tz friends

hi. sorry for not writing for a little bit. it's confusing. this month has so many holidays so the work weeks are all choppy. yesterday was a muslim holiday but i don't know how to spell it so i don't want to attempt to write it. some man came in to "fix" my computer last week and i don't think it was broken- i think he came to install something, but now nothing works and the woman that deals with those types of things is out of the country, but back soon i'm thinking...

anyways, remember how i consciously decided to be more reserved when making male friends from here because of the whole bad/yuzzo/thing that happened? well, now i think i've found some nice friends that i can hang out with and i'm not misunderstood or anything like that... my housemate r that left a few weeks ago's boyfriend from when she was here- s, is really nice and actually a lot more open and friendly about inviting me to hang out than when she was here. he already has another girlfriend kind of- who i really like a lot. i don't think it's my place to mention anything to r because she's probably having a hard enough time already adjusting back to life at home and she was really obsessed with him-it would only hurt her feelings...

yesterday i went with him and two other boys to the house of his housegirl's relative because his housegirls's father passed away the day before yesterday. we just gave condolences and a small gift but didn't stay for food. then we drove to moshi for the rest of the day. we met up with some of his friends that i've met before and then i asked a friend that came with us, ro, to drive me to the visions volunteer house in moshi because i wanted to go say hello to the woman volunteer that was there when i stayed there for a week because i heard that she's really sick. she has the same kind of malaria that her sister died from a few years ago. also, the other two volunteers there have malaria. but when i stopped by, no one was home. oh well.

anyways, i had fun with them and feel comfortable and safe being the only girl. and i'm happy i found that because it seemed like it was going to be hard/not an option.

also, some people tell me that they hate indians but that they like me. s has been telling me that since i first got here about how much he hates indians. i keep telling them that indians are friendly, maybe just african indians aren't..it's true that they don't mix at all..when i see african indians places, they don't stare at me when i'm with expats, but they do if i'm with africans

being in the house here in arusha is so boring these days. st is over his malaria i think, but now he has something else, cold/flu type thing- so he's always sleeping or not talking...and j spends a lot of time in her room, although she's been more friendly lately.

not much other news.

i feel bad that i meet people that want to study but don't have the resources etc. and i think they want me to help them in some way...but i don't know too much about those things. anyways, it makes me feel lazy.

i'm pretty happy here now, i hope that the time doesn't start to pass too quickly