I keep forgetting to post the rest of these, so here they all are at once. Sorry for the long read. Enjoy! -Gonder

Our third and final stop was in Gonder. Gonder has been called the Camelot of Africa because of its castles. The castles look very similar to European castles. Why castles here? Because it too was once the seat of the monarchy. All three cities on our tour were once seats of power in Ethiopia. A special church in Gonder was constructed to house the Ark of the Covenant, but at some point in time it was decided not to move it after all. It was here that we ran into a problem with the locals. On several occasions we hired small, three-wheeled "golf carts" called tuk-tuks to go from one place in the city to another. The locals seem to think that if a foreigner is paying for the tuk-tuk then they can get a free lifti. We soon caught on to their scheme and started paying less when this happened or demanded immediately that they foot some of the bill. In most cases the free-rider quickly got off. Also in Gonder was the first bank that accepted my Visa card - at last I could pay off my debt to J and S! -Addis Ababa

Back in Addis Ababa we grabbed some delicious coffee. Oh, did I mention that Ethiopia has a wonderful coffee ceremony? Yes, an entire ceremony just for drinking coffee! The place we got the coffee was called Kaldi's Coffee. The word on the street is that this woman Kaldi tried to purchase a Starbuck's franchise. It was only fitting since Starbucks is a major customer of Ethiopian coffee. They refused her. So she stole logo, branded it with her name, increased the offerings on the menu to include delicious french fries (no sorry soggy chipsi here!), ice cream, and other tasty treats. She is doing a BOOMING business. On an escapade to the market, billed as the largest open air market in sub-Saharan Africa but really it isn't, three times I was the subject of an attempted pickpocketing. Smarter than the average pickpocketer though, I put all of the few things I had into a zippered pocket and left the backpack at home. FOILED!!! They were pretty dumb pickpocketers though and not very adept. It was more annoying than anything. The funny thing was that J and S were behind me a few steps in each case, they had more valuables than I did, and no one tried to pickpocket them! I saw J and S off at the airport and then met up with a friend from my former job in the States. She is working in Addis as a support person to the staff at SIL (SIL does translation and linguistic work). She took me to a wonderful restaurant where they feature traditional dancing and skits from all over Ethiopia. Oh, and the food was magnificent as well. I love Ethiopian food. And Ethiopia was very cheap; in a week of traveling through the country I didn't spend more than 300 dollars! (minus the internal air ticket)

-Dubai

Since Dubai is the talk of the town these with their crazy development projects (Burj Al-Arab, The World Islands, Palm Jumeirah, Palm Deira, Tallest building in the world, indoor ski slope) I thought I might as well see it for myself. So my itinerary took me from Addis Ababa to Nairobi (saving 200 bucks to go south before going north!) then to Dubai. I cannot recommend Kenya airlines; the service was good but hardware less then great. Dubai was a mind trip after living in a developing country and then traveling through a developing country. Dubai is like San Diego - except richer, cleaner, better customer service, and people are nicer. The great American chains are all there too - Cinnabon, Krispy Kreme, Starbucks, McDonald's, Speedy's (Carl's Jr), Burger King, and more. It isn't great for pedestrians though. There is a major highway transecting the city parallel to the beach. The Mall of the Emirates is on the side further from the beach, but to get there you must be in a car - there are no pedestrian walkways to cross it. Not wanting to spend 10 bucks just to cross the dang thing in a taxi, I finally found a bus to take me there for just 75 cents. It took longer, but I didn't have anything else to do. Yes, I saw the indoor ski area. No, I did not go inside because they charge for that pleasure. I did, however, have Haagen-Daas and watch a movie. (I saw Twilight. No one warned me it was a teenage vampire love story.) When I first was exploring the city, I got on a bus and just stayed on it until I reached the end of the route. I was walking around a shopping complex still partially under construction and ran into a security guard who though I was lost. After telling her I was just exploring (I was attracted to the second story view of the beach and the Palm Jumeirah), we had a short conversation in swahili because she was from Kenya. She was very pleasantly surprised that I knew it, but since she was from Kenya she didn't seem very keen on continuing in Swahili. Looking out at the Palm Jumeirah from the shore, you get a better idea of just how huge a construction project it is. It is awe inspiring to see the huge luxury resorts out at the end and you know that they are two miles away. All of that rock and sand had to be placed there. And they are building an even larger one called the Palm Deira! Find it on Google Maps. -Doha

