What is Itete like you may be wondering? Truth is, its not really much of a happening place, not that I was expecting it to be. This is my typical day: Get up around seven, eat breakfast, write in my journal, study Swahili, eat lunch, study Swahili, go for a short walk to some of the closer houses and talk with the people there, back to the mission house around seven for dinner, then read a little before heading to bed.

The most interesting part of the above is, of course, talking to people. I currently have two ‘Swahili teachers’ Anna is 24 and is in her first year of teaching Swahili at the local primary school. Robat just finished secondary school and is awaiting his exam results to see if he will go to University and-or become a teacher. He also tutors the Standard 7 students here – 8th grade or so – in English. (If they do not do well on their exams this September they do not get to go to secondary school unless their parents can afford to send them to secondary school and since they live in Itete, they can not.) Also present in my afternoon outings are Arabia, who I am helping with her English (a task for which I am very ill-equipped and completely unprepared=, an older woman who always talks to me in Swahili and who I understand, sort of, some of the time, a man in his mid-20s who speaks English rather well and helps me with my Swahili, and a whole cast of kids, some of whom are frightened of me (kuogopa – to fear), one of whom quizzes me on my Swahili.

Although, overall, things are not very exciting here, I must say that it is rather nice to be getting to know some people who are genuinely interested in me as a person rather than just as a potential paycheck. The people here are genuinely very friendly and welcoming and I know that I will stay in touch with some of them after I leave. They spend their afternoons sitting around outside, doing each others hair, talking and weaving. There is a real sense of community in Itete that is missing in the United States. That said I stop outside the same house almost everyday and am worried that I may be imposing, but I think it would be rude to not at least stop and say hi and when I do they always say karibu (welcome)…

As for how my Swahili is going – I am learning. In some respects I feel like I have made a lot of progress. I can say so much more than I could two weeks ago and in some areas (specifically, tenses), my Swahili is already better than my German which I studied for 4 years in high school. But my vocabulary is quite pathetic and I can never figure out what people are talking about. Well, not never, but rarely. And Robat is always giving me political vocab words. So I know that corruption is rushwa, but I still don not know how to say ‘I have.’