Hello again,
Things in the village are great. The dogs are healthy and the corn is growing tall. Also, I finally caught an 8 inch rat (14in including the tail) that has been picking through my stuff for the past week or so. The bait was a dried minnow with some of the food I make for my dogs on it. Who would have thought? The rat chose not to eat the good food I put on the trap like bread and peanut butter for the whole week.

My grants for the Bee project, and fish pond project were approved last week so the village is excited to start working on the bee hives and digging the fish ponds. We are doing 6 ponds that are 10m X 12m X 3m so they will hold a good amount of fish. Each pond will be stocked with 240 baby tilapia.

For the bee project we are doing 100 bee hives that will hopefully be built and hung in trees around the village by the end of June. Also, each member of the bee group will get a veiled hat and gloves (the gloves won't be veiled).

The dispensary has been approved by the Tanzania Peace Corps office but do to the nature of the grant (Partnership) it needs to also be approved in Washington D.C. Ill let you know how to donate to that project if you are interested as soon as it is approved.

The village soccer team was on a winning streak until Friday. They beat all of the teams in our ward and some teams in the neighboring ward. They had a match on Friday to determine who would hold the coveted "kombe ya mbuzi" (goat cup) but were defeated 7-0 by Kitelewasi. Maybe next year!

The next few months will be incredibly busy but incredibly fun. I have a friend coming to visit for the first 2 weeks of June and we have an excellent trip planned. We are going to hike in the high elevation rainforest in Amani, then go to the beach for some snorkeling and sun-soaking, then off to iringa to see my site and go on a safari at Ruaha National Park.
He flies out on the 15th and I start my week as PCV (peace corps volunteer) of the week for the new group of volunteers. I will spend a week answering all of their questions like "What do you eat?" or "How hard is it to learn Swahili?" and helping them get from Dar to their training sites in Morogoro. It will be a little strange because I still consider myself a new volunteer.
Then in July, I have mid-service conference for a week followed by a permaculture seminar for a week both in Dar es Salaam.
Then in August I have another friend coming for a few weeks.

Ok, I think this is the point where you start getting bored and stop reading so Ill end this entry here.
Take care and talk to you all soon!