I'm Going to Mwanza!

I'm sorry I haven't updated in awhile, especially because a lot has happened since I last posted. The biggest, most exciting news is that I will be in Mwanza. Mwanza is the second largest city in the country and is located right on Lake Victoria. I will be living inside the city limits about eight kilometers south of city center teaching at Nsumbe Secondary School. It is a fairly large school that is in the process of converting to an all-boys boarding school. It also has a very good reputation in Tanzania, so I'm excited at the opportunity. I'll be living in a three-bedroom house on campus that is within walking distance of the lake. My neighborhood is also home to a university and a seminary, so there will be a lot of students around. Mwanza is the point where many Serengeti tours leave and there is also a national park on an island in the lake you would take a ferry to from Mwanza. Supposedly it is an amazing park that has a population of chimpanzees, but is the least visited of all of Tanzania's parks because of the relatively remote location. Mwanza also has some great restaurants including Indian and Chinese places right on the lake. For those of you who may wish to visit, I will have lots of space and you can fly straight into Mwanza. If you're a little squeamish about living the Tanzanian lifestyle, they will soon complete a five-star hotel 2-3 km from my house that will be ridiculously cheap by Western standards. So basically, karibu Mwanza (that means you're welcome in Mwanza)! I am extremely happy about my site.

In other news, Thanksgiving at the Ambassador's place was great, and the food was great, while it lasted. Fortunately I wasn't at the back of the line and I got my fill of turkey and dressing. I did feel pretty bad when I found out it had run out, but there wasn't really anything I could do. I must say though that it was real cool of the ambassador to invite Peace Corps somewhere where there was an open bar.

This past Monday I moved out of my host family's home. I will miss them, especially little Tina, because they were really great to me. Before long I'll post some pictures of them. The day after I left was the swearing in ceremony, so I am now officially a Peace Corps Volunteer. It's a pretty exciting thing. I am so, so glad that training is over and I can get on to my site. Even better, I get a week-long vacation first.

Right now I'm in Dar es Salaam. They are driving us out to our sites and all the cars are out taking other people now so the six of us in the lake region have to wait for them to return. Fortunately PC is covering our living expenses while we're here. Yesterday we went to a beautiful beach resort outside of town and stayed in these great huts right on the beach for $8 a person. They also had a bar and great food. The beach was absolutely beautiful and the water was great. We had a blast, but it's going to get even better because today we got permission from the country director to go to Zanzibar! We don't need to be back here at the PC office until Thursday, so we're going to take the ferry out to Zanzibar for a few days. If you don't know anything about Zanzibar, look it up on the web. It is an amazingly beautiful and exotic island off the coast of Tanzania. Zanzibar was briefly an independent country before it joined with Tanganyika in 1964 to form Tanzania. A lot of PCVs take vacations out there and it sounds pretty amazing. Since over land I am about 2-3 days away from Dar where you take the ferry out there, it will be pretty difficult to make the journey out there later. I'm glad I have the chance now.

Sorry this jumped around a lot, but a lot has happened. I'll try to post about Zanzibar and first impressions of Mwanza ASAP. I should arrive in Mwanza on the 10th or the 11th. And seriously, anyone's welcome to come. I am not free to travel during school, but I am always free to have visitors for up to one month.