On Monday I may have acquired a reputation as a pathological liar when I co-taught my first environmental lesson at the primary school. One girl sitting at the back wore the expression you'd wear if someone told you that in their country fish rode bicycles and spoke Chinese, and many others looked quite skeptical. I noted this just after I had explained hibernation and the fact that it's only around the equator that day and night are roughly 12 hours each year round. I tried to describe how cold it gets in northern regions, but all I could think of was to say "you have to wear loooooooooooots of coats." Most of the kids have never been anywhere outside of the Southern Highlands, have never seen ice or snow, and cannot possibly imagine anything colder than June in our district. I'm lucky to be teaching with a really energetic young teacher, who helps to explain things that I probably didn't grasp fully until I got to college (such as the relationship of earth and sun and its influence on climate). The class/meeting went much better than I expected (much better than attempting to teach English as a third language to a special education class using Swahili as the language of instruction-blog entry Sept. 18 2006), and most of the sixty-one 5th-7th grade students who signed up actually showed up.

Yesterday I had just finished an agroforestry consultation visit and the farmer I was visiting wanted to thank me for coming by giving me some eggs. So he called his 4-year-old son and hoisted him through a small window about 4 feet off the ground; the only entry into the grain storage hut to search for eggs. I realized a little detail about Tanzanian rural life: It is possible to rely on a structure that requires a small child for its use because there always seem to be plenty around! In my experience, the average family has 7 or 8 children, and they are always shocked that I am one of three kids in our family.

Today I'm getting a "shadower." This is a new Peace Corps trainee who comes to my village to see what I do every day. Compared to other Peace Corpses' houses, mine is not set up at all... I crouch next to a bucket to do my dishes and sweep with a grass handle-less broom, for instance. But I made a chocolate fudge cake, hoping to pull an “Amelia Bedelia.”