After spending 2 days in Dubai I finally caught my flight home with a small layover in Doha, Qatar. In the airport at Doha I had my first root beer in more than two years - there was an A&W franchise in the airport! Qatar airlines has great, amazing service. On my non-stop flight between Doha and Washington DC I had two full meals, complete with a small bottle of wine. Plus there were sandwiches and drinks between meals. The entertainment screens were loaded with plenty of movies, tv shows, games, and music - a good thing since the flight was thirteen hours! The route took us over Iraq, Turkey, Russia, Scandinavia, Iceland, Greenland, and Canada. Because of the extreme northern route, we hovered in sunset twilight for about five hours of the flight. -Portland Rentry

My luck with travel stopped at DC however. After arriving I discovered that Southwest (for my next flight) doesn't "do" transfers with other airlines. And because my flight wasn't for twelve hours I couldn't check my luggage (stupid TSA. I hope Obama does away with them). So if you are traveling internationally, do not connect with Southwest. Fortunately (or unfortunately for both of us) there was another traveler in a similar predicament with United. So we grabbed a light meal (and I had my first non-lager since I left) and sat up through the night looking at each other's pictures and comparing experiences. She had come from Nepal where she works with an NGO trying to find markets for handicrafts. I was also getting antsy about the weather. As it turned out, I was safe by about 36 hours. In seven flights (Dar es Salaam--> Addis Ababa--> Nairobi--> Dubai--> Doha--> DC--> Chicago--> Portland) on four carriers (Ethiopia, Kenya, Qatar, Southwest) through six countries (Tanzania, Ethiopia, Kenya, UAE, Qatar, US), it was Southwest who lost one of my bags. I blame TSA though; at Dulles airport in DC, you, the passenger, are the one who must carry your bags from check-in to TSA. I had put my large backpack on the ground amidst all the other luggage, but I put my smaller duffel on a chair sitting next to all the luggage. I got it back the next day though. In Portland I was greeted by a wonderful site: SNOW!!! and ice. Lot's of ice. Even though I didn't have the proper cold weather clothes, I happily suffered through it.

-Axum The following day we flew to our second stop - Axum. Axum, or Ahksum, was the supposed residence of the Queen of Sheba. There is an old reservoir bearing her name which is still used by people to fetch (Yes, fetch, where do you think we were? This is a developing country and many people have no plumbing or electricity.) water. The big thing in Axum is to view the single-piece, stone stellae. These things are huge and were transported from tens of kilometers away in an age without diesel engines. At the onset of World War II Mussolini’s troops briefly over-ran Ethiopia and captured (ransacked) the city of Axum. The troops broke one of the largest still standing stella into three pieces and pilfered it away to Rome. Once in Rome, Mussolini had it erected in St. Peter's Square as a glorious monument to the powerful nation of Italy. It stood there until just a few years ago when Italy decided to return it in a good-will gesture to Ethiopia. The return and resurrection of the stella coincides with Ethiopia's millennial celebration. Ethiopia uses a calendar based on the Coptic calendar which figures the date of the birth of Christ to a later year then the Western European calendar. Also in Axum is supposed home of the Ark of the Covenant. Since the Orthodox Church of Ethiopia (once a part of the Coptic church) won't let any scholars verify its presence, it's a case of he said, he said (only men are priests). The topography and climate of Axum is much like central Oregon, especially Bend, but without the snow.

-LalibellaJ, S, and I chose to fly to our three destinations instead of taking the bus by land. Hey! It's a big country half twice the size of Texas without the paved roads! So to avoid spending 4 of our 8 days just staying on a bus (we spent plenty of time on buses and Tanzania so we were just, "Ehh" to the buses) we flew. First up was Lalibella, home to some very large rock cut churches. These churches were carved into the side of a mountain. It was very impressive. There are actually 11 different churches. Some were carved completely freestanding with four walls and a roof. Some were simple carved rooms into rock walls. We also visited the local market, you know, to compare it with what we were accustomed to in Tanzania. It was not surprisingly very similar. There were a lot more spices though, something Tanzania needs more of. And speaking of spices, the food was wonderful. Ethiopia was fasting from meat during our time there, but we discovered we really liked the various vegetables with the thin, pancake-like bread called njira and a sauce made of mashed yellow lentils (shiro). We found a wonderful little local joint where it was only 6 birr per meal, but we only needed 2 meals for the three of us. Add a 3 birr soda and a 1 birr tea or coffee, and lunch came out to just 8 birr each. But get this - the conversion rate was 10 birr to the dollar! Our hotel was equally cheap at just 40 birr per person (common shower and toilet). We arrived in Lalibella on a Saturday and had all of Sunday for sight seeing. We started the morning off bright and early before sunrise so that we could catch the Sunday church services. We walked the couple kilometers from our hotel to the rock cut churches listening to the call to prayer (what a nice change from the Muslim call to prayer!). Before the sermon, people seek out priests for blessing which involves kissing and touching ornate gold and silver crosses. During the blessing time there is drumming and singing. Shoes are removed before going into the churches, however it is acceptable to carry them inside and stash them under a bench. Many people kiss the doorstep and/or the doorways. People wear white sheets and wrap them in such a way that the fabric crosses in front of them. During the singing and preaching people are standing or sitting wherever they wish because the service is broadcast over loudspeakers. Priests often use very colorful cloth umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun and rain. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable as he was a deacon before he married.

