cheka

Interviews are picking up! I have done 5 so far, and over the next few days have plans to do 8 more. And they are going very well, getting info that my original data was pointing at but did not necessarily explicitly say. So that front is good!

I also was able to call Fr. Paul’s friends in Arusha, the Krafts, and I might have dinner with them sometime before I leave. I spoke with Mr. Kraft on the phone and he sounded very friendly. Tonight I am going out to dinner with a new group of GSC volunteers who arrived last night as well as the staff at the GSC office (who have been extremely helpful and friendly to me during my stay). The funny part is one of these volunteers is apparently moving into my family’s house on Friday evening…so I am being relegated to the “other” room. I have actually never seen this room, but I think it is a Harry Potter cupboard under the stairs sort of deal. Hahaha, I am excited to see this actually. And Arusha is currently going through a water shortage (no rain in a long time apparently) so there has not been any running water in the house. More the experience that many people probably imagine when they think of Africa I suppose.

I leave Monday and I am already getting sad to leave my family. Maybe it will help that there will be anther mzungu there to distract them. This time though, I am not sure if I will be coming back. Of course I was not sure before either, but at that point I still had very lofty goals of getting my PhD in med anthro and doing my fieldwork in Tanzania. And I still have that goal, but the application process is definitely a huge reality check. And I am no longer certain that I would want to do my research in Tanzania. It is very far away from the majority of the people that I love, and spending years here alone would be intense. Not a decision I even need to think about now. But something that crosses my mind when I think about leaving.

I am so much better at getting what I need/want in Arusha now. I am not sure if that is good or bad. Probably both?

Just labeling this post as winter makes me pause. It is hard to believe it is so cold at home right now.