Been a long month...

So, life's been a bit of an adventure lately.

First, I bought a car. Think it was a pretty decent deal. Was very very very excited about it. Got it checked out and everything. Buying it was a hassle because it turned out the registration and insurance were both expired so a little sketchy diriving it around and a lot of up front costs but that's okay.

Bought the car Thursday and then went to Arusha for the weekend to work at the Rugby Game. It was a good chance to see how things work at the national games and meet some of the sponsors and fun to see Chris play. It was my first live rugby game.... very violent sport but exciting. The game was against an excellent Kenyan team and the Tanzania Twigas lost but it was a great game.

Flew back to Dar Saturday and drove down to south beach where six of us stayed at what will some day be a really nice lodge but at this point is still having electicity issues. Issues aside it was beautiful and we had a great and relaxing time. Unfortunately, Chris had been unable to pick up his car saturday so we drove down in my new car. On the way home the rain started. about twenty minutes from home, in the pouring rain, my car died. Mid-drive. I was more than slightly upset but the windows were all foggy from the rain so we had plenty of space for tic-tac-toe and hangman games while awaiting our rescuers. We spent two hours hanging out in the car. As you can see, we did manage to keep smiling. That was 4 days ago. It's still not fixed. I'm not impressed.

Also, hasn't stopped raining since. The rainy season here started monday and it is a site to be seen. I will try to get photos next time of Chris's landrover up to the door in water as the streets all turn into lakes and rivers. My friends' house got flooded with 8 inches of water so I'm considering myself lucky to have a dry place to hole up for the next couple of months. Hopefully I'll have a car to get around in too.

In other news, I have finally set myself up with internet on my laptop and it seems pretty good so hopefully communication and photo posting will improve. Work has been very busy. I have resigned at the university part time and continue my involvement with the rugby sponsorship and event planning as well. We have a black tie ball coming up soon so very busy with that at the moment. Also, have bought tickets to South Africa for mid April which is very exciting. Chris's parents own a large property and high end lodge in northern south africa and we'll be spending a week there and a few days in Joburg as well. Been a lot of frustrations lately here so I'm really looking forward to the break.

We did a photo shoot for the rugby ball ads... we have a running theme of having the players in the ads and trying to make it funny so we tried to capture the idea of the event in this photo: the guys get rugby, the girls get to dress up. Not sure how I ended up having to do it... these go up on big roadsite billboards!

Plans

Have been having a very hard time getting online lately, hence no update. The last couple of weeks have been all about making plans and finally starting to move on some of the changes I wanted to make.

1. Last week I started working part time with a woman who does sports development, fundraising, event management, etc. Basically, we raise awareness and funds for sports clubs. I'm focusing mostly on the local and national rugby teams and the affiliated junior leagues for now and we have a big event coming up this weekend that looks like it's coming together quite well. It's fun to be doing this kind of thing again.

2. A couple of weeks ago I started swahili lessons. Now I just need to actually practice and hopefully I'll be spewing bad swahili in no time. Really quite excited about it.

3. I've met a lovely american couple, Robyn and Brandt, who I will hopefully be moving in with soon. Still have some details to sort out and, of course, we need to find a place. Also very exciting. The whole rental system here is completely nuts. First of all, prices are completely out of touch with reality. It's a challenge to find a decent place under $800/mo (usually quite a bit more) but for that amount you can find some incredably dodgy places. Secondly, most landlords want you to pay a whole year in advance. Which is quite a challenge when you pay for everything in cash and the largest note is equivelant to just under $10. I guess it's understandable since they really have no way of tracking you down later if you haven't paid but still, a little excessive and a logistical challenge when you can only withdraw aprox $350 at a time from the ATM (not to mention withdrawal fees start to add up).

4. I have decided to buy a car. Transportation here is a constant frustration and I'm spending so much money on taxi's it's ridiculous. Looking for a small SUV (because it needs to be high enough to get over the pot holes and huge rainy season puddles). This is possibly the most exciting of the exciting news except that I want the damn thing right now but have to wait to find something first. And yes, apparently cars get paid for in cash as well. lovely.

