Round 2!

Hello all!

I just wanted to answer a few questions right off the bat before I leave because I don't know how often I'll be able to write once I'm there. So, I'll tell you what I think I know now and inevitably correct myself later.

I'll be teaching at the Magulilwa (Mah-goo-leel-wah) Area Secondary School. It's like high school. It's about 10 hours west of where I was before, and the nearest city is Iringa--a town of 500,000. I'll be teaching English in English, as it is the language of instruction throughout the school. From what I understand, Emily and I will each have two classes to ourselves. We are also expected to hold some type of teacher workshop things that we make up ourselves. Woo!

The specs? We'll be staying in the headmaster's house which I think is on campus, and we each get our own room (for the first time in four years! Livin' large, I'm telling ya). At some point we'll have electricity and possibly even running water, which will make life a lot easier. It'll be the dry season when we get there, and maybe low 70s during the day, and 40s at night.

Now, more interesting maybe is why I am doing this. I'm so glad you asked! I started thinking about going back in like March of last year. After those five months last time, I wasn't ready to come home. I finally felt like I had a handle on the language, and I was loving the increased access that those language skills provided me. I probably could've fallen in love with any place I visited, but this is where I have connections now. So thought to myself if I don't go back now, I probably never will. And so the 6-month-long search for an organization began.

Early in the fall of my senior year, my professor--who came with us to Tanzania for orientation--remembered that a former student of hers had started a school there. This student, Claire, had married a Tanzanian, Evaristo, who had come to Luther to study, and they started this secondary school in his home town, Magulilwa. (If you're interested, the school's website is www.maguschool.org).

So. That's a little bit of what I'll be doing and why. I hope to hear from you all soon!