changes

lots of things are changing lately.

Yesterday i was told 3 separate times that i'm getting fat, which is somehow true. That, combined with poor sleep and just general lethargy in the evenings [a few weeks ago I turned into my once-fat-now-fit father by sleeping on the couch for 2 hours before dinner] has produced another recent change - I'm running again. Albeit a bit late in the game since i only have 2 months left here, but I've started running with my friend Alex every morning at the butt-crack of dawn. It's going well, this fat man still remembers a thing or two and I get the job done, though people are never ashamed to point out WOW you were breathing hard GEEZ you were sweating a lot...

But in order to cut the fat a bit, I've also decided a change in diet is appropriate. I was eating, shall we say, a LOT. Breakfast alone was big bowl of chicken soup [entire chicken breast] 2 chappatis a glass of yogurt and a plate of fruit and sometimes a hard boiled egg. So now I want to try to eat NOT a lot. There are a few of my good muslim friends here in town who really want me to fast with them for a day, so I think next weekend I will give it a shot [I also plan on wearing my man-skirt, a 'kikoi' that muslim men all wear in zanzibar, so that I really go all out on this day. I asked if that would be offensive to the muslims in the community, people said hell no they'll be thrilled! sometimes political correctness in the states can go too far...]. Though I'm not sure how much fasting really helps in terms of weight loss. I went to my arab friends house, the one I wrote about a few weeks ago, for his last supper before returning to Oman for a few weeks. We broke the fast with tons of fruit, sodas, potatoes, and meat. I stuffed myself silly and then had to hire a bicycle to take me home, even though he lives maybe 5 minutes walk away...

I think my big problem is snacking. I snack a lot, fruits, sweets, pastries. That will probably be changing now too, especially when I go to Mwanza town. The place where I was accustomed to purchasing all my fruits and popcorn and etc is no more. You see, all over Mwanza town there were people who had set up informal huts to sell their wares, or they just brought a bucket and a stool and plopped themselves down everyday to do business, like at the main busstand [they call them machinga in Kiswahili]. They sold fruit, phone accessories, shirts, shorts, underwear [always fun to see people buy their underwear in a crowded bus stand or street] electronics, razors, cards, fancy gift bags - EVERYTHING. And now all these people have been kicked out of the downtown and moved to areas a bit outside of the city. So i'm a bit lost now, not sure where to buy some of my daily needs. Not to mention the city seems to have lost a bit of the oomph and life that it once had [though, i must admit, these street vendors did block sidewalks, make annoying calls and comments, and many were not honest businessmen and some downright pickpockets]. Not only is that not allowed, but the sale of charcoal for cooking has been banned. Which kinda sucks, since most people in the city use charcoal stoves. What this means is that any given night in Misungwi, which is on the main road from villages into Mwanza, if you pass around 9pm-4am you see guys pushing bicycles with HUGE loads of charcoal, walking over 50 kilometers into the city in the middle of the night [and making a FORTUNE when they sell it...]

other changes in brief:

• one of my good friends was thrown in jail for getting piss drunk, threatening to kill his sister, and then trashing her restaurant. that sucks. i think he has a mental illness.

• another of my good friends just had a baby. he is about 26 years old [my friend, not the baby] and his fiance returned from her studies at university in january to live with him. yes, that's right, if you do the math he got her pregnant within days after her return. dude, why not chill out and enjoy life without noisysmellyNEEDY kids around? oh well, not the culture here. baby's name = elvis

• the second of my two close teacher friends has left Misungwi to go study in Mwanza at a Teachers college. So basically, the two teachers I was close to are gone. Which kind of sucks for me, but I'm very glad for them to get the opportunity to further their education, so i can't be that upset. Plus i see them every wednesday when I go there to do work. friends name = cash
  

• there's a cute little boy at the Misungwi market named Dominic, but everyone calls him Domi. he's a rascal, and unlike most kids is completely unintimidated by me. he also got into a bad habit of asking me for money or candy before even greeting me. yesterday for the first time we had a nice 2 minute conversation [kiddie talk of course] without a single request. that's a change I can handle.

electricity on tuesday, how nice! tomorrow i will be in Mwanza and will write more...