food service strikes again

i have recieved one complaint that it has been far too long since i last posted, that's enough to propel me to write again, even if for my one fan. so...

we're still settling in iringa, hopefully to be moving in with a family tomorrow, but as many things here, i've been told "kesho" many times, so we'll see. but it should be a nice change from staying in a funny dorm-like place with a receptionist who is alternatively very friendly, holding my hand as we walk, or quite mean, barring her teeth ferociously. actually right this minute, we're staying with the family who started neema crafts and they're a lovely family.

we are just returning from an expedition in dar es salaam in which we spent days wandering the market looking for 100 camping lights, 150 small plastic christmas balls, and 480 binder clips. i am proud to say we found all of the above although not without the casualties of losing/having our phone stolen and me with a myriad of skin problems due to the extreme heat in the city. i mean really the heat was incredible. my poor ring finger is swollen quite too large to wear my ring and is now losing some skin. ugh. but we also made quite an unexpected friend, while walking down the street. Jake, (our newly appointed friend) is an out-of-work navigator on ships who speaks about four languages and has been in at least as many different jails in various countries. he invited us for dinner at his house, which is a single room with a bed and we dined on a quite lovely selection of beans and rice.

our trip back to iringa was fairly uneventful besides that we changed buses and rode in te much more flashy "Sumry" bus that plays loud hip-hop, has curtains with little baubles and serves soda. the attendents on the bus were under the impression that we spoke no swahili and so made sure to translate every announcement for us which was so kind, i didn't have the heart to speak swahili. it did make for some amusing translation when the bus pulled to side of the road and it was announced that we had "three minutes for a short break" which meant you could run to the side of the road to pee.

things at neema seem to be taking shape really well although as my title suggests i once again find myself in food service. neema has a lovely little cafe staffed entirely by deaf people, however when going over the books this past weekend, it was discovered that it is loosing quite a bit of money. so i was asked to spend some time working in the cafe to see if there's something systematic going terribly askew. i know, who goes to tanzania and ends up working in a cafe? me. but it's actually quite nice. i'm also starting investigating the possibility of dyeing wool naturally and making various felt crafts to sell. there's one flock of sheep in the entire country who have wool, not hair and we have access to them, but we need to figure out a process and fiddle around with fun dyes and crafts. thank you appalachia for teaching me about wool.

we also seem to be making progress on the solar front, figuring out sales packages and trying to make out the best way to set it up as a micro-credit project. chris is going with some of the guys from the workshop to a village tomorrow to see the current sales process and whatnot. i have to stay at the cafe which is somewhat disappointing but i will probably get to go next time.

anyway, sorry this was not a more colorful, detailed story, filled post, but i felt i needed a larger update. so there you go. love.