On to some lighter things! On 5 December S, J, and I flew to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to start a week of sightseeing. J hooked us up with a friend of a friend living in Addis so we had a free couch and mattress to crash on. Free. I like the sound of that! I'd sleep on the plain floor if it were free. At first Addis makes you think that they are wealthier than Tanzania - more cars, a DIVIDED HIGHWAY with ONRAMPS! Right away I ran into an issue with money. I had changed some Tanzanian Shillings into American dollars, but not that much. This was supposed to be partly for safety reasons - less cash on hand means less money could be potentially stolen. Also, it is expensive to keep changing money into other currencies because everyone wants their cut. By the time I received Ethiopian birr my cash would have gone from dollars to shillings (ATM) to dollars (money changer) to birr (money changer). I naturally wanted to skip the two middle men. In my time in Tanzania my own small podunk town went from one bank without ATM to two banks WITH ATMs one of which accepted VISA. Also, during my trip to Zambia there was no problem with ATMs. So I assumed Ethiopia was probably similar, and we were going to tourist hotspots where banking is usually excellent. WRONG! My first clue was at the international airport where I couldn't use my VISA or Mastercard in the ATM or at the money changer! Tomorrow: Lalibella

This is the first of ten parts to conclude my Peace Corps experience. I will try to post one new part each day so that you don’t have a novel to read. I'm safely back in the states now and enjoyed a very Merry Christmas with my Mother and Aunt and Uncle. I want to thank everyone who prayed for me, sent good wishes, and sent letters and packages. I'd be happy to sit down and talk about my experience with you and show you pictures, but unless you want a two hour slide show, give me a couple months to get my pictures organized and pared down. Following is an account of my travels since leaving my home in Korogwe Tanzania. On my last day in Korogwe, I woke up very early to hike to the top of a small hill overlooking the town to watch the sun rise. It's a very beautiful time of day and peaceful. I had told my students that they were welcome to join me and to meet me in front of the college at 5:30. I was disappointed that none were waiting for me. The sun waits for no man so my friend and I went to the hill to watch the sun rise. It was indeed beautiful as always. On our return we met one of the students who I had expected to join us earlier. It turns out that he was a little late and had tried to find us but had failed. However, he returned with us to my house to wait for my eventual departure. He was shortly joined by another student. These two students stayed with me and went on errands for me and with me throughout the morning and escorted me to the bus at 2:30 in the afternoon! -Dar es Salaam I left my home in Korogwe on 1 December heading for a short stay in Dar es Salaam. In Dar es Salaam I was poked and prodded by the nurse at Peace Corps to determine my health status - prognosis is good. I also had miscellaneous paper work to finish (bureaucrats - gotta look good for Washington!) and my exit interviews. In an exit interview, the fatal mistake of the interviewer was to ask, "What could we do better?" So I told her - her being the country director, aka the head honcho of Peace Corps Tanzania. Things got icy very fast. It was only mild criticism too; she got completely bent out of shape over it. Maybe because she was new (only arrived a few weeks before). My criticism with Peace Corps is this: they don't truly support the volunteers. The health care is touted as such a huge benefit, but in reality it is not very good. They are not required to have a doctor on staff so we had Nurse Practitioners. One of these argued with western trained doctors about diagnoses! They also prescribed medicine without consulting charts. I would describe the health care as adequate, but not superior. As an organization, Peace Corps treats "volunteers" like a fraternity on misbehavior suspension. While other organizations similar to Peace Corps have a hostel for their volunteers to stay in Dar es Salaam, Peace Corps does not. This is a world wide Peace Corps thing with exceptions where Peace Corps feels the other options are unsafe. But I ask why? Also, the other volunteer organizations are compensated three, four, and even five times as much as Peace Corps volunteers. Why not the "elite" organization of Peace Corps? If you adjust into today’s dollars the end of service compensation of volunteers from 1961, that would be more than 900 dollars per month of service; today volunteers receive a paltry 225 per month. One of the guiding principles of the designers of the Peace Corps program in the 60s was that volunteers, who all have a college education, should be compensated about the same as a low level enlisted serviceman not serving in a war (as according to one of Peace Corps own pieces of literature). Remember that enlisted servicemen typically only have high school education. I think it is very fair that we be compensated about the same, plus some money for college loan repayment. It is degrading that Peace Corps basically expects college graduates in their mid to late twenties to move back in with mom and dad after their Peace Corps service. Tomorrow: Ethiopia

Ethiopia is all wrapped up. So is Dubai. Now I'm waiting in Doha for my flight to Dulles (free internet!). Dubai is freaky. Think San Diego without any trash along the roads, no beggars, but everything is Arabic and English. I had Cinnabon, Haagen-Daas, Carl's Jr (okay, Speedy's, but dang close), and could have had McD's, Burger King, and more. And here in Doha I had A&W root beer! Assuming the bad weather isn't a big problem, I'll be home in 24 hours!

