Lots of Power!!!

Well I have officially had power for over 48 hours!! I kinda had forgotten what it was like to have power consistently. I still find myself sitting in the dark because I forget that the power is on this evening. Or lighting a candle when I shower at night just in case the power goes off.....don't want to be stuck in the shower without light!

Today has been a pretty good day and a relaxing day. I slept in again which means that when Friday morning comes I am going to have a bit of trouble getting up at 6 and being out the door before 7:30 but it will all come back to me ....at least I hope! Today I finished my third book in a week. Probably more reading than I have done since high school that has not been from a textbook! It feels good to get to read whatever I want in my spare time :-)

Hard to believe that today marks 2 weeks since I left NKY! Feels like just yesterday and I know that once school starts that the days will fly by even more quickly. I am happy to announce that my Rooster friend was back to himself today......Crowing away a majority of the day. I was able to even take a short nap this afternoon so I guess you could say that I am getting a bit use to the background noise of my apartment ;-)

Other than that not much happened today!

Lazy Tuesday!

Another good day here in Dar. I am finally sleeping through the night...wooohooo! I always heard that it takes a day for each hour of time difference so that would have been 7 days so I am pretty much on track. I am grateful that I am finally catching up on sleep before school starts. I got the call today that Eid (The end of Ramadan) will take place on Thursday so we will not start school until Friday. I was a little bummed as I am ready to get started and get a routine established. I think I might go and work in my classroom a bit tomorrow to help get a bit of a routine down.

Today I have not done much. Spent most of the morning reading and then this afternoon I looked at some of the teacher manuals to just look over the content a bit before starting the school year. I must say that today was a bit of a quiet day and I only heard my Rooster friend once or twice.....I am a bit worried about him but did enjoy the peace and quiet :-)

Another surprise today the power has been on since 6 pm last night!!! Woohoo!! I have enjoyed having the power on for over 24 hours instead of it being out for 24 hours :) We will see what the next 24 hours brings.....

I think that is all for now :)

Uneventful Weekend

Oops kinda let the weekend slip away without posting anything.  For the most part the past few days have been pretty uneventful. On Friday I went in to my classroom to work again! As we were on our way to find a taxi there is a woman standing there talking to another woman who is just holding a live chicken by its neck and the chicken is just hanging there not making a fuss or anything....I know these are things that I will eventually get use to but I was a bit shocked to see because to me it is not normal but here it is.

I had another successful day in my classroom. I spent a majority of the day getting organized and putting "worksheets" and such into folders to hang in my file cabinet so they are ready to use when I need them. I also worked on my wall where my classroom procedures and behaviour plans will go. Also on Friday I got us to school without the help of someone from the school and a new driver...that is another reason my day was so successful! I am finally able to notice landmarks and get around to places that are near my apartment or the school :-)

Upon returning home we still had power woohoo! It went out for the evening but that was okay it was nice to have it during the day. I spent most of the afternoon reading my Nook and enjoying the sunlight and of course some lovely background noise from my Rooster friend. Who by the way does not just crow in the morning but typically all day long :-( 

Saturday morning we invited our friend, Sam, over. We met Sam on our flight over here. He is from Maryland but works for the University of Minnesota. He is the current country manager for Tanzania and is here for a year to help improve the blood collections for the blood banks here. I made pancakes Shannon, Sam and myself. We then found a taxi and went to Slipway...Sam had never been before. It was good weather and we all had a good time. I even bought a new book for my classroom. There is a cute little bookshop at Slipway that I will be visiting quite frequently I think :-)

Saturday night Shannon and I enjoyed playing our last game of Phase 10 and we even got to play by the actual light and not candle light since we had power :)

I talked to Karrlee for the first time Saturday since I left. She was excited to talk to me. It definitely made my day better until she said ....." I miss you can you please come home now" Totally broke my heart :( I fought back the tears though and told her I will be soon enough and I will bring Santa with me lol. When my mom asked for the phone back she cried and fought her... I know it will get easier but I sure do miss her! I put our picture from last Christmas on my desk along with a picture of her and I at my graduation party:) I know her smiling face will help me through those rough days as it already has!
Sunday was a sad day. I actually slept in until around 9:30...that's a lot with all of the noises around here :) I then got up helped Shannon get ready and we left for the airport around noon. She left with only 2 bags (she came with 3) so I am interested to see how much those 2 bags weighed. The trip home for the airport was very long between 1 1/2 hours and 2 hours due to traffic. I just put in my headphones and enjoyed some music. My first night alone was not too bad. I actually slept quite well. Only woke up once at 5 am due to the mosque prayer service which I wake up to each morning. Then I put in my headphone and went right back to sleep.

