Kuuliza si ujinga

Everything seems so sudden.

A little over a week ago I was telling people that I had no idea where the Peace Corps would send me, except that it was somewhere in Africa and I was supposed to find out by mid-July. Now I know I'm going to teach science in Tanzania, and I'm spending my time reading everything I can find on east Africa and the Swahili language.

Some background on Tanzania:
-it's in east Africa, south of Kenya and north of Mozambique
-it contains the highest mountain in Africa, Mt. Kilamanjaro
-it's a union of two formerly separate countries: Tanganyika (the mainland) and Zanzibar (an island)
-it was formerly a British colony, so English is the main European language and is used in the secondary schools. Swahili is the most widely spoken African language and is used in the primary schools.
-lots of tourists go on safaris there--Ngorongoro Crater is famous for its wildlife
-Jane Goodall studied chimpanzees there, in Gombe Stream National Park. The Leakeys found skulls of early humans there, at a place called Olduvai Gorge.
-it started as a socialistic dictatorship under Julius Nyerere. Now it's a democracy.

I'll be teaching science and possibly math at a secondary school. This means I'll be teaching in English, but I'll also be learning Swahili during training. I leave for staging (meeting with the other Peace Corps volunteers somewhere in the U.S.) on September 16, and begin training in Tanzania on September 19.