After a week of delicious Ethiopian food, including two dishes of raw meat (more later), I am off soon to Dubai! Communication in Ethiopia is a bit behind the reset of the develop(ing) world and I am looking forward to getting back to some modern civilization. Yes, even Tanzania has better communication infrastructure. And better banking. But it has been great to see some Christian history firsthand. Here's to building a better Ethiopia, Cheers, Me.

J and S and I have been traveling through Ethiopia since Saturday now and have been having a blast. First up was Lalibella - home of the stone carved churches. Churches, carved out of solid rock. Amazing. Now we are in Axum, home of the Axumite kingdom. Next up is Gondar. I'll tell more about them when I get some better internet access.

We have been shocked that Ethiopia has not come as far as Tanzania in getting access to ATM cards. Even in my podunk town of Korogwe I had an ATM for my bank plus a new bank was built with a VISA ATM - all while I was living there! That's progress my friends. It's as if Ethiopia does not WANT travelers to spend money in this country. So I've been scabbing off of J and S until we get back to Addis where I will be able to get to a VISA ATM. Not even the international airport had a VISA machine!!!! Also, it costs 30 bucks for a cell phone line; contrast that with Tanzania where it is just 1 buck! Also the internet is three times the cost of Tanzania. The weird thing is that Ethiopia seems to be just as poor as Tanzania.

As always, the kids are cute here. I'll show you pics when I get back home. Oh, and Ethiopian food. AWESOME!!! And the music is more pleasing to me than Bongo flava. People actually sing! (Bongo flava is like hip hop rap from America.) The coffee is strong and served with an incense to heighten the senses (and keep flies away).

I'm missing my students already. When I left Korogwe, two students stayed with me all day from 7 in the morning until I left at 2 in the afternoon. A third student came shortly before I got on the bus also.

In exactly 8 weeks I will be home in America! That’s less than two months! Holy CRAP! I’ve got a lot of stuff to do before I can leave. The good news is that my school finally gave me the dates for our end of year exams (starting Nov 10). It’s actually a couple weeks earlier than I expected so now I have even LESS time to teach my intended topics! I can never win in this system. I’ll be glad to return to a more sane* society. (I’ll let you know how THAT turned out in January =) ) *Disclaimer – When I say sane, I simply mean more organized. I hate to imply that Tanzania and Tanzanians are completely insane, because I think maybe American’s have them beat on a few issues such as spending time with friends extemporaneously.

Here is a great blog keeping people up to date on the actual science behind global warming.

http://www.wattsupwiththat.com

It's now been a full two years since I've come to Africa. In that time I've seen a great deal of the country from the north to the south and east to west. I've crossed the country by road and rail, plus the whole of Zambia (to see Victoria Falls). But the time is drawing to a close and I am very excited to be coming home soon! I have about 62 days remaining in Tanzania, then a week in Ethiopia, then two days in Dubai, one day to fly to the states and another day to fly across the states to P-town. Date of arrival: Thursday 18 December! I'll see you soon!

"Cruel Miracles" by Orson Scott Card. Not exactly light reading material, but a fast read nonetheless. A collection of half a dozen short stories from the author of "Ender's Game" and "Memory of Earth." The stories all focus on science fiction with a religious bent examining not particular religions, but religious attitude in general. Some are thought provoking and would be great for a youth discussion group.

Breaking away from my food slant, I finally read "The Road to Hell: The ravaging effects of foreign aid and international charity" by Michael Maren. Just as most people love to read a tell-all book, I was dying for some juicy gossip into foreign aid. But to be honest, there wasn't as much tell-all as I was hoping for. What this book is about is how the US and UN really screwed up Somalia in the 1980s and 1990s through poor cold-war policies, food-aid, and not really caring for the Somalis. There are only two NGOs scrutinized (CARE and Save The Children). Yes, they are sleazy at times, but the US government, through USAID, was aiding, abetting, and providing contracts to these organizations to distribute food to a country that could more or less feed itself.
It is a great book for a case study on international aid gone wrong in a certain political context, but it still leaves me searching for a book with a more global view of international aid. I'd really like to read a book that can highlight failed cases AND successful cases.
Also, the book was printed in 1997, so naturally I'd like to see an update to see what has happened over the last decade.
Bottom line - great for a viewpoint on how charities like CARE and Save the Children really get their operating money and how destructive political policies can be to a country.

