City Living Still EchoesVillage Life (View from our back Balcony)I spent weeks and weeks mulling over a brilliant way to tie up my incredible adventures in Peace Corps and in Tanzania in one last opus-like end of the road mass e-mail; but as my time here has actually not quite come to an end, I have had the luxury of taking a bit of a detour around that ominous writers block. Although I can't say I was "saved by the bell," I was definitely saved by the job offer in this case!
During this hiatus, this blank page in the book, many changes and updates have occured, leading to my extension in Tanzania, my lack of a definite game plan, and my overall happiness in having finally realized my romantic destiny and found my partner in crime with whom to share all of the madness and lack of a clear geographical destiny!
The original plan was to leave Tanzania on the fist of August, fly to London, travel around the UK for 7 weeks with David on his native turf and then hit the U.S.A. so that my eager parents could finally meet this international man of mystery and this illustrious love of my life. We would haunt my parents' house and raid their fridge until wearing out our welcome and only then would we begin to sort out our careers and find a city in which to live!
That all changed days before our planned departure, when I received a phone call from a good friend whose husband works for USAID. She asked if I would be interested in a potential job with PEPFAR (the US Government agency that serves as the larges funding source in the world for global HIV/AIDS relief ). My plan was to go in for an "informational" interview, thinking it couldn't hurt to hone my interview skills prior to heading home, and that it also would be interesting to find out what opportunities were out there. That was the plan anyway. I walked out of the interview 2 hours later with a big job offer...and an even bigger dilema!
The original plan was to leave Tanzania on the fist of August, fly to London, travel around the UK for 7 weeks with David on his native turf and then hit the U.S.A. so that my eager parents could finally meet this international man of mystery and this illustrious love of my life. We would haunt my parents' house and raid their fridge until wearing out our welcome and only then would we begin to sort out our careers and find a city in which to live!
That all changed days before our planned departure, when I received a phone call from a good friend whose husband works for USAID. She asked if I would be interested in a potential job with PEPFAR (the US Government agency that serves as the larges funding source in the world for global HIV/AIDS relief ). My plan was to go in for an "informational" interview, thinking it couldn't hurt to hone my interview skills prior to heading home, and that it also would be interesting to find out what opportunities were out there. That was the plan anyway. I walked out of the interview 2 hours later with a big job offer...and an even bigger dilema!
It was a difficult decision, weighing an invaluable, once in a lifetime opportunity to get my foot in the door of the U.S. Embassy, vs. an intolerable desire to return home to the comforts of family, friends, and reliable, efficient and life altering infrastructure. After some very difficult deliberation, David and I decided to give the Dar es Salaam life a shot!
Quite a stretch from life in the village, here are some photos from our city digs. Our friend, the infamous Jim Brown is famously quoted as saying our housing complex looks like Serbia. Thanks Jim! Although I've never been, I'm assuming he's probably right! Luckilly, you can't judge a communist block style building by it's rusted cover...
GATEWAY TO SERBIA
BUT THEN.... VOILA!
Air Con AND Guest Bed!! KARIBUNI WOTE!
THE 2 Most Essential Liquids:
Safe drinking water and Box-o-wine!
More views of Little Serbia from our front balcony and hommage to the coral pink 80's coke-lord style towers going up behind our complex. Note all the satelite dishes... No matter where you go in the world people's priorities never change...
AND FINALLY THE PIECE DE RESISTANCE! A WASHING MACHINE! STAY TUNED FOR MORE POSTS INCLUDING: MANY MANY MORE PICTURES FROM OUR RECENT ADVENTURES IN DAR, THE UPDATES FROM MASASI AND BUILDING A WELL FOR PEOPLE LIVING WITH AIDS AND MY ABBREVIATED TRIP TO THE UK!
2 comments:
Hey Babes,
What a change from Masasi! Happiness to you in Little Serbia
Right then!
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