Kuuliza si ujinga

Habari za siku nyingi?

Yes, it's been a while since I've last written. I've been traveling for almost a month now, and will finally be heading back to my house this afternoon. This will, unfortunately, be a very short entry, as the car to my village leaves in twenty minutes.

First: pictures! Go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/kgtanzania to see some pictures from a Christmas hike up Mt. Hanang.

Second: a brief summary of my holiday travels. I visited a Tanzanian friend's village near Babati, then headed over to a volunteer's house in a village near the town of Katesh on Christmas eve. I spent Christmas climbing Mt. Hanang with another volunteer (we got near the top but didn't quite make it due to a storm). Then we headed to his site in Dodoma, rested a few days there, and spent New Years' with a volunteer in Mpwapwa. After some beautiful hiking in the hills of Mpwapwa, I headed to Morogoro to visit my host family for a day. Then it was on to Dar es Salaam, for a week of Peace Corps mid-service training and medical exams. And now? I'm back at my site, and school starts tomorrow morning. It's going to be a quick adjustment from traveling to teaching...though given normal delays in student arrival, I probably won't be teaching until next week.

Third: I'll be continuing with my students from last year, meaning I'll be teaching Form 3 chemistry and Form 4 biology. Form 3 chemistry covers titrations, moles, stoichiometry, electrochemistry, and fuels; Form 4 biology has genetics, growth/mitosis, ecology, and evolution. And since it's Form 4, the last year of secondary school, I'll be trying to review everything from previous years as well so my students will be ready for their exams.

I'll do my best to upload some travel stories and updates on teaching in the next few weeks. I hope everyone had a great New Year!