Long Time no Internet!

Well, it's been awhile, but we have internet again! I think it was January 1st that our internet ran out, and after having a few problems renewing it, we finally were successful in sorting it out! Part of the reason it took so long is that the only way we could get it fixed was by going into Musoma, which is about an hour away and there aren't trips going there everyday...I guess it's all part of the fun of living in a village in Africa!

Here's a quick update on some things we've been doing in these past couple weeks. Let's see, it's mostly been business as usual, working in the hospital, playing with the kids that still come and knock on our door religously and running in the evenings. Last week we did take a day off to climb Mt. Rorya, which is a hill/mountain near Kowak, and supposedly the highest point in the region that we live. It's been on our To Do list for awhile, so we were pretty excited. The majority of the hike was actually walking to the base of the hill, which was mostly on dirt roads. While that part wasn't very strenuous, it was fun to look at all the different huts and homes along the way. As we expected, a random Tanzanian guy joined our walk and kindof acted as our guide, helping us find the right path up the hill. The actual climb up was pretty steep, we walked on a quazi road they had built to get supplies up the hill to build cell phone towers. Let's just say they are not big fans of switch backs, the road was really steap, the whole time I was in disbelief that a truck could actually drive up it! On top, our guide helped us break into the cell phone tower (he actually seemed to be friends with the two 15 yr old boys guarding the tower with a machete and club) and we climbed up to the top. Even though it was cloudy out, we had a great view of the area and were even able to see Lake Victoria. We hung out up there for a little, sharing granola bars and gum with our new friends, enjoying the view! Overall, it was about a 6 hour hike...great training for Kili!!

Thursday we head up to Nairobi for a week. When we first got to Africa, we started our trip by taking a short course on African culture. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week we're participating in a follow-up course on ours in Kowak. While we're looking forward to the class, we're really excited for some of the amenities that Nairobi offers- fairly reliable hot water, internet and washing machines!! That may be what we're most excited about, while we've improved in the area of hand washing, I question whether or not our clothes are really getting clean...