Didn't have anything good to write about so I wrote about everything....

So my internet expansion during my last semester at Cornell and the following summer before Peace Corps led me to redefine my information gathering experience into more of a blog-oriented experience. Here in TZ, that has actually become quite an advantage as the blogging websites frequently ignore the flashy in-your-face media of the internet information powerhouses and go more for content. One can argue about the value of this content but no one can deny its massive existence. And I think nothing embodies that more than the link dump. While I will link you to absolutely no where with this post, it offers me the opportunity to say quick ideas about things in my life that seem otherwise insignificant and not worthy of posting. Because let’s be honest, life is not made up of extravagant events after fantastic adventures, it’s made up of the good days and the bad, which can be classified one way or another by the smallest of events.
So here it goes….

Thoughts from around the house:
- Cooking was said to be a challenge, and I’ve found that to be both true and not. On the one hand, much of the Tanzanian food choices do take quite a bit of time and effort but planning can allow you very easy meals from time to time. I completely understand the choice to have someone do the cooking for you if you can afford it though. I’ve made it easier on myself by splurging on a few “extras” but if you ignore the start up time for a stick fire, cooking is similar in nature (speed-wise). But I do have a newfound appreciation for family cooks in the US. There is really no way to make a good balanced meal in anything shorter than 30 minutes.
- Fresh fruit is wildly underrated. Granted, it helps that I live in a place where the mango I buy probably fell off a tree down the street a few hours earlier (which means it needs to sit for 3-4 days to ripen but that’s beside my point). Regardless, a pineapple for breakfast (or lunch or dinner) is quite a pleasant experience :D
- Sugar goes on everything. My dinner tonight was kind of a potato stew in which I threw into the mashed potatoes every veggie that was on its way out in my cabinet. So I fried them in some sunflower oil and threw some sugar on. This is my latest experiment, and a success too! Mmmmm caramelized vegetables!
- Preparation is really necessary in food/drink. I can’t count how many nights I’ve wanted something more dynamic but thought about dinner too late, resulting in some variation of spaghetti with variations on top. Also, I have to boil my water, which obviously has to cool before I can drink it. I also run it through a filter, which takes quite a while. So I’ve come to the conclusion I need to start the water almost 24 hours before I want to drink it. That’s a lot of foresight for quenching thirst!
- For those of you who haven’t heard, I now possess (I didn’t pay anything for her so I guess I can’t own) a cat. She is named Chichi, which comes from the Swahili word parachichi which means avocado. That was the first thing I learned she liked to eat, which greatly eased her transition to my house. She’s quite the affectionate creature. Even now she’s curled up on my lap in between me and my computer. At night she finds her way under my mosquito net to sleep on my bed with me. She’s quite pleasant to have around and I’m enjoying her company!
- I never really thought about the value of lighting the space around your house until I came here. My back porch light didn’t work when I arrived and I actually avoided leaving the house, even just to the back stoop or water pipe after dark. Now I’ve had a new light installed, apparently an adapter inside had broken, and my back porch is well lit. It vastly improves my comfort and I’m quite grateful for it!

Thoughts from school:
- I do not understand how teachers can assign homework as frequently as they do in high school. I grade for one class and two subjects and I look at my paper pile in disgust. How did they do it for six periods every day or two?!?
- Homework is a different animal here. Many kids just don’t think they need to do it and so they won’t, not understanding its uses as a guide to the teacher. I can understand not knowing how to do something and not wanting to show that, but isn’t it still better to prove you know something, even if it’s just that you don’t know the material? That’s really valuable information, knowing you don’t understand something. I just don’t get it. But then again, I didn’t get it in the US when kids did that either.
- Tanzanians are obsessed with their exams. One thing I loved about the IB program was its focus on well rounded LEARNING. The tests matter, yes. Are they worth everything? You could make an argument they are because of how much bearing they have on the next level’s activities but IB, fortunately, never saw it that way. There’s more to being smart than knowing facts. People here still aren’t quite over the idea that if you can solve a difficult equation that means you know the material. There’s more too it than that!