The Omnivore's Dilemma - Michael Pollan

Adding even more to my food awareness, the latest is The Omnivore's Dilemma. Author Michael Pollan follows the food chain to four different meals each produced from a different ethical standpoint on food. The last one sounded the tastiest to me. Books like this are continuing to push me into locavorism and an interest in returning to get a master's or Ph.D. in Ecology of some sort (I am still researching that) with a focus on sustainable agriculture and the links to healthy hydrology (that would be lakes and rivers). Enough about me, the book is great. If you are a foodie, you must read it.

(If you have a slow internet connection and don't like flash movies and banner ads, use the flashblock plugin in Firefox!)

Yeah!!!! It finally uploaded! Sorry for the wait (as always) - Africa is special in many ways, including the ability for teaching patience (or rather, the ability to point out to you multiple times every day that you have practically zero amount of it).

This is the video of myself on a recent trip to Zambia. The comparison between Tanzania and Zambia is difficult for me to make because I was only there for one week on one of the most highly used transit corridors. Transit corridors don't let you see the true reality of the country because wealth tends to aggregate near them. Without traveling to more remote parts of the country, I can't say much. But from what I did see, my best educated guess is that Zambia is doing better than Tanzania. I didn't see kids or adults walking around barefoot and the clothes were in a little bit better condition. There were more chain stores (zambeef, zamchick, and zamdairy were everywhere). On the other hand, the CIA lists the poverty rate in Tanzania at 36% in 2002, but a whopping 86% in Zambia in 1993. I wish the CIA had updated statistics for both countries. In other measures, statistically Zambia is worse than Tanzania:

Gini (a measure of income disparity): TZ:34.6 (2000-01) ; Zam:42.1 (2002-03) (higher is worse)

GNP per person: TZ: US$1100 (2007) ; Zam: US$1000 (2005)

(above from wikipedia)

HIV rate: TZ 5.4% ; Zam: 15.2% (http://www.avert.org/subaadults.htm)

So what do all these statistics mean? It means that Zambia does a hell of a job protecting tourists from seeing poverty.

So the wrap-up: The falls were cool! Seeing the only white rhino in Zambia was...disturbing because this magnificent animal might only exist in zoos by the middle of the century. The train was slow (bring hand sanitizer, those bathrooms are disgusting and water wasn't always available) but the food was decent and at decent prices contrary to what others have said. The Livingstone Museum needs some cash and an enthusiastic curator to spiff up the displays. Best. Pizza. In. Africa. (Funky Monkey). Jolly Boys was a chill place to stay (highly recommended).

Arghhh!!! I hate Africa internet. I've been trying for an hour and a half to upload this stupid video and I've still failed. I guess I'll have to try again another day.

READ THIS BOOK! Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin is the story of Greg’s high altitude adventures in the Pakistani Himalayas building schools. As I have found living in Tanzania, where half of my neighbors and coworkers and friends are Muslim, not all Muslims are radicals. This book provides great insight into a culture largely foreign to most of you, my American audience. Indeed, the Muslims I know here in Tanzania are some of the most warm-hearted, giving people I know. I assign this book three arbitrarily assigned stars out of two.

I know, I know. I said I wasn’t into fiction any more, but sometimes you just get a craving. The Memory of Earth by Orson Scott Card (author of Ender’s Game, another highly recommended novel) is about the future of humanity. In Card’s vision of the future, 20 million years from now, humanity had almost destroyed itself, but some long-sighted survivalists sent some people off to a new planet they called Harmony. If you don’t like spoilers, don’t read the back cover of the book, or the teaser inside the book on the first page. I probably would have enjoyed the book more had I not been able to predict what MUST happen based on those. It’s a so-so novel, but not a dud. Enjoyable reading for a weekend beach trip. 5 random check marks out of 8.

The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck, is the story of a peasant farmer in rural China in the late 1800’s to early 1900s. It opens with Wang Lung going to town to pick up his wife, and without any ceremony, from that day forward are married. He accrues wealth and eventually purchases all of the land once owned by the very family he bought (yes, bought) his wife from. It is a well written story about life in pre-industrial rural China. Highly recommended.

Children of Hurin by JRR Tolkien is the latest book to be published posthumously in the Lord of the Rings, Middle Earth Fantasy series. It was enjoyable, and it is nice to see continuity in imaginary worlds. This story follows the Turin, son of Hurin, during the First Age of Middle Earth (the Lord of the Rings occurs in the Third Age) and his struggle against the Dark Lord Morgoth. In the Lord of the Rings, Sauron is the enemy, but in this story, Sauron is never mentioned and is indeed just an officer to Morgoth. I would recommend it to anyone who liked Lord of the Rings, but you can read this book without knowing anything else in the series. You might find yourself a bit confused by all of the names, but don't let that stop you from enjoying it!

