Not Much to Say

Friday, November 13, 2009 12:26 PM

First off, I just want to say thank you to everyone for their feedback. As you all know, my access to internet is incredibly limited here so I have not really spent time directly responding to people’s comments, emails, and messages but I am reading them and I do appreciate them. Also, I feel I need to clarify something from my last post as a lot of people have contacted me about that specifically. I appreciate the concern and empathy, but what I was trying to convey through that post was that the week was over and things were getting better. This week has been at least 1000 times better than last week and all of those worries have dissolved. I wrote that I don’t really have anyone here to talk to and vent these frustrations (also I don’t want to bring anyone down by dumping all my worries on them) so that’s kind of what this blog is for. That was a bit of a release for me to write it all out and it’s sort of weird to have a therapeutic event be so public but I guess that’s just the nature of this blog.

I really have felt much better this week than last week. Instead of having my mind occupied with bad thoughts from back home, concern about life here and serious questions about the way they do business here, I have actually had lectures and homework that I need to focus on. One class in particular has been very good and challenging which I really appreciate though if it is challenging for me to do the readings and I am maybe one of two people with English as our mother tongue, I can’t imagine how difficult it is for even the German students in the class who speak English well, let alone the Tanzanians. I’ve been kept pretty busy with the assignments for that class but so far I am managing though I did miss the discussion this week on accident. Other classes are looking more promising too and I think I’m going to be taking a graduate level course here about gender and socio-economic development. I’m hearing less now about teachers who speak in Swahili for half of the class time but that may be because the people I know who were complaining have dropped those courses. It is ironic that the one teacher I had who assigned a textbook in Kiswahili is this white guy that I’m pretty sure is American. I think I’m dropping that class though.

There really isn’t much else to report on because I’ve spent most of this week busy doing homework. My body is kind of not being my friend right now though. I finally found some people to play basketball with so I have been doing that a bit lately though I rolled my ankle yesterday playing. The courts are pretty hood, no nets on the baskets and littered with little potholes so I wasn’t paying attention right when we got out there yesterday and I rolled it stepping into one of the potholes on accident. I was able to play through it and we played for like 45 minutes but last night and this morning have had some swelling and discomfort. I don’t think, and I’m serious here, that I have seen ice in this country yet so I can’t really get a bag of ice or an ice pack to put on it either. In all reality, it’s not that serious though and I definitely rolled it worse multiple times in senior year alone. This is one of those things that people like to email me advice on and I appreciate it though I’m probably just going to take it easy on it until the swelling is done so unless you know about some secret remedy, I am probably just going to do my own thing. I’ve also been getting kind of irritated skin on my chest, armpit area and elsewhere probably because I’ve had the luxury of soft clothes my entire life until now so there is some adjustment to my now stiff clothes. Also it’s kind of itchy and rash-like though and that’s probably because I sweat all of the time here when I’m outside and that can’t be washed off immediately. Now this would be something good to contact me about if you have advice because it would be nice to get through this as soon as possible and before it gets worse. Should I get some baby powder or something?

Sorry for sharing my medical history on here because you were probably hoping for something exciting. I just thought I would write something on here to give people an update even if it’s not exciting because it’s been a little while. This is reality though and it can’t always be exciting. I’m leaving here at 5 AM tomorrow to go to Tanga though so hopefully I will have a good experience there that will give me plenty to write about when I get back. Unfortunately I will also have a lot of homework to do after I return so I may not be able to sit down and write about this trip. I’ll do my best though and hope to get back on here soon to share some good news.