Elephants, Hippos, Giraffes- oh my!

I don't have a lot of internet time today so I'll try to keep this pretty short yet informative and entertaining.

I started my internship teaching last week- I'm teaching about 11th grade age kids organic chemistry. While it's just the basics for the next few weeks that I'll be in charge of the class, I did have to learn all about fractional distillation of crude oil in order to teach it on Wednesday. I know that stuff backwards and forwards now after spending 160 minutes teaching it in one day. I'm going to be a chemistry genius by the end of my time in Tanzania, I think, or at least for the basics of chem! Next week, I teach on Tuesday and Wednesday for a total of 320 minutes, which is actually quite a bit considering the fact that we still have language training, etc.

We had language tests on Friday (oral and written), which I think turned out just fine for me. The fact that I'm constantly using the language and practicing and learning new things means that I generally don't study except in class. It's pretty nice. We switch language teachers starting next week, though, as this is the halfway point of our training. I really can't believe it!

While I'm getting super excited to go to site, I'm also scared to death. I'll be dropped off on or shortly after Thanksgiving to a new house in a new village somewhere in rural Tanzania, possibly without electricity or running water, and I won't know anyone at all. I'll also be required to speak in Kiswahili pretty much all the time I'm not teaching. We don't start teaching until mid to late January either, so we've got lots of time to do whatever we feel like and get to know our communities and start building relationships. Apparently volunteers usually visit each other (the ones nearby) about every 2-3 weeks, so there's an outlet for frustrations and for needing American time. It's going to be so awesome to be there!

The last thing is that we went to Mikumi National Park this weekend and we saw all kinds of wild animals- giraffes, elephants, baboons, warthogs, zebras, etc. No lions (darn), but we were allowed to get out of the bus at one point this morning and walk up to a pond/lake in which a herd (?) of hippos were chilling (on the other side, probably about 30 yards away), and I was about 4 or 5 feet from a real crocodile in the wild, which was super scary (but totally safe- there was a bit of a cliff going down into the water and we stayed a couple feet away). What an awesome experience!

Anyway, I've gotta go but keep the letters and emails coming please- I'd love to hear from you!