Well I am still here and alive. I apologize if I haven't responded to your emails; the internet has been very slow the past few times I have been here.

I think if you feel compelled you should write me a letter, because receiving mail during training has been surprisingly efficient. And every week when they give us our mail I always get my hopes up because they call out my name, when it is really the other Laura here that is getting mail.

I had been wanting to write a fantastic, witty, insightful blog entry before coming here, but since I haven't composed one yet, I will leave you with this list.

Random things I enjoy about Tanzania so far:
-Chai breaks every morning
-Passionfruit juice
-Tanzaznian TV, ie soap operas from other countries dubbed in terrible, awkward English
-Meetings with government officials in which everyone is an hour late and the government officials wear flip-flops and answer their cell phones during the meeting
-When I walk home and the neighborhood kids run and jump on me to get hugs (I admittedly am not a huge fan of children, but this always cheers me up)
-That you are supposed to greet everyone you know, and that initial greetings are supposed to last several minutes before the actual conversation starts
-Bucket baths: they conserve a lot of water
-The fact that Whitney Houston, Phil Collins and the Backstreet Boys have been playing on the stereo in the internet cafe