Today has been a mixture of laziness and productiveness. I spent most of the morning on the balcony reading my Nook and enjoying some hot herbal tea. Then this afternoon I clean a good portion of the apartment. It gets so dirty due to the windows being open and living on a dirt road. I sure will be happy when I get maid hired. I know it will be difficult to clean so often once school gets into full swing but for now it works out.

The teacher that replaces Shannon arrives tomorrow. I look forward to meeting her and her possibly being my new roommate.

I think that is all I have to update on now!

Another Successful Day :-)

Today I had an early start to my day so that I could get lots accomplished in my class! It was a good day and the time flies by. I thought I had a lot of time but the day just flew by and it was time to leave. Shannon and I did get a lot accomplished. I could not imagine how little I would get done without her help. It is great to have an extra set of hands and eyes and ideas :) I will go back again tomorrow to get some more done but my classroom is finally looking more like a classroom! I am stuck on a few things though. I want to have a "procedures wall" On that wall will be my classroom procedures and I am also using a behaviour number line. For ex: all of the students will start on 0 and if they get praised by me or another teacher they will get to move their clip to a positive number (it goes up to 4) but if they break a classroom procedure they will have to move their clip to a negative number (it goes down to -4) I will list what each number means following the school's system for the negative number but also include what they will receive for being on each positive number. I am looking for a title for this wall but am stuck.....any ideas?!? I am also stuck on another part of my classroom. I am using the bulletin board by my desk as a "communication/ news" board. Below the the board is where the students will turn in work to one tray and I will also put work that I have given feedback on in another tray. On the bulletin board I was hoping to put news from the class such as field trip permission slips, extra copies of homework, upcoming events for the classroom and DIA, etc. I am looking for a catchy title for this board......any suggestions?!? All in all the room is coming together and I am excited to meet my students for the first time!!! I am also excited to meet my assistant and look forward to working with her :)

Downfall of today....I have been a bit sick. As most of you know I am scheduled to get my wisdom teeth out over winter break. Unfortunately one of them is hurting which I knew was always a possibility after seeing the dentist and oral surgeon prior to my departure. I spent the afternoon resting up and am taking it easy. I hope to be on the mend very soon! Other than that today has been good. Power was off again today for about 15 hours but I was at school and resting most of the day so it was not bad at all.

Look forward to hearing some suggestions for catchy titles!

Link to the pictures :     http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.784111826828.2245465.37710699&l=20147a3382&type=1

Thoughts Pondering.....

Today I will make another entry... I have been here almost a week now and have been gone from NKY for a week today. It has been a week of ups and downs.....adjustments, changes, life changing experiences..... It has definitely been hard at times and I was not sure if this is where I should be but then that changed. On Monday I got to see my classroom and I was overwhelmed with joy. I know that I want to teach more than anything and walking into my classroom Monday reassured me with that. Also this week my roommate has shared her doubts and my joy and excitement has confirmed her doubts for being in the classroom. I have been a bit down today since I know that my travel buddy and roommate will soon be departing but then I received a forward email from my Aunt Daisy and Uncle Jerry. It was: 

Two Choices

What  would you do?....you make the choice. Don't look  for a punch line, there isn't one. Read it  anyway. My question is: Would you have made the  same choice?
 
At  a fundraising dinner for a school that serves  children with learning disabilities, the father  of one of the students delivered a speech that  would never be forgotten by all who attended.  After extolling the school and  its

Dedicated staff, he offered a  question:

'When not interfered with by  outside influences, everything nature does, is  done with perfection.

Yet my son, Shay,  cannot learn things as other children do. He  cannot understand things as other children  do.

Where  is the natural order of things in my  son?'

The  audience was stilled by the  query.

The father continued. 'I  believe that when a child like Shay, who was  mentally and physically disabled comes into the  world, an opportunity to realize true human  nature presents itself, and it comes in the way  other people treat that child.'

