popcorn or cake?

First, some more pictures... This is the front view of our house, and our garden off to the side and shown below...we just harvested the corn -- well, we didn't, but Maggie did -- and we are trying to figure out what other veggies we could plant, and if they would grow...
The garden...
Using the kerosene stove in the kitchen -- on the days without power, it's quite a process to cook our meals because we only have the one stove.
The group: Brendan, Christy, me, and Aleya with our Swahili teacher, Mama Simiono. She invited us over to her house for lunch last weekend. I think that's her son's zebra on the wall.
Our living room/dining room/classroom. We have posters of Swahili grammar and vocabulary all over the walls. Our last lesson was last Friday, so now we are on our own...

We are into our fourth week here and our Swahili is coming along. We have learned so much, now it's just a matter of memorizing it all and practicing with the people. Right now, speaking is a group effort. Between the four of us, we can usually get our point across. We're getting better at the market, and now that we can speak more Swahili and are learning how much things actually cost, we're getting ripped off less.

I still do not know where I will be volunteering. We have seen many NGOs around Moshi now and this week we are going back to Arusha to see some orgs there, as well. I still think I want to stay in Moshi, but I am trying to stay open to all my options. We (volunteers) have started to take matters more into our own hands, as far as finding a placement. Sometimes the system just needs a little nudging and exploring. At this point, there are two organizations I would be interested in working with the most -- with one, the choice is up to me, and with the other it's more up to them and whether or not they think they would have work for me to do. So, we'll see. We are supposed to start working sometime at the beginning of August, so things should come together soon.

Little by little, we are getting to know Tanzanian culture and trying our best to adapt. The other night we had an amusing experience eating out. We were craving something different, but familiar. Our guide book mentioned a place that doubles as a restaurant and vocational training school and serves set menu, 3-course meals -- and Thursdays, it's Mexican food. So, we piled into a taxi, ready for rice and beans, maybe a burrito, a taco, who knows? We were, however, the only ones there (for the entire meal) and apparently they only cook what they have available in the kitchen that particular night: beefsteak and chips (fries, to us Americans). We were disppointed, but we figured it still meant we didn't have to cook or do the dishes, so we'd give it a try. We were starting to wonder if there would still be courses when the woman came out and asked us, "you want popcorn or cake?" We just kind of stared at her for a minute, confused and wondering if we had heard her correctly. She repeated it a few more times and that was, indeed, what she asked us. So, we figured we'd try both -- maybe the translation was different from the actual dish and we just didn't know what we were getting. But what came out was exactly what it sounded like: two bowls of freshly popped corn and two slices of cake. An unconventional appetizer, but who doesn't enjoy hot popcorn and dessert? We did, unfortunately, end up paying extra for it. It really kind of sums up how we've been feeling with the cultural adjustment lately -- everything is new and kind of novel, so you're enthusiastic and naive and willing to try it...but a lot of the time, you just end up confused and ripped off. We're easy targets right now, but we will learn.