By Tracie Thorson

I lived in Tengeru Village in the Arusha region, Tanzania in a small house with 9 girls. There were 3 bedrooms with bunk beds, 3 bathrooms, small kitchen and dining/living room. The house is made of cement, you'll find an occasional hole in the wall or corners that are crumbling, the floor is tile. I think most windows have glass (all have screens). We all sleep with mosquito nets, at first you feel like a princess, that feeling goes away soon...especially when you get out of bed and can't find your way out of the damn net. We are lucky to have "western" style toilets, anywhere else you go it's the infamous squatter style toilet.

The small village is about a 5 minute walk to market and internet, where I am at now. The walk is great, on one side you have a field of coffee plants the other side is corn and banana trees. There is a cow and chickens owned by a few residents. The children are adorable and are always excited to see a us. On the way here they all gave me high fives and the little ones just want to be picked up and held. The road to the village has gigantic potholes and grooves, we cross a make shift bridge over a small stream - the bridge is 6 fallen trees laid across the stream. Anywhere you ride to, you feel like your insides will burst.

Monday - Friday I leave at 7:30 am, the program provides transportation to work, not home. I am dropped off at school by 7:50 or if the mountain road is muddy I walk since our little van can't make it up. The mud is so thick and slippery here, it's even hard to walk through.

I teach until noon, then walk down the hill on a short cut path one of mystudents showed me. It's beautiful - banana trees, coffee and corn all growing in the same field, chickens running everywhere, goats and cows roaming. The trail passes a few houses, the locals are very friendly although once in awhile you do encounter a local who is not fond of white people. Usually they ask for money and then threaten to kick or shoot you, they assume we are rich...in these "sticky" situations, the others will escort me down. It's no worries though, it actually is very safe. The justice system is something you don't mess with here. For example, if someone steals and the victim yells out "theif" it is terrifying. Out of nowwhere a mob of people with sticks, stones will chase the thief, attack him, beat him and more than likely kill him. I would never, ever cry "thief", your digital camera is not worth someone’s life. Overall, I think the people here are wonderful, especially if you make the effort to understand their culture and language.

I have culture and/or swahili classes in late afternoon, sometimes I have a free afternoon. Last night I had dinner at Pete O'Neils house, he is an ex Black Panther. In 1974 him and his wife left the US for Africa. Pete was charged with
carrying a gun across state lines (it was a charge he denies, he was extremely outspoken in the 70s and threatened political leaders if changes towards equality where not followed). Pete is still not allowed to come back to the states, he is from Kansas City. President Clinton offered him a pardon if he admitted guilt, Pete will not admit guilt. I don't necessarily agree with his past decisions, but what he and his wife Charlette have done here is amazing. They live about 30 minutes from me and have helped thousands of people. They bought 4 acres and built a fantastic school where kids earn scholarships to attend for free (this is a huge deal). All teachers are volunteers from around the world. Their drama group won a recent rap contest, they performed for us. They rap about the risk of aids in order to educate kids.

Water is an issue here, they dug a huge well and now have plenty of water. The locals who live near by now do not have to walk miles down hill to get a bucket of water and then carry it up the hill, they simply fill up their bucket at the well. This is a big deal! One you would realize by being here. A documentary on Pete O'Neil will air on PBS September 21. You need to see this, it's an amazing story, plus shows where I live and what life is like here ( I had a sneak preview at his house).It even shows the hospital where I had the pleasure of visiting yesterday.

I am rarely sick, but this place can get you. After our safari, we ate something that had some type of bacteria.2 people were in the hospital for a few days, the rest of us felt OK, just abdominal cramps. So anyway, the dr. gave me some pills that have already made a great difference. They say if you feel 75% good, that's 100% in Africa :-)

OK, food. The Atkins diet would not work here. Rice and breads are staples here. Every meal has rice, curry vegetables, curry with meat, roast chicken, salad and slices cucumber, carrot, avocado).