As much as I appreciate everyone worrying about me here in Tanzania, I have to say that I am probably the least worried.My mother (and a host of others) worries that I don't get enough food.

My father worries that my mephaquine will cause liver damage.

My Aunt's and Uncle's are worried that I will get some strange disease.

Peace Corps worries that I will randomly walk out of my village and never be heard from again. They also worry that I will fall off my bike and thus require that I wear my bicycle helmet, although, curiously enough, they won't give me a bell to warn people to get out of the way. Of course, the only time I have fallen off my bike has been directly due to the fact that I did NOT have a bell and ran into someone who zigged when I did. Good thing I was wearing my helmet.

My neighbors worry I don't leave my outside lights on at all hours of the night to "protect" me against breakins (I figure their lights are bright enough to see my house from the moon).

Random mama's are worried that I will be attacked by either a large snake or a leopard which supposedly lives on the hill beside my house where I occasionally hike. The leopard is as likely as being attacked by a mountain lion/cougar in Oregon while running in downtown Roseburg at two in the afternoon.

The only thing I worry about is finishing the syllabus and hoping my students pass their national exams!

An interesting article comparing crowd wisdom to the industrial revolution and how we use our free time:

http://www.herecomeseverybody.org/2008/04/looking-for-the-mouse.html

An interesting article about the RIAA:

http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/08_18/b4082042959954.htm

So my latest book obviously identifies me as a science geek. To be truthful, I was disappointed in the Star Trek Science Logs by Andre Bormanis. I was hoping for something a little more on the cutting edge of theoretical physics and technology. The book attempts to provide some logical scientific basis for the various devices and physics which the TV shows use. Unfortunately, most of the book was spent on Xenobiology (studying the biology of aliens), and I just wasn't too interested in that. It would get a 2.5/5 stars if I actually gave award stars to the books I have read.

I just devoured Animal, Vegetable, Mineral by Barbara Kingsolver. Literally, I read it in a week. It follows the story of a family who chooses to buy only locally grown foods for one entire year. It helps that they live on a farm. Although, if you're like me and you don't particularly yearn for long days toiling in the garden, you could just shop your local farmer's market. This is yet another in a series of books I am reading about food - next in line is The Omnivore's Dilemma. Animal, Vegetable, Mineral is a must read for anyone who has their own garden or is interested in improving their quality of life through improving their food.

"Talk to the Hand" by Lynne Truss is a short little take on the rudeness of modern society. I didn't find it quite as entertaining as her first book "Eats, Shoots & Leaves," but it is a pleasant, light read. Unlike my last book about Physics, this book is recommended for all.

With this post I am pleased to announce a new endeavor by yours truly to write a short book review whenever I finish a book.

I recently finished off "The Character of Physical Law" by Richard Feynman. It is not a book written for writing's sake, but rather a transcript of a series of lectures he gave at Cornell University. He discusses the process of discovering new laws, what makes a law, and why not all theories are laws. You don't necessarily need a Ph.D. in a scientific field, but it might help. This is a book for science enthusiasts. If your favorite reading material comes in Us and People, this book probably isn't for you. But if you enjoy New Scientist or Physical Review Letters, then go for it!

ATTENTION GOOGLE CODE MONKEYS:

You might think you are SOOOOO smart to do IP Geolocating and then using the language associated with that language. BUT HAVE YOU EVER STOPPED TO THINK THAT MAYBE NOT EVERYONE WHO USES THAT IP IS ACTUALLY IN THAT COUNTRY? I'm not using onion routers or other means to skirt through multiple countries. I'm using a satellite connection in Africa which joins the rest of the net in Israel. I don't speak Hebrew and I sure as heck can't read it. There MUST be an easy way available at the top of all google related pages to switch languages. Better yet, why not use some of that fancy language translation software to detect the language used on the page and use THAT as your clue instead of the IP address which you SHOULD KNOW CAN BE EASILY MANIPULATED! If the blog is in Hebrew, fine, great, use Hebrew everywhere, but my blog has ZERO HEBREW! Just ENGLISH! Just about everyone who uses the internet knows enough English to navigate - make THAT your default language.

