Letter No. 5, October 28 2002

Dear Family,

Wow, there is so much to tell you. I have to apologize because I am not really certain when the last time I really wrote a letter was. It's hard to believe that I'm already into week six here. Next week we finally find out where our sites are, and then a few days later (like two weeks from yesterday) we actually go on our site visits. Two weeks seems like such a short amount of time now, whereas during our first weeks here, it was actually quite the opposite. Anyways, I'm excited to be getting closer to knowing where I am going it could be anywhere in Tanzania!

About 35 other PCT's and I got to go out of Arusha this last weekend and go to Ngorongoro Crater (click here for images). It was a great trip for many reasons, the first being that it was the first real chance I had gotten to see Tanzania outside of Arusha. Arusha surprised me by being so green and lush. Outside of Arusha, however, the scenery chances to rolling hills and huge expanses of grassland. Very few people in Arusha seem to live in mud-huts, or if they do the roofs are made out of corrogated style tin roofing. Outside of Arusha there are small settlements of round-mud-hut- houses with straw thatched roofs everywhere. I have a feeling that when I get to my village ,I am going to be feeling very rich, because PC insists that we live in cement block houses with tin roofs - I just hope it doesn't set me apart anymore than I am going to be already.

Another really cool thing about the scenery were the Bawobob trees - these humongous trees that look as if they had been tipped upside down and their roots are sticking up. So you've got these trees that come up out of the ground, with trunks about 10ft in diameter with little twigs sticking out of the top. I'll have to try and get a picture sometime. The crater itself was amazing. After two hours on a tarmack road, and three on a bumpy dirt road(and camping overnight, another two hours of dirt road) we arrived to the entrance to the Ngorongoro conservation area. We were all kind of bummed as it had rained the night before, and was raining at 6am as we approached the top of the crater. We could tell we were driving along the rim of something, but we couldn't see through the fog. It was really green again, so we kind of felt like we were "Gorillas in the mist" or something.

We started driving down towards the crater and we caught a glimpse of an animal - it was giraffe! I got some pictures of it through the mist.. I can't really describe it as it was one of the craziest looking animals I'd ever seen. We headed into the crater,and like magic, the sun appeared! We actually couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day. Because it had just rained even more of the animals came out. We saw tons of zebras, wilda beasts and thompson's gazelle. We drove through a wooded part and were excited to see three elephants through the trees, and then turned the corner to find another one, not 20ft from our car! It was huge! It made me feel safe to know that I was in the car. I got some great pictures - I hope. Later, we went to a mud hole and saw hippo's and laughed as we watched them splash themselves and roll over in the mud to keep themselves cool. Oh Yeah! Right after we got into the crater and got past the first lot of zebras, we saw a cheetah with four of her cubs! I guess this was really a rare occurance, she also decided to just sit and pose right in front on our car. We all just sat there, watching her for a good half hour or so. In the afternoon our car was parked 100 ft away from a huge lion! At this point, we were all in such awe of everything we had seen. I don't think it really sunk in as to just how close we were until after we had move away.

We also saw pink flamingos (their knee joints, which are the opposite of our's cracked me up), hyenas, more elephants, tons of different types of kinds, a rhino (from really far away), buffalo, and others that I've probably forgotten. All in all, it was a pretty amazing day - too much to describe in a letter. I took 3 rolls of film, but I am going to wait until I get my settling in allowance to get them developed. Which means, they'll hopefully arrive home just in time for Christmas. How's that for planning your Christmas presents early?

October 29. 2002

The internship has been going fairly well. This is our last week of it. I have had fun, but it has also been frustrating because there is only so much you can do in two weeks with a class. (The first week was spent helping teachers give exams) I only see each class (four different ones) twice in these two weeks, and yesterday they were feeling particularly onnery (sp) My mentor teacher decided that he was going to use the time I was teaching to do something else, and so it was really hard to control the class without being the wicked witch of the west. Oh well, tomorrow is another day. I can't wait to get to my site my own classroom, where I can set my own ground rules from the beginning. So, the short-rains rainy season has just started here. It really makes our walk to school and crossing the river fun. It tends to rain most of the night, and a little in the morning and then dry up in the afternoon. Apparently this goes on until mid December when it gets really hot again. In March or so the long rains come and last until June I think. After that, it gets hot,hot,hot. It's actually surprised me quite a bit, because here in Arusha, were in the mountains, and the weather is just cooler in general. It will be interesting to see what it is like when we go to Dar Es Salaam in four weeks or so..

Today is the first day I've actually begun to miss a few things from home - well, maybe not miss, just really appreciate. Most of the things have to do with that cozy feeling of being warm and dry while the world outside is all wet, like curling up in a pair of sweat pants, with a comforter and a good book, maybe a hot cup of tea, or hot chocolate. I was talking about this in my Kiswahila class and I also mentioned how nice it would be to do this in front of a fire, while it was snowing outside. One of the guys in my group broke up the fantasizing by saying that the fire reminded him too much of cooking here. I had to laugh at that, and bring myself back to reality. Its fun to get wistful sometimes, but its also fun to immerse myself in everything that's going on here. I even managed to have a conversation with my host mom last night for a good thirty minutes in Kiswahila. I'm sure proud of myself for that one! It's coming very slowly but surely.

Lots of love,

Jessica.

P.S. In a recent email home, Jessica had a wish list: Seeds for vegetables,cucumbers, different types of squashes. Kool Aid.... any flavor but grape. Wasabi powder...and other sushi makings. Cumin for chilli. Bandanas, for the head. Plastic Chalk Holder? Mail from Home.......Boxes take longer, bubble envelopes take 2 weeks....... Thanks from Mum.