Sumbawanga

I think I am losing track of what decade I am living in here. This might have something to do with the fact that I am driving a Land Rover that is almost 10 years older than me--it was registered in 1973!!! (wait for pics, its like a flintstone's car) Or maybe it's because the other day I was asked to locate Sister Helena somewhere in this area and tell her her missionary consignment container has arrived. (didn't missionary stuff happen decades ago?? apparently not, in fact the only other mzungu woman in this town drives a car that says "soma biblia", read the bible). And not to mention the reality of potholed mud roads, limited electricity, brown water and nothing even close to a Shoprite or any other form of a grocery store. The gas station sells fruit juice from South Africa, which I think may be the only packaged product that I consume for the next 6 months. In a way, that is kind of nice, I like idea of detoxing all the preservatives and chemicals that we live on in the States.
I'm in the one Internet cafe in this town and miraculously there was no line today. Yesterday I waited about an hour while mainly high school-aged boys lined up to check their Yahoo accounts, before going home to a house with no electricity or running water. The Internet is amazing.
What else? I've started introducing myself in the villages where I'll be doing my research, and while I haven't ventured into Mbizi forest itself yet, I've skirted around it on my village drives. It looks beautiful, and sort of mysterious as its been shrouded in clouds (mawingu) for the past two days.
I met two Israeli guys who are engineers helping construct cell phone towers across Tanzania. The cell phone industry here is something I will have to save for another blog, but suffice to say it is angering. Apart from ugly towers dotting the wide open African landscape, they charge a ridiculous amount of money to people who can't even afford to clothe their children, but to whom a phone is a huge status symbol. EVERYONE here, i mean everyone, has a cell phone.
More about Sumbawanga to come, and I hope everyone had a nice valentine's day!