This last week I went to my first funeral since coming to Tanzania. The deceased was one of my students. Some have said that she died of malaria (while most of the time it is little more of a nuisance than the flu, it can enter the brain and can become deadly, but that is rare). One thing that struck me was how quick they progressed to the funeral. Thecla (pronounced Tekla) died either Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, and the funeral was held on Thursday.
I packed into the college's Land Cruiser with my Headmaster, five other teachers, and ten students (plus the driver). We went up into the mountains to the village she was from (a two hour trip over some sketchy roads). At the village the local women were dressed in their very colorful Kangas and the men in pants and collared shirts. There was a group from the church singing hymns while the women cried. The funeral service was held outside where the local priest read some passages from the Bible, sang some hymns, and prayed. Then the whole group went up on the mountainside and laid the coffin in the ground, the priest said some more benedictions, and then they covered the coffin with soil. Very fast. Arguments even broke out between men who were eager to help bury the coffin.
I have only included the pictures in the email and not on my blog.
Most of my teachers and other Tanzanians prefer to live in towns and cities. I argue that village life is quite appealing as well. One of their principle arguments is the access to health care in the towns and cities, but in this case it did no good - Thecla died in the hospital. She was a good student who scored rather high marks on my first test and she is sorely missed by her classmates. But in a country where the life expectancy is a meager 45 years, grief and death are a part of everyday life.

See, the world isn't going to hell in a handbasket!

The world's silver lining | Somewhere over the rainbow | Economist.com

As I promised, here is the story of my trip to a Maasai village.

Now that school is out for the between school year break (the school year starts in January), my mom has come to see me, bring me many wonderful goodies, and tour some of the country. I had to go up to Arusha a couple days early to sort out payment for part of our Safari. I know two people in Arusha: Megan at YWAM and Tait from Peace Corps. Megan and her fiancé had left Arusha that morning to visit his family in Zimbabwe, and Tait was off climbing Mt. Meru (not quite as high as Kilimanjaro). So what was I to do? I called up Lemiray to see if he wanted to meet me in town. Of course he did. But he was leaving to go to his village to try to secure funds for this new school year. I knew that what I had to do would only take a small part of the next morning; without anything else to do in Arusha, I asked if I could go with him to his village.

The next morning we did what I needed to do and some things he needed to do. Then we took off for his village near the Kilimanjaro airport. (Conveniently located to pick up mom.) Once we got to the airport, we had to walk completely around it to get to his village – a dusty two hour jaunt around one end of the runway and no public transport. The area is a lot like Eastern Oregon: high desert.

He pointed out the place where he grew up and told me a little more about himself. We passed his family's old house (which seems to be abandoned) and traveled on, greeting many people as we passed and giving homemade sugar cookies to the children. Finally we reached the houses of one of the village leaders. He has two houses because a Maasai man must give each of his wives their own house. He is also building an even larger one (portelling a third wife? Who knows? I'm sure he hopes so!). We sat for a long time in his unfinished house watching the sun set and drinking some chai (tea with milk and spices) while I answered their questions about America as best I could with my limited Swahili (thus fulfilling goal one of Peace Corps).

After dark they brought in a huge pile of roasted sheep meat for five or six of us to share. As is the tradition of the Maasai, the sheep was slaughtered and cooked by the young men. If a woman so much as looks at the meat, the young men (my friend Lemi included) are not to eat it. Lemi explained that this was to force the young men to gather together for meals and to be friends with each other. After I had eaten my fill, the village leader was apparently not satisfied that I had eaten enough, because he had his wife cook the liver. Since I was the guest, and he is no longer a young Maasai, we were the only ones to eat it. I was as stuffed as Santa Claus after his Christmas rounds of Milk and Cookies.

The exciting part about the sheep wasn't that it was just food. You should understand that the Maasai only kill an animal for special occasions. They truly treated me as an honored guest by serving a sheep for dinner.

That night the village leader gave his bed to me and Lemi while he slept on couch cushions in his first wife's room. His second wife has her own little house.

The next morning we went out to see Lemi's grandmother. We finally reached her little two-room, mud-walled house which she shares with a daughter and two grandchildren. Lemi's grandmother and aunt wept for some five or ten minutes after seeing him. After the tears had subsided, I politely offered our gift of a kilo of sugar and a "Takwenya" (a greeting to women). Lemi recounted his adventures of the big city of Arusha and education while I drank some boiling hot tea. Before we left Lemi's grandmother gave me a present of a beaded cross Maasai necklace which I am sure was her very own.

On the way back to the house where we stayed, we had to stop for more tea with some more extended family members. Once we arrived at the house, we were given even more tea and bread while the men prepared the leftover sheep meat and a soup made from the blood and some milk. Before you get squeamy (like I did), I'll tell you that I did NOT try the soup, but maybe next time I will be brave enough to try it. Finally the time came where I had to waddle over the dusty landscape back to the airport to meet mom.

Before I leave off, I would like to tell you a little about Lemi's story.

