Term Winding Down

It's been a really eventful week, so here goes:

Last Monday I met Joshua Berman (a returned PCV from Nicaragua) and his wife Sutay (likewise an RPCV, but in the Gambia) came through Mwanza for a couple of days. They are in the midst of a very long trip you can read about on Joshua's site. They got in touch with me thanks to this blog and called me up when they got into town. Of course, all Peace Corps Volunteers love visitors, so I was excited to meet them and show them around town. The following day, before they left, they came out to my place for a little while. It was really interesting to talk to the two of them about their Peace Corps experiences, both to compare with my current experience, and also because I'm curious about what it's like when the service ends. I heard from them, as I have heard from others, that returning home after service is very difficult. That doesn't surprise me. I've often heard that "reverse culture shock" is worse than the original culture shock, and this was certainly true when I returned home from Scotland four years ago. Oh well, all that is a long way away. Anyway, Josh and Tay, thanks for stopping by and karibuni tena!

Also last week we finished up classes and this week we have end of term exams. The math exams will be given Wednesday, so after that I will be very busy because one other teacher and I will have to grade all of the school's math exams in just over a week. After that I'll be rushing off for Peace Corps training. It's hard to believe I've effectively finished a quarter of my Peace Corps service. It doesn't seem like almost half a year in Mwanza.

Saturday I went with my buddy Kassim and another teacher with about fifty students to Kinango Secondary School, about an hour and a half east of Mwanza, for our schools to compete in a debate, and sports (volleyball, basketball, and, of course, soccer). The school was in a pretty isolated place and the land there was absolutely beautiful. It was a lot of fun to go out there, and the students seemed pretty happy that I'd come along. It's nice for students to have diversions like this because I feel bad for them being stuck at a boarding school with nothing at all to do on the weekends. That's kind of a recipe for teenage boys to get into trouble. It also gave me a chance to see how luck I am to be at Nsumba. While Kinango is beautiful, it would be very, very hard to get to a town from there and of course there's no running water or electricity. Yeah, I'll take my Peace Corps Lite any day.

I may be able to post again before I leave for Morogoro on June 2, but I may not. If not, it may be three weeks or so until my next post, so don't be alarmed if that's the case.

My final word is I want to say a big congratulations to my brother Kenny "Special K" Clark for graduating with his Master's from Wake Forest a week ago. Also congrats to my best friend Woody Pike and his special lady Michelle, who will be getting married on Saturday. I hate be missing all this stuff, guys. Best wishes to all of you!