And there was dust...

Dry season/winter here has been surprisingly cold and dusty. Now, I don't mean to say that it actually feels like winter, however I am finding that my two longsleeved shirts are getting to be worn quite often. For some reason this just seems so shocking to me, but I am definitely not complaining. If the weather could stay like this year round I'd be a happy camper.

I was particularly thankful for the winter weather this past week when we went without power for about 4 days. The power here is not very consistent and so all of the homes on campus are equipped with an outdoor gas cookstove for just such times. This week I felt like I was a permanent camper in my own home. When the lights go out though, all my neighbors get together on our screened in porches and play games, drink beer and get in some quality socializing by candlelight. My only complaint with the power outages is the spoiled food from a non working fridge...I'm not so keen on throwing out my excessively expensive perishables!

This past week has been filled with several adventures. The president of the TASOK board invited all the new staff over to her home for a traditional Congolese meal. I am happy to say that I managed to eat caterpillars and termites! I wouldn't recommend a catepillar to anyone but the termites had a nice little crunch to them that I didn't mind at all. Some of the food staples that we sampled here in DRC are rice, greens, fish, chicken, fufu and plantains. After school on Fridays the teachers head up the road a bit from the school to Mama Godelieve's, a little drink and outdoor eating shop along the road, and indulge in excellent DRC beer, called Tembo. Along with the Tembo this past week we sampled boiled peanuts and hard boiled eggs with pili pili (a hot red pepper sauce that is added to everything here). Saturday evening the superintendent of TASOK had all the employees and residents of campus to her house for a potluck. The spread was quite impressive and the company fantastic.

Yesterday was the opening of school and the campus came alive with students everywhere. I think it is looking to be a great year with a dynamic group of students from all over the world (Congo, India, China, Korea, U.S., Canada, Kenya, France and on and on)!

The picture is of the front of my new home!!