Hello! To start with some work, I've been implementing some new things at WEECE. First off, I'm trying to create an online store of the crafts and clothes they sell in their shop, which is on a small, local dirt road. Tourists and westerners (wzungu) are who would be interested in buying these things. So, I'm looking into creating a paypal account and am helping price the goods and clarifying the inventory they keep (which isn't very good). A previous CCS volunteer has just set up an excel spread sheet to help them budget and see how much money they're spending as well as how much they're making.

Also, I've been doing a lot of research on women's rights laws here and on spousal abuse prevention laws, and so fourth, and I'm putting together a program to start on Monday teaching the girls and women in the vocational school (there are 14 of them from ages 14-23), about women's rights. Most women think it's acceptable for their husbands to beat them, for a husband to rape his wife and for women to be inferior to men. They also think rape is acceptable under many other circumstances, i.e. a woman is showing too much skin. I'll be careful not to cross too many cultural lines, but I want to talk about the preexisting Tanzanian women's rights, that because of cultural unofficial laws, most women don't know they have. I'll also talk about the history of women's rights in my own country and break off into discussions to get to know the girls more individually. I'm still working on all of this though. We'll see.

People have been asking me about the food in Tanzania: Well, it's pretty simple. It's very fresh, and I try to stick to hot food, so I, thankfully, haven't gotten that sick yet. There is a lot of rice in Tanzanian cooking and cooked greens. Everyday, I eat at least a couple slices of avocado. The avocados are huge here and delicious. yummm. We also eat a lot of papaya, passion fruit, mango and oranges that are actually green and yellow on the inside, but taste just the same and as sweet as an orange at home. Sometimes we eat cooked beans with vegetables and this spongy food, ugali which tastes like nothing and is made from maize. You eat it with your hands to scoop up vegetables or beans. If you've had fufu, it's essentially the same thing. There is a lot of cooked cabbage here, that is mixed with carrots. It's a bit similar to cole slaw but without the mayo (or whatever that is in cole slaw). Tanzanians make their own version of chapati. I'm assuming that it was influenced by the Indians here. It's delicious! It usually has some sort of veggie in it. People cook bananas here when they're green, but they aren't sweet like plantains. They kind of taste like potatos. We drink a lot of fresh juices we prepare with the fruit from the market and every once in awhile add some ginger. Tanzanians love this weird dish called, chips mayai which is basically an omelete with french fries in it. I'm not crazy about it. They also eat meat here quite a lot, but I've avoided it. The chicken is fresh as it comes from next door. But, I also usually avoid that. It would be like eating my neighbor. I can't do that!

A last note, I don't know about the U.S. but people are getting very excited for the world cup. I can't tell you how many times a day I hear K'Naan's world cup version of Wavin' Flag, and how many times I hear this interaction or one like it, Ivory Coast? Hapana (no)! Brazzzziiill!