I awaken at 3:30 am Tanzania time.  I have a cough and a new patch of itchy rash.  Last year, I came home from Tanzania with a cough.  I named it my “African Violet”.  Having ruled out all the biggies (TB, pertussis, malaria and several others) I have diagnosed myself.  It is simply an allergic irritation from the particulate matter in the air……. there is a great deal of it here. I can feel it exactly in the same place in my chest… it is tight and heavy feeling.  I meditate with the 5 am call to prayers in the mosque. 

I tidy my room, arrange my things.  NOTE TO SELF:  socks and blankets are not needed in Moshi in February.  It is very hot here.  I go outside to watch the birds…. doves, a beautiful soft turquoise colored bird the shape of a junco, scissor tail swallows.

I eat lentils, yogurt and granola for breakfast.  Lunch is almond butter with the sweetest little bananas from the Nakumatt grocery store (cheaper than in the market). 

Alfred (my house host) is working on chores today.  I meet his brother from Arusha.  This brother is actually a cousin “from my aunt”.  Here, brothers and sisters are plentiful.  Family is everything and community is what brings it all together.  We take time in the afternoon to discuss my itinerary and goals for the time I am in Moshi.  Travelling to Dar es Salaam seems out of the question…. by air $480 USD, by private car $600 and three days.  Not sure what to do about that as my contact person, Dr. Mbilinyi, director of the Tanzania Association of Social Workers is in Dar es Salaam.

Alfred and I have dinner at the Union Cafe……. cheese quesadilla and coffee milkshake (In Tanzania?  We live in a global village, don’t we?)  .   NOTE TO SELF:  they make the milkshake with espresso…….. a lot of it.  DO NOT HAVE COFFEE MILKSHAKE FOR DINNER IF YOU HOPE TO SLEEP AT NIGHT.

We lose power at 11:30 pm.  The sky is turbulent outside, the electricity in the air is palpable.  I do not sleep.  Perhaps the espresso in the milkshake, perhaps the storm, most certainly, the oppressive heat, the buzzing, biting mosquitos, the insatiable thirst and the consequences of hydration…. this means, crawl out from under the netting, put on flip flops (I’m afraid of stepping on a bug in the dark, though I have seen none to be fearful of), find toilet paper…. power is out, negotiate the dark across the other side of the house to the toilet….. you get the idea.  Still, I am in a really nice house with floors, the toilet is inside and flushes, there is running water to wash my hands. Everything is relative.  I recall a time in graduate school in a village in Nicaragua when all of these luxuries were NOT available.  NOTE TO SELF:  stop complaining.  I was awake all night.  My alarm went off at 5:30 am.  The last time I remember looking at the clock it was 4:30 am.