The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Good
I had a great week of classes last week. I split teachers from Kim and can move at my own pace. PH said that most Wartburg students don't make it past lesson 40. The 40 test wasn't that bad and it looks like I might reach 50 or 55.

The Bad
I didn't make it this far because I am so incredibly smart... I was moving too fast for my own good. I don't know all the vocab I should, and now in the higher lessons they are throwing 12-18 verbs per chapter at me, and just oodles of nouns.

The Ugly
Moving to fast has come back to bite me in the butt. I'm going to have to really work hard to get all the vocab, might even have to spend a full day of just review.


The Good
I am having a great time with EVERYONE at LJS. We are a great group, good dynamics, and we really care about each other. I hang out most with Teresa the Texan and Padre Sandro the Priest.

The Bad
Scott and Lu are gone. I was devastated after they left. Scott was probably my best friend here for quite a while and by they time we really got to know each other, he had to leave.

The Ugly
I already miss Tanzania. I'm not even gone yet! I still have 2 weeks! But it is going to be really hard to leave.

The Good
I went to Dodoma this weekend to visit Audrey and Paul. Kim came with as well. The bus ride there is the best bus ride I have had here in Tanzania. We had seats in the very back. They were large seats with tons of legroom and place to put my humongo bookbag. While at Dodoma we ate good food, watched good movies, had pleasant conversations, and it was all around an amazing trip. I got to interview Paul and Father Tim about Missionary life in Tanzania. You probably have noticed that some of blogs have been focused around the flaws of Tanzanian life, society, and culture. But Father Tim was very inspiration. He has been here 25 years and is still going strong. He renewed my faith for the future of African missionary life, I plan to put some of his stories and comments in future blogs.

The Bad
Teresea had malaria all last week. She was very weak and spent two nights in the hospital. Don't worry, it was not as bad as Scott's case. It wasn't life threatening but still, very serious. The medicine they give you for malaria is called quinine. It is super powerful and makes you loose your hearing and sometimes vision. Exactly 1 hour and 30 minutes after Teresea takes her pill she looses her hearing, almost completely. On a funny/wierd note, when she looses her hearing it is replaced with a buzzing sound. But the sound is one pitch and it was driving her crazy. She is a very musical person and her mind replaced the solid pitch with a short little melody. Unfortunately, the melody was on a loop in her head and is driving her even more crazy. She sung the melody for me and it is pretty annoying, I'll sing it for you some time if you ask me. I'm not sure if it was just the pills talking or if she is truly insane, but she described the melody as "being whistled by little Irish men". How she knew the people whistling in her head where Irish... I don't know. How she knew they were little men... I don't know. But I do know that she is flippin crazy.

The Ugly
Now it is not just Teresea that has malaria. Karinna, the German doctor, got malaria shortly after. Also, this weekend, while I was away at Dodoma, Padre and Upendo got malaria. They caught it early and are doing very well. The will be fully recovered in a few days. Now there is only 4 people here at LJS that have not had malaria. Luckily, I am one of them. But I don't know how long that will last. Padre said when he went into town to pick up his medication, every pharmacy was out! He had to go to this scary one in a slum somewhere to get his quinine. He said there were government cars around morogoro with loudspeakers telling information about how to prevent and treat malaria. It must be an epidemic. And with malaria, the more people that have it, the worse it gets.
Also, just as Teresea was staring her health upswing, her father died. Teresea is 45 and her father was in failing health. She knew that when she came she might not see her father alive again. She got the call Saturday night. She is in pretty high spirits, but definitely grieving. It also does not help that she is too sick to fly and will not be able to make the funeral. Please pray for her, she needs all the support she can get.

Low: Teresea's father dieing. She was in such bad condition already... I hope this doesn't turn here away from mission work entirely.

High: Dodoma was a nice change of pace after some very intense studying.

p.s. I have been trying to take pictures and upload them to my facebook album, but for some reason it is not working. In three hours I managed to get 1 picture up! I guess I'll have to wait till I get back in the states... only 14 days of Tanzanian bliss left!