Then he  told the following story:

Shay  and I had walked past a park where some boys  Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, 'Do  you think they'll let me play?' I knew that most  of the boys would not want someone like Shay on  their team, but as a fatherIalso  understood that if my son were allowed to play,  it would give him a much-needed sense of  belonging and some confidence to be accepted by  others in spite of his  handicaps.

I approached one of  the boys on the field and asked (not expecting  much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around  for guidance and said, 'We're losing by six runs  and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he  can be on our team and we'll try to put him in  to bat in the ninth  inning..'

Shay struggled over to  the team's bench and, with a broad smile, put on  a team shirt.. I watched with a small tear in my  eye and warmth in my heart. The boys saw my joy  at my son being accepted.

In the bottom  of the eighth inning, Shay's team scored a few  runs but was still behind by three.

In  the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove  and played in the right field. Even though no  hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic  just to be in the game and on the field,  grinning from ear to ear as I waved to him from  the stands.

In the bottom of the ninth  inning, Shay's team scored again.

Now,  with two outs and the bases loaded, the  potential winning run was on base and Shay was  scheduled to be next at bat.

At  this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give  away their chance to win the  game?

Surprisingly, Shay was given the  bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but  impossible because Shay didn't even know how to  hold the bat properly, much less connect with  the ball.

However, as Shay  stepped up to the

Plate, the pitcher,  recognizing that the other team was putting  winning aside for this moment in Shay's life,  moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly  so Shay could at least make contact.

The  first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and  missed.

The pitcher again took a few  steps forward to toss the ball softly towards  Shay.

As the pitch came in, Shay swung at  the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back  to the pitcher.

The game would  now be over.

The pitcher picked up the  soft grounder and could have easily thrown the  ball to the first baseman.

Shay would  have been out and that would have been the end  of the game.

Instead, the pitcher  threw the ball right over the first baseman's  head, out of reach of all team  mates.

Everyone from the stands and both  teams started yelling, 'Shay, run to  first!

Run to first!'

Never in his  life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it  to first base.

He scampered down the  baseline, wide-eyed and  startled.

Everyone yelled, 'Run  to second, run to second!'

Catching his  breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second,  gleaming and struggling to make it to the  base.

By the time Shay rounded towards  second base, the right fielder had the ball ..  The smallest guy on their team who now had his  first chance to be the hero for his  team.

He could have thrown the ball to  the second-baseman for the tag, but he  understood the pitcher's intentions so he, too,  intentionally threw the ball high and far over  the third-baseman's head.

Shay ran toward  third base deliriously as the runners ahead of  him circled the bases toward  home.

All were screaming, 'Shay,  Shay, Shay, all the Way  Shay' 
Shay reached third base  because the opposing shortstop ran to help him  by turning him in the direction of third base,  and shouted, 'Run to third!

Shay, run to  third!'

As Shay rounded third,  the boys from both teams, and the spectators,  were on their feet screaming, 'Shay, run home!  Run home!'

Shay ran to home, stepped on  the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit  the grand slam and won the game for his  team

'That day', said the father  softly with tears now rolling down his face,  'the boys from both teams helped bring a piece  of true love and humanity into this  world'.

Shay didn't make it to  another summer. He died that winter, having  never forgotten being the hero and making me so  happy, and coming home and seeing his Mother  tearfully embrace her little hero of the  day!


We  all have thousands of opportunities every single  day to help realize the 'natural order of  things.'

So many seemingly trivial  interactions between two people present us with  a choice:

Do we pass along a little spark  of love and humanity or do we pass up those  opportunities and leave the world a little bit  colder in the process?



A wise man  once said every society is judged by how it  treats it's least fortunate amongst  them.



You now have two  choices:

1. Delete

2.  Forward

May your day, be a Shay  Day.
MAY  GOD BLESS EVERYONE WHO
DECIDES  TO PASS THIS ON IN
MEMORY  OF SHAY.............. 

