Alive and Well

So this is just a quick post to get something up here on my blog other than my doom-and-gloom culture shock post. I realized that since that was my last post, its vibe kind of holds steady until I counteract it with a new post, and many people have perhaps been concerned that I fell into a black hole and disappeared into despair. While that makes for a great, dramatic mental image, I'm actually doing fine (see the picture for visual proof, taken two days after the culture shock post). Alive and smiling, to boot. I did very much appreciate all the nice comments and messages I received to cheer me up and boost my spirits, and it did help me feel better. So that smile may have something to do with you, dear readers.

Actually, the weekend following my lousy week was quite amazing, so I had an immediate mood improvement. That Saturday we were helping out with Lisa’s Pride again, and it’s always great to hang with kids, and then the following Sunday we were able to participate in a celebration for the Maryknoll Sisters that have worked in Tanzania since the early 1950’s. Katie wrote a nice blog post about it HERE, and there’s a short video of an awesome drum circle HERE. Quite an amazing experience.

And THAT was over a week ago. Last week was pretty good. I had some typical frustrations associated with doing something hard (ie, learning Kiswahili) but overall the week was good. And last weekend we hung out with Liz Mach for a weekend of movie watching and relaxing (except with a lot less electricity and movie watching than we originally anticipated).

So things are quite nice here in Tanzania, and I hope things are going well for you, too.