I think that's it for now. Hope everyone's well.

winter

I have recently returned from two weeks visiting family in Israel. When I left Dar, it was around 40 degrees and when I arrived in Israel it was zero. So, I finally got a little winter in my winter. Definitely did not have enough warm clothing and had a constant supply of tea entering my system to keep from freezing to death (okay, obviously a *slight* exaggeration). Despite the freezing temperatures, it was nice to see everybody. I hadn't been to Israel in almost three years. I also had the chance to meet some new people... my dad's cousin's daughters, a friend's five week old baby and a slight introduction to my soon-to-be new baby cousin who should be joining us in around a month but looks very cute in the ultrasound photos. Though I'm now living geographically a lot closer to Israel, the trip takes forever. The 5-6 hours at the over-airconditioned Addis Ababa airport plus an hour delay in both directions meant I spent a total of around 15 hours on planes and in airports each way.

Back in Dar, it seems that winter has arrived as well. Though it was insanely muggy when I first arrived, the weather since has cooled considerably and it's been cloudy for the last several days. Everyone keeps telling me "the rains are coming" in a slightly disconcerting way that makes me think I need to build an arc. I am finally starting to settle back in to life in Dar. After arriving on Friday, I was whisked directly off to the beach for the weekend. It was a really nice place and a very relaxing weekend. There's something about a hammock that defines vacation for me.

Then it was back to Dar where my room was being used by someone else so I had to move all my stuff down the hall until yesterday when my room opened up again and I had to move everything back up the hall and finally got to unpack and start to settle in.

That's all for the update... will try to post photos soon.

Happy New Year

I think this is the first time since moving to Vancouver that I was away for New Year's Eve. I marked it here in Dar spending the night on the beach with friends. Also spent Christmas Day on the beach. I really like celebrating winter holidays on the beach. Though I would really enjoy a day of snow out here once in a while. The holidays have come and gone but we've certainly had some fun. Chelsea has been here visiting for the last two weeks and we wandered the city a little but mostly just chatted and giggled and played cards and caught up on life. We infused some christmas spirit into the holiday by making home made decorations for the tree. We also got out to Zanzibar for a few days. The highlight of zanzibar was just meeting up with Natasha and Jen and having a mini-IPMP reunion. We also got out to a water park last Sunday which was so much fun. We got there early in the morning and had the place to ourselves for the first couple of hours. We rented these mats that make it so much more pleasant to slide down and I actually slide head first down a steep slide 6 stories high!!! So proud of myself. Anyway, have had a great vacation and don't mind going back to work knowing that in just over a week I'm heading to Israel for two weeks off. yay! holiday photos to come...

Busy Busy Busy week

It's been a surprisingly busy week here. After returning from the camping weekend, I could have used a nice quiet week but with the holidays coming up and so many people heading out of town it ended up being my busiest week out here.

Wednesday night was dinner at Addis in Dar - a high end ehtiopian restaurant - for a friend's birthday. The food was good but even more expensive than I expected... this place was expensive for a restaurant back home. Had a nice time though and went out to Karaoke night at Irish Pub after for a while.

Thursday night we had tickets to a play. It was a pantomime modernized sleeping beauty. Quite entertaining.

I spent much of Friday running around the city with Cathryn trying to find a few items we needed... it's a little frustrating how hard it can be to find items that I could get in ten minutes back home. Fortunately Cathryn has a car so we made pretty good time and were able to check a lot of places. In the afternoon I had a meeting with Amref - where I will be volunteering - to discuss what I can do for them. Getting started is turning out to be a lengthy process but I think it'll be an interesting opportunity. After that we went to see the Golden Compass which I was really looking forward to and was so excited that it was coming out here. The movie was okay... it was fun to see but somehow wasn't as epic as I was hoping. And after that I went out with a friend who was leaving town.

Saturday I can barely remember what I did during that day... I know there was cooking involved. That night we had Christmas dinner at a friends house. Something about a potluck in 30 degree weather just doesn't feel like christmas. Though we did have some fine christmas music going on in the background including Alvin and the Chipmunks!

Sunday and Monday were nice and quiet and tomorrow I have to deal with my resident permit and pick up Chelsea from the airport. Almost vacation time! and this weekend we will head out to Zanzibar for a couple of nights to get a quick taste of the place and meet up with Natasha and Jen who will also be out there this weekend.