Update: Mwanza, Work, and Houses (and Zebras)

Sorry I haven’t posted much lately. It’s not like there hasn’t been anything going on. In fact, the last several weeks have been chock full of things, including Katie’s birthday, visitors from the US, a night out at a Tanzanian night club, the end of language school, and our first Tanzanian Easter. To make it up to you, here's a lovely photo of some zebras (taken last Thursday on the way back from language school).

We left language school last Thursday. The school was our first Tanzanian “home”, but as our life necessitates, we had to yet again pack up our things and head off to another location. This move was bittersweet, as we left not only our fellow Maryknollers Liz and Sr. Marion, but we also said goodbye to the teachers that we had befriended. As they are some of the only people we know here in TZ, we basically left almost our entire social circle behind.

So now, we’re back in Mwanza, this time to stay, and things are kicking off in full-swing. We’re currently staying with the Ottes, our MKLM colleagues. Tomorrow we officially start work! I’m heading out at 7:30am to catch a dala-dala and see if I can find my way to the Capacitar office. These first few months are really focused on continued language acquisition, and we’ll be supported by our coworkers and supervisors as we get our bearings, but I’d be lying if I said I was not a little bit nervous. Additionally, later this week, we’ll (hopefully) be working out the details for renting our own house. We found a place we like (directly across the street from the Ottes) but so far we’ve not been able to connect with the landlord, though he knows we’re interested. We need to finalize the details for some needed repairs, and hopefully, if all goes well, we can be in the house in a few weeks.