These days my main project is guacamole. Most people here have never had it, but I am hoping that after 3 years the village will abound with the two essential ingredients, avocados and lemons, which grow on trees and we are planting those trees.

I also want to start a dictionary of Swanglish words. Some of the words that everyone uses in English (even though you native-English-speakers may never have heard of them) are:

1. Frumpin
2. Piss Kop
3. Watakani
4. Pipe wrange
5. Godown

You might be able to decipher a couple of them. They mean (respectively) frying pan, Peace Corps, watering can, pipe wrench, and the "go down" is, inexplicably, a granary. There are many words that you can just add extra I's to if you want to Swahilify them. A good example is wikiendi (weekend).

This morning before I left my village I had the new experience of going to a grave-building party. My counterpart's mother died a long time ago, but he explained that they still needed to build a tombstone so that nobody will ever build a house on top of her. I arrived at 7:30 in the morning and was greeted by some already-tipsy old ladies who didn't understand when I declined their offers of local brew by saying "it's too early for drinking." Unfortunately I had to leave before any of the grave-building fun could begin. Maybe next time.