Thoughts from the Region:
- If you’ll remember, my first post from TZ was finished by mentioning the earthquake that occurred during the construction of that post. I believe it ended up being around a 5.8 and was followed within 36 hours by a 6.0 nearby (<100 miles). I learned today, through the undeniable source Wikipedia :P, that there were apparently nearly 30 earthquakes detected relating to that quake leading a few people to wonder if volcanic activity could be playing a role. The nearest volcano to that series of quakes is none other than my district’s namesake Mount Rungwe. I’m not particularly nervous but having my own Dante’s Peak experience seems like it could be more excitement than I was planning on when entering the Peace Corps. I can feel the earth shake when I’m lying in bed sometimes but I have been able to tell that a fair majority of these are the large semi-trucks down the way on the main highway. We’ll keep you apprised of the situation, although I’m sure my adventurous is just taking any opportunity to extrapolate the most fantastic event possible.

Thoughts from the World:
The other benefit of my current situation is the ease with which I am connected to the world. I see the big events through the scope of The Wichita Eagle, which also keeps me informed about all the happenings in the ICT. Beyond that my blogs fill me in, so I’ll comment on what I’ve been up to date on.
- The $8 billion in high-speed rail funds were distributed with the biggest shares going to California, Florida, and Illinois. I’m a huge fan of both the California and Chicago-Hub proposals and I think they deserved the money they received without question. Florida’s proposal is more of a thrill ride to get to Disney and to make Orlando a secondary Tampa area airport. But it’s a start. Kansas even got 300K to do a study on restarting rail service through Wichita! At first I would have said give a large portion to a project that we can build as an example of how good high-speed rail can be in the US, but after looking at the numbers of how the money was distributed, I can only applaud the Obama administration. They really focused on not being the only government moeny being spent on a potential project. That's why even Kansas got help. It was a reward for doing your own work. A pact almost, saying if you do your end, we'll pick up ours, which is the way it should be. Now if only we could get closer to the federal/local funding split we see with highways....... :P While giving the largest sums of money to those who have the biggest and most promising projects, they also found ways to help the middle sized markets. For example, Wisconsin has poured quite a bit of it’s own money into developing a rail connection from Madison to Milwaukee and improving service onward to Chicago. The federal government used the funds to assist that project and really push it towards completion. Now Wisconsin is going to have 110mph service between its two most prominent cities in less than 5 years. That’s nearing Acela type service, which hits speeds over 130 but can hardly maintain them in the Northeast Corridor. Now, I’m in the camp that we should go all the way with HSR and build our systems for 220mph operation, but if we can go from no trains to several trains a day at 110mph in some locations with reasonable investments, I think that is fantastic! Let’s hope the jobs bill has more infrastructure money for investments like these!
- The Kansas City Royals are not projected to be a particularly good team. Most of the fans’ analysis says that Dayton Moore continues to fail as a GM and the team is looking at another heavily disappointing season this year. I think the doom and gloom is a little much but I understand where they are coming from. I do think, however, that they won’t be as bad as people project. Granted, a lot of my ideas are built on if-things-go-well scenarios but I think we could be looking at an 75-80 win season. Our rotation is improved, if only by people being healthy (although I have no counter to the point that our management can’t properly manage, especially when people are injured). And I know Zack is very unlikely to repeat his performance from last year, but I think he will be dominant again. Maybe not Cy Young dominant, but a true ace for sure. Meche will be better, and I have to believe one of the Hochevar, Davies, Tejeda group will work out as number 4. We’ll see what happens. On the offensive side, I think we’ll have our struggles, but as long as we can actually get on base and get hits before we put two outs on the board, we could see improvement. Defensive improvements would also help us survive with a less than stellar offense. Some of the acquisitions have been suspect, but if Guillen gets cut (pleaaaaaaase Dayton!) and Kendall has a decent OBP (he was the only one I have a real problem with and that’s mostly money related), I won’t hate the offseason. I know that justifying moves is a terrible thing and it only proves DM should be gone, but it’s better than if we traded Zack and Billy for Low-A pitchers right?