Apparently the seasons here are starting and ending later and later as well. But we know that once we get to Dar it will be hot, so we're trying not to complain. I'm actually having more time to blog than I thought because we don't really have anything to do after dinner, at least for now, so feel free to email :-)