I met Lemiray at the YWAM base in Arusha where my friend Megan is living. I was traveling through after my Thanksgiving visit at Singida. Lemiray, who was staying at the base for a short time participating in an English course, had come to ask Megan for some help with a presentation he was doing about America. The next morning we had breakfast before I left to catch a bus back home. He patiently answered many of my questions about Maasai practices.

His parents had died a few years back, and the wealth from his father went to his oldest son (not Lemi). This brother pissed away the wealth with alcohol (such a common story isn't it?) and parties leaving nothing left for the three other wives and all the children for education and other things. Yes, that was three other wives. Maasai often take more than one wife.

When Lemi got a little older, he went to Arusha to work as a guard. That didn't pay very much, but he discovered that he really wanted to go to school and learn English, but he didn't make nearly enough money to go to school. He moved back to his village and tended cattle. I'm not sure when, but a few years ago some of Lemi's brothers decided that he should give up his dream of school and move back to the village, get a wife or two, and tend cattle. They even paid the dowry for a wife for him. Lemi did not want a wife just yet as he was trying to go to school. Lemi tried to return his "wife" to her father, but was told that he had to take it up with his own family. He tried to talk with his brothers, but instead of trying to help and encourage him they beat him up. He has scars which still hurt where they stuck sticks into him and beat him.

One day a former primary school classmate was on a broken down bus near where Lemi was tending his cattle. He invited Lemi back to his home in Arusha. This is the part where good things happened, and Lemi found a way to go to school and live with this friend's family for free.

Since he is past the age to go to a normal secondary school, the cheapest option for him is to attend a special program which teaches forms 1 and 2 the first year, 3 and 4 the second year, and 5 and 6 the third year. It is kind of like a GED program. But this program costs 300,000 per year plus fees for exams at about 20,000 per year. At the current exchange rate this is 300 dollars. But the funding from last year is not able to fund him this year. He has already found 200,000. I tell you this so that you can get an idea of what education here costs, both financially and emotionally. I am not asking you to send money. I have already decided that I will help my friend finish his education myself. Before I left the states I saved some money and am able to do this, so don’t worry. If you would like to sponsor a student in Tanzania, let me know. There are organizations which allow you to donate from the states and get a tax deduction.

In one of my recent emails I mentioned that I have become a bit jaded toward many charitable organizations. That statement was a bit rash, and the thought was not very well fleshed out. Please allow me to explain a bit more. The topic of wells is a bit complicated. First, water, clean water at that, is very important. I'm all for water. I love water. I like to drink it, bathe in it, swim in it, grow crops with it, and wash my clothes in it. And I'm all for wells too. Wells are a great way to get all that water I'm so fond of. The problem comes when you pump water into a semi-arid landscape that isn't used to water. Creating a little oasis in such a place has in the past attracted more people to that place. These people bring their goats, sheep, and cows to the surrounding area. The animals eat all the available vegetation, the already fragile topsoil dries up, and, without those plants to break up the wind and their roots to anchor the soil, the wind blows away the topsoil creating a brand new desert. Then the people don't have any way to support their animals, they haven't learned any new skills to survive, and thus are forced to move from the place.

Contrast that scenario with this one. The landscape receives enough rain to support an already vibrant plant ecosystem. Unfortunately, surface water has been contaminated. A well is dug to provide clean water suitable for boiling and then drinking. Now, in this second case, animals could also overgraze the area, but because it already has more rain, the plants recover much more quickly. The problem isn't the well; the problem is the densification of people who are trying to live without any modification to their lifestyles.

This problem as I have laid it out is oversimplified, and the problems and the answers are both very complicated. My concern is that many aid organizations, especially smaller ones, tend to overlook many of the long term consequences of their actions. I mentioned World Vision in particular. I think that many of the things World Vision does are extremely helpful: food stuffs to displaced peoples, wells (when constructed in the right circumstances), AIDS relief, orphan care, plus more.

But let’s also look at the case of education in Tanzania. In the next five or ten years Tanzania wants to build 2500 new secondary schools. With about 25 teacher training colleges graduating about 100 new teachers each year, that is only one teacher each year for each of those secondary schools with 120 to 200 students per grade level. That might be okay if the teachers would stay teachers, but many young teachers see teaching as a step toward university or something else. After university, very few return to teaching. This high attrition rate is wreaking havoc on the schools Tanzania already has. Instead of focusing on building new schools it already cannot afford (much less maintain with adequate supplies and teachers), it should be focusing on improving the quality of the education in the schools it has on hand. And can you guess where the money for those new schools is going to come from? That's right, US of A, Europe, and Japan - Tanzania's national budget is 75% from foreign aid (as reported in a leading national Tanzanian newspaper).

If you didn't get this in an email, please let me know. If you don't know my email, guess you'll have to find someone who does.