 This email came at the perfect time. I absolutely love being here in Dar but the past couple of days have been a bit rough due to the extended power rations and finding out that Shannon is going home on Sunday and just plain missing my family and friends. After reading this email it again reminded me that I am here for a purpose....not only to be an educator but also to be a learner. To not only teach my students what is inside of our textbooks but also to teach them about the world around them and the people living in our world. I have traveled half way around the world to my classroom and to follow my dreams. I am constantly asked why I did not want to teach in KY but the truth is simple I needed something more. I now have embarked on my journey and am getting many little reminders along the way on why I should be here. I am here to make a difference and touch the lives of the students that I teach and the people that I meet. 

At graduation I spoke about change, making a difference etc... and at that time I inspired myself. I know I have spoken of this before but sometimes I have to remember my own words and let them inspire me. 

So I know at times the road with be rough but teaching is not a walk in the park (and neither is living in Tanzania lol). You must put 100% into it not only for your students but also for yourself. When the times get tough I have someone who can make me smile no matter how bad things are....Karrlee. I will never forget as I was saying my goodbyes last week and it came time to tell Karrlee "see you later" .... I promised myself I would not cry but as soon as I picked her up the tears just started coming. She finally realized that I was crying and was so confused. She then realized that I was leaving and that was why I was crying.... Yesterday my mom knew I was down so she told me that Karrlee saw an airplane the other day and waved hi to me. It is amazing how one person can change your world so much! I truly do have a wonderful family and support system and without them I would not be following my dreams here in Dar!

Successful Day in my Classroom!

Today has been a great day overall!! I finally got to go into my classroom and get to work. There was a lot more supplies then I thought so I spent most of the day going through the supplies and sorting it out...kinda taking an inventory of what I have, what I brought and what I need to get. I also was able to put up a few things like a number line and a cute alphabet strip that I found online.  I also put a few things on my desk to make it a bit more like mine :) I also took a copy of some of the textbooks that I will use during the first term of the school year! Shannon came with me and was a great help today!

Which leads me to my next topic. Today Shannon made a final decision to move back to the states. I knew that she was contemplating it but made the final decision today, sat down with the director and booked her flight home. I am very sad to see her go but totally support her decision. I want her to be happy and follow her heart. She will leave Sunday afternoon.

There have still been some issues with the power and it has been going out quite frequently which is a bit frustrating but trying to make the best out of it! Thankfully now I can go to the school during the day (they have a back-up generator) and get a lot accomplished when the power is out here in the apartment. Last night Shannon and I had our first experience with hand-washing our clothes...what an experience that was!! Our maid has not been hired yet but I look forward to that day because I am not exactly sure what I am doing! But again it makes me realize how blessed we are back home! It is definitely the small things back home that would be considered a luxury here.

Here is a link to view more pictures:    http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.784111826828.2245465.37710699&l=20147a3382&type=1

I think that is all for today! 

New Classroom

The past two days have had some ups and downs.....Yesterday I finally got to see my school and classroom for the first time!! I really enjoyed it! We got a tour of the whole school including our classrooms. I posted a link to the pictures that I took of the classroom how it is. There is not a lot in the classroom yet so I have a lot of work to do. This is going to be a little tricky since I cannot just go to the parent teacher store, John R Green, Target, etc to go and buy decorations for my classroom. I have been picking up some neat things at the open markets and brought some things but for the most part I will be making a lot of the things for my classroom. Any ideas will be greatly appreciated! I did find a cute alphabet strip that I can print off and am going to make a number line. I was also thinking that I would make some grammar posters....blends, diagraphs, etc. I have round tables which I think will work good and allow for group work and such. I also have several bulletin boards inside my classroom and one outside to display my students work :) They do not have bulletin board border here so again I will have to be creative! I am quickly learning that my classroom does not have to look perfect but it is more of what takes place inside of the classroom! If the students are learning that is what matters. I am really excited to meet my team teacher as well as my classroom assistant. I look forward to our orientation week that starts a week from Thursday and meeting everyone :)

After we got done at the school, Shannon and I went and had lunch at a nearby shopping area. It was good to get out and see more of the town. Upon arriving home I we played some games and had supper. Then the power went out. Should have come back on around 10 finally came back around 11 but was back out by midnight. Today we went to the beach at one of the resorts. It was absolutely beautiful. The water was a bit cold (it is still winter here) but the sun was bright. I spent the day laying out and reading my nook! Very relaxing and much needed! We returned home and played some more games and such as the power was still out. We wanted to do some laundry but unfortunately when the power is out the water is out so that did not work. The Power came back on around 6 as scheduled but was out within 10 minutes.....kinda frustrating. It finally came back on around 8 and hopefully will stay on until tomorrow night we shall see though ;-)

I think that is all that I have to report for now. Been a good two days for the most part despite not having power for over 24 hours. I am really excited about getting into my classroom and getting it together!

