Rains make Green

Yesterday I spent the my Saturday back in Songea. I mailed some letters, met and had lunch with the new Peace Corps teacher at Songea Girls, her name is Alena, and bought some other necessities such as icing sugar for Christmas cookies, corn flakes, and pringles.

Here is a picture of me (i decided to go bald this past week) Alena, and George, a student at Songea Boys secondary school who works in the library in Songea. He often seeks me out when I am walking around town and asks for lessons in Physics and Mathematics. He also insists that i practice my Kiswahili because that is the only way that i will get better.


Some new flowers started coming up in the boxes outside of the hostel this past week, too! The first ones already died. The nice part about this growing season is that I dont have to remember to water the flowers in order for them to grow! It has rained at least a little every day for the past two weeks here in Hanga. The weather is beautiful. The cool air, the constant cloud cover, and the omnipresent GREEN reminds me very much of Springtime in Minnesota.

As an example of the power of rain, take a look at these pictures of "Hanga lake"

the first two are from mid-November just as the final drops of water from the lake were evaporating, the grass was dying, and the ground was cracking from the dryness.



The next two pictures were taken three days ago. This first one is from the pier structure looking out onto the marsh that we walked across one month ago, and the second is looking back at the same area as the first "dry" picture. Beautiful green.


I thought I would give another idea of our diet here :) I am very excited when we have beans at meals, because this sauce is usually more flavorful than just the peas. I have definitely grown accustom to rice! This past week there has been this pea dish at every meal. it is pretty good when mixed together with the rice. Last night you can see we had scrambled eggs with peppers and tomatoes mixed in, too. that was good!

Lennart got his hair and beard cut yesterday, so we decided we should have a picture of the three recent haircuts. Notice the progression of facial hair...

We wanted our patron Mtakatifu Benedikto to be in the picture with us too..


Tomorrow I am headed back to Peramiho with Kastor to prepare the St. Laurent 2009 wall calendar. Let me know if you want one to hang in the office or at home!

And Christmas is only 4 short days away. Last night we watched "Christmas With the Kranks" hung a stocking in the hostel common room, put up Charlie's Charlie Brown Christmas Tree, and looked at past years' Christmas pictures while listening to Christmas music. Not quite the same as decorating the tree at home while a light December snow is falling outside, but it will have to do for now. It will be fun to celebrate this holiday with the Monastery on Thursday!

Pictures from that celebration soon to come...