Happy 4th of July!

Well, its the fourth of July and I'm at the beach with my friends, BBQing, sipping on ice cold beers and waiting for fireworks......wait a minute...nervermind.

I started my morning by sweeping and mopping the floor. Then, I went with my Mama to the watering hole to get some water. Its about a 20 minute walk uphill. As she's scooping, she's pointing at the frogs floating in the murky water and telling we the word in Swahili, which I can't remember. I got home and took a bucket bath before walking the hour walk to get to this computer. As my Mama's pouring some water in my bucket, I notice the dead mouse floating in the water bucket she's pouring from. She looks at me and asks if the temperature is good. I tell her , oh that's great I can't wait to get "clean." It only took me 45 more minutes after waiting for this computer to upload before I could start this post. I am definitely missing the states today and wishing I was on a beach somewhere, but I am oh so far away.

The other night I was helping cook dinner. I take a seat in the back yard next to my Dada Mainda. She has a bucket of boiling water. She pulls out a chicken without a head, places it in the bucket, and begins to de-feather the bird. After she's plucked all the feathers, she uses a small knife to clean the feet. Then, my Baba comes at the bird with his knife to start to butcher it...and I mean butcher it. Luckily, thus far my main role in this preparation has been to hold the torch so they can see what they're doing. My brother comes to help out by pulling one end of the wing, while my Baba proceeds to hack it in two. He cuts the whole bird up as I sit with my flashlight trying not to gets splattered with chicken guts. Finally he gets to the innards. He pulls them out and shows me the intestines, the heart, kidneys...I don't even know what...and I just smile and nod. In my head I'm wondering how am I going to get out of eating this thing. Then my Baba tells me that this chicken was actually the rooster that was waking me up everyday at 4 in the morning which made me feel a little better, but I'm still glad I wasn't home for the actual execution. The chicken wasn't served until the following night. At dinner, I try to get away with eating as little as possible, but there is no wasting in the household. As we're sitting on the floor in the darkness, I can hear my family eating the chicken meat along with the crunching of the bones. Sorry no. Nope. I am not eating my chicken bone. The cat can have mine. I go to bed and am thankful that I got through the meal. Little did I know that there would be another piece of chicken waiting for me for breakfast. Keep in mind there is no refrigerator anywhere nearby. Needless, to say, I have definitely gotten sick since being here, but I'm finally feeling better. I heard the other day that one of the girls in a different CBT group caught malaria and was in the hospital for a day, but is doing fine now. Malaria is everywhere. A lot of people in my village are sick with it. My neighbor's mom has it.
My Swahili classes are going well. Our teacher's name is Vivian, but we call him "Big Boy." Whenever we are speaking broken Swahili he stops us and says we're speaking Chinese. Apparently Swahili is spoken differently in different countries, and Kenyan Swahili is a lot like broken Swahili. He told us that "Swahili was born in Tanzania, it got sick in Uganda, and it died in Kenya." He's pretty awesome and I'm learning a lot from him. I'm able to speak with my family more and more everyday.
Yesterday, we went to MATI, the main Peace Corps Training Center in Muheza. We had our first introduction to "permagardening," which is a gardening technique that we will use during homestay and eventually at our volunteer site. Farming is a huge way of life here, so we are learning how to most effectively use the land to increase crop yields, so that eventually we'll be able to set up a permagarden at our site that will help the community to become more sustainable, generate income, and provide more food for more people within the area. We learned about which crops have the best nutrients, which ones grow best where, how to use the water most effectively, etc. It was really cool and I can't wait to start my garden. I do have blisters all over my hands from swinging my jembe, or hoe, all day yesterday.
Not much else new thus far. I'm getting more used to my new home. The kids demand a song and dance from me every night. My Mama has taught me to wash my clothes by hand, how to light the stove, and how to iron. The iron looks ancient and you literally have to load it with hot charcoal to iron things.

I miss you all soooo much! We've gotten mail twice now since I got here, and I haven't gotten anything yet :( but here's my address again just in case:

Cameron Bradley, PCT
P.O. Box 9123
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

I would LOVE to get letters!

Also, everyone please send me emails or post on this site to talk to me, because a lot of times these computers are too slow to let me get on facebook to talk to you. So please email me!...even just so I have your address. I'm at cameronmbrad@gmail.com. But honestly, snail mail would be a great way to talk to me! I'm hoping to get a phone within the next two weeks, so I'm excited about that.

I hope that everyone has a nice relaxing Fourth of July. Eat lots of smores for me!! I will miss the fireworks, but honestly, the sky out here at night is like nothing I've ever seen before. The stars are amazing. I love you all! Until next time!

Kwaheri!