TGIF, January 17, 2014

Last night, I finally got what I consider a decent night's sleep.  Awake only once and then quickly back to sleep.  I've heard that it takes as many days as hours of the time difference between place of departure to place of arrival to completely reset one's inner clock, but if that were true, we'd be well into February before I'd feel normal.  Maybe I've forgotten what normal is for me, but today I'm more rested and alert than ever before. After this coming weekend without the students here, I may feel absolutely fabulous.

The students  must feel somewhat anxious about spending two complete days with their host families.  However, most families will try to include them in family activities and even take them to special places.  Also, students should now be ready to go out on their own--only in pairs or groups-- to explore more of the areas of Arusha.   There are a variety of markets, small cafes, Tanzanite dealers, Masai craft merchants, and parks and gardens to discover.  I am always amazed at what the students find and how excited they become when they make a particularly great discovery.  If I were fully ambulatory, I'd be tagging along with them for sure.

The aftermath of John's production of fruit salad last night was the stickiest floor imaginable. I'd forgotten how strongly adhesive pineapple juice is--almost competitive with Gorilla Glue.  I had to pull my feet up for every step which produced loud pops as I moved across the kitchen floor.   Here at Kundayo, we are spoiled with daily cleaning, so I left the whole mess for Rebekkah, the main housekeeper, to deal with.  She may need to mop the floor several times though to get it completely clean.  Next time John chops up a pineapple, I may suggest that he do it outside.

The Assembly of God church just a lot away from us, started it's weekend worship very early, so by 2:00 p.m. the air was booming with a concussive level of African style music and  hoarse voiced exhortations.  This went on nonstop until nearly 6:00 p.m.  Considering the heat and the length of the service, I wondered how many had dropped from exhaustion and dehydration.  We have been fortunate for the past two mornings that we haven't been awakened again by the zealots on the other side who hold the 5:00 a.m. holy concerts.  Ray told me that there are six or seven churches of all sizes and denominations in an area I estimate to be about four or five blocks.  So, I doubt we'll have much time here without background rhythm of some sort.

One remarkable phenomenon we have observed repeatedly when we are with students is that because we are "old," we are invisible to them.  I realized this in 2012, when the students would say the most amazing things even though I was sitting right there in a seat across the aisle or just in front of them.  That is  exactly the way I found out during the previous program who had gone to a bar the night before and had gotten into a potentially very sketchy situation. Today, as the students waited for their host families, John sat to one side of the veranda--maybe ten feet away--where he could easily hear everything they said.  The girls were describing their first kisses, and how John kept a straight face and didn't double over in laughter is a complete mystery. One girl said she was 15 and with a boy who asked if he could ask her a question.  She replied that she knew he was going to ask if he could kiss her and that he could.  Then, nothing happened, so she finally asked if he was okay.  He said he was trying to think things through, but he did want to kiss her.  So, he leaned toward her, but just at the last minute, she moved her head to one side, and he missed her. So, they tried again, but got off course and sort of hit their noses and cheeks.  I forget how many tries it took before suitable contact was made, but when John tried to report all of this to me, he was laughing and gasping so hard, I thought he'd collapse from oxygen deprivation.  Young adults or not, these kids are adorably unaware at times.

There was a booming thunderstorm later on, so the electricity flickered on and off for a while.  Since I lunch had been our big meal for the day, I didn't need the stove for cooking, and we had egg salad sandwiches and a cucumber and tomato salad. Then, it was the usual reading until bedtime.  Life is peaceful and very good here at Kundayo.