Dear family and friends,

Now that things have slowed down a little, we thought we would tell you a few cultural tidbits
about these warm and appreciative people.

The Tanzanian people learn their native or tribal language when they are small. In the case of the people we're visiting, their tribe and language is Chagua. When they start Primary school, they learn their national language of Swahili. And then when they start Secondary school at 13 years old, everything is taught in English. So by the time they are 16 they know 3 languages.
We were very impressed by this since we know only one!

Another interesting thing is that everyone keeps asking us about Hilary Clinton and the other
candidates. We are amazed how knowledgable they are about our politics. It makes us feel we are not very globally educated. If our primarys were here, Hilary Clinton would definitely win! They really liked and admired Bill Clinton and are excited for us at the prospect of having a woman president.

Today a truck drove by the house playing music and making announcements over a loud speaker. When we asked Florentina, our host, what they were saying she said they were reminding the households to pay their water bill! We were hysterical over that. They don't use mail and send bills as we do. Can you imagine a truck reminding you to pay your bills - with music!?

Every time we go anywhere we can never get a direct answer about the distance or timing. Five minutes always turns into 20 minutes. Everytime we trek up the mountain, we ask how far it is and the 3 kilometers turns into about 10 miles, which of course we were never prepared for, dress or supplies. It's become a standard joke with Jeremy and Matt that we (the moms) didn't bring the water. We'll be getting all this down just as we're about to leave!

Finally, a really funny moment. When we were on safari, we had the top of the truck open and a couple of babboons were fighting within the family. All of the sudden, one ran over the top of the car and we all screamed our heads off. A hysterical moment and a great thing to get on film!

Love to all.