Some little tidbits ...

Today I had the wonderful good fortune of getting to have lunch with Kathy and Garth Johnson! It's truly unbelievable how small the world is. Garth is the brother of my (amazing) Uncle Brett, and he and Kathy have been coming to the McSweeney family Thanksgiving festivities (which are, or should be, famous worldwide) for several years now. Their oldest daughter, Valerie, runs an incredible orphanage in Moshi called Amani (www.amanikids.org), which is just a couple hours away from Arusha. For the past two weeks, they've been in Moshi visiting with Valerie and her husband, Matthew, and getting to vacation in Zanzibar. Today was their last day in the country, and I got to meet them at Coffee Lodge for a relatively luxurious lunch. They're such nice people. It was really nice to see family and a get a warm hug from familiar folks. It made me long for the day when my parents might visit ... (hint hint). At any rate, hooray for family. They can report back to everyone and confirm that I'm alive and well.

In other awesome news, Tyler has a bona fide ticket to come out to Tanzania in February! We're trying to restrain ourselves on the whole countdown thing, but I'm already saving up my pennies so we can go on a cheap camping safari somewhere ... I can't wait. I miss him terribly, and I'm so grateful he gets to come. He's my favorite traveling companion, truly.

I'm settling down well into my teaching schedule, and time is really starting to fly. There have been so many moments where the teacher becomes the student. It's a unique challenge to get to know each child and figure out the best way to teach and motivate them. I can feel myself learning a lot from my teaching experience, and it's a luxury to have Liza and Jess around for questions and advice. I'm really grateful for this opportunity to learn.

Our kitchen is full of cooking, full of personality these days: Liza with her culinary experiments and hilarious stories; Jessica with her biting sense of humor, fabulous 80's music playlists, and love of hot peppers (pilipili); Frank, the Alpha Cook, with lots of kitchen ambition and tales of celebrities and energy-healers in his native Malibu, CA ... and Erica, who I just love, and who works insanely long days and always shares the latest organizational gossip with us. It's quite a whirlwind to be at home sometimes. My family might laugh, but sometimes, I'm actually the quiet one of the group .. In fact, I'm home by myself right now, and the quiet is shocking. (But nice ...)

I hope everyone's enjoying a nice autumn at home in the States. We're working our way towards summer, and recent winds have blown all the dry-season dust off the hills, making views particularly lovely outside town. Til next time ...