Pictures :)

Here is a link to some pictures...hope it works


http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.784111826828.2245465.37710699&l=20147a3382&type=1

End of the weekend

Today was an uneventful day here. We both got to sleep in quite a bit.  Shannon finally got to hear my lovely rooster friend that gives a wake-up call each morning :) Thankfully I did not hear him this morning.... we did discover that our landlord has chickens and a rooster on the patio right below Shannon's room ;-/ No power during the day today but the sun was shining most of the day so it wasn't an issue. It did rain a bit this morning which helped cool it down a bit. Today was our first day that we did not have anything planned.  I fixed us pancakes for brunch so we had a little taste of home. We finally have our apartment looking good and mostly decorated. Still need to pick up a few more things and hope to make it back to the market later this week to pick up some more paintings and such. This evening we had a nice dinner and played some Boggle and Phase 10.

Tomorrow we get to see our classrooms and the school for the first time!!! We are really excited and cannot wait to get in and start getting the classroom together. I promise to take pre and post pictures of the classroom :) Tomorrow we also hope to get our Tanzanian bank account opened and ready to use.

We are learning the power rations have a bit of schedule. It usually is out during the day every other day so that means it will probably be out on Tuesday so we are planning a day at the beach! We look forward to relaxing and working on our tans :)

We finally almost have our shower curtain up...what a challenge it has been. Hopefully we will get pictures up tomorrow of the apartment pre decorating and post decorating. Both Shannon and I forgot our camera cords......not sure how that happened with all of our luggage. We will buy new ones tomorrow.

I think that is all of the updates I have for now.

Tour of the city!

Today was another exciting day in Dar. I was woken up this morning at around 7:30 by Shannon who thought it was 9:30....we were scheduled to be picked up at 10! I then looked at my phone and told her it was only 7:30 she said oops. Needless to say not all of our clocks are set to Dar time yet and we are still getting used to the 7 hour time difference. We started our morning with fresh Starbucks coffee (Yes! I brought some with me from the states). This also meant that we had power this morning and we were able to use our new coffee pot :)

We were then off to do some shopping with the HR manager. The school got him to take us out today even though it is Saturday and he never works Saturday. The school has been extremely accommodating to us since our arrival. Our first stop of the day was at a shopping mall very close to our apartment. We went to a store called Game....It is like the Walmart of Tanzania. We were able to get some of the last items that we needed for our apartment....nightstands, rugs, extension cords, etc. Then we went on to do a bit more shopping and pick up some groceries. We also stopped to look at mobile phones and discovered that they do have Iphones here but unfortunately they are 1.5 million shillings which is about 1000 US dollars...not worth it :(

We made a quick stop at our apartment to drop some items off as we had already filled the car. Then we were off to another shopping area. Seacliff is an area where a lot of expats hang out. There are really nice restaurants and some really cute shops. There is also a resort there that has a spa that we will be visiting in the very near future. This place is very very close to the school we will be teaching at so we are excited about that! Next, we went to another shopping area called Slipway. We had lunch on the beach of the Indian Ocean. It was absolutely beautiful! Next, we were off to an open market. In this area you "haggle" with the merchants. Luckily we had Jesse (the HR manager) with us and he speaks fluent Swahili. He was able to get us some great deals. We got some really cute things for our classrooms and an awesome painting for our dining room! I will post some pictures soon.

We had a very successful day of shopping and got almost everything we needed. We are still struggling with getting the shower curtain up but that is just minor. As we were getting close to our apartment we began to notice that the area was very very very dark. We thought the power was out again and we were right! We did learn today that they can only ration the power for a maximum of 12 hours during the day and 4 hours during the night. So around 11 our power came back on tonight so it was that bad. We lit a bunch of candles and used our flashlights. We were able to get our nightstands together and played a game of phase 10. Tonight we are charging all of our electronics just in case there is a power ration tomorrow during the day.

Tomorrow we look forward to doing a little more decorating but we especially look forward to getting to relax for the first time since our arrival! Then Monday (hopefully!) we will get to go and meet some of the teachers at the school and see our classrooms so we can begin decorating them :) We also plan on going to a resort area a bit North of the city to another resort to enjoy some time at the beach.

All in all I am loving it here. We both are adjusting well and coming up with ideas for when the power is rationed. Having Shannon here has definitely made the transition a whole lot easier. I couldn't imagine being here  with out her being right across the hallway. It makes everything much  easier because we are able to shop, dine, decorate, etc together.  We also have found out that another teacher lives right next door to us and she is from the States as well. We are looking forward to her return so we can get ideas and what not with her as well!

I think that is all for now. Another late night. It is after 1 am here and I am not even tired. The jetlag is kicking my butt this time!

Greetings from Tanzania!

Well the journey officially started at around 6:45 am Wednesday August 17, 2011 when my family and I left for CVG. We arrived around 7:30 and are 1 challenge arrived. 4/5 of our suitcases were overweight!! 2 of Shannon's and 2 of mine. Our joint suitcase was the only one at 50 pounds. Shannon had thankfully brought an extra suitcase so we put our extra weight into it. So in total we began our journey with 6- 50 pound suitcases, 2 very heavy carry-on uprights and 2 backpacks filled to the top! We had very  little before boarding begun. We flew from CVG to Washington-Dulles and only had 50 minutes to get to our flight to Addis Ababa. We got checked in and during that time I deactivated my Iphone and activated my Blackberry (it is a global phone) and we boarded our very long flight to Ethiopia. We spend around 14 hours on the plane. By then end of that flight we were restless and ready to be to our new home. Once arriving in Ethiopia we went through security again, freshened up a bit and headed to our gate. Upon arriving they were announcing that the flight before ours was delayed due to the rain. We were worried that our flight would be to but thankfully it left close our scheduled departure time. Thankfully on our first two flights the planes were quite empty we got lots of extra room. This was a completely different story on our third flight and had very little room....it was a very long 3 hours but we made it to Dar es Salaam safely!!

When we arrived in Dar and walked down the steps to immigration where we saw a man holding a sign with our names...WOOHOO this meant that our visas had arrived!! We then went through the immigration line and got our first stamp from Tanzania!  The man then assisted us in getting all of our 6 bags of checked luggage. Shannon and I each got a cart and loaded it to the top. As we walked outside we found out HR Manager and met the other two men who were assisting us with our arrival! They all laughed when I told them that we promise we didn't overpack as we showed them our two carts full of luggage!

Next, we exchanged some money. 1620 Shillings= 1 US Dollar. So needless to say we felt like we had a lot of money on us even though it only averaged out to a few hundred dollars. Then we loaded up the pickup and hoped to be going to our apartment but no such luck. We went to a store and bought a lot of kitchen appliances and other supplies. After that the truck bed was stuffed full and the back seat was as well. One of the men had to ride in the back of the truck to protect our stuff from people on the streets. We were ready to get to our apartment but still had a few more stops to make. We stopped and set up our Tanzanian cell phone (I will not turn my US cell phone back on until December!) and our internet. We also did some grocery shopping for some basic foods and it was quite an adventure!!!

Finally we arrive at our apartment 7 hours after we arrived in Dar. Traffic is terrible and there is lots of congestion. Our apartment is quite spacious and was furnished before our arrival. We met our land lady who is very nice and lives downstairs. We thought we would just want to go to bed when we got all of our things into the apartment. Instead we started unpacking we had things everywhere and thought it would be easier to get some things unpacked. Unfortunately we do not have air conditioning in the apartment but have windows we can open (they have grids and mosquito nets on them) and ceiling fans in each room that make a huge difference!! I finally went to take a shower and had a surprise. Number one there is no rod to hang the shower curtain up so we made it work. Picture to be uploaded soon :) Number two surprise no hot water! It was shocking at first but then you get used to it!

Finally we both take some tylenol pm and go to bed around 9:30. I wake up around 11 to surprise number 3 so far........It is power ration day so no power. It was not to bad just a bit different. We opened all of the windows so there was a good breeze luckily. It turns out that every other day is power ratio day, usually it only lasts a few hours but today it was off for about 12 hours. It came back on around 6 pm. Surprise number 4-- the water tank runs out when the power is off because it uses electricity to pump the water. So as we go to make supper we have no water. Thankfully our land lady gave us a 5 gallon bucket full to use. Note number one--buy buckets to put water into for power ration days :) Each night we boil two large buckets of water for drinking!

Today we got all unpacked and did some more shopping. The apartment looks more homey and we are glad to be able to call it our home for the next two years! Since arriving in Dar only about 36 hours ago I have already learned many aspects of living that we take for granted in the United States:

--We have water that we can just drink straight from the tap and don't have to worry about it making us sick.
--Having hot water is not necessary for showering but a nice luxury. (We boil our water to do dishes as well)
--We use way too much electricity! Even though our power was out today there were many times that I totally forgot and it didn't bother me. (We are a bit concerned for the power months but are coming up with plans to help it be more comfortable)
--The bad part about the power rations is our fridge. We have to be careful what we buy and what we put into our fridge as it can go bad when the power is out for extended periods. Meal planning, cooking and grocery shopping take lots of planning.

We are learning and adapting already. When the power is on we make sure to get our showers, stock up on water, and charge up electronics! I am loving it here and still taking it all in. There is lots of differences but some similarities as well. I am anxious to meet the staff at my school and see my classroom!

That is all for now :)

AHHHH It's TIme!!!!!

Oh my goodness......I cannot believe that the day is finally here! A short two months ago I first accepted a first grade position in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. After signing and sending my contract off I thought the time would drag by but it has been the complete opposite. Since the day I knew I was moving to Tanzania the days have flown by and time passed by an at accelerated rate.

The past few weeks have been filled with a lot of good memories. I have said farewell to many many good friends. Times like these truly remind me how blessed I am and lucky to have each and everyone of you in my life! I have received so many "well wishes" and "good lucks" and a few "Are you crazies?!?" It has been hard to say farewell to so many people even though I will be back for a visit in 4 short months! I am dreading tomorrow yet so excited for it.....tomorrow is the day that I say farewell to my family, specifically Karrlee! This is going to be really tough and I hope she understands. I know it will be hard for her to understand why I am leaving, but I do hope that someday she understands that I have had this dream for a while and now get the chance to fulfill that dream.

My parents always told me to reach for the moon and even if I didn't reach it I would land among the stars! I am really blessed to have parents that love and support me even when my dreams and goals take me half a world away. I know my mom will miss me like crazy and her life will now be different without me living near but she wouldn't have it any other way because I am following my dreams and am truly happy with where my life is taking me!

Tomorrow will be a long and exhausting day for Shannon and I. We have a total of 3 flights that add up to 20 hours of flying time. We will arrive in Dar es Salaam at approximately 1:30 pm there which is only 6:30 am here in Kentucky! Hello jetlag!!

I will try and update my blog quite regularly once I arrive but power outages and power rations can happen often. Therefore when I have access I will update!

I also want to wish all of my friends whose first day of teaching is tomorrow, Good Luck!!

Almost Time!!

Two months ago I stood in front of an arena of people and gave a speech at my undergraduate ceremony...at this time....  I was scared to death and so nervous yet so excited to have the honor to do such a thing. I ended my speech with this: "As we take our next steps, the road may be rough but we are now prepared for the challenges that lie ahead by being optimists in a time of pessimism. We must expect success from ourselves and then work to achieve and maintain it. Ghandi once said: “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” While it is easy to say that one can achieve anything, it is vital that we continuously challenge ourselves and set our goals high. Today I will leave you with this question. Yes, we have successfully completed our undergraduate journey but now, how will we allow this step to help us leave our footprint in the world?"

At that point in time I was not sure my journey would take me or what I would be doing this upcoming fall. It is hard to believe that in just 8 days I will board an airplane with 3- 50 pounds bags and move to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. I am so excited and cannot wait! When I stood up in front of thousands of people on that afternoon in May, I never imagined that I would get such a great opportunity in my life. I now know where my next steps will take me and I am so happy to have one of my best friends to be by my side as I take those next steps! I  preparing to enter a new chapter of my life that is so different than the chapter that I am closing. In a little under a month I will meet my students for the first time and welcome them to my classroom that I can finally say is mine!