MY FIRST HOUSE!

I live at my new site now. its incredible. i do not live in a mudhut although most of my neighbors do. they all have chickens that roam freely into my courtyarad. i still hate roosters. so i'm living in a three room house. a sitting room and two bedrooms. right now i have a neighbor who is sleeping in the other room while i'm still getting settled. i've been here a week now. my nearest peace corps neighbor is a two hour walk away or about a 40min bike ride. i don't have a bike yet but i'm working on that today. we walked four hours to the main road then caught a minibus to town. good times. i'm getting a workout here. big time. really big time. i like don't want. i don't have choice though and its fine for now. in this village i'll be working with the primary and secondary school as well as the regional health center. the village council has already approached me and requested that i build a dispensary (which is like a glorified pharmacy) in the village. no prob. i plan on attempting that as well as working on getting the regional health center solar panels as they don't have any electricty. the doctor that runs it said to me "his excellency, mr. clinton promised us solar panels. we got ready but they're not here. they must have gotten lost. do you know where they are?" i had to say that i didn't that i'd do my best to find them. i'll also be working at the two schools doing health ed and some english tutoring. Aunt Ree, you posted about maybe doing a sister school setup and you read my mind. they would be ecstatic about that idea. this goes for all my teacher family and friends also: we can do it informally or formally through peace corps. to do it formally you go to the peace corps website and register the school info with mine and they'll send you a special little packet with goodies in it.....honestly i'm not really sure what they send you but i'm sure its very official.

what else?my best day so far in my new village was going to church.....i know it took me going to africa to get me to go back to church. the music and dancing is fantastic and bless the catholics because even though my swahilii is sketchy i know whats going on. i told them that i didn't understand all the words but i understood it in my heart.....they loved that.

also i'm workinhg getting a cat and a dog. a dog because i want one and a cat to kill the mouse that i saw in my kitchen. minor panic happened but i explained myself to the tanzanians by saying that americans are crazy. they also think our relationships with pets are crazy. they asked me, if i got a dog what would it do for me.........be my friend? live in my house?. that got a good laugh. no really, what was it going to do.......nothing. i had to tell them that pets are like children and that was followed by another hearty laugh.

i'm gonna try to post pictures of my new house tomorrow we'll see how that goes. thanks for your posts and for the mail i've been getting. i love you guys and miss you everyday. oh i have a new mailing address. don't send it to the old one anymore. peace corps will get mad at me. send it to my personal mailbox :

KIMBERLY HELLER PCV
SLP 469
MAKAMBAKO, IRINGA
TANZANIA

if you love me enough to send me a package write some god references on the package to make sure no one messes with it. ok thats it for now.