mola duhu bebe

Feeling better since my last entry. No news on the housing situation or my landlord the thief, but I decided that there's not much I can do about it so I'm just going with the flow. It helps that whenever I am feeling mad about the situation, I think about the landlord himself, who is fat and wears his pants up above his belly button like Steve Urkel. What a tool.

I spent the weekend meeting and greeting the new group of Peace Corps Volunteers coming to work in the Lake Victoria area of Tanzania. I didn't spend long enough getting to really know any of them, but came away with the impression that they seem very FRESH - definitely a good thing. Two years of this job I think is enough for anyone, and there reaches a point where it's just time for someone to go, and someone new to arrive. Am looking ahead to see if my time to go will be at the end of next year or if there's any chance I will want to extend for a third year - but I think in order to consider this sanely, I need my Zanzibar vacation first.

Which is, in fact, the main highlight on the horizon. Work is done for the year except for report writing and a few brainstorming sessions with the District HIV/AIDS Coordinator and an AMREF coworker on Secondary School health interventions. Ok, so actually there is work to do, but nothing that takes the preparation and provides the stress of running a seminar. That craziness wrapped up this past Wednesday when I finished part 1 of a seminar for hotel attendants on proper condom usage and how to improve services to make sure more people have access to condoms. The following day I went for a drink at the biggest hotel in town, and there was a special trash can labeled for condom disposal, a prominent display of the popular male condom brand, and the advertisements I had distributed were boldly informing pretty much anyone making a visit to the toilet to "play it safe" (cheza salama). Put a nice smile on my face.

Am looking forward to a few weeks of hanging out - playing cards, playing checkers, talking, playing pool, talking some more.... yeah, so there's not really a ton to do here in terms of 'hanging out'. But I enjoy it and plan on doing a lot of it, that is, a lot of nothing.

Which leads me to my last point - it is very hot here. The 'internet cafe' has air-conditioning. I will be coming to write at least a few entries a week, especially if my fan continues to go psycho as it has the past few days. But I don't have a ton to write about (please refer to the previous paragraph). Is anyone reading this? Anyone? Bueller? If you are, comment! Email me! Ask me questions! Tell me what to write about!! Tell me really boring information about life in the States*! If you don't, I'll be sure to REALLY rub it in your faces when I get back from my fantastic new-years-on-the-beach-getaway (with hopefully the added feature of pictures). PS, how's the weather back home anyways?

(*EXCEPT for medical conditions, please keep